J. S. Bach’s Johannine Theology: The St. John Passion and the Cantatas for Spring 1725

621 Pages·2014·6.595 MB·English

by  Eric Chafe

J. S. Bach’s Johannine Theology
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J. S. Bach’s Johannine Theology
The St. John Passion and the Cantatas for
Spring 1725
Eric Chafe
1
1
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Chafe, Eric Thomas, 1946–
J. S. Bach’s Johannine theology : the St. John Passion and the Cantatas for spring 1725 / Eric Chafe.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-977334-3 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-19-977347-3 (electronic text) 1. Bach, Johann Sebastian,
1685–1750—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. Johannespassion. 3. Bach,
Johann Sebastian, 1685–1750. Cantatas. 4. John, the Apostle, Saint—Songs and music—History and criticism.
5. Sacred vocal music—18th century—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML410.B13C45 2014
782.23—dc23 2013016012
BB 9780199773343
DG 9780199773473
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Publication of this book was supported by the
Margarita Hanson Endowment of the American Musicological Society.
{ Acknowledgments }
I have been involved with the St. John Passion for a long time, and there are a great
many individuals to whom I owe a debt of gratitude that can never be adequately
repaid. My earliest systematic thought on the Passion goes back to a seminar of
Christoph Wolff’s at the University of Toronto during the 1969–70 academic year.
There I and my fellow students were introduced to the sources and literature of
the Bach Passions and encouraged to develop research projects. Mine was on the
St. Matthew Passion, but my colleague and longtime friend, Gregory Butler, set
forth as his project a version of overall tonal symmetry for the St. John Passion that,
after a decade during which our research paths had diverged, awakened my desire
to explore the subject further. On bringing the matter up with him, Greg very
kindly left me a clear field, for which I am eternally grateful. From that time to the
present, I have had many friends, colleagues, and students who have given me help
in molding my various writings on the St. John Passion and the cantatas discussed
in this book. I cannot possibly adequately thank them all, but the following per-
sons were instrumental: Don Franklin, Robert Marshall, Paul Brainard, Laura
Schechter, Robin Leaver, Betsy Joyce, Jacquelyn Sholes, Michael Marissen, Joseph
Morgan, Alfred Dürr, Werner Breig, Annegret Klaua, Gilad Harel, Markus Rathey.
Martina Rebmann, of the Stattsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, was
of great assistance in acquiring the photograph of Bach’s autograph page from the
St. John Passion that I have reproduced as figure 5.1. For several years I have corre-
sponded with John Eliot Gardiner, exchanging ideas on Bach, the St. John Passion
in particular, and have benefitted greatly from this exchange with one of the fore-
most Bach conductors of our time, not to mention the performances themselves.
Gardiner’s own book on Bach, embodying the insights of a lifetime of Bach perfor-
mances, will be published around the same time as this one. The experience of
publishing this book with Oxford University Press has been a fulfilling one. Music
editor Suzanne Ryan shepherded it through all the early stages, giving much en-
couragement and advice when it was needed, Adam Cohen, Erica Woods Tucker,
and Jessen O’Brien coordinated production details very skillfully. And copy editor
Mary Sutherland was pure pleasure to work with; her interactive style, attention to
detail and expertise in music and theology were instrumental in getting this book
to its present state. In the final analysis, however, it is to Christoph Wolff that I owe
the very great debt of that initial introduction to Bach research, something that has
shaped my life in incalculable ways.
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{ Contents }
Acknowledgments v
A Note on Translations, Spelling, Orthography, and Pitch designations xi
Introduction: Bach and John 3
Part i Introductory Themes
1. Spring 1724 and 1725 25
2. The Ordering of Salvation: Aspects of Scripture and the Liturgical Year 53
3. Johannine Themes 95
Part ii The St. John Passion
4. The St. John Passion: Introduction and Part One 119
5. The Concept of Ambitus in the St. John Passion 181
6. Jesus’s Trial: John, Francke, Bach 230
7. Jesus’s Death and Burial 279
8. The Theologia Crucis and the Passion’s Symbolic Structure 324
Part iii The Cantatas for Spring 1725
9. Easter through Misericordias: Cantatas 249, 6, 42, and 85 379
10. Jubilate to Ascension Day: Cantatas 103, 108, 87, and 128 433
11. Instrumental Characteristics 483
12. Exaudi and Pentecost: Cantatas 183, 74, 68, and 175 509
13. Trinity Sunday: Cantata 176, Es ist ein trotzig und verzagt Ding 548
14. Spring 1725: The Cantatas and the Shape of the Liturgy 571
Bibliography 585
Index 599
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{ List of Figures and Illustrations }
Figures
1.1 Cantatas for Trinity 1723 43
1.2 Passion and Cantata performances of spring 1724 45
1.3 Passion and Cantata performances of spring 1725 46
3.1 Epistle and Gospel readings for Trinity 98
3.2 Farewell Discourse 107
4.1 St. John Passion symbolic plan 138
4.2 St. John Passion key structure 139
4.3 August Hermann Francke’s table of contents 166
4.4 Bach’s symbolic trial 168
5.1 Heinichen’s circle of keys 195
5.2 St. John Passion keys of closed movements 197
11.1 St. John Passion special instrumental usages 486
14.1 Cantatas for spring 1725 keys and tonal designs 575
Illustrations
5.1 Excerpt from recitative 10 (mm. 10–16a) 216
8.1a/b Frontispiece and title page of Müller’s Evangelischer
Herzens-Spiegel/Lütkemanns’s Apostolischer Herzens-Wecker 368