Even today, almost 300 years after it was composed, few audiences will fail to be profoundly moved by the opening chorus to Bach’s St John Passion. Against the surging accompaniment played by two violin parts in low register and the pounding basso continuo led by the organ, the woodwind section, led by the flute, strikes heavy blows before relentlessly descending. The tension is gradually built up over 18 bars, before the music suddenly erupts with the choir declaring “O Lord, our ruler...,” raising the curtain to this passion story. Through the voice of the crowd, here represented by the choir, Bach elevates Christ’s suffering to a world-embracing tragedy. Of all the music composed in praise of God in the entire history of Western music, this piece is unprecedented whether in terms of sheer musical scale or expressive power.
Bach was certainly not the first Baroque composer of passion music, and neither was this the first time the genre was performed in Leipzig. The tradition of musical performance of passion was firmly established in the Germanic area long before Bach had achieved fame. As Baroque opera swept throughout Europe at the beginning of the 18th century, its grandiose and dramatic style gradually influenced the compositions of oratorios and passion works. Over time, this saw the birth of highly dramatic and sometimes blood-curdling “passion libretto.” For Lutherans, however, piety was to be the highest guiding principle for musical performances on Good Friday, in order for the hearts and senses of the audience to be moved such that they could fully understand what the passion had to communicate about the Christ’s act of redemption. It was for this reason that when Bach took up the position of Cantor et Director Musices at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, his contract specified that he should avoid an overly operatic approach when composing church music.
A devout Christian, Bach adhered to the Lutheran translation of the Bible and composed a musical setting of the biblical narrative from chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of John. In his arrangement, an evangelist sings passages directly taken from the Bible in recitatives, interspersed with vocalists performing the parts of Christ, Peter, Judas and Pontius Pilate. From this point of view at least, the parts resembled the dramatis personae of an opera. Bach also included verses from various sources, creating ingenious arias, at the same time composing chorales based on lyrics familiar to contemporary audiences, thus retaining the congregational spirit of liturgy.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片：維基共享資源
The first half of the “O Lord, our ruler...” passage is taken from Psalm 8:1 of the Bible, the second from one of the anonymous poems. At this point, the choir sings “testify to us by thy Passion [that thou, the true Son of God,]” in high registers, and from here the music descends, all the way down to the point where the choir sings “even in time of deepest lowliness,” before it once more ascends, concluding the passage at “hast at all times been glorified.” Bach made this arrangement, with the music descending from a high point before ascending again, to express the profound meaning of the lyric, shaping an inverted rainbow with the musical notes on the score and foreshadowing the climax in the center of the work. When the chorus concludes, the music goes straight into the passion narrative in John the Apostle’s account in medias res.
(Translated by Paul Cooper)
就算在將近三百年後的今天，也很難有聽眾不會被巴赫《聖約翰受難曲》開頭的合唱深深撼動──兩個小提琴聲部拉奏著波濤洶湧的低音伴奏，管風琴領軍的數字低音像是急促的心跳聲，由長笛擔任主角的木管部則吹奏出扣人心弦的高音，隨後無情地向下墜落。隨著情緒逐漸高漲，張力不斷累積，音樂進行整整十八個小節後突然爆出合唱團的呼喊：「主啊，我們的上主」，正式拉開這部耶穌受難故事的序幕。藉由合唱團代表的群眾聲音，巴赫將耶穌個人的受難升華到整個人世間寬廣的悲劇向度。在西方音樂史上所有讚美主的作品中，這部作品無論是音樂規模還是情緒表現上皆為前所未見。
巴赫並不是第一位創作受難曲的巴洛克作曲家，這類音樂也並非第一次在萊比錫演出：早在巴赫大放異彩之前，整個德國地區早已建立受難曲的演奏傳統。十八世紀初期，盛大華麗的巴洛克歌劇席捲歐洲大陸各地，浮誇又充滿戲劇性的表現方式逐漸影響神劇與受難曲創作，充滿激情或血腥場面讓人毛骨悚然的「受難劇本」遂應運而生。然而，在路德教派的觀點中，受難日當天演奏的音樂應以虔誠為最高指導原則，才能讓聽眾的心靈在平靜中受到感動，進而理解耶穌受難帶來拯救的深意。也因此，巴赫在接下萊比錫聖多瑪斯教堂音樂總監當時，聘雇合約中就有一條規定，告誡作曲家創作教會音樂時，應盡量避免過度「歌劇式」的創作手法。
身為一位虔誠的基督徒，巴赫以馬丁路德翻譯的《聖經》為依歸，直接以《新約》的《約翰福音書》第十八到第十九章作為創作主軸。他安排一位福音史家作為敘事者，以宣敘調的方式詠唱出福音書的記載，並加入數名聲樂家，如實唱出耶穌、彼得、猶大以及彼拉多的話語，從某種程度而言近似於歌劇的出場人物。在情節之間，巴赫穿插不同來源的詩歌，譜出設計精巧的詠嘆調，同時也將當時民眾耳熟能詳的聖詠歌詞重新譜曲，保留教會儀式中的群眾精神。
「主啊，我們的上主」這首合唱曲的前半段歌詞來自《聖經》中的《詩篇8.1》，後半段則取材自一首無名詩。合唱團此時在高音域唱出「藉由你的受難，向我們展現」，音樂隨著歌詞不斷下行，於「就算在最底層的卑微中」抵達最低點，隨後緩緩上升，在「你將被榮耀」輝煌地結尾。巴赫安排音樂從高音域下行至低音域，再緩緩回昇，既用音樂象徵歌詞深意，更讓音符在樂譜上形成上下顛倒的彩虹，暗示整部作品中間的高潮。合唱結束後，音樂直接從故事中段開始，展開使徒約翰記錄的耶穌受難敘事。
（台北時報章厚明撰）
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