Matthäus-Passion BWV 244
Spiritual Sources of Bach's St. Matthew Passion
Written by William L. Hoffman (April 2009)

Contents

Background
Bach-Picander Collaboration
Lutheran Influences
Spirituality and Pietism
"Sermons in Sound"
Significance of Suffering
Theological Keys
Sermon Preached
Relationship with Authority
Bibliography

Background

On Good Friday afternoon, April 11, 1727, the bells at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig began to ring at 1:15 p.m. The congregation of as many as 3,000 assembled and the Vespers service with its simple liturgical form began at 1:45 p.m. The service order, according to C. S. Terry's Bach, the Passions ^[1], was probably:
Ancient Passion hymn Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund ("There Jesus on the cross hung");
Part 1 of the Passion;
Hymn O Lamm Gottes unschuldig ("O Lamb of God, guiltless"), the text being
the metrical version of Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) written by Nikolaus Decius (1531); ^[2]
Pulpit hymn Herr Jesus Christ, dich zu uns wend ("Lord Jesus Christ, Thee to us turn around");
Sermon;
Part 2 of the Passion;
Motet such as Jacob Gallus' Ecce quomodo moritur justus ("Behold how dies the righteous");
Passion Collect intoned;
Rinhart's hymn Nun danket alle Gott ("Now thank we all Our God"); Blessing (Benediction).
[The hymn O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid ("O darkest woe, o heart's pain") followed the motet, according to Johann Christoph Rosten, St. Thomas sexton. ^[3] ]

The Initial version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (SMP), BWV 244b, could have been assembled to relate closely to the sermon of Pastor Christian Weiss Sr., presented between its two parts. With its elaborate musical treatment of the dramatic scenes in Matthew’s most detailed account of Christ’s suffering and death in the Garden of Gethsemane, this Bach Passion is an exemplary fulfillment of Lutheran orthodoxy, especially Luther's "Theology of the Cross" and Lutheran models of atonement. Its use of the famous Passion chorale, “Herzlich tut, mich verlangen,” reinforces these theological connections.

Bach-Picander Collaboration

The St. Matthew Passion is divided into eight scenes in Bach's treatment of Chapters 26 and 27 of Matthew's Gospel:
Part 1:
1. Introduction: Christ’s warning, 26:1-2;
2. Omens: plot to arrest Jesus, anointing in Bethany, Judas' betrayal, 26:3-16;
3. Preparation for the Passover, the Last Supper, 26:17-35;
4. Garden of Gethsemane: Christ’s suffering and arrest, 26:36-56
Part 2:
5. Christ's Trial before Caiaphas, 26:57-68; Peter's Denial, 26:69-75;
6. Christ's Trial before Pilate, 27:1-26 [Judas’ death, 27:3-10];
7. Christ’s Suffering and Death 27:27-50;
8. Earthquake and Christ's Burial, 27:51-66.

Bach probably took the lead in the collaboration with his librettist, Picander, involving the 1727 creation of the St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244. Albert Schweitzer in his two-volume biography, J. S. Bach, discusses the Bach-Picander relationship at length ^[4] while considering the St. Matthew Passion:

The text of the St. Matthew Passion has been put together with the greatest care. Bach may have had too poor an opinion of the Passion poem that Picander wrote for him in 1725 [Pasticcio, BWV Anh. 169, text only] to give him a free hand on this occasion. We get the impression that he sketched the plan of the work in all its details, and that Picander worked literally under his observation. ^[5]

Doubtless, Picander in the late 1720s would acquire considerable skill writing librettos which Bach found acceptable, including a parody of the St. Matthew Passion, the sacred funeral cantata Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt ("Lament, child, lament so all the world"), BWV 244a, of 1729.

The St. Matthew Passion collaboration, says Schweitzer, was very effective:
Bach's cooperation was an excellent stimulus to Picander. In the St. Matthew Passion he has produced his best poem; the diction is animated and extremely rich in pictures; and there are few of the insipidities of his that annoy us in his other works. The situations are concisely described, and the reflections are simple but often really profound. ^[6]

Schweitzer also is impressed with Bach's selection of the chorale texts in the St. Matthew Passion:
The choice of these fell to Bach, since no poet of that epoch who had any respect for himself would be troubled with a secondary task of that kind. It is just in the insertion of these chorale strophes that the full depth of Bach's poetic sense is revealed. It would be impossible to find, in the whole of the hymns of the German church, a verse better fitted to its particular purpose than the one Bach has selected. ^[7]

In 1729 Picander published only his settings of the text for the madrigalesque music in the St. Matthew Passion. Paul Steinitz in Bach's Passions, suggests:
The fact that these were published separately, that is, not with the biblical narrative and chorales, may indicate that Bach himself selected the latter and indeed may have influenced the writings of his librettist. ^[8]

Picander's St. Matthew Passion libretto was influenced by a book of sermons in Bach's library, Heinrich Müller's Evangelisches Praeservativ wider den Schaden Josephs ("Evangelical Preservative Against the Griefs of Joseph"), which includes "Passions-Predigten über die gantze Leiden Christi" ("Passion sermons on the whole suffering of Christ"). ^[9]

Lutheran Influences

Robin Leaver in his study, "J. S. Bach as Preacher: His Passions and Music in Worship, cites a Luther sermon on the Passion which Leaver applies to the St. Matthew Passion: "In his musical setting of these words ["Truly, this was the Son of God," No. 73(63c)] ^[10] he [Bach] echoes Luther, his favorite author...." ^[11] Luther praises the centurion's confession of faith. In Matthew's account, it is the centurion and "those/they" (soldiers) that were with him who collectively confess. In Mark the centurion alone confesses, in BWV 247/128(43). Mark's is the more personal account. In the sermon on the Passion, Luther says:
Christ's death swallowed up death, and the centurion said[:] "Truly this is the Son of God." He is the amazing King. Other kings are strong in life: He in death.... When he was dead the centurion trembled and commenced to be a Christian.... The disciples fled, but this centurion began to confess Christ without fear of all the high priests or of what Pilate and the council might say. Who then was master here? Was it not the death of Christ that gave the heathen centurion a new spirit? This is the power of the Passion that it makes men bold to confess Christ. ^[12]

With recent discoveries and greater interest in Bach's theology, the importance of Bach's personal library of sacred books continues to grow. At his death in 1750, Bach's estate carried 52 titles, some involving multiple volumes. Almost all areby orthodox Lutheran theologans. Eleven titles are Biblical commentary, some 23 others are sermons on Biblical texts, usually Epistles and Gospels. The others involve 15 volumes of Luther's writings, practical devotional books, theological discussions, tracts, hymnbooks, and works of the Pietists Philipp Jakob Spener and August Hermann Francke. ^[13] It was a collection that any Lutheran pastor would have been pleased to own.

Spirituality and Pietism

Before any inquiry into the spirituality of Bach's music, it must be acknowledged that major controversy still invests the topic. Today, few commentators embrace extravagant characterizations of Bach such as the "Fifth Evangelist." ^[14] In essence the inter-related issues involve the depth of personal spirituality in Bach's music and, if there is considerable depth, then whether the music, especially the works written for sacred use, are sermons, with Bach as a musical preacher. The intent here is not to engage actively in that debate, although much of the material herewith supports the spiritual, sermon side. Bach in his musical Passions, particularly in his last complete and original Passion, the St. Mark Passion, found great opportunity to let Lutheran orthodoxy express itself, apart from the intensity of his involvement or commitment. What should be indisputable is that the St. Mark Passion is a faithful, biblically- and theologically-based work which edifies and instructs the congregation. Obviously, the major collaborators, Bach, Picander, and perhaps Pastor Christian Weiss, had each other and Lutheran orthodoxy as acceptable checks and balances. As Friedrich Smend observes:
We can be fairly certain that the chief pastor of the Thomaskirche, Christian Weiss, had been involved in the drafts of the texts of Bach's cantatas, including the recitatives and arias, in the same way as we have proof that the composer's texts had received the express approval of the consistory. ^[15]

It should be pointed out that Bach's conflicts were usually with temporal, secular, civil authority, particularly the Leipzig Town Council and Leipzig University officials, and not with the orthodox ordained clergy. Smend points out:
...there is not a single known instance during [Bach's] 27 years in office in Leipzig of the consistory or the clergy objecting to any form of secularization in the Kantor's sacred composition. ^[16]

It should also be acknowledged that while Bach is usually placed within the mainstream of Lutheran orthodoxy, he, like other citizens of Leipzig, could have been influenced by Pietism, and not always with adverse consequences. The Pietists certainly didn't have a monopoly on pietistic sentiments.

Pietistic sentiments and imagery are found throughout Bach's Passions. Steinitz in Bach's Passions observes ^[17] that the Passion Oratorios of the Hamburg school, ca.1700, had the most immediate influence on Bach, particularly his St. John Passion, BWV 245, of 1724. They are replete with colorful and graphic pietistic imagery in both the lyric movements and the narrative which was completely rewritten in rhyme. Many of Bach's contemporaries also composed music to the pastiche libretto (Hamburg, 1712) of Barthold Heinrich Brockes, Der für die Sünden der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus, aus den vier Evangelisten in gebundener Rede vorgestellt ("Jesus tormented and dying for the sins of the world, from the four Evangelists in poetical style," according to Günther Stiller in Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig. ^[18] The sense of piety, of personal devotion, is pronounced in these poetic Passions. Picander in his first Passion libretto, a rhymed pasticcio published in 1725 and modeled on Brockes, seems to have influenced several numbers in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. ^[19] For the St. Matthew and St. Mark Passions, Picander softened the more graphic imagery in favor of a language which involved an emotional, intimate, direct, and devout relationship with Christ.

"Sermons in Sound"

Leaver in his study, "J. S. Bach as Preacher," expresses the thesis that Bach's Passions are "sermons in sound that in their two halves prepare for the actual preaching at Good Friday Vespers and then build on it." ^[20] Examining only the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, Leaver finds all five sermon elements in these two works: introduction, key statement (Biblical text), exposition of the Biblical text, application, and final statement. The significance of the opening and closing movements of Bach's Passions has received much favorable comment. Bach's technique in all his Passions is to expose the Biblical text alternating with the application of pertinent, interpolated music to bring out the underlying meaning of the text. Leaver says that in the application "it is principally in the chorales that Bach evokes the response of the congregation." ^[21]

The importance of the chorales, according to Leaver, is that:
Bach used these chorales not simply to give variety in a long complicated setting of the Passion. They are there to draw the congregation into the drama so that they become participants rather than simply spectators. ^[22]

The chorales can be considered a collective confessional catharsis, an emotional haven in the drama.

Significance of Suffering

The overall structures of Bach's three extant Passions vary greatly: the St. John Passion has obvious chiastic (cross-like) or palindrome structures, the St. Matthew Passion "has a more complicated and less obvious overall structure"; ^[23] and the St. Mark Passion has a loose, topical, organic form. Scholars have suggested key movements or central points in Bach's two completely extant Passions, based on these structures. Leaver and Steinitz find that the structures of the St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion reveal their focal points. Leaver finds the centerpiece in the former is the chorale, No. 40(22), Durch dein Gefängis, Gottes Sohn ("Through Thy captivity, O Son of God"), in the midst of the trial before Pilate ^[24] and the corresponding centerpoint in the latter Passion is the turba chorus, No. 73(63b), Wahrlich, dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen ("Truly, this was the Son of God"), just after Christ's death. ^[25] Steinitz in Bach's Passions affirms their importance. ^[26]

At the same time, theologically, the most important movements or scenes could deal with the suffering (passion) of Jesus. They involve the "gantze Leiden Christi" ("whole suffering of Christ") in Müller's sermons, referred to above, and biblical texts which are the bases for the sermons, alternating in Leipzig ^[27] between Isaiah Chapter 53, focusing on "The Suffering Servant," and Psalm 22, called "The Psalm of Suffering" or "A Cry of Anguish," the two classic Old Testament readings with four prophecies of the crucifixion. All four prophecies are recalled in the crucifixion scene, with one exception in Luke.
Psalm 22 has three:
Verse 1, "My God, my God, why hast thou orsaken me? (Mt. 27:46 and Mk. 15:34);
Verses 7-8, "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, seeing he delighted in him" (Mt. 27:39, Mk. 15:29, and Lk. 23:37;
Verse 18, "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture"
(Mt. 27:35, Mk. 15:24, and Lk. 23:34, and John 19:24).
Isaiah 53 has one prophecy:
Verse 12, "He was numbered (reckoned) with the transgressors (malefactors)"
(Mk. 15:28 and Lk. 22:37, just before the Garden of Gethsemane scene).

Of the four Gospels, Mark's is the only one which has all four prophecies; Matthew has three;

Bach's Passions are kerygmatic, says Leaver, proclaiming Jesus as Christ ^[28] through the portrayal of his suffering. To help Bach's audience understand the purpose of Christ's death, Lutheran orthodoxy uses the didactic techniques of proclamation and portrayal. H. Gerard Knoche in The Gift of the Gospel says that "Luther saw the Christian in bondage to sin, the law, the wrath of God, the devil, and death." ^[29] These are the "traditional" kinds of bondage "from which Christ's death frees the believer." To explain how Christ's death frees believers, Knoche offers "models of atonement" from the types of bondage: sacrifice (the Lamb of God) from the sins of the world which the Lamb (Christ) bore, penance that redeems those from the law they are under, satisfaction (righteousness) from the wrath of God, the ransom of the Christus Victor from the devil defeated in "A mighty fortress is our God," and moral influence (the believers' faith and love) which rescues the believer from death. The texts of Bach's interpolations, especially the chorales, variously relate to the models of atonement.

According to Friedrich Smend's Bach in Köthen, as translated in Stiller:
For "if we want to designate a single theme as the central one for Bach's art, it is the cross and the crucified," and "for him the world is the world of sinners, fallen and lost, but at the same time rescued through Christ." ^[30]

John Page in the English edition of Smend's book translates the same passages as:
...if we were to select one theme as central to the composer's work, it would have to be the cross and Christ Crucified. [omission] The world is that which has strayed from God's true path. Through grace alone can the godless be accepted as justified before God, since Christ died for the sins of mankind. ^[31]

Theological Keys

The two most important Lutheran theological precepts infuse Bach's St. Matthew Passion. These are Luther's so-called "Theology of the Cross," which is inextricably bound to Luther's doctrine of "Justification by Grace through Faith."

The Theology of the Cross was formulated first, beginning in 1518 and concurrent with Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, and was known as the Heidelberg Disputation. Luther's biblical basis was the first two chapters in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians in which Paul proclaims above all else "Christ crucified." To the badly divided congregation at Corinth, Paul puts this idea specifically before Baptism and makes it supreme. As Daniel Erlander in Baptized We Live, says of the Theology of the Cross:
...God meets us most profoundly at the point of our deepest reality -- our honest confontation with weakness, pain, solitude and death. ^[32]
We are called to die in order to live. Luther called this reality the Theology of the Cross. Its opposite is the Theology of Glory...which Luther called "the word without the cross"; Kierkegaard, "admiring Christ instead of following Christ"; and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "cheap grace rather than costly grace." The Theology of the Cross is meeting God where he chooses to find us -- in our sorrow, our pain, our weakness; hearing God's gracious word manifest in the death of Jesus on the cross; and following Jesus in his death and resurrection. ^[33]
...here at the cross and only at the cross, do we understand the joyful good news, "We are justified by grace through faith." ^[34]

Luther's doctrine of Justification is derived from Paul's other great Epistle, to the Romans, especially, according to Timothy F. Lull, ^[35] and Romans 3:23-25:
...since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. ^[36]
Lull cites p. 30 of the Augsburg Confession:
...we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us. ^[37]

Sermon Preached

On Good Friday, April 11, 1727, the sermon on the Biblical text of Psalm 22 probably was preached by Dr. Christian Weiss, who was head pastor of St. Thomas Church and, according to Günther Stiller, Bach's "father confessor." ^[38] Weiss' superior, Dr. Salomon Deyling, was superintendent of the Leipzig churches and head pastor at St. Nicholas Church. Deyling preached the sermon at his church where Bach alternately presented required annual Passion performances. No reading of the Gospel preeceded the sermon; Bach's Passions contained the entire Gospel Passion narrative. As Stiller notes:
In general, to have the pure Bible text set to music is a particular characteristic of Bach's liturgical works ... [in contrast to] the works of his contemporaries, who are no longer familiar with the use of the pure Bible text but in its stead present the narrative part of the Passion in modern rhymes. ^[39]

Relationship with Authority

Bach's relationship with authority was strained throughout most of his career in Leipzig. He continually tried to provide concerted, elaborate music in the face of burdensome restrictions. At his election as Cantor of St. Thomas Church, an excerpt from the Proceedings of the Three Councils of Leipzig, April 22, 1723, shows that Counsul Dr. Steger "voted for Bach, and [cautioned that] he should make compositions that were not theatrical." ^[40]

Two weeks later, in Notifications, in an excerpt from the Records of the St. Thomas School, May 5, 1723, Bach agreed, as one of fourteen points:
7. In order to preserve the good order in the Churches, so arrange the music that it shall not last too long, and shall be of such a nature as not to make an operatic impression, but rather incite the listeners to devotion. ^[41]
The translation of the same passage in Smend's Bach in Köthen, says that Bach should:
...write it [the music] in such a way as to avoid all semblance of opera, in order that the congregation may be more encouraged to true religious devotion. ^[42]

A week later, Cantor-elect Bach was examined and found to be theologically fit to assume the post.
On 13 May 1723 the superintendent minister in Leipzig, Solomon Deyling, reported to the church consistory that Bach's theological views had been examined and that the cantor-elect had specifically subscribed to the Formula of Concord. ^[43]

Bach attempted to compose within the confines of civil authority and experienced what appeared to be major criticism. The Bach Reader in its initial edition (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1945) cited a passage from Christian Gerber's Geschichte der Kirchen-Ceremonien in Sachsen (History of Church Ceremonies in Saxony, Dresden and Leipzig, 1732). Under the heading "'Theatrical' Passion Music," a footnote ^[44] observes: "These remarks, which appeared three years after the first performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, quite probably refer to that work."

Smend in Bach in Köthen in 1951 cites the relevant passage in the fullest account:

If indeed it is true that there will remain a place for moderate music in the church, especially since the late D. Dannhauer regarded it as an ornament to the divine service, a view that does not meet with the approval of all theologians, it is at the same time a well-known fact that very often the performances are excessive. One might well agree with Moses when he says: "Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi" (Num. 16:7). The reason is that this music often sounds so very worldly and jolly that it is more befitting a dance floor or an opera than the divine service. The last thing, in the opinion of many pious folk, that such singing should suitably accompany is the Passion of Christ. Fifty or more years ago, it was the custom on palm Sunday for the organ to remain silent in church, and there was no music making at all on that day because it signified the beginning of Holy Week. Now, however, with the story of the Passion, which hitherto was sung de simplici et plano, in a straightforward, reverent manner, they have begun to set the occasion to music in the most elaborate artistic fashion, using many different kinds of instruments. From time to time they incorporate a verse from a Passion hymn and the whole congregation joins in in the singing, after which the instruments are again heard in company. When this Passion music was performed for the first time in a distinguished city, by 12 violins, numerous oboes, bassoons, and other instruments, many were amazed and did not know what to make of it. On another occasion in a court chapel, many high ministers and noble ladies were together assembled and were singing the first Passion hymn from their books in a spirit of great devotion. When the theatrical music struck up, all these persons were greatly astonished, looked at each other and said, "What shall become of this?" An elderly dowager warned, "Take heed, my children! It is like being at a comic opera." All were most heartily displeased and raised just complaint. There are, it must be conceded, certain spirits who find pleasure in such idle matters, especially when they are of a sanguine temperament and inclined towards sensuality. Such people stoutly defend these great musical performances in church and regard those who think otherwise as capricious or miserable souls, or as facetious, as if they alone possessed the wisdom of Solomon and that the rest lacked understanding. Oh, how good it would be for the Christian church if we were to preserve that early devotional simplicity in the sermons, prayers, and hymns that make up our divine service. If some of those early Christians were to rise again and join our congregations, only to hear an organ thundering out its music, together with so many other instruments, I do not believe that they would recognize us as Christians and their own successors ^[45]

Smend disproves the connection with the St. Matthew Passion. He suggests ^[46] that the "distinguished city" with "many high ministers" was more likely to be Dresden. The elaborated Passion was heard "for the first time" in Leipzig at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) as early as 1721, says Smend, composed by Bach's predecessor, Johann Kuhnau. Leaver echoes Smend's highly literal arguments. ^[47] Leaver cites the 11 April 1721 performance as Kuhnau's "oratorio" Passion, the St. Mark Passion, but notes that such "passion music was done for the first time" on "26 March 1717 in the New Church." ^[48]

Although The Bach Reader editors, H. T. David and Arthur Mendel, failed to consider corrections in the subsequent 1966 edition, Bach scholars seem to accept Smend's contention. Even so, the objections to the Passion music raised in the Gerber article could have applied to the St. Matthew Passion. The research of Smend and Leaver inadvertently demonstrates that for at least a decade prior to Gerber's published observations in 1732, there was a strong sentiment in Saxony against elaborate Passion settings, witness in 1723 Consul Steger's caution and Bach's agreement, cited above.

Bibliography

[1] Cited in Charles Sanford Terry, Bach, the Passions, 2 vols. (London, 1926), pp 8-9.
[2] Robin A. Leaver, "J. S. Bach as Preacher: His Passions and Music in Worship," Church Music Pamphlet Series (St. Louis, 1984), p. 28.
[3] Contemporary account cited in Günther Stiller, Johann Sebastian Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (Berlin, 1970), ed. Robin A. Leaver, English translation (St. Louis, 1984), p. 70.
[4] Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach (London, 1911), vol. 2, pp. 209-210.
[5] Ibid., p. 209.
[6] Ibid., p. 210.
[7] Ibid., p. 210.
[8] Paul Steinitz, Bach's Passions (New York, 1978), p. 62.
[9] Leaver (see note 2), p. 33; cf. Robin Leaver, J. S. Bach and Scripture: Glosses from the Calov Bible Commentary (St. Louis, 1985), p. 117; ref. Elke Axmacher, "Ein Quellenfund zum Text der Matthäus Passion," ("A Finding of the Sources for the Text of the St. Matthew Passion") Bach Jahrbuch, 1978, pp. 181-191.
[10] The movement numbering is from the Schmieder Catalog [Wolfgang Schmieder, Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der Musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach (Leipzig, 1950, rev. Wiesbaden 1990, pp. 363-364)]. There are more total numbers in BWV 247 (132) than in BWV 244 (78) because Schmieder assigned a new number each time the narrative character changes. The Neue Bach Ausgabe [Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (Kassel and Basle, 1954-)] uses condensed numbering for both BWV 247 (Kritscher Bericht, II/V, pp. pp. 260-265) and BWV 244.
[11] Leaver, “J.S. Bach as Preacher,” Ibid., p. 34.
[12] Source is Luther's Meditations on the Gospels, R. H. Bainton English translation (London, 1963), pp. 133-34.
[13] Leaver, Ibid., p. 13.
[14] Cited in Leaver, J. S. Bach and Scripture (see note 9), p. 13.
[15] Friedrich Smend, Bach in Köthen (Berlin, 1951), ed. and rev. Stephen Daw, Eng. trans. John Page (St. Louis, 1985), p. 158.
[16] Ibid., p. 158.
[17] Steinitz (see note 8), p. 7.
[18] Stiller (see note 3), pp. 215-16.
[19] Cited in Steinitz (see note 9), p. 101.
[20] Leaver, J. S. Bach as Preacher (see note 2), p. 26.
[21] Ibid., p. 29.
[22] Ibid., p. 23.
[23] Ibid., pp. 32-33.
[24] Ibid., p. 32.
[25] Ibid., p. 34.
[26] Steinitz (see note 8), pp. 54, 94.
[27] Stiller (see note 3), p. 62.
[28] Leaver, J. S. Bach as Preacher (see note 2), pp. 25-26.
[29] H. Gerard Knoche, The Gift of the Gospel: Faith Exploration for Young Adults (Chicago, 1989), pp. 34-46.
[30] Stiller (see note 3), p. 155 (cites p. 121 in original).
[31] Smend, (see note 15), p. 141.
[32] Daniel Erlander, Baptized We Live: Lutheranism as a Way of Life (Chelan, WA, 1981), p.4.
[33] Ibid., p. 22.
[34] Ibid., p. 27.
[35] Dr. Timothy F. Lull, Called to Confess Christ (Philadelphia, 1973), p. 216.
[36] Ibid., p. 217.
[37] Ibid., p. 218.
[38] Stiller (see note 3), p. 203.
[39] Ibid., p. 215.
[40] Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, The Bach Reader, rev. ed. (New York, 1966), p 90.
[41] Ibid., p. 92.
[42] Smend, Bach in Köthen (see note 15), p. 157-158.
[43] Bach Document 2:101, cited in Leaver, J. S. Bach and Scripture (see note 9), p. 35.
[44] David and Mendel (see note 40), p. 229
[45] Smend, Bach in Köthen (see note 15), pp. 155-156.
[46] Ibid., p. 156.
[47] Leaver, J. S. Bach as Preacher (see note 2), pp. 9-11.
[48] Cited in Stiller (see note 3), p. 47.

Written and contributed by William L. Hoffman (April 2009)

Matthäus-Passion BWV 244: Details
Recordings: Until 1950 | 1951-1960 | 1961-1970 | 1971-1980 | 1981-1990 | 1991-2000 | From 2001 | Individual Movements
General Discussions: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | BWV 244a | BWV 244b
Systemetic Discussions: Part 1: Mvts. 1-8 | Part 2: Mvts. 9-20 | Part 3: Mvts. 21-29 | Part 4: Mvts. 30-40 | Part 5: Mvts. 41-50 | Part 6: Mvts. 51-57 | Part 7: Mvts. 58-63b | Part 8: Mvts. 63c-68 | Part 9: Role of the Evangelist
Individual Recordings: BWV 244 - L. Bernstein | BWV 244 - F. Brüggen | BWV 244 - J. Butt | BWV 244 - S. Cleobury | BWV 244 - J. Daus | BWV 244 - D. Fasolis | BWV 244 - W. Furtwängler | BWV 244 - J.E. Gardiner | BWV 244 - W. Gönnenwein | BWV 244 - P. Goodwin | BWV 244 - E.z. Guttenberg | BWV 244 - N. Harnoncourt | BWV 244 - P. Herreweghe | BWV 244 - R. Jacques | BWV 244 - H.v. Karajan | BWV 244 - O. Klemperer | BWV 244 - T. Koopman | BWV 244 - S. Koussevitzky | BWV 244 - S. Kuijken | BWV 244 - F. Lehmann | BWV 244 - G. Leonhardt | BWV 244 - P.J. Leusink | BWV 244 - E.&R. Mauersberger | BWV 244 - H. Max | BWV 244 - P. McCreesh | BWV 244 - W. Mengelberg | BWV 244 - K. Münchinger | BWV 244 - R. Norrington | BWV 244 - G. Oberfrank | BWV 244 - S. Ozawa | BWV 244 - A. Parrott | BWV 244 - G. Ramin | BWV 244 - K. Richter | BWV 244 - H. Rilling | BWV 244 - H.J. Rotzsch | BWV 244 - H. Scherchen | BWV 244 - G. Solti | BWV 244 - C. Spering | BWV 244 - M. Suzuki | BWV 244 - J.v. Veldhoven | BWV 244 - B. Walter | BWV 244 - F. Werner | BWV 244 - M. Wöldike
Articles: Saint Matthew Passion, BWV 244 [T.N. Towe] | Two Easter St. Matthew Passions (Plus One) [U. Golomb] | St. Matthew Passion from Harnoncourt [D. Satz] | The Passion according to Saint Matthew BWV 244 [J. Rifkin] | The Relationship between BWV 244a (Trauermusik) and BWV 244b (SMP Frühfassung) [T. Braatz] | Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 - Early History (A Selective, Annotated Bibliography) [W. Hoffman] | Spiritual Sources of Bach's St. Matthew Passion [W. Hoffman]