Mel, Meet Bach

The sequence of events leading up to the Crucifixion is contained in its entirety in the 26th and 27th Chapters of Matthew. Bach is often called ‘The Fifth Evangelist’ and his oeuvre ‘The Fifth Gospel.’ He has informed the Matthew text with his music, but also has added text, which transforms Matthew’s gospel, for both the congregations of 1727 and 2007. Bach’s early religious training was in Lutheran orthodoxy, meaning uptight, authoritarian and dogmatic. Later on, Pietism, a more gracious, inclusive, humane practice, had a greater influence on him- witness the serious battles he had with his boss at Leipzig, Pastor Ernesti. It is clear that Mel Gibson is not his librettist when, for example, one hears the following text quotes in the Passion: “how guilty we;” and “’tis I who should endure the pains of Hell.” If Luther was capable of anti-Semitic expression in his later years, Bach is the opposite. He is a humanitarian to the extreme, a romantic, mystical and metaphysical to the point of giving only God credit for everything he wrote.