ABSTRACT
Mary Magdalene is a prominent figure in music, especially in the early modern period. In Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion she is not explicitly named, so her identity must remain controversial. In examining not only Bach’s score, and the male and female connotations of the alto solo voice for which the “Bethany scene” is scored, but also the cultural context of female intellectuals in Bach’s time, I plan to strengthen the hypothesis that Mary Magdalene is an anonymous yet important protagonist in the St. Matthew Passion.
