Bach's St John Passion, first heard in Leipzig on Good Friday 1724, and his St Matthew Passion, first given there in 1727, retell the Passion story in layers: a tenor Evangelist sings the gospel, the choir becomes the crowd, hymn tunes carry the congregation, and arias stop the clock to think. Knowing the layers is the whole trick.
What Exactly Is a Bach Passion?
A Passion setting is music for Good Friday: the story of the arrest, trial and burial of Jesus, sung within a church service. Bach, Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1723, built both surviving Passions on one frame — a sung gospel narration that pauses for communal hymns (chorales) and solo arias reflecting on the events. A sermon divided the two halves.
The parts are easy to keep separate once you have heard them a few times:
| Musical part | Who performs it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Evangelist | Tenor | Narrates the gospel text |
| Jesus, Peter, Pilate | Bass and other soloists | Speak in character |
| Turba choruses | Full choir | Shout as the crowd, priests, soldiers |
| Chorales | Choir | Step outside the story into shared hymnody |
| Arias | Solo voice and instruments | Comment, grieve, ask questions |
The St John Passion, catalogued as BWV 245 and first performed on 7 April 1724 at Leipzig's Nikolaikirche, takes its narration from John 18 and 19; the St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, first given at the Thomaskirche, from Matthew 26 and 27. Both end at the tomb — burial choruses, not resurrection scenes, because Good Friday Vespers was where they lived.
Who Wrote the Words?
The gospel text is Luther's German Bible; the chorales are older Lutheran hymns, chosen and placed by Bach. The free verse of the arias has named authors: several St John texts come from Barthold Heinrich Brockes's Passion libretto of 1712, and the St Matthew poetry was assembled by Christian Friedrich Henrici, a Leipzig postal official who wrote as Picander.
The most famous chorale in the St Matthew Passion, “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,” shows how the pieces fit together: a love-song melody published by Hans Leo Hassler in 1601, fitted with a penitential text by Paul Gerhardt, then returned to, five times across the Passion, in different harmonizations — the same tune aging and darkening as the story descends. When you lose your place in the narrative, the chorales are where you find it again; they are the fixed stars of both works.
Related stories: A Short History of Gospel Music · How to Read “The Grand Inquisitor”.
How Do the Two Passions Differ?
In scale and temperature. The St John is shorter and hotter: abrupt crowd choruses, a narration that moves like an interrogation. The St Matthew is twice the length and more contemplative — double choirs and orchestras in dialogue, a boys' choir above the opening lament, and Jesus's words ringed by strings, a halo that falls away at his dying cry.
Listeners who want a recommendation are usually told to start with the St John precisely because it behaves like a drama with a two-hour arc, and to save the St Matthew for when the idiom is familiar. There is no single correct performance scale. Recordings range from grand mid-century monuments in the tradition of Otto Klemperer to the lean period-instrument readings of John Eliot Gardiner, with boy sopranos and small choirs; the works have survived every size of ensemble they have been given, which says something about the strength of the writing.
How Should You Listen the First Time?
Read the gospel chapters beforehand — John 18–19 for one work, Matthew 26–27 for the other — then follow a recording with the text and translation in front of you, and let the chorales be your footing: whenever a hymn tune returns, you are back on common ground. That preparation is the answer to how to listen to Bach's Passions.
A workable method is three hearings. On the first, follow only the Evangelist and treat the piece as narrated drama. On the second, track the chorales and notice how their harmonizations shift with the story. On the third, give your attention to the arias — the moments where time stops and a solo voice asks what the events mean. Nothing is hidden; the music was written for a listening congregation, not for a class of specialists. It is worth remembering, too, that this music nearly vanished into the archive: the St Matthew Passion was revived in Berlin in 1829 by the young Felix Mendelssohn, a century after its composition, and the modern Bach era began with that concert.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the questions newcomers ask most, answered in a few sentences each: language, starting point, original setting, and what the catalogue numbers mean. Each expands a point made above. None of the answers requires German, church membership or a music degree.
Are the Passions sung in German?
Yes. The narration uses Luther's translation, and the chorales and arias are German verse. Every major recording supplies a side-by-side translation, which is all you need.
Which one should I hear first?
The St John: about two hours, dramatically concentrated, built on one gospel thread. Keep the St Matthew for second — it rewards familiarity, and its double-choir architecture lands harder once the basic idiom is recognizable.
Were they written for the concert hall?
No. Both belong to Good Friday Vespers in Leipzig's principal churches, with a sermon between the parts. The concert-hall Passion is a nineteenth-century afterlife that began with Mendelssohn's 1829 revival.
What does BWV mean?
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, the catalogue of Bach's works compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder in 1950. The St John Passion is BWV 245 and the St Matthew Passion BWV 244 — useful labels, since the works are often listed by number.