St Mark Passion (attributed to Keiser)
Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet is a St Mark Passion which originated in the early 18th century and is most often attributed to Reinhard Keiser.
The oldest record of Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet is a staging in the Cathedral (Dom) of Hamburg in 1707.
[6] These performances were directed by Friedrich Nicolaus Bruhns (also spelled: Brauns), the music director of the Hamburg Cathedral from 1685 to 1718, hence the association of the Passion setting with this composer.
The earliest extant copy of the music of the Passion was produced by Johann Sebastian Bach for performance in Weimar around 1712.
[1][10] Whether he changed anything to the original is uncertain, but the arrangement of the "O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn" and "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid" chorales is usually attributed to him.
Bach performed Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet twice in a Good Friday service in Leipzig.
In this version he also slightly modified the "O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn" and "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid" chorale settings.
84|e: Keiser 1 is a pasticcio based on Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet and two Passion-Oratorios by Reinhard Keiser: his Brockes-Passion setting (1712) and his Der zum Tode verurteilte und gekreuzigte Jesus, published in Berlin in 1715.
[1] Bach held deep regard for the chief Hanseatic League cities of Hamburg and Lübeck throughout his life.
In his mid and late teen years, he had opportunities to visit both cities while a student at St. Michael's Church School, Lüneburg (a period from 1700 to 1702).
It is possible that he became acquainted with a work during his earlier visits to Hamburg that would occupy a central place in his musical library for the rest of his life.
However, he did receive requests to do so on two occasions: once on commission by Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (resulting in the so-called Weimarer Passion (BWV deest, BC D 1), and another resulting in his first version of Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet.
29 "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid", BDW 01678):[23] Christian Friedrich Henrici, the man who would later provide Bach with many of his cantata and oratorio texts, would use the text for Movement 9 (slightly altered) in one of his own collections (entitled Sammlung Erbaulicher Gedanken über und auf die gewöhnlichen Sonn- u. Fest-Tage, in gebundener Schreib-Art entworffen).
14 and 29 of the Weimar work) and, to fit it to the Church Ordinance for Good Friday Vespers services in Leipzig, he split it into two parts by adding a chorale.
The title page (like the Weimar one) reads 'Passion Christi / secundum Marcum [korrigiert aus Matthäum] / à 5 Strom 4 Voci / di Sigre / R.
In addition to his own music (two movements), Bach incorporated seven arias from George Frideric Handel's Brockes Passion HWV 48 into the original.
One is a complete harpsichord part of 10 pages dating from between 1743 and 1748 housed at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin under Catalogue number D B N. Mus.
The other source material is a one-page fragment of the Bassoon I part of the Aria "Was Wunder, daß der Sonnen Pracht" from Handel's HWV 48 in the hand of Johann Sebastian Bach dating from between 1743 and 1748.
In the first half of the 18th century, Jesus Christus ist um unsrer Missetat willen verwundet proved one of the more popular passion settings in Protestant Germany.
As a Passion based on the Gospel text of one of the four evangelists, as opposed to the upcoming Passion-Oratorio genre based on a freer interpretation of Gospel texts combined from several evangelists, such as the Brockes Passion, it was exceptional in being performed in half a dozen versions and in multiple cities.
The reception of the composition by Bach is of historic importance as it shows many of the characteristics he would adopt in his own famous passion settings: the vox Christi treatment (with arioso, and accompagnato, the "halo effect" of the strings,...), the typical Bach Evangelist, the recitative-aria-chorale units, chorales based on Paul Gerhardt's "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden",... — all characteristics deemed typical for Bach's oratorios and passion settings that are present in this early 18th century work.
For a period of around two centuries the only thing that seems to have happened to the composition are Wilhelm Rust's efforts to analyse and reconstruct the original score.
[28] Felix Schroeder's score edition, based on the composite manuscript of Bach's first two versions (D-B Mus.
[8] Their publication of the BNB I/K/2 pasticcio, which indicated "Kaiser", Bach and Handel as its composers, followed in 2012: this edition contained reconstructed material and a detailed introduction by its editor Christine Blanken.
[15] The Neue Bach-Ausgabe volume II/9 Latin Church Music, Passions: Works with Doubtful Authenticity, Arrangements of Music from other Composers, edited by Kirsten Beißwenger and published in 2000 by Bärenreiter, contains as well a critical commentary as score editions of the choral movements attributed to Bach, that is the choral movements "O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn" and "O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid" of the BC D 5a version (section 7) and the three choral movements in the BC D 5b version (section 8).
Section 9 of this score edition contains the fragments relating to the BNB I/K/2 version as available (without reconstruction of the missing parts).
