Human sorrow and human love are the themes. Whenever I hear a fine
rendering of the "Matthew" Passion, it seems to me that no composer,
not even Mozart, could be more tender than Bach. It is often hard to
get into communication with him, for he often appeals to feelings that
no longer stir humanity--such, for instance, as the obsolete "sense of
sin,"--but once it is done, he works miracles. Take, for example, the
scene in which Jesus tells His disciples that one of them will betray
Him. They ask, in chorus, "Herr, bin ich's?" There is a pause, and
the chorale, "_Ich bin's_, ich sollte buessen," is thundered out by
congregation and organ; then the agony passes away at the thought of
the Redeemer, and the last line, "Das hat verdienet meine Seel," is
almost intolerable in its sweetness. The songs, of course, appeal
naturally to-day to all who will listen to them; but it is in such
passages as this that Bach spoke most powerfully to his generation,
and speaks now to those who will learn to understand him. Those who
understand him can easily perceive the "John" Passion to be a powerful
artistic embodiment of an eighteenth century idea; and they may also
perceive that the "Matthew" is greater, because it is, on the whole, a
little more beautiful, and because its main idea--which so far
transcended the eighteenth century understanding that the eighteenth
century preferred the "John"--is one of the loftiest that has yet
visited the human mind.
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