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P28. 241 Aside from these difficult issues, Mendel was able to ascertain through the work
of Dürr and Dadeslon as well scrutinizing handwriting comparisons of Bach‟s various
copyists the following: 242
1. The earliest parts as written on paper 1 were previously identified incorrectly by
Rust as the middle parts.
2. The middle parts as written on paper 2 were previously identified incorrectly by
Rust as the older parts.
3. The multiple inserts on paper 3 indicates a third phase of composition.
4. The multiple inserts on paper 4 and 5 indicates a fourth phase of composition.
The St. John Passion was the first large work that Bach composed subsequent to his
acceptance of the Leipzig position. While there has been some conjecture that Bach had
written out the first set of parts for the St. John Passion while still in his Cöthen post,
most scholars, like Alfred Dürr, agree that this false assumption stems from Spitta‟s
erroneous connection of manuscript watermarks. 243 Other scholars like Chafe (1982)
speculate that, while Bach was an industrious composer, he needed a longer time frame to
compose in the Passion genre. 244 Alfred Dürr counters this argument with the example of
Mattheson‟s completion of a Passion according to St. John, Das Lied des Lammes, in two
weeks and four days as indicated at the end of the score. 245 The implication made here by
Dürr is that if Mattheson were able to accomplish composing a Passion in a fortnight and
four days, certainly Bach would have been able to finish the task in addition to his other
responsibilities.
Version 1 – 1724
The 1724 score is known as the first version of the St. John Passion that served as
a prototype for the other three subsequent versions. Four days prior to its premiere in the
Thomaskirche on Good Friday the town council moved the vesper service to Leipzig‟s
241 Roehrig, “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition 1973,” 4.
242 Roehrig, “The St. John Passion by J.S. Bach in the light of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe edition 1973,” 6.
243 Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, 2.
244 Dürr, Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, 56.
245 Ibid.
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