The question of priority in Bach's composition of the St. Matthew Passion and the Funeral Music for Prince Leopold remains open to debate. An examination of Bach's use of parody technique in works where one is known to have been a model for the other yields a picture of the types of adjustments Bach was likely to make. Brainard finds that only two factors will cause Bach to make significant changes in the music when setting the second text: the demands of proper declamation and the portrayal of the text with traditional rhetorical figures. Brainard concludes that the St. Matthew Passion was composed first, because the changes that would have been required in that work if the Funeral Music was the earlier composition are uncharacteristic of Bach's use of parody technique in similar situations.

Works: Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 30 (246, 249), Cantata BWV 68 (248, 251), Cantata BWV 173 (245), Cantata BWV 197 (249), Cantata BWV 210 (247), Cantata BWV 248 (246-49).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Nancy Kinsey Totten