e to assume his duties as cantor of the St. Thomas School, his
purpose being to introduce into the Reformed Church a service which
should be a counter attraction to the Mass as performed in the Roman
Church. It was produced for the first time at the afternoon service on
Good Friday, 1729, but was not heard again until the young Mendelssohn
revived it in Berlin, March 12, 1829. It was frequently repeated in
Germany and aroused extraordinary enthusiasm, and still keeps its place
in the festival oratorio repertory, the necessary additional
accompaniments having been furnished by Robert Franz.

The passion is written in two parts, between which the sermon intervened
in old times. It includes portions of chapters xxvi. and xxvii. of the
Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the remainder of the text being
composed of hymns furnished to Bach by Christian Friedrich Henrici, who
wrote under the pseudonym of "Picander," and, it is said, was assisted in
the compilation by the composer himself. The _dramatis personae_ are
Jesus, Judas, Peter, Pilate, the Apostles, and the People, or _Turbae_,
and the narrative is interpreted by reflections addressed to Jesus,
forming two choruses, "The Daughter of Zion" and "The Faithful," as
Picander calls them. They are sometimes given by the chorus, and
sometimes by single voices. The chorales are selected from those which
were in common use in the Lutheran Church, and were familiar therefore to
the congregations which sang the melody, the harmony being sustained by
the chorus and instruments. The Gospel text is in recitative form
throughout, the part of the evangelist, or narrator, being assigned to a
tenor voice, while those of the persons incidentally introduced are given
to other singers. In the dialogue, wherever the words of Jesus occur, the
accompaniment is furnished by a string quartette, which serves to
distinguish them from the others, and invests them with a peculiar
gentleness and grace. The incidental choruses, sung by the People and the
Apostles, are short and vivacious in character, many of them being in
madrigal form. The chorales, fifteen in number, as has already been said,
were taken from the Lutheran service. One of them, which Bach also
liberally used in his "Christmas Oratorio," beginning, "Acknowledge me,
my Keeper," appears five times in the progress of the work, forming the
keynote of the church sentiment, and differently harmonized on each
occasion. Another, "O Blessed Jes