sign in sign up
<<
Home , Lutheran chorale

Bach’s St. John Passion Day Eight: Bach and Coldplay Eric Osborne, 2021

Amanda laughed at me one day when I mentioned I was listening to Coldplay for the first time. I had to admit, it was something that I hadn’t done before that in 41 years on this planet. Standing there in her kitchen, she then proceeded to ask me if I had listened to other popular music (I didn’t know the song Africa by Toto). I admit, being a classically trained musician sometimes our listening experience is a little limited. However I am making up for it now. You may ask what Coldplay might have to do with Bach, and in particular the St. John Passion.

One of my favourite (and I have many) is My song is love unknown. The text is by Samuel Crossman (1623-1683) and music by John Ireland (1879-1962). In my experience as a choir boy and as a musician, it was usually sung on Palm Sunday as the offertory . The tune was written on the back of a menu during a lunch in 1925 between the composer and Geoffrey Shaw. The composition of the melody took less than fifteen minutes. The Ireland tune, is credited with taking the hymn from obscurity and bringing it into mainstream congregational song. Of the six verses, I’m selecting two for the purpose of this reflection:

My song is love unknown, My Saviour’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, That for my sake My Lord should take Frail flesh and die?

Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, He gave the blind their sight, Sweet injuries! Yet they at these Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.

What does Coldplay have to do with St. John Passion? The connection is the Crossman/IReland hymn. On their 2005 album, X&Y, Coldplay has a song, titled, A Message. My song is love Love to the loveless shown And it goes up You don't have to be alone Your heavy heart Is made of stone And it's so hard to see clearly You don't have to be on your own You don't have to be on your own And I'm not gonna take it back And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that You're the target that I'm aiming at And I'll get that message home My song is love My song is love unknown And I'm on fire for you clearly You don't have to be alone You don't have to be on your own And I'm not gonna take it back And I'm not gonna say I don't mean that You're the target that I'm aiming at And I'm nothing on my own Got to get that message home And I'm not gonna stand and wait Not gonna leave it until it's much too late On a platform, I'm gonna stand and say That I'm nothing on my own And I love you please come home My song is love is love unknown And I've got to get that message home

If you look at the Coldplay song, the melody and the lyrics are derived from the Crossman/ Ireland hymn. Western music has a tradition of borrowing music from previous compositions. We will see that later when we look at the melody for today’s .

We “meet” this chorale after Jesus is struck by one of the servants of the chief priests for his perceived inappropriate reply. I think there is a theme running through these . I believe the theme is “Love.” By the end of this Lenten journey y’all going to be sick of me reflecting on this. (forgive my southern experience from creeping in) So, let’s jump right into the chorale. Wer hat dich so geschlagen, Who has struck you in this way, Mein Heil, und dich mit Plagen my saviour, and with torments So übel zugericht’? treated you so badly? Du bist ja nicht ein Sünder You are indeed not a sinner Wie wir und unsre Kinder, as we and our children are, Von Missetaten weißt du nicht. of wrongdoing you know nothing.

Ich, ich und meine Sünden, I, I, and my sins, Die sich wie Körnlein finden that are as many as grains Des Sandes an dem Meer, of sand by the sea Die haben dir erreget have provoked for you Das Elend, das dich schläget, the misery that has struck you Und das betrübte Marterheer. and the host of troubles and torment.

I am going to reflect in reverse today. I am going to start with the chorale melody. Most students of music history in university know this melody very mell. The melody is derived from a German renaissance song Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen (Innsbruck, I must leave thee) written by Heinrich Issac (1450-1517) The melody was later used in the Lutheran chorale "O Welt, ich muß dich lassen", and still appears in modern English-language hymnals with the tune name “Innsbruck”. It is also the melody for the chorale, O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben. Bach uses this chorale melody several times in his vocal works.

Let us now turn to the chorale text. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) was a Lutheran pastor, theologian and hymn-writer. Gerhardt based his work on a mediation on the Passion by Martin Moller, Soliloquia de passione. (1587) The theme is a reflection what the suffering of Jesus means for the Christian. TThe hymn was first published in 1647 in Johann Crüger's . Bach uses two stanzas of the hymn here after Jesus asks the one who beat him for justification. Stanza 3 asks, "Wer hat dich so geschlagen" (Who has struck you in this way…?), and stanza 4 answers, "Ich, ich und meine Sünden" (I, I and my sins),highlighting the personal responsibility of the speaking sinner for the suffering of Jesus. Bach uses this chorale in all of his passions.

As I mentioned, this first part of St. John Passion is about ‘failed discipleship.’ Following Jesus is costly and sometimes can hurt. To think, act, and love like Jesus we sometimes have a metaphorical “slap in the face,” for following. Love is like that also. It hurts to love sometimes. Love can bring us pain and suffering. I speak from personal experience that Love hurts from my first marriage and even in my relationship with my beloved fiancée. Love hurts when we try to do the right thing. Love hurts when we are wrong. Love hurts when it is gone. There is a wonderful saying attributed to Queen Elizabeth II, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” I think you could change the word, “grief” for “hurt.” Jesus in his suffering and pain is the ultimate expression of love. Meditating on the passion, be it in this musical idiom or in the gospel narrative we reflect on the pain and suffering Jesus went through for us.

There is another Paul Gerhardt hymn text, O sacred head surrounded. The famous Passion Chorale, as it is know, has a wonderful third and fourth verse in the Canadian Anglican hymnal, Common Praise. I think they tie in to our reflection on these two chorales.

Your sinless soul’s oppression was all for sinners’ gain. mine, mine was the transgression, but yours the deadly pain: I bow my head my Saviour, for I deserve your place; O grant to me your favour, and heal me by your grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank you, dearest friend, For this your dying sorrow, your mercy without end? Lord, make e yours forever: your servant let me be, And may I never, never betray your love for me.

Next time we will be looking at the next chorale in the St. John Passion. We will look at the face of Jesus and the meaning of ‘to turn.’

For Further Listening

Besides the Coldplay song and the hymn, My song is love unknown, I am suggesting one of my favourite organ works from the nineteenth century, Brahms’ O Welt Ich muß dich lassen. This is from the last work he wrote, a collection of twelve chorale preludes. There are two settings in this collection, this is the second, no. 11 https://open.spotify.com/track/4VWAOIQKHO6QnfRFSOczJB? si=FHMeIbrSRASG4YawNwwIkg

S.D.G. (Soli Deo Gloria = To God alone be the Glory) and J.J.(Jesu juva = Jesus, help),