Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31st 1685, in Eisenach Germany.
He was a composer and, a performer who was extremely skilled at his craft. Bach was credited with over 1000 different compositions; including his most important, “The Saint Johns Passion”(Hanford). Originally Bach intended that the St John Passion would be first performed in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, but due to a last-minute change by the music council, it was first performed on Good Friday of 1724 in the St. Nicholas Church, shortly after Bachs 39th birthday(Hanford).. The St. Johns Passion was the best piece of western music composed because of its musicality, and its purpose.
The Passio Secundum Johannem, or St John Passion is a Passion by Johann Sebastian…
Johns Passion is such a large composition. It would have taken immense concentration, and musicality to complete. The Passion contains 40 different parts which contain Chorales, Recitatives, Choruses, and Aria’s (Index to Scores). One of the most important parts of the Saint John’s Passion is its chorales. At eleven points in the structure, chorales reflect the narration, stanzas from Lutheran hymns. Possibly Bach had an influence on their selection. He set them all in common time for four parts, the instruments playing with the voices (Index to Scores). But one must wonder what is the purpose of writing such a massive and beautiful piece? The Purpose of Bach Writing the St. Johns Passion was to account the last period in the life of Christ. While writing the St John Passion, Bach intended to retain the congregational spirit of the worship service. The text for the body of the work is taken from the Gospel of John chapters 18 and 19. To augment these chapters, which he summarized in the music, Bach used an elaborate body of commentary consisting of hymns, which were often called chorales, and arias. He used Martin Luthers translation of the Bible with only slight modifications. During the performance the congregation who would normally song along with the familiar chorales would sit silently and observe because it was thought to be disrespectful to sing along with the professionals.
The St. Johns Passion in my opinion is the most powerful work of art ever crafted….
