Waking on the morrow of the "John" performance, my memory was
principally filled with those hoarse, stormy, passionate roarings of
an enraged mob. A careless reckoning shows that whereas the people's
choruses in the "Matthew" Passion occupy about ninety bars, in the
"John" they fill about two hundred and fifty. "Barabbas" in the
"Matthew" is a single yell; in the "John" it takes up four bars. "Let
Him be crucified" in the "Matthew" is eighteen bars long, counting
the repetition, while "Crucify" and "Away with Him" in the "John"
amount to fifty bars. Moreover, the people's choruses are written in a
much more violent and tempestuous style in the earlier than in the
later setting. In the "Matthew" there is nothing like those terrific
ascending and descending chromatic passages in "Wäre dieser nicht ein
Ubelthäter" and "Wir dürfen Niemand töden," or the short breathless
shouts near the finish of the former chorus, as though the infuriated
rabble had nearly exhausted itself, or, again, the excited chattering
of the soldiers when they get Christ's coat, "Lasst uns den nicht
zertheilen." Considering these things, one sees that the first
impression the "John" Passion gives is the true impression, and that
Bach had deliberately set out to depict the preliminary scenes of the
crucifixion with greater fulness of detail and in more striking
colours than he afterwards attempted in the "Matthew" Passion. Then,
not only is the physical suffering of Christ insisted on in this way,
but the chorales, recitatives, and songs lay still greater stress upon
it, either directly, by actual description, or indirectly, by uttering
with unheard-of poignancy the remorse supposed to be felt by mankind
whose guilt occasioned that suffering. The central point in the two
Passions is the same, namely, the backsliding of Peter; and in each
the words, "He went out and wept bitterly," are given the greatest
prominence; but one need only contrast the acute agony expressed in
the song, "Ach mein Sinn," which follows the incident in the "John,"