Almost by accident, Bach, with the help of the librettist Picander, begins to compose a setting of the Passion based on Matthew 27 and 28. It would be unlike anything heard before: a musical version of the story which would compel congregations to engage with the death of Christ.

The Great Passion, by James Runcie - The Scotsman Book review: The Great Passion, by James Runcie - The Scotsman

There are gaps of time into which we sometimes fall, when the pattern of our days is suspended. It happens when there is a birth or a death, an arrival or departure, the moments either side of it becoming forms of descent and recovery, when we do not know quite what to do or how long this bewilderment will last. It can’t be a sombre reflection on something that happened long ago. We need agitation, conflict. Perhaps we can even imagine the past and the present speaking to each other: what it meant to those first witnesses to the Passion of our Lord, and what it means to us now: our truth and their truth, how people crucify Christ every day.’ You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. Although I found the content of the novel interesting, I struggled with its style. Dialogue-heavy, it initially conveyed an appropriate sense of rushed urgency, but became tedious to read as it persisted and, I felt, served to dimish character development. I could also imagine that, like myself, many readers might struggle to make sense of many of the Latin phrases and German song titles that are not always translated, or inadequately so.Over the course of the next several months, and under Bach's careful tutelage, Stefan's musical skill progresses, and he is allowed to work as a copyist for Bach's many musical works. But mainly, drawn into Bach's family life and away from the cruelty in the dorms and the lonely hours of his mourning, Stefan begins to feel at home. When another tragedy strikes, this time in the Bach family, Stefan bears witness to the depths of grief, the horrors of death, the solace of religion, and the beauty that can spring from even the most profound losses. I’ll tell you a secret, Monsieur Silbermann. Everyone, no matter who they are in life, feels alone. We are on our own and we are all afraid.’

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Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Bloomsbury USA for an e-copy of this novel. I am providing my honest review. This will be released March 2022. Could be my Covid brain right now but this just wasn’t The Great Passion for me. I was intrigued enough to take it to the end but relieved when it was over. I think I would have been more excited for a flogging rather than the slogging. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by I loved this book. Runcie’s description of the familiar music being rehearsed and performed for the first time is extraordinary. It is as though the characters are caught on camera with barely an inkling of the significance of what they are doing, no real idea that this music will live for ever, though they know that it is novel and powerful: “We open in E minor, the key of lamentation. Two orchestras as well as the choirs. . . remember, gentlemen, we open with a dance rhythm. E minor. 12/8 time. . . ‘Come you daughters . . .’” As I “watched” the first rehearsal, I found myself in tears, the opening chorus soaring in my head. But Bach believes in this boy, and not just his voice. Bach wants to deter Stefan from leaving the school, and thus the choir. Recognizing the talent in him, he invites him to live with his family, where he won’t be bullied quite as often, or blamed for things he hasn’t done. It is there that Stefan finds a place he can call home and becomes part of their family. Anna, Bach’s wife, is kind to him, and Catharina Bach’s daughter, befriends him. Catharina, whose obsession with collecting butterflies that frequent this story, if only briefly. A first love.We may travel through the valley of the shadow of death, but how we live is what matters, don’t you think? We have to make full use of the opportunities and talents that God has given us. Do not forget the Parable of the Talents. It commands us to work. What is clear to me is that James Runcie has used both his actual skills and knowledge of musical composition but also of organ construction to give his story very considerable additional substance.

The Great Passion by James Runcie Book Marks reviews of The Great Passion by James Runcie

Runcie’s exceptional seventh novel featuring Sidney Chambers (after 2017’s Sidney Chambers and the Persistence of Love), a prequel, opens with an extended section set during WWII. In 1943, Continue reading » You must love the Lord as boldly as you can,’ he told her. ‘Then you will have no fear. Remember Luther. “The smaller the love the greater the fear.” Set in Leipzig in 1726, it is written as the memoir of Stefan Silberman, an 11-year-old chorister who is studying music at St Thomas’s choir school and encounters Johann Sebastian Bach as “The Cantor”. Stefan is talented, but traumatised by the recent death of his mother, and he is cruelly bullied. To conjure him as a man, a writer needs to focus very sharply, and, whether in his bestselling Grantchester stories or award-winning documentaries, Runcie is expert at focus… Warmly, reverently, Runcie brings alive what it is like to take part, for the very first time, in one of the most extraordinary pieces of music ever written Daily Telegraph Bach takes him into his home, where he is looked after by Anna Magdalena. His musical talent grows under Bach’s tutoring, and he begins to fall in love. But tragedy overwhelms the household with the death of Bach’s three-year-old daughter, Etta. Faith is tested. Is untimely death a punishment? Why do the innocent suffer? Bach’s faith and obsessive brilliance dominate the narrative, but he is touchingly human in his failings.For a time, Stefan lives with Bach’s family, the house full of activity, music focused, but also joyful. Until the death of their infant daughter. Bach had lost his first, beloved wife, and although he happily found love again, the pain remains. Now his wife is grieving. Stefan’s rival’s mother also dies. The awareness of life’s brevity and pain pervades their lives. The final part of the book culminates in the composing and performing of Bach’s St. 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. It is so moving to read. WHAT might it have been like to sing at the first performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion? Sometimes, a work of art emerges from asking a question that no one else has thought to ask. James Runcie’s novel is an extraordinary work of imagination. In our American culture we are overindulgent, have a generally sloppy work ethic, and a comfortable, entertaining life. We eat too much, drink too much, and complain about anything difficult about our lives. The horrendous things in our American culture are hidden away (executions, Guantanamo, the outrageous abuse of families trying to immigrate to the U.S., racism, child abuse, misogyny) and so en masse we are not challenged with the painful inequities that the people of Leipzig had to endure in the 18th century. We simply just switch the channel, and all is good. We live in a bubble of opulence. But where Runcie really triumphs is in his depiction of music. Writing about music is notoriously difficult – “like dancing about architecture”, to use a much-bandied phrase. Yet, in language which largely eschews technical terms, Runcie still manages to describe several of Bach’s works uncannily well, not least the Great Passion of the title. He also expresses the excitement of a first performance, the tension of the musicians, the expectations of the audience and that sense of satisfaction and release following a successful concert which performers know very well.

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Stefan played and sang at not just weddings and funerals but also at an execution, described in all its gore. We have to remember that the reverse is true. We are living as long as we are dying. We should not continue in dread. No one can thrive in the shadows. Runcie’s Grantchester Mysteries series, which opened in the 1950s, has reached the ’70s in the superior sixth entry (after 2016’s Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation). Sidney is Continue reading » This is as beautifully composed as the music it refers to, and although the time period it is set in is nearly 300 years ago, there is so much that hasn’t changed. The school-boy bullying of a new student, the heartbreak of loss, unrequited love. A striving for the beauty in this world, and the desire to hold onto that beauty. The way that an opinion of a person is often based on one impression, or one flaw - as though we don’t all have flaws.We cannot understand light without darkness, joy without pain, peace without war, love without hatred, beauty without ugliness or youth without age. We only know the best by experiencing the worst. We understand life because of death. We can only be reborn once we die. Stefan is still grieving for his mother when he arrives at the school. Harsh discipline and bullying make the adjustment hard. The cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, notes the boy’s beautiful singing voice and ability on the organ. The rival soprano seethes at losing his place of favor with the cantor. All I’ve done is to try to glimpse that music we might one day hear in heaven,’ he said. ‘Celestial music- the ultimate harmony, played with such variation that it has no end. There’s nothing complicated about it. Most of the time I just work. It is a duty. And the music only comes when I start. Then I just keep going until I finish. Love and work. That’s all there is. You labor away.’” There is nothing like a novel to make a historical character alive. Truly in my mind Bach was a stout old guy in an elaborate wig. His music was somehow detached from his actual personhood. But wow, this book brings Bach to life. 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. Bach’s role as Cantor had him composing music for worship services and he took church music Seriously. I love how this novel shows Bach as a devout man of faith who tries with his music to proclaim the glory of God. There is a LOT about music in this book (of course) and a lot of it went over my head, I’m sure, but it is also beautifully woven into the story. The local church and its very Scripturally based music is very much at the heart of the story. The Great Passion beautifully imagines a story behind Bach’s writing of the St. Matthew Passion. It explores grief and music, and how music helps to cope with grief - in this case resulting in a masterpiece of musical composition.