The text includes documents such as Bach's letters to patrons, and excerpts from contemporary biographies.

Kagel set the text as an oratorio for soloists (mezzosoprano, tenor, and baritone), a narrator, children's choir and choir, organ and orchestra, taking aspects of structure and scoring from Bach's St John Passion.

A reviewer compared the work's seriousness to late works by Hanns Eisler and to Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, and summarized "This is a respectful, even reverent, tribute from one composer to a great predecessor".

[3] The work was premiered, conducted by the composer, as part of the Berliner Festwochen at the Berlin Philharmonie in November 1985,[1] by soloists Anne Sofie von Otter, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Roland Hermann, narrator Peter Roggisch [de], organist Gerd Zacher, the Limburger Domsingknaben, the NDR Chor and Südfunk-Chor Stuttgart, and the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart.

[4] The text combines contemporary texts, including chorales, which are sometimes slightly changed, to mean Bach instead of Jesus:[5] In 2002, Paul Griffiths compared recordings of four Passions modeled after Bach's works, commissioned for another Bach-Year in 2000 by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart: Osvaldo Golijov's Pasión Según San Marcos, Sofia Gubaidulina's St. John Passion, Wolfgang Rihm's Deus Passus, and Tan Dun's Water Passion After St. Matthew.