Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion (BWV 245): A
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Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion (BWV 245): A Theological Commentary Studies in the History of Christian Traditions Editor in Chief Robert J. Bast (Knoxville, Tennessee) In cooperation with Paul C.H. Lim (Nashville, Tennessee) Eric Saak (Liverpool) Christine Shepardson (Knoxville,Tennessee) Brian Tierney (Ithaca, New York) Arjo Vanderjagt (Groningen) John Van Engen (Notre Dame, Indiana) Founding Editor Heiko A. Oberman † volume 168 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/shct Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion (BWV 245): A Theological Commentary With a New Study Translation by Katherine Firth and a Foreword by N.T. Wright By Andreas Loewe leiden | boston Cover illustration: High Altar Reredos of St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. Photo by Dr Carsten Murawski. Courtesy of St Paul’s Cathedral. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1573-5664 isbn 978 90 04 26547 9 (hardback) isbn 978 90 04 27236 1 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For Katherine ∵ Contents List of Tables and Figures ix List of Abbreviations xi Foreword xiii N.T. Wright Acknowledgements xix Introduction 1 1 From the ‘Fifth Evangelist’ to the Birth of the Neue Bachausgabe 3 2 Theological Bach Research: Back to the Sources 6 3 Considering Anti-Judaism in Bach’s Music 9 4 Bach and Theology Re-assessed 10 5 Purpose and Scope of This Study 12 part 1 Composer and Work 1 Learning the Craft of a Church Musician 21 1 Bach’s Schooling 21 2 Singer, Instrumentalist, Church Musician 24 3 ‘Singing preaching and praising of God’ 29 2 ‘It pleased God that I should be called’—Bach’s Office and Craft 32 1 The Purpose of Church Music 36 2 ‘Gnaden-Gegenwart’: God’s Presence in Sacred Music 39 3 Music for the Glory of God 41 3 Proclaiming Scripture through Music—The Development of Bach’s Cantatas 44 1 Musical and Textual Models for Bach’s Early Cantatas 45 2 The ‘Modern Cantata’ 49 3 From Köthen to Leipzig: from Capellmeister to Lutheran Cantor 54 4 The Leipzig Cantatas: Words and Music that Amplify Scripture 60 5 Composing, Rehearsing and Performing the Cantata 66 4 Bach’s St John Passion 68 1 The Development of the Lutheran Responsorial Passion 70 viii contents 2 The Liturgical and Homiletic Context of Bach’s St John Passion 74 3 The Libretto of Bach’s St John Passion 78 3.1 Textual Elements of the St John Passion: Biblical Text 80 3.2 Textual Elements: Madrigalic Texts 84 3.3 Textual Elements: Chorales 86 4 The Purpose and Message of Bach’s St John Passion 91 part 2 Commentary 5 Introduction to the Commentary 99 6 Study Translation 100 Katherine Firth 7 Commentaries and Sermon Collections 135 1 Abraham Calov’s ‘Great German Bible’ (1682) 136 2 Johannes Olearius’Haupt Schlüßel (1681) 136 3 Sermon Collections: Martin Luther (1528–1529) 138 8 Commentary 141 1 Prima Parte—First Part of the Passion 141 Exordium—Prologue 141 Hortus—Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane 147 Pontifices—Jesus Before the Chief Priests 160 2 Parte Secunda: Nach der Predigt 184 Pilatus—Jesus Before Pilate 184 Crux—Jesus Dies on the Cross 259 Sepulchrum—Jesus is Laid in the Tomb 290 Bibliography 299 Index of Names 322 Index of Places 325 Index of Bach’s Works by BWV Number 326 Index of Themes 328 List of Tables and Figures Tables 1 Libretti published in Salomo Franck’s Evangelisches Andachts-Opffer, Geist und Weltlicher Poesien Zweyter Teil and Evangelische Sonn- und Festtages-Andachten (1716) 53 2 Libretti published in Ziegler’s Versuch in gebundener Schreib-Art (1728) 62 3 Libretti published in Picander’s Ernst-Schertzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte 63 4 Libretto of Bach’s St John Passion as first performed in 1724 (I) 82 5 Libretto of Bach’s St John Passion as performed in 1725 (II) 83 6 Known and Unknown sources of Free Poetry in Bach’s St John Passion 86 7 Consolation and Commitment in Arias and Ariosos of Bach’s St John Passion 87 8 Interior Questions and Answers in the Chorus Arias of Bach’s St John Passion 88 9 Actus Chorales in Bach’s St John Passion 89 10 Petitions from Stockmann’s Passion Chorale in Bach’s St John Passion 90 Figures 1 Dedication of Solomon’s Temple: Frontispiece of the 1673 Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, TL 45 37 2 Exterior and Interior of St Thomas’ Church Leipzig: Frontispiece of the 1710 Leipziger Kirchen-Staat, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 8 H E RIT I, 11920 57 3 Picander’s Texts for the Passion-Music according to the Evangelist Matthew set to music by Bach in the St Matthew Passion, 1727, from the 1748 Ernst-Scherzhafte und Satyrische Gedichte, p. 471, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, P.O. germ. 600 e/2 65 4 Frontispiece of Bach’s copy of Calov’s annotated New Testament from the Great German Bible, Concordia Theological Seminary, St Louis, Missouri 137 5 Mors: Olearius’ commentary on John’s account of the death of Jesus, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, 2 Exeg. 650 e-5 139 x list of tables and figures 6 Autograph Score, p. 11: Different Cross-motifs (1–3, 2–4 and 1–4, 2–3) on ‘Jesum von Nazareth’, Bach Digital Project 151 7 Autograph Score, p. 12: Cross-motifs (1–4, 2–3) on ‘Jesum von Nazareth’, Bach Digital Project 155 8 Autograph Score, p. 17: Cross-motif (1–4, 2–3) on ‘Jesu nach und’, Bach Digital Project 165 9 Intrade Herrn Sebastian Knüpfers, Kritischer Bericht 179 10 Autograph Score, p. 34: Answers to Questions, though not in Bach’s hand, Bach Digital Project 203 11 Johann Saubert, DYODEKAS emblematum sacrorum (1625): The alto voice as an expression of the Holy Spirit, Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, SJ CS 320/5 272 List of Abbreviations ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1890) Ant. Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, with an English Translation by Louis H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library 411 (Cambridge, Mass.: Har- vard University Press, 1969) BB Robin A. Leaver, Bachs theologische Bibliothek: Eine kritische Bibliogra- phie (Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hännsler, 1985) BBKL Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (Herzberg: Traugott Bautz, 1993) BD Werner Neumann and Hans Joachim Schulze, eds., Bach-Dokumente, 3 vols (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1963–1972) BWV Wolfgang Schmieder, ed., Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach-Werke-Verzeich- nis [Bach Works Catalogue] (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1980) CB Abraham Calov, ed., I. N. J./ Die Heilige/ Bibel/ nach S. Herrn D. Martini Lutheri. Deutscher Dolmetschung und Erklärung/ … mit großem Fleiß/ und Kosten ausgearbeitet/ und verfasset/ von/ D. Abraham Calovio (Wit- tenberg: Christian Schröter, 1681–1682) ES Reinhold Vormbaum, ed., Evangelische Schulordnungen, I: Die evange- lischen Schulordnungen des Sechzehnten Jahrhunderts (Gütersloh: Ber- telsmann, 1860) HS Johannes Olearius, Haupt Schlüßel der gantzen Heiligen Schrifft, 3 vol- umes in 5 parts (Leipzig: Tarnoven, 1678–1680) Kritischer Bericht Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes-Passion BWV 245, Arthur Mendel, ed., Neue Bach-Ausgabe Serie II: Messen, Passionen, orato- rische Werke, 5 vols (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1974), IV: Kritischer Bericht von Arthur Mendel KS Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montarini, eds., Friedrich Nietzsche Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1969–1978) Livy, History of Rome Titus Livius [Livy], Ab Urbe condita libri, W. Weissen- born, H.J. Müller eds. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1898) NBR Hans David and Arthur Mendel, eds. et al., revised and enlarged by Christoph Wolff, The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents (London: W.W. Norton, 1998) WA Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Joachim Karl Friedrich Knaake, ed. et al. (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1883–1985) WA Br Briefwechsel, Luther’s Letters xii list of abbreviations WA Tr Tischreden, Luther’s Table Talk War Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, with an English Translation by H. St. J. Thackeray, Loeb Classical Library 203 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967) Foreword N.T. Wright* St John’s account of the trial and death of Jesus contains some of the densest, as well as the most vivid, writing in his already astonishing Gospel. Roman historians have long agreed that the detailed presentation of the to-and-fro between Jesus, Pontius Pilate and the Judaean leaders and crowds carries strong historical verisimilitude: this is, more or less, how such Roman trials would have been. But the dramatic arguments between the representatives of God’s kingdom and the Emperor’s kingdom are not simply a striking account of totalitarian sneering on the one hand and theological courage on the other, though they are that. They are the place where John draws together, at last, all the rich, complex strands that have made his Gospel what it is. The hour has come: this is where it was all leading.