Der Tod Jesu

Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus) is an oratorio libretto by Karl Wilhelm Ramler.

In its setting by Carl Heinrich Graun in 1755, it was the most often performed Passion of the 18th century in Germany.

It is the middle of three oratorio texts by Ramler – Die Hirten bei der Krippe zu Bethlehem, Der Tod Jesu, and Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt – which may have been viewed by Ramler as a libretto cycle, though they were never set as a cycle by any composer.

Unlike Bach's Passions, Graun's setting does not imbue the tenor soloist with the role of narrator or Evangelist, nor is the bass cast as Vox Christi.

The music is post-Baroque, an italianate galant style, and contains little counterpoint (notably in the duet, no.