Profound beauty and troubling anti-Jewish message in Bach Passion

By David J. Craig

Bach's St. John Passion is one of music's most troubling masterpieces: regarded as one of the finest choral compositions of the baroque period, its text is based on Luther's interpretation of the Gospel of John -- the most anti-Jewish of the New Testament Gospels. It was first performed as a liturgical piece in 18th-century Germany, where music based on Luther's teachings was often used to stir up anti-Jewish feelings among parishioners.

How the text of St. John Passion should inform an appreciation for the work is the subject of a preconcert panel discussion Wednesday, April 12, featuring Bach scholars Michael Marissen and Craig Smith, among others. Two days later, the two-hour piece will be performed by the BU Symphonic Chorus, Chamber Chorus, and Chamber Orchestra, at the Tsai Performance Center.

Phyllis Hoffman, director of the SFA music division, says that the preconcert discussion is intended to appeal to both the academic community and casual concertgoers. "The great masterworks provide multiple levels of meaning, which is not to say they can't be appreciated purely on the basis of their musical merit," she says. "But like all great works, they tend to require that we bring something to the encounter. I think that we have a particular responsibility when choosing a piece like this, which has controversial text, to provide a forum to help people understand the many interpretive layers."

The first of Bach's passion pieces, St. John Passion was written when the composer was serving as musical preacher for the Lutheran city churches of Leipzig, Germany, in 1723. Originally used as part of a church service, its libretto consists of Luther's verbatim translation of John's biblical narrative in the form of recitatives and choruses, along with other poets' commentaries, in the form of chorales and arias, on Luther's writings.

"The controversy surrounding the piece stems from the fact that the Gospel of John, and to an even greater extent, Luther's writings, contain hostility toward Jews," says Michael Marissen, an associate professor of music at Swarthmore College, who has written four books on Bach. "In the text of the music, Jesus' enemies are always described as Jews. But it's unclear if that is supposed to refer to all Jews at the time, including even the first Christians."

Furthermore, Marissen, who praises the "timeless, purely musical" qualities of St. John Passion, believes that Bach, in his selection of poetry for the choruses, softens the blow of Luther's anti-Judaism. He points out in his book Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and Bach's St. John Passion (Oxford University Press, 1998) that poetry written by 18th-century German poet Barthold Brockes is changed substantially. In one instance, the name of the city of Achshaph, which the ancient Israelites are depicted in John as having destroyed in their battles to take over the promised land of Canaan, is excluded. Brockes' lines "Hurry, you besieged souls / leave Achshaph's dens of murder" are changed to "Hurry, you besieged souls / leave your dens of torment," Marissen writes.

Craig Smith, an SFA adjunct assistant professor of music and director of Emmanuel Music, isn't convinced that Bach neatly exorcises anti-Judaic sentiments from St. John Passion. He agrees, however, that the "dark side of the piece" does not diminish its greatness.

"If you're going to reject Bach, then you have to reject the Gospel of John," says Smith. "In 18th-century Germany, the culture was shot through with anti-Semitism. It was exactly the attitude many people were expected to have.

"There are a lot of great pieces of artwork that have horrible things in them that need to be talked about," he continues. "Don't get me wrong, it's a bitter pill to swallow. Works by lesser composers have been forgotten partly because of the same troublesome subject matter. Handel's Brockes Passion, for example. But I think that the immediacy and clarity of the narrative in St. John Passion, and the variety and passion of both the music and the text, is absolutely profound."

Marissen says that it would be unethical to perform St. John Passion without a preconcert discussion or similar educational event. At the time Bach composed, he says, it was rare for artists to have a great amount of expressive freedom, and he hopes that the participants will address the changing role of the artist over history.

"Both paintings and musical compositions from this period were not meant merely for aesthetic contemplation," he says. "This piece was definitely written to be performed in church, so the source of trouble is the canonized scriptures themselves. The artist in a case like this is forced to just accept it and deal with it, and I'm sure that Bach wouldn't have considered himself free to make changes in the text. But he was free to comment on it in ways that made it better or worse."

And despite contemporary notions that great art can be appreciated on aesthetic merits alone, Marissen argues, it is necessary to consider a composition's narrative to fully appreciate a piece. In his book, for instance, he praises the way in which a simple but memorable melody is played every time Jesus announces himself. The first time the segment appears is when Jesus is told by his assailants that they seek Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus responds, "I am." The music "gives Jesus' answer as firm, unequivocal, and nonevasive a tone as is possible in the musical language of the eighteenth century," Marissen writes.

The public preconcert discussion is SFA's first, and future lectures are planned, according to Hoffman.

St. John Passion will be performed at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave., at 8 p.m., Friday, April 14. Ann Howard Jones, SFA professor and director of choral activities, will conduct. The lecture will also be held at the Tsai Performance Center, at 8 p.m., Wednesday, April 12. Other participants in the discussion will include Paula Fredriksen, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture at BU, and Krister Stendahl, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Divinity at Harvard.