florida state university college of music performance practice

CHAPTER 5
RECEPTION AND PRACTICES OF ST. JOHN PASSION
PERFORMANCES
Throughout its compositional history the opinion and reception of the St. John
Passion has garnered controversy and encountered criticism of inferiority to the St.
Matthew Passion. There is the infamous incident of 1739 where the Leipzig Town
Council forbade Bach to perform the planned Passion music, thought by many scholars to
have been the St. John Passion, based on opposition regarding the text. Recent discourse
has centered around the possible presence of anti-Semitic currents interwoven within the
Gospel of John, and Luther‟s and Bach‟s involvement in propagating such tendencies.
Furthermore, the St. John Passion has been often portrayed, unrightly so, as an inferior
work when compared to Bach‟s other large-scale vocal works such as the St. Matthew
Passion and the Mass in B minor. This chapter will explore several documented
performances of the St. John Passion to provide a tableau of what early performances in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were like. In addition, the debates concerning the
compositional value, proposed anti-Semitic orientation in the St. John Passion and the
recent increase of books and recordings of and about the St. John Passion will be
investigated.
Bach‟s own performances of the St. John Passion
What is known regarding the earliest performances of the St. John Passion during
Bach‟s lifetime? First in practical terms, as indicated with its multiple versions, the St.
John Passion was a working, changing and breathing work that responded to the unique
needs of Bach during his tenure at St. Thomas. Undoubtedly, we must reconcile ourselves
to the fact that while we can discover largely the original conditions, much of what
happened will always remain elusive. Helmuth Rilling recognized this predicament when
he mentioned that while we have original instruments and original performance practices,
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