IT IS ACCOMPLISHED: AN EXPLORATION OF J.S. BACH’S ST JOHN PASSION

Saturday 13 January 2018|10am-4pm

Tutor: Michael Chandler | Canterbury campus | £39

Following on from our very popular day school last year exploring Bach’s Matthew Passion (1727), this day school will explore the other significant contribution to the Passion genre by J.S.Bach (1685-1750): his earlier St John Passion (1724). Unlike the more contemplative St Matthew, which ponders on the suffering of Christ, the St John is more
dramatic in concept, emphasising the Cross as the means of victory of good over evil. From the opening chorus with its declamatory shouts of ‘Lord’ to the aria The End is Come contemplating the moment of crucifixion (whose middle section portrays the crucified Christ as a quasi-mythical Hero-figure) the theology of glory embedded in John’s Gospel is clearly evident. This version of the Passion is taut in structure, almost operatic in its immediacy of musical language and style – especially in the pivotal scenes of Jesus’s arrest at Gethsemane, Peter’s betrayal, Jesus’s interrogation and ultimate condemnation before Pilate. Bach thought so highly of this Passion setting that he produced subsequent revisions for use during Good Friday Vespers in later years; the final version produced in 1749, the year before his death. All these strands of interest will be explored during this Day School.