The Passions of C.P.E. Bach

As Kapellmeister at Hamburg from 1768 to 1788, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed 21 settings of the Passion narrative.

History

The tradition of the German oratorio Passion began in Hamburg in 1643 with Thomas Selle’s St. John Passion and continued unbroken until the death of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 1788. The oratorio Passion, made famous by Johann Sebastian Bach in his St. John and St. Matthew Passions, is the style that is most familiar to the modern listener. It makes use of recitative to tell the Passion narrative and initially intersperses reflective chorales but later arias and choruses as well. This is in contrast to the Passion oratorio, a genre typified by the so-called Brockes-Passion text: "Der für die Sünden der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus" (set by Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel, among others). The Passion oratorio does away with the vocal characterization used in the oratorio Passion and is more a free, poetic retelling of the narrative, rather than a direct quote from the Gospels. Bach himself made this distinction when he wrote to Georg Michael Telemann in 1767 to clarify his duties in Hamburg: "are [Passions] presented in the historic and old manner with the evangelist and other persons, or is it arranged in the manner of an oratorio with reflections, as is the case in Ramler's oratorio ["Der Tod Jesu", arguably the most famous setting of this text is by Carl Heinrich Graun] ?" ["ist solche nach historischer und alter Art mit den Evangelisten und anderen Personen vorgestellt oder wird sie nach Art eines Oratorii mit Betrachtungen, wie zum Beispiel die Ramlerische, eingericht?" See Ernst Suchala, "C.P.E. Bach: Briefe und Dokumente", I:132-36.] As the clergy in Hamburg were rather conservative, they preserved this "old-fashioned" style until the church music reform in 1789, after Bach's death.

Bach's Passions

Each year while he was in Hamburg, Bach compiled a new Passion to be performed during Lent. The Gospel text to be used was chosen on a rotating cycle, as was the Hamburg tradition established in the late 17th century, in the order Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As they were performed in a regular Sunday service (not at a separate Vespers, as was the custom in Leipzig), Bach modeled his Passions on those of Telemann: they were roughly an hour long, and began in the Garden of Gethsemane and ended with the death of Jesus, rather than telling the contextualizing details as well. The biblical text was set in recitative and assigned to the appropriate characters (individual singers taking the roles of the Evangelist, Jesus, Peter, and so on). Reflective chorales and arias were inserted at predefined points in the narrative, providing commentary on the Passion events. The length was generally carefully kept within one hour.

The Passion for the year was performed five times during Lent, once in each church. They were performed starting in the oldest church and moving to the youngest church as follows: St. Peter, St. Nicholas, St. Catherine, St. James and St. Michael. The Passion librettos were printed each year for sale to the ; copies of these librettos survive to this day in the Hamburg Staatsarchiv. [The librettos are transcribed in Clark (1984).] It is important to note that in addition to the chorale texts, the librettos also listed a corresponding number in the Hamburg Gesangbuch (Hymnal), strongly suggesting that the congregation participated in the chorale singing.

Out of all 21 Passions written in Hamburg, none is an entirely original work. Though Bach did borrow from himself, he more frequently borrowed from other composers. He often borrowed biblical material (usually turba choruses) from Telemann and J.S. Bach. For the arias and non-biblical choruses, he turned to the music of his contemporaries, most often Gottfried August Homilius, but also Georg Benda and Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel.

The Passions were never published in Bach's lifetime, and survive only in manuscript form. These materials, however, were lost after World War II and were only rediscovered in 1999. In 2001, they were returned to their home at the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, where they remain to this day. They are currently being transcribed into modern, engraved editions by the Packard Humanities Institute.

Works

The Passions themselves are as follows (year of performance given):
* Passion according to St. Matthew: 1769, 1773, 1777, 1781, 1785, 1789
* Passion according to St. Mark: 1770, 1774, 1778, 1782, 1786
* Passion according to St. Luke: 1771, 1775, 1779, 1783, 1787
* Passion according to St. John: 1772, 1776, 1780, 1784, 1788

Recordings

* Ton Koopman, dir., "Matthaus Passion (1769)," by C.P.E. Bach, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Edition Alte Musik 316 (2003).
* Joshard Daus, dir., "Johannes-Passion (1788)," by C.P.E. Bach, Zelter-Ensemble der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, Capriccio Records 60103 (2004).
* Joshard Daus, dir., "Matthaus-Passion (1785)," by C.P.E. Bach, Zelter-Ensemble der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, Capriccio Records 60113 (2005).

Bibliography

* cite book
last = Bach
first = Carl Philipp Emanuel
title = Passion according to St. Mark (1770)
editor = Uwe Wolf
publisher = Packard Humanities Institute
location = Los Altos, Calif.
year = 2006
oclc = 77639949
isbn = 9781933280189
* cite book
last = Clark
first = Stephen Lewis
title = The Occasional Choral Works of C.P.E. Bach
date = 1984
edition = Ph.D. diss
publisher = Princeton University
location = Princeton, NJ
oclc = 17340187
*
* cite book
last = Miesner
first = Heinrich
title = Philipp Emanuel Bach in Hamburg
publisher = Breitkopf & Härtel
location = Leipzig
oclc = 1088311
year = 1929
* cite book
last = Sanders
first = Reginald
title = Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Liturgical Music at the Hamburg Principal Churches from 1768 to 1788
edition = Ph.D. diss
publisher = Yale University
location = New Haven, CT
date = 2001
oclc = 51308493

References

External links

* The [http://www.cpebach.org/ Packard Humanities Institute] is currently preparing a complete edition of C.P.E. Bach's works, including the passions.