Here, Bach’s music gives us a visceral sense of the skipping motion of the text’s “joyful steps” and references to being pushed and pulled. In the next aria, Ich folge dir gleichfalls(“I, too, follow thee”), the flute enters into a joyful dialogue with the soprano. Later, echoes of this opening chorus return in the interlocking oboe lines of the alto aria, Von den Stricken meiner Sünden (“From the bonds of my sins”). The unsettled, anxiety filled bass line lurches unpredictably. The opening bars set a quietly ominous tone with jarring dissonances and slithering chromatic lines in the flauti traversi and oboes. In addition to the drama of the story, we have the vibrant drama of the instrumental voices of the orchestra and their dialogue with the vocal lines. It brings us some of Bach’s most sensuous and bittersweet chorale harmony. The closing chorale speaks of angels, sleep “without any anguish or pain,” and eternal praise. A chorale interrupts this argument with the work’s fundamental message of liberation: “Through your prison, God’s son, we must have freedom.” This serene central chorale ( Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn) is surrounded by two motivically related choral movements in which the mob cries out dogmatically in favor of crucifixion. The Passion’s final chorus, Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine, bids farewell to all lament and suffering and drifts off into a lasting, celestial peace. The opening chorus begins with the celebratory lines, “Lord, our ruler, Whose fame In every land is glorious!” The work’s five part structure is highly symmetrical, with the trial’s discussions of freedom and captivity and the dictates of the “law” occurring in the center. Matthew Passion, written three years later, depicts Christ’s human suffering amid bleak desolation and lament, the St John Passion treats the crucifixion as an act of divine transfiguration. As a result, we are left with more than one version. The work was revised and changed for subsequent performances in 1725, 1732, and 1749. It was first performed on Good Friday, Apat nearby St. The St John Passion was written in the first year of Bach’s tenure as music director of Leipzig’s St. Chorales, sung by the congregation, interrupt the flow of the plot at significant moments and allow for reverent reflection. A cast of other singers perform the roles of Jesus, Pilate, and the disciples, while the four-part choir represents the people at large. The story of Jesus’ capture, judgment, and crucifixion, as outlined in biblical passages from John 18 and 19, are presented by the solo tenor (the Evangelist). Bach’s St John Passion is a haunting and dramatic musical depiction of the Passion of Christ, as told in the Gospel of John.
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