Bach's Major Vocal Works by Markus Rathey

Author:Markus Rathey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300217209
Publisher: Yale University Press

Example 5.3: Bach, St Matthew Passion BWV 244/65, mm. 48–52

19. Recitative

Ach könnte meine Liebe dir, mein Heil, dein Zittern und dein Zagen vermindern oder helfen tragen, wie gerne blieb ich hier! (no. 19)

Oh, if only my love for you were able, my Salvation, to alleviate or help you to bear your trembling and your faintheartedness, how happily would I remain here!

The most explicit love song is the aria “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben” (Out of love my Savior is willing to die) (no. 49). The text describes the reason for Christ’s suffering. It is the expression of his love for mankind. This understanding of the passion is not unique to Picander or Bach. In fact, it is found frequently in theological treatises from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We find traces of this understanding of the passion already in Luther’s theology, but it is expanded by Lutheran theologians during the seventeenth century. Heinrich Müller, a popular preacher and author of devotional literature in the seventeenth century (some of his books were owned by Bach) writes:

Your Jesus loves you. Love seeks to be united with the beloved. In order to be united with you, Jesus has united himself with your flesh. … He stands before your eyes as he hangs on the cross. He closes his mouth for you in order to kiss you. He stretches his arms to embrace you. He lets his hands be pierced to commit himself to you; lets his heart be opened with a spear to prepare a refuge for you; lets his feet be nailed to the wood to assure you that he is true, that he wishes to remain at your feet. Should you not hasten to your Jesus, like the bride to her bridegroom? His comforting mouth awaits you, you should turn your faithful mouth to him and wish: Ah, kiss me, my Jesus, with the kiss of your mouth. His arms are outstretched, you should take comfort here. … His heart is open: enter your nest, little bird; enter, dove, your rocky crevice.8

Images from the Song of Songs (bride and bridegroom; kisses of his mouth) are combined with images of Christ’s wounded body. Johann Gerhard, another influential theologian from the seventeenth century, would summarize this thus, “namely, that we regard Christ’s suffering as a clear mirror of his heartfelt, ardent love for us.”9 The love of the bridegroom for his bride manifests itself in his suffering for her: the greatest sacrifice of all for the beloved.

The theological treatises and sermons from the seventeenth century provide the context for the aria “Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben.” The text names love as the reason for his suffering and also his sinlessness, “Von einer Sünde weiß er nichts.” He dies in place of the believer: “So that eternal ruin, and the punishment of the Judgment, would not remain upon my soul.” Bach’s aria is an example of how the composer mirrors explicit and implicit theological aspects in his music. The aria simultaneously reflects the ideas of suffering and joy.

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