Girolamo Savoldo, St. Matthew and the Angel (c. 1535), Metropolitan Museum of Art. The humble, dark scene is a metaphor for the Saint's lowly background, recall that Matthew, prior to being called by Christ, was a tax collector, considered among the lowliest of professions in his day.

St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 ,
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The St. Matthew Passion was composed for use at the Thomaskirche on Good Friday, 1729. Bach used the entire Passion story as it appears in the Gospel of Matthew in Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible. Although he did not omit any portions of the story, his librettist -- the Leipzig poet C. F. Henrici (1700-1764), who used the pseudonym Picander -- interpolated a number of poetic texts into the Biblical.

There were essentially eight categories of influences and compositional devices that affected the composition of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. These can be summarized as follows:

1. The Doctrine of Affections, which stated that music had an emotional effect on people, and that a single movement or piece of music should attempt to reflect or create in the listener's mind one and only one emotion.

2. Word-painting vs. lyric reflection: Word-painting occurs when the music directly reflects what is stated in the text. For example, the text mentions "heaven," the music gets higher. Lyric reflection means the text is contemplating, without the use of word-painting, the meaning of some actions that were previously described.

3. Stile antico: literally, the old style. That is, the polyphonic style of writing found in the late Renaissance.

4. Stile nuovo: literally, the new style. Specifically, this means the use of recitative.

5. Basso continuo. The basso continuo is a major feature of Baroque music, and is present in virtually every movement in the St. Matthew Passion. But when it's missing, it is just as significant.

6. Use of obbligato instruments. Obbligato means "obligatory." You must play this part. Obbligato instrumental parts are independent melodic lines played by instruments (that is, they are different from what is being sung at the same time). The inclusion of obbligato parts make the texture much thicker and more complex.

7. Use of both Biblical and poetic texts

8. Every genre known in Bach's day: there are recitatives, da capo arias, other types of arias, choruses, chorales, chorale fantasias, ariosos and many more.

Since the St. Matthew Passion is such a monstrous work (remember, even Bach's family called it the "great Passion,") we cannot make general summaries about the musical content. Rather, we will look at some notable representative pieces for each of the eight categories listed above.

The first piece to examine is the soprano aria "Aus Liebe" (no. 49). This is one of the most famous pieces from the St. Matthew Passion. The entire text and English translation appear below:

This realistic painting of Chris on the Cross was painted by Spanish Baroque artist Diego Velasquez. The Crucifixion (c. 1630) shows remarkable attention to detail, including the phrase "Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews" written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin on the plaque above Christ's head, as recounted in the Passion according to John 19:19-20. Image used with permission, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

It is a short text, which Bach stretches out over nearly five minutes of music. In this, we see the following influences (described above):

• Poetic text, rather than Biblical

• Lyric reflection and word painting

• Use of obbligato instruments

• Basso continuo

• Use of several different genres in one piece

Let me explain. Obviously, the text is poetic, not derived from the Bible. It is the singer's lyric reflection, in a luxurious, slow-paced solo, on the image of Christ nailed to the Cross just before he dies. The fact that there are some lengthy melismas is an indication that this is a lyric number. The melismas are placed carefully on important words to give them emphasis, in particular the words "Liebe" (love) and "sterben" (to die). Thus, Bach links forever those two words: because of God's love, he forces His Son to die. Bach also adds a melisma on the word "ewig" (forever), giving it more length, as forever lasts longer. This is an example of word painting -- when the music reflects the specific words at that moment.

There are additional examples of word painting within this short number. For example, twice on the word "sterben" (die), Bach writes a prominent tritone (in each case, written as an augmented fourth) -- the most dissonant interval in the Western tonal system, known to Medieval musicians as "diavolo in musicus" (the devil in music) -- a leap from C up to F#. This is then followed by the descending passage D#, C, A. The combination spells out a fully-diminished seventh chord, the most dissonant chord in tonal music. You can see this passage below, in the soprano line: