Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 2.djvu/678

666 entirely to original Music, and from that time forward German composers, entirely throwing off their allegiance to Ecclesiastical Tradition, struck out new paths for themselves and suffered their genius to lead them where it would.

The Teutonic idea of the 'Passions Musik' was now fully developed, and it only remained for the great Tone-Poets of the age to embody it in their own beautiful language. This they were not slow to do. Theile produced a 'Deutsche Passion' at Lübeck in 1673 (exactly a century after the publication of the celebrated German version at Wittenberg) with very great success; and, some thirty years later, Hamburg witnessed a long series of triumphs which indicated an enormous advance in the progress of Art. In 1704, Hunold Menantes wrote a Poem called 'Die Passions-Dichtung des blutigen und sterbenden Jesu,' which was set to Music by the celebrated Reinhard Reiser, then well known as the writer of many successful German Operas. The peculiarity of this work lies more in the structure of the Poem, than in that of the Music. Though it resembles the older settings in its original Recitatives and rhythmical Choruses, it differs from them in introducing, under the name of Soliloquia, an entirely new element, embodying, in a mixture of rhythmic phrase and declamatory recitation, certain pious reflections upon the progress of the Sacred Narrative. This idea, more or less exactly carried out, makes its appearance in almost every work which followed its first enunciation down to the great 'Passion Oratorios' of Joh. Seb. Bach. We find it in the Music assigned to the 'Daughter of Zion,' and the 'Chorales of the Christian Church,' in Handel's 'Passion'; in the Chorales, and many of the Airs, in ../Graun/'s 'Tod Jesu,' and in almost all the similar works of Telemann, Matheson, and other contemporary writers. Of these works, the most important were Postel's German version of the Narrative of the Passion as recorded by S. John, set to Music by Handel in 1704, and Brockes's famous Poem, 'Der für die Sünden der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus,' set by Reiser in 1712, by Handel and Telemann in 1716, and by Matheson in 1718. These are all fine works, full of fervour, and abounding in new ideas and instrumental passages of great originality. They were all written in thorough earnest, and, as a natural consequence, exhibit a great advance both in construction and style. Moreover, they were all written in the true German manner, though with so much individual feeling that no trace of plagiarism is discernible in any one of them. These high qualities were thoroughly appreciated by their German auditors; and thus it was that they prepared the way, first, for the grand 'Tod Jesu,' composed by Graun at Berlin in 1755, and then for the still greater production of Sebastian Bach, whose 'Passion according to S. Matthew' is universally regarded as the finest work of the kind that ever was written.

The idea of setting the History of the Passion to the grandest possible Music, in such a manner as to combine the exact words of the Gospel-Narrative with finely developed Choruses, meditative passages like the Soliloquiæ first used by Reiser, and Chorales, sung, not by the Choir alone, but by the Choir in four-part Harmony, and by the Congregation in Unison, was first suggested to Bach by the well-known preacher Solomon Deyling. This zealous Lutheran hoped, by bringing forward such a work at Leipzig, to counteract in some measure the effect produced by the Ecclesiastical 'Cantus Passionis,' which was then sung at Dresden under the direction of Hasse, by the finest Italian Singers that could be procured. Bach entered warmly into the scheme. The Poetical portion of the work was supplied, under the direction of Deyling, by Christian Friedrich Henrici (under the pseudonym of Picander). Bach set the whole to music. And, on the evening of Good Friday, 1729, the work was performed for the first time in St. Thomas's Church, Leipzig, a Sermon being preached between the two Parts into which it is divided, in accordance with the example set by the Oratorians at the Church of S. Maria in Vallicella at Rome.

'Die grosse Passion nach Matthäus,' as it is called in Germany, is written on a gigantic scale for two complete Choirs, each accompanied by a separate Orchestra, and an Organ. Its Choruses, often written in eight real parts, are sometimes used to carry on the dramatic action in the words uttered by the Crowd, or the Apostles, and sometimes offer a commentary upon the Narrative, like the Choruses of a Greek Tragedy. In the former class of Movements, the dramatic element is occasionally brought out with telling effect, as in the reiteration of the Apostles' question, 'Lord, is it I?' The finest examples of the second class are, the introductory Double Chorus, in 12-8 Time, the fiery Movement which follows the Duet for Soprano and Alto near the end of the First Part, and the exquisitely beautiful 'Farewell' to the Crucified Saviour which concludes the whole. The part of the Evangelist is allotted to a Tenor Voice, and is carefully restricted to the narrative portion of the words. The moment any Character in the solemn Drama is made to speak in his own words, those words are committed to another Singer, even though they should involve but a single ejaculation. Almost all the Airs are formed upon the model of the Soliloquiæ already mentioned; and most of them are sung by 'The Daughter of Zion.' The Chorales are supposed to express the Voice of the whole Christian Church, and are therefore so arranged as to fall within the power of an ordinary German Congregation, to the several members of which every Tune would naturally be familiar. The style in which they are harmonised is less simple, by far, than that adopted by Graun in his 'Tod Jesu'; but as the Melodies are always sung in Germany very slowly, the Passing-notes sung by the Choir and played by the Organ serve rather to help and support the unisonous congregational part than to disturb it, and the effect produced by this mode of performance can scarcely be conceived by those who have not actually heard