Bach's glorious St.Mathew Passion

by Gwen Herat

The world probably thinks of Bach as the composer of the glorious St. Mathew Passion along with the immortal Suites of Brandenburg Concertos.

In 1727 he began to write St.Mathew's Passion where some of its parts were performed at the funeral of Prince Leopold. Two years later he performed the full score that simply sent its embers skywards in a fiery vision as though its echoes opened the doors of heaven.

Leipzig was seized by its tremors as people grabbed its spiritual inspiration. Some sleeping Christians awaken to its vibrance, readily acknowledged Bach as the ultimate in scriptural music.

But Bach never found it easy to perform this one score as he would have wanted to.

He had pressure exercised on him at Leipzig as he had to face three problems; that of the church, university and town council and was commissioned to take over a non-musical teaching post with which he was not satisfied.

He was not allowed to engage professional singers for his first performance of St.Mathew's Passion though the Church and the Music School of Leipzing was to be the centre of Bach's life from 1723 to 1750.

It all happened because the old rector had been a close friend of Bach but when he died, a young man was appointed and there were many disagreements they could not iron out. Bach had the courage and patience to bear all the tribulations as he enjoyed his growing popularity around the country.

Apart from the great scores he wrote, there is something for which he is remembered for. This arose from his love for mathematics which resulted in the cardinal numbers corresponding to the letters of his name being significant. Number 14 was important to him.

B=A, A=1, C=3, H=8 (2+1+3+8+14) A chorale he wrote shortly before he died had a theme of 14 notes

14 is 41 inverted which makes the melody numbers 41 notes. This is the cardinal numbers of J.S. Bach (9+18+14)

German dynasty

The principal melody of the chorale, Wenn Wir Hochsten Noten Sein has 166 notes which are the relating numbers to Johanne Sebastian Bach.

The only musician to the claim of seven generations of Bach as professional musicians they were, their German dynasty can be traced back to the 16th century. However, none were able to earn more than a local reputation and surprisingly its arbiter and law-giver turned out to be Johanne Sebastian Bach but he achieved only little or limited fame during his lifetime.

He was the composer of the family with music in his blood. He was exceptional from the beginning though he had very little formal training when young. He almost lost his sight trying to transcribe notes that were denied to him by moonlight from the library and he did with vengeance when he copied all the instrumental music till his eyes ached.

He lost both his parents in 1694. Bach senior was a good violinist. He tutored the younger Bach who later was to compose violin concertos along with church music, secular choral works, chamber, instrumental and the lute, his speciality being the organ and other keyboards. He had to take refuge with his older brother after he was orphaned. He was not very happy to feed an extra mouth and he had little sympathy for him. However, grudgingly he gave him lessons on the harpsichord. When he turned 15, he was absorbed into the choir of Luneberg where he had the freedom to experience in every possible musical pursuit and he immediately immersed himself in scores, composing and studying the organ, clavichord and the violin which he loved very much.

He led a parochial life and his thirst for every new musical experience open to him was important in the extraordinary diversity of music to write. He loved the organ so much that he walked a distance of 213 miles when the celebrated organist, Dietrich Buxtehude gave a recital once-weekly concert.

Though exhausted he was so elated that he began interpolating elaborate cadenzas and variations into staid chorales. He kept moving on, climbing up the ladder, getting married in the process to his cousin, Maria Barbara.

He left his post at Münchhausen to become the court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar.

It is at this time that he composed some of his finest organ works. He remained for nine years and was made conductor of the court orchestra in 1714. Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and many of his great preludes and fugues debuted around this time.

Obstacles

As he advanced in his career. He had many obstacles when he accepted the post of music director to Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cothen. Duke Wilhelm was furious and put him under arrest for one month.

When at last Bach arrived in Cothen, it was the beginning of his career. He saw his Brandenburg Concertos first appear in the book of Well-Tempered Clavier.

It was during these moments of a visit with the prince that he heard the death of his wife. He remained a widow with his seven children for one year before marrying Anna Magdalena Wilcken who was the daughter of the court trumpeter. Weissenfels bore him 13 children. Of the 20 children, six children did not survive into adulthood.

Bach's sight was failing due to cataract towards the end of his illustrious career. John Taylor who operated on Handel for sight failure, took on Bach but left him almost blind but a miracle did happen. His sight miraculously returned.

Medical opinion was that his cataract may have receded spontaneously.

It allowed him to complete his final work, The Art of Fugue. Two weeks later he passed away due to cerebral haemorrhage. He was 65 years when he died and was buried in the churchyard of St. John in Leipzig.