ABSTRACT
Hubert Parry states, in the preface, his purpose is to present a ‘condensed survey of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life-work and his unique artistic character’. Bach’s “Matthaus-Passion” presents the recognition of the conception by Teutonic religion in very marked guise, inasmuch as the Godhead of Christ is scarcely anywhere apparent. Bachian counterpoint is often strikingly apparent in the development sections of his symphonic movements, and obviously throughout his organ music. Parry’s essay on the St Matthew Passion is one of his most cogent pieces of writing while also typical of his approach. Even in Bach’s time the majority of the congregation would have been quite unworthy of the work as a scheme of religious art. The complete survival of the “Johannes-Passion” and the “Matthaus-Passion” is probably owing to the fact that at Bach’s death they came into the hands of his son Philip Emanuel.
