Brockes Passion (Handel)

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Oratorio dates
Title: Brockes Passion
Original title: Jesus tortured and dying for the sin of the world
Title page of the libretto from 1712

Title page of the libretto from 1712

Shape: Passion - Oratorio
Original language: German
Music: georg Friedrich Handel
Libretto : Barthold Heinrich Brockes
Premiere: March 23 or April 3, 1719
Place of premiere: Refectory of the cathedral , Hamburg
people
  • Maria ( soprano )
  • Three maids (soprano)
  • Daughter of zion (soprano)
  • Judas ( old )
  • Johannes (alt)
  • Jacobus (old)
  • Soldier (old)
  • Evangelist ( tenor )
  • Peter (tenor)
  • Jesus ( bass )
  • Caiphas (bass)
  • Pilatus (bass)
  • Captain (bass)
  • Believing souls (soprano, alto, tenor, bass)
  • Choir

The Brockes Passion (AKA The martyred for the sins of the world and dying Jesus , HWV 48 is) a Passion - Oratorio in a part of George Frideric Handel ( music ) with a libretto by the Hamburg Councilor Barthold Heinrich Brockes . The first performance took place on March 23 or April 3, 1719 in the refectory of the cathedral in Hamburg .

action

The text is based on the Passion event in the four gospels of the Bible , especially on chapters 26 to 27 of the Gospel of Matthew . In contrast to the later works of Johann Sebastian Bach and others, it was not taken over literally here, but also retouched in verse form in the recitatives.

After the opening chorus, which is to be understood as the congregation's confession of sins ("To free me from the rope of my sins, my God is bound"), the following events are dealt with: The Lord's Supper, the walk to the Mount of Olives, the prayer in Gethsemane, the imprisonment, the interrogation before the Sanhedrin, the denial by Peter, the extradition to Pilate, the trial before Pilate, the mockery, the crucifixion and the death of Jesus. The final chorus is a consoling confession to Christ, who redeemed the world through his suffering.

History of origin

→ Main article on the libretto by Barthold Heinrich Brockes: Brockes Passion

Brockes had already met with Handel in Halle , one of the main centers of the Lutheran Pietism movement , in 1702 and later also in Hamburg. At the time of the composition, however, Handel was already in London. He probably set the work to music in the summer of 1716 and mailed it to Mattheson in Hamburg in the autumn of 1716 at the latest, as he reports in his Ehrenpforte . It is Handel's only sacred composition based on a German text. The original score is lost. But five copies have been preserved.

For the music, Handel also used older works such as the third piano fugue and parts of the Utrecht Te Deum . On the other hand, he later also used some movements from the Passion in his opera Giulio Cesare , in the oratorios Esther , Deborah and Athalia, and in the Concerti grossi.

layout

The work has a total of 106 movements, many of which have an operatic character. As in opera, there are overtures, recitatives, ariosi, arias, ensemble movements and choirs. However, there are no dance elements and a contemplative mood prevails. Despite many choral movements, the choir only has a peripheral function. Most of the turba choirs are short and the four chorales are kept simple. The Passion event is limited to the essential elements. The narrating evangelist is juxtaposed with the daughter of Zion and the four believing souls, allegorical figures that reflect what is happening. Jesus is not portrayed triumphant but tolerant. External descriptions are largely dispensed with. Other events only briefly mentioned in the Bible, such as the dialogue with the disciples, are embellished. The listener should empathize with the Passion, be made receptive to penance and thus be redeemed from his sins. Because of this pietistic goal and above all because of the lack of verbatim recitation of the Gospels, the oratorio could not be used liturgically like Bach's Passions. Performances were therefore not held as part of a church service, but in private circles or in the concert hall.

The orchestral line-up is economical. The sound is mainly based on the string ensemble, which is occasionally amplified by oboes. Oboe solos appear in only seven arias. In some places the violins are played in unison, and there are also individual violin solos.

Performance history

The first performance of the work probably took place in 1716 in the von Brockes house.

At the public premiere on March 23 or April 3, 1719 in the Hamburg Cathedral , the Städtische Kantorei sang under the direction of the then cathedral cantor Johann Mattheson . An entrance fee was required. The singers were among the most popular actors in the opera on the Gänsemarkt . Are safe has Margaretha Susanna Kayser (soprano), Adam Rose (Alt) and Ernst Ludwig Carl West Wood (bass). Possibly Johann Adolph Hasse (tenor) also worked as an evangelist and Peter.

Further Hamburg performances took place on March 20, 1720 in the Drillhaus , the parade hall of the Hamburg Citizens' Guard, on March 26th and April 7th, 1721 in the Cathedral Church and on April 5th, 1724 again in the Drillhaus. On March 26, 1723 there was a performance in Lüneburg and between 1746 and 1749 possibly under the direction of Johann Sebastian Bach in the New Church in Leipzig . In the 18th century, the work was probably performed in Vienna by Joseph Haydn and in Swedish in Stockholm by Johan Helmich Roman .

In 1722, individual movements of the work with parts of the compositions by Keiser, Telemann and Mattheson were put together to form a Passion Pasticcio and performed under the name Omnibus Brockes Passion in Hamburg.

In the 19th century Handel's Brockes Passion was seldom performed. B. in a private setting in Heidelberg by Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut . The text did not correspond to the taste of the time. The musicologist and Handel biographer Friedrich Chrysander commented on the work as follows:

"Brockes' work is tasteless and senseless, bristling with exaggerated or undignified images, but it is of great sensual violence that imposes itself like a theatrical effect and overwhelms the listener like one"

- Friedrich Chrysander : GF Handel. Leipzig 1860.

In 1965 Felix Schröder published a new edition of the score. Since then the work has been performed more often.

Discography

There are several CD recordings of the oratorio:

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hans Joachim Marx : Handel's oratorios, odes and serenatas: a compendium , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-27815-2 , p. 85.
  2. ↑ a b c Heinz Becker : The Brockes Passion , supplement to the Deutsche Grammophon record, 1968.
  3. ↑ From this the liturgical Passion Oratorio emerged and it remained its core, cf. Passion (music) #History and liturgical place .
  4. ^ Anthony Hicks:  Handel [Handel, Hendel], George Frideric [Georg Friederich]. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  5. ↑ List of the Brockes Passion settings on the Bach Cantatas website (English), accessed on September 11, 2014.
  6. ^ Friedrich Chrysander : GF Handel. First volume. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1858, p. 433 ( online at Zeno.org ).
  7. ^ Hallesche Handel edition on the website of the International Handelgesellschaft, accessed on September 11, 2014.
  8. ^ Discography at Allmusic , accessed on September 11, 2014.