Martin Luther wrote, "The Passion of Christ should not be acted out in words and pretense, but in real life." Luther felt that elaborate polyphony would distract from the importance of the sacred passion text. Despite this, sung Passion performances were common in Lutheran churches right from the start, in both Latin and German, beginning as early as
Laetare Sunday (three weeks before Easter) and continuing through Holy Week. Luther's friend and collaborator Johann Walther wrote
responsorial Passions which were used as models by Lutheran composers for centuries, and “summa Passionis” versions continued to circulate, despite Luther's express disapproval. Later sixteenth-century passions by
G.M. Asola,
Samuel Besler,
William Byrd,
Leonard Lechner, and
Jakob Meiland included choral “exordium” (introduction) and “conclusio” sections with additional secular texts. Thomas Strutz wrote a passion (1664) with arias for Jesus himself, pointing to the standard
oratorio tradition of
Schütz and
Carissimi. The practice of using
recitative for the Evangelist (rather than plainsong) was a development of court composers in northern Germany, such as
Johann Meder and
Schütz, and only crept into church compositions at the end of the 17th century. The
recitative was used for dramatic expression. In the 17th century came the development of “
oratorio” passions which led to
J.S. Bach’s passions, accompanied by instruments, with interpolated instrumental interludes (often called "
sinfonias" or "
sonatas") or with interpolated texts (then called “madrigal” movements) such as other Scripture passages, Latin
motets, chorale arias, and more. Such settings were created by
Bartholomäus Gesius and
Heinrich Schütz. The best known Protestant musical settings of the Passion are by
Johann Sebastian Bach, who, according to his
obituary, wrote five Passions in his lifetime. Two have survived to the present day: one based on the
Gospel of John (the
St John Passion), the other on the
Gospel of Matthew (the
St Matthew Passion). Additionally, a libretto for the
St Mark Passion survives. Although Bach's settings are now among the most popular Passions today, they were rarely performed during his lifetime. The Passion continued to be very popular in Protestant Germany in the 18th century, with Bach's second son
Carl Philipp Emanuel composing
over twenty settings. Major composers of passions included
Graun,
Telemann,
Keiser,
Stölzel,
Mattheson and
Handel - these last five also composing
Brockes-Passions after the text of
Barthold Heinrich Brockes. ==Romantic and Modern music==