Bach’s St. Matthew Passion Music

Hark! on this wind eternal Voices ride.
Oh, hark! out of the deep mysterious East
The Voices of Disciple and High-Priest,
Betrayer, and Denier, and Denied:
Strong prayers at midnight by a streamlet-side,
And broken sayings at a solemn feast;
A sea-like sound: “Barabbas be released!”
A fiercer wave: “Let Him be crucified!”

And now arise new voices blent with these,
In sober chorals, linkéd like the beads
Of some brown chaplet; breathing pieties
Of faithful souls that sifted not the creeds.
The names of those that sang the loiterer reads
In God’s green acre, spired with poplar-trees.