Naxos to release Cecilia's recording of "The Construction of Boston."
The CD of Composer in Residence Scott Wheeler's opera will be released during 2008. The libretto, as well as program notes from the April 2007 concert performance, are available now.

"Teeters and his classy cast and players offered the first truly satisfying performance I’ve heard... If I ever forget what a superb programmer he's been over his 39 years of directing Boston Cecilia, remind me of this concert."

-Lloyd Schwartz, The Boston Phoenix, Apr. 5, 2007. Read the review!

Introducing New Music: Recent and Right Now, presenting the music of up-and-coming composers, in collaboration with Scott Wheeler. Annual series debuts in June 2008!

"The meanings of the word passion are multiple, and are relevant to Bach's music. Its root is in passive suffering; but its association with pathos relates it also to pity and terror, and it also has overtones of enthusiasm, anger and sexual desire." Thus begins a detailed analysis of the John Passion by Wilfrid Mellers in his 1981 book, Bach and the Dance of God, in which he submits Bach's masterpiece to a fascinating psychological/philosophical study alongside a more traditional, purely musical one. He tracks the need to "humanize the mythological," as represented by a tradition of scriptural dramatization originating in the Middle Ages, of which Bach's passions were the final, fullest and — in their artistic perfection — finest manifestation. Whether one is comfortable with Meller's Freudian methodology or not, he does tap into a profound truth concerning Bach's two surviving complete passion settings. These intellectually and aesthetically monumental narratives, built on scriptural texts juxtaposed with temporal ones, brought forth from Bach a testament of unspeakable humanity. If the art of music ever be said to have the power to transcend the borders of race, faith, class, and intellect, then the John Passion and its later, more expansive sibling based on Matthew's account surely carry the markers. And almost all of the various meanings of the word passion come into play to enrich the fabric and deepen the drama.

One could trace the roots of Bach's passions all the way back to Greece, especially in relation to the role of the chorus as both actor and commentator. But the specific liturgical antecedents date from the medieval plainsong passions, in which three priests intoned the crucifixion accounts on the days of Holy Week in music that made no claim to "drama" as that term is customarily applied to later music. This liturgical monophony carried each of the four accounts which were assigned to specific days of the week before Easter. The first German passion settings were by Johann Walther in 1530, using Luther's translations of Matthew and John. By the late 16th century the typical German plainsong passions augmented the Gospel texts with devotional choruses at the beginning and end, usually of a simple syllabic type and with few if any repetitions of text. In the late Renaissance, a new choral type emerged, the so-called motet passion, in which there was no solo singing at all, although the choral texture was sometimes varied in an attempt to represent the character being portrayed. Later a composite evolved in which accounts from all four Gospels were incorporated: The Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross. The motet style offered composers opportunities for increased expression, but it limited dramatic realism in not making use of soloists in the character portrayals.

In the early Baroque, several different traditions came into contention as composers began to expand the parameters. Recitative replaced plainsong, instrumental accompaniment was introduced, and choral writing was freed from earlier constraints. Germany became a center for these innovations, and by the middle of the 17th century non-biblical texts began to be included, drawn from the enormous Lutheran chorale repertoire, but also and significantly from freshly composed poetry intended for arias and choruses. A new musical form was created, the oratorio passion, which shortly evolved in north Germany into the Hamburg opera passion. Notable among its innovators was Barthold Heinrich Brockes, whose passion text, largely a paraphrase of scripture, was set by Handel, Telemann, Keiser, and others. The Hamburg style of biblical paraphrase was widely copied during Bach's years.

Bach's obituary, written by his son C.P.E. Bach with the help of his father's pupil Agricola, mentions five passion settings by the elder Bach. Some doubt exists as to the accuracy of that statement. The John and Matthew accounts are the only ones that survive complete. A setting of Mark has been partially recreated. As to others, most scholars believe it unlikely that complete passion settings of the scale of John and Matthew would have disappeared without a trace.

The first performance of the Johannes Passion was on Good Friday, 1724. The custom in Leipzig was to alternate the major Good Friday liturgy annually between Thomaskirche and Nicolaikirche, and that year it was the turn of the latter. It is possible that an earlier version of the St. John was composed (one of the mysterious five?), but 1724 is the first verifiable date. Bach revised the work three times for performance in subsequent years; the most radical revision came in 1725, when both the beginning and the ending of the work were changed along with a few interior additions/subtractions. That year the opening chorus, which most people now would consider an identifying anchor of the John Passion, was replaced by the O Mensch bewein dein Sünde groß chorale fantasia, later more familiarly located as the finale of Part I of the Matthew Passion. The final chorale was replaced by the chorus Christe, du Lamm Gottes, which also concludes Cantata BWV 23. Christoph Wolff suggests that the fourth version of the John Passion (c. 1740) — very similar to the first version and the standard reference point for most of the performances since - was not so much a final version as an abandoned one, reflecting perhaps "a change in Bach's priorities, above all with regard to official duties versus free artistic inclination."

The question of the perception of anti-semitism in the St. John Gospel and in Bach's setting of it is the topic addressed in the April 7 forum of distinguished panelists sponsored by The Boston Cecilia in cooperation with All Saints Parish, Brookline. These days, few can read John's Gospel or perform Bach's music without being reminded of the history of anti-Jewish prejudice that stained the Church's liturgies for centuries and that has been used to rationalize the string of atrocities committed against Jews not only in this century, but in a more or less continuous stream over many centuries.

It might be helpful, though, in examining these issues in relation to Bach's John Passion, to make the distinction between the scriptural texts, with their often harshly direct citations of responsibility, and those of the arias and chorales — the devotional elements. The aria texts are thought to be Bach's own, based on Brockes's earlier work and others, but avoiding Brockes's paraphrases of scripture; in Bach's settings a strong demarcation is established (re-established?) that permits the biblical account to stand intact and separate from commentary and reflection. Bach dramatizes the biblical story to the fullest where appropriate, and in the characterization of the actions of the Jewish participants he spurns no opportunity for vivid musical depiction. An examination of the nonscriptural texts, however, shows an entirely different, and perhaps more revealing facet of Bach's view of events. Indeed in his choice of texts, Bach often opts for the I/me/mine aspect of personal responsibility: "It was I who betrayed you — My sin that brought on these miseries," in contrast to the they/them of some settings. He seems not to question the Bible's account as history, but the sermon he draws from it is contemporary, personal, lacking in third party villains; a reading that is as relevant now as in his time — or in Christ's.

Examined in this light, and with wisdom and sensitivity standing watch over civilization's all- too-few examples of redemptive art as they are periodically re-studied in the light of changing cultural constraints, one dares to hope that Bach's great edifice will not only withstand the study, but be reaffirmed in its universal and indispensible message — an artist's proclamation of faith Soli Deo Gloria.

- Donald Teeters

The Boston Cecilia performed this piece at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston on April 5, 1998 and at All Saints Parish in Brookline on April 10, 1998.

© 2004 Donald Teeters. All rights reserved.

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