Page 105 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained

BAROQUE 1600–1750 103

sermon at the Good Friday service
(in either 1727 or 1729). Bach also Cantatas and oratorios such as recitatives, arias, and
collaborated with the Leipzig poet choruses, but the cantata tends
Picander to create a libretto, which The oratorio had traditionally to use them more subtly in
both presented the biblical drama been a concert piece for order to imply the drama.
By the High Baroque period,
and offered contemplations upon orchestra, choir, and soloists, it is difficult to differentiate the
the content. The St. Thomas Church depicting a biblical episode or
the life of a saint. It differed from cantata from the oratorio. Bach’s
for which it was written added an opera only in being unstaged Christmas Oratorio, for example,
extra layer of drama to proceedings; and lacking interaction between is actually a cantata. Bach,
by using its two organ lofts, Bach characters. The cantata often whose cantatas are considered
was able to distribute his forces used similar forces but was to be some of the most sublime
as a double choir across the venue. performed in church before religious music ever written,
Although he had employed such and after the sermon and was also wrote secular works in
techniques in other works, such as a series of reflections on the the genre, such as the Coffee
the motets, its use here with the service’s biblical texts. Both Cantata, which is essentially
addition of two orchestras and genres used operatic elements a short comic opera.
organists allowed for the widest
variety of dramatic textures. in four-part harmony, but three devastating pathos of abandonment.
In addition to the original are referenced as accompanying However, in the hands of Bach, this
material, Bach also inserted a elements in other movements. In same absence of strings in the
number of Lutheran chorales. this way, Bach was able to mix the soprano aria “Aus Liebe will mein
When Martin Luther had started known with the new—essential for Heiland sterben” (“Out of Love My
translating services into German, a congregation first experiencing Saviour Is Willing to Die”) suggests
new melodies had been required. such an intense, large-scale work. a different, almost plaintive mood.
These formed well-known hymns Throughout the work, Bach is
that became the mainstay of Musical characterization clearly aware of the need to use
congregational worship. Bach Rather like an opera, the key the orchestra to ensure that his
harmonized many hundreds of roles in the St. Matthew Passion congregation receives the full ❯❯
such melodies, regularly using are taken by soloists, but in the
them as the basis of cantatas or absence of physical drama and
chorale preludes. In the St. Matthew costumes, Bach often gives them
Passion, the chorale melodies date distinct musical characterizations.
from between 1525 and 1656, and The tenor Evangelist, the narrator,
would therefore have been familiar always uses recitative secco with
to his audience. Most are presented continuo (speechlike solo singing
with a sparse bass accompaniment)
to deliver the Gospel texts. This
allows the narrative to be strong,
clear, and unambiguous. The words
of Jesus, however, are recitatives
accompanied by the strings from
One who has completely the first orchestra. In playing
forgotten Christianity sustained notes and highlighting
truly hears it here key words, they add an unworldly
as Gospel. sound to the Vox Christi (voice of
Friedrich Nietzsche Christ)—often likened to a halo.
Such characterization is perhaps
most strongly heard when, almost Bach played the organ and taught
for 27 years at the St Thomas School
operatically, Jesus utters his last in Leipzig, as shown here in an 1882
words without the accompaniment engraving. He and his pupils supplied
of strings, resulting in the truly music for the city’s four main churches.

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