The Great Passion: James Runcie

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Most sources agree that the Passion was probably first performed at St Thomas Church, 11 April (Good Friday), 1727 although the year might also have been 1729. I began singing alto in Third Grade, and continued through high school choirs and college and community choirs. From there, the rest of the story, except for the last chapter, is from 14-year-old Stefan’s perspective as he leaves his family home after his mother’s death to receive schooling and musical training in Leipzig. Beautiful exploration of grief and love as a young boy gifted with an extraordinary singing voice, deeply feels the loss of his mother. Runcie is brilliant at chronicling Bach's mission to take the messiness of grief and love and turn them into something beautiful and sacred.

The Great Passion by James Runcie - Goodreads Editions of The Great Passion by James Runcie - Goodreads

But when the school's cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil's beautiful singing voice and draws him from the choir to be a soloist, Stefan's life is permanently changed.I especially liked the characterization of J S Bach and Anna Magdalena and their relationship and family. Set mainly in 1727, this is the story of Stefan Silbermann, a young boy soprano whose mother has recently died, who is sent away to school in Leipzig with Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Great Passion: : James Runcie: Bloomsbury Publishing The Great Passion: : James Runcie: Bloomsbury Publishing

The tension remains between the precious moment that is charged with meaning and the years that slip through our fingers. We cannot understand light without darkness, joy without pain, peace without war, love without hatred, beauty without ugliness or youth without age. I was in the Choral Arts Society when they sang the Bach B Minor Mass on the stage of the Academy of Music with the Philadelphia Orchestra. We know that Bach wrote it for St Thomas Church, Leipzig, where he served as Kapellmeister or Thomascantor from 1723 to his death.Bach’s aim was to make the marriage of music and St Matthew’s biblical text “as shocking and unpredictable as grief itself”. Faithful and faith-less agree that Bach’s layered blend of musical storytelling, commentary and reflection, as the final acts of Jesus’ life move from betrayal to crucifixion to entombment, can, Mr. Stefan and Catharina have a sweet friendship as they chase butterflies together and he begins to love her, but she only likes him back. In the latter half of the book, Bach begins composing this work and Stefan is there as a singer, as a copyist, and as a boy witnessing an exceptional moment in Western music. Matthew Passion on Good Friday and explores Jesus as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” and the part that grieving boys and men have in bringing the music to glorious life.

BBC - BACH: THE GREAT PASSION BBC - BACH: THE GREAT PASSION

It is a novel of the quest for knowledge and for human connection - rich, far-reaching, and unforgettable. I don’t know much about this time period in Europe so it took me a bit to get my bearings in Stefan and Bach’s world. There he finds a warm welcome from Bach’s large and variously talented family, and, when domestic tragedy strikes, Runcie has us follow the course of the extraordinary creation of Bach’s masterpiece, one of the greatest works in all of classical music.And yet, this culture promoted virtue, love, forgiveness (only if you were a member of the Protestant faith), and weirdly, excellence in music. Like the St Matthew Passion, this is a novel filled not just with loss and lamentation but with transcendent joy.