St John Passion

The St John Passion (German: Johannes Passion), BWV 245, is a musical composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. The words tell the story of Jesus’s death on the cross as told in the Gospel of John in the Bible. The work is for a choir, solo voices and orchestra.

The St. John Passion was first performed in 1724 in the St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. The words are from three sources: the Bible (telling the story), by two poets from Hamburg, mostly by Barthold Heinrich Brockes, and from chorales which were well-known to German church goers at the time. There were other composers who also wrote works called St John Passion, the most famous being Heinrich Schütz. However, Bach’s St John Passion is thought by many musicians to be one of the greatest choral works ever written. Two other great choral works by Bach are his St Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor .