The Weimarer Passion, BWV deest (BC D 1), is a hypothetical Passion oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, thought to have possibly been performed on Good Friday 26 March 1717 at Gotha on the basis of a payment of 12 Thaler on 12 April 1717 to "Concert Meister Bachen".
that the work set chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew to music, with interspersed chorales and arias, but current consensus [citation needed] is that it is possible that the text reflected a synopsis of two or more Gospel texts, as well as the interspersed chorales and arias.
The attribution to Johann Melchior Molter has been rejected based on the fact that some of the material in the manuscript was done in Carl Philipp Emanuel's hand, who left Leipzig in 1734 for Frankfurt an der Oder).
Theories have ranged from a one-choir setting of the St Matthew Passion ("Eine Paßion nach dem Matthäus, incomplet" was listed in the "Verzeichniß des musikalischen Nachlasses des verstorbenen Capellmeisters Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach" (1714–1788) published by Gortlieb Friedrich Schniebes in Hamburg in 1790).
have speculated that this Passion setting not really an Oratorio Passion at all, but rather a Passion Oratorio setting of a text by Christian Friedrich Henrici entitled "Erbauliche Gedanken auf den Gruenen Donnerstag und Charfreitag ueber den Leidenden Jesum" (a part of his 1725 text cycle Sammlung erbaulicher Gedancken über und auf die gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Festtage).
Johann Mattheson, a diplomat, musician, music theoretician, and Kantor (director of church musicI at the old St. Mary's Cathedral in Hamburg, published his treatise about music and musicians, Das Beschützte Orchestre, oder desselben Zweyte Eröffnung: Worinn Nicht nur einem würcklichen galant-homme ... sondern auch manchem Musico selbst die alleraufrichtigste und deutlichste Vorstellung musicalischer Wissenschaften ....
In Part I, Chapter V, p. 222 of this treatise, Mattheson states "Ich habe von dem berühmten Organisten zu Weimar/hrn.
In the autumn of that year, Bach was invited to a Keyboard instrument contest in the capital city of the Electorate of Saxony, Dresden, between himself and the French Royal Court Organist and Keyboardist Louis Marchand,[6] who was then towards the end of a long concert tour of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1716, his co-employer Ernest Augustus I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach had married Princess Eleonore Wilhelmine of Anhalt-Köthen (an event that Bach probably participated in and for which he provided music).
The court secretary's report of the incident relates as follows:[7] On November 6, [1717], the quondam concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge.At any rate, during this flurry of activity, Bach had also received a commission from Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg to compose and perform a Passion setting for his court for Good Friday, as his then Kapellmeister, Christian Friedrich Witt, was on his deathbed.
These are as follows: On 7 February 1723, the fifth movement mentioned above was used again after the sermon as the fourth and final movement of the second trial piece Bach wrote for his application for the post of Cantor of St. Thomas Church, Leipzig and Directoris Chori musici of Leipzig, the cantata Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn, BWV 23.
Of the nine movements mentioned in the above list, Bach would use five of them in the second version of the St John Passion: On 17 November 1726, Bach composed his cantata for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity Sunday, Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55, for solo tenor, SATB, flauto traverso, oboe, violino I/II, viola, organo and continuo, in G minor.
Between 1728 and 1731, Bach again revived his Quinquagesima cantata Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn.