| BWV Number |
BWV = Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, Catalogue of Bach’s works compiled by Schmieder (publ. 1950 Leipzig, and Wiesbaden 1990) |
| BG Volume Details |
BG = Bachgesellschaft (Bach Society) originally founded in 1850 to publish the complete works of Bach and wound up on completion of task in 1899, refounded in 1900. |
| NBA Volume Details |
NBA = Neue Bach-Ausgabe (New Bach Edition) published by Bärenreiter. |
| Bach Compendium Details |
BC = Bach Compendium edited by Hans-Joachim Schulze and Christoph Wolff |
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There are three principal librettists known to have provided Bach
with texts for the Passions and Oratorios.
| Barthold Heinrich Brockes |
Wrote Passion librettos, the best known being Der für die Sünde der Welt gemarterte und sterbende Jesus. Both Handel and Telemann used Passion librettos by Brockes in their own settings. |
| (1680- 1747) |
| Christian Friedrich Henrici, (Picander) |
Who also provided the text for some of the church and secular cantatas. |
| (1700-1764) |
| Christian Heinrich Postel |
A librettist for opera as well as the Passions, whose texts were also used by Telemann. Two of the arias in the St.John are settings of text by Postel. |
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CONTINUO
For the St. Matthew Passion, the 'cello and organ in Orchestra I are the
main continuo instruments, with additional bass or violone as required.
The keyboard instrument in both orchestras is organ. The NBA score does
not indicate the use of a bassoon but one in each orchestra may be desirable
in certain acoustics to provide a fresh tone colour in some of the continuo
arias or arias that feature the oboe (s). Purists may disagree. However,
for the St. John ideally the keyboard continuo should be both organ and
harpsichord. Modern scholarship suggests that Bach used a harpsichord as a
continuo instrument in his church cantatas as well and for background
reading on the whole subject ‘Bach’s Continuo Group’ by Laurence Dreyfus
is warmly recommended.
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© Margaret Steinitz
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