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The origins of Bach’s St. Mark Passion (BWV 247) go back to the Trauer-Ode (Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl,” BWV 198), a funeral cantata written in 1727 for Electress Christiane Eberhardine of Saxony. Composed for a specific occasion, the Trauer-Ode was no longer of any practical use once it had been performed, so already in 1729, two years before the first performance of the St Mark Passion, Bach incorporated some of its individual movements into another secular-sacred work, (Köthener Trauermusik, BWV 244a) through the process of parody. Evidence for the existence of the St. Mark Passion exists in the form of the libretto by Picander, Bach’s most important author of texts, published in the third part of his Ernst-, Sherzhaffte und Satyrische Gedichte of 1732, with a reference to the first performance of the passion on Good Friday in 1731, in Leipzig. Another printed copy of the text of the St. Mark Passion, discovered in the Russian National Library in 2009, not only testifies to a hitherto unknown repeat performance at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, by Bach in 1744, but also reveals that both the text and the music had been revised by adding two arias. Like Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), the St. Mark Passion is a musical parody, in which newly composed poetry is retrofitted to existing music. Based on historical context, the five movements borrowed from the Trauer-Ode are still today the only ones that can be regarded with certainty as parody models for the St. Mark Passion. Many different suggestions have been put forward for the likely form of those parts of the St. Mark Passion that must now be regarded as lost, namely the remaining arias, turba choruses and the recitatives. In my reconstruction of the St Mark Passion, the passion narrative, (the Evangelist, Jesus, Pilate, etc., and the crowd choruses) is set in English, and the chorales are transposed to a singable, hymn-like tessitura to make congregational participation easier. My version of the missing parts of the St Mark Passion are in a distinctively modern, contemporary musical language, somewhat related to jazz and American minimalism. By contrasting the musical language of the passion narrative to that of the arias and chorales by Bach, I created transparency to a work that has come down to us as incomplete. I also wanted to present the passion narrative in English vernacular in a contemporary musical language, perhaps more appealing to certain contemporary audiences. The different musical and sung languages make my version of the St. Mark Passion a truly contemporary, non-historicizing reconstruction, aiming to achieve a similar experience to that which Bach’s Leipzig audiences might have felt when they heard the passion narrative sung in their own language, and in a familiar musical language. With the use of period instruments, Baroque pitch, and unequal temperament, however, I create a certain “sonic coherence” to the whole work, and provide the possibility for an uncompromised, historical performance practice for Bach’s original parts. 0:00 Opening Chorus BWV 198/1 5:30 2a Recit (BK) 5:58 2b Chorus “not upon the feast” (BK) 6:20 2c Recit (BK) 7:00 2d Chorus “why was this fragrant oil wasted?” BK) 7:54 3 Chorale BWV 258 8:43 4 Recit (BK) 10:42 5 Chorale BWV 244/32 11:27 6a Recit (BK) 11:43 6b Chorus “where do you want us to go?” (BK) 12:30 6c Recit (BK) 14:32 6d Chorus “surely not I” ( (BK) 16:03 8 Recit (BK) 18:27 9 Alto Aria BWV 198/5 24:32 10 Recit (BK) 25:27 11 Chorale BWV 397 26:24 12a Recit (BK) 27:35 12b Tenor Aria BWV 2/5 32:02 12c Recit (BK) 33:28 13 Chorale BWV 428 34:22 14 Recit (BK) 35:22 15 Chorale BWV 377 36:06 16 Recit (BK) 38:11 17 Soprano Aria BWV 198/3 41:10 18 Recit (BK) 42:04 19 Alto Aria BWV 54/1 47:20 20 Recit (BK) 48:37 21 Chorale BWV 245/14 49:37 22 Recit (BK) 50:21 23 Chorale BWV 135/1 55:42 24 Tenor Aria BWV 198/8 59:03 25a Recit (BK) 01:00:01 25b Chorus (BK) 01:00:56 25c Recit (BK) 01:01:09 26 Chorus BWV 258 01:01:57 27 Recit (BK) 01:02:24 28 Chorale 01:03:23 29a Recit (BK) 01:04:21 29b Chorus “Prophesy” (BK) 01:05:22 30 Chorale BWV 244/54 01:06:21 31a Recit (BK) 01:07:37 31b Chorus (BK) 01:08:59 32 Chorale BWV 331 01:09:55 33a Recit (BK) 01:11:02 33b Alto Aria BWV 173/3 01:12:30 33c Recit (BK) 01:13:46 33d Chorus “Crucify” (BK) 01:14:42 33f Chorus “Crucify” (BK) 01:15:38 34 Angenehmes Mordgeschrei BWV 171/1 01:20:07 35a Recit (BK) 01:20:56 35b Chorus (BK) 01:21:33 36 Chorale BWV 353 01:22:44 37 Recit (BK) 01:24:24 38 Chorale BWV 80/8 01:25:22 39a Recit (BK) 01:25:58 39b Chorus “ha-ha” (BK) 01:27:05 39c Recit (BK) 01:27:16 39d Chorus “He saved others” (BK) 01:28:00 39e Recit (BK) 01:29:17 40 Chorale BWV 369 01:30:12 41 Recit & Chorus “He is calling for Elijah“ (BK) 01:31:14 42 Bass Aria BWV 245a 01:34:59 43 Recit (BK) 01:37:33 44 Chorale BWV 244/63 01:38:07 45 Recit (BK) 01:38:48 46 Chorus BWV 198/10
