St. John’s Passion Off-Key at the Harvard University Choir

This spring, the Harvard University Choir will not perform the work “St. John’s Passion,” a two-hour-long oratorio composed by Johann Sebastian Bach chronicling the final moments of Jesus Christ’s life before his crucifixion, due to concerns about anti-Semitism.

Though the Passion has not been performed every single year, the work has been featured in the past as part of the Choir’s spring celebrations at Memorial Church, most recently in 2010. But controversy has long surrounded this work.

Bach’s piece draws directly from the Gospel of John and casts “the Jews” as the main aggressors in the death of Jesus, both lyrically and musically. Bach writes choruses in which the Jews sing “Crucify, crucify!” with a frenetic orchestra in the background, emphasizing their supposed violent intentions.

Dating back to at least the fourth century, Good Friday services have traditionally featured the Gospel of John’s version of Jesus’ death. “St. John’s Passion” borrows language from this Gospel, which “persistently uses the phrase ‘the Jews’ to describe those who conspired to kill Jesus,” according to Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, a scholar of Jewish-Christian relations.

“This language shifted the blame for the death of Jesus in medieval Christianity from Roman authorities to the Jewish people as a whole,” wrote Joslyn-Siemiatkoski in a spring 2019 essay. “This language about Jews in the medieval Good Friday liturgy often carried over into physical violence toward local Jewish communities.”

Though many past performances of the Passion at Harvard have not faced major backlash, a 1998 Crimson article criticized the work for its anti-Semitism in the context of a performance by the Boston Cecilia, a Boston-based choral group. “John depicts the Jews as a vengeful, cowardly mass that appeals to Pilate and Caesar’s law to do their dirty work for them,” the article reads.

Prior to coming to the decision not to perform the Passion, Edward E. Jones, director of the Harvard University Choir, sought to educate the choir about the work’s history.

“Whenever we have performed the work, I have addressed head-on with the choir — and the audience — the problems that are inherent to this Gospel narrative,” Jones wrote in an email.

The Choir last performed the Passion in March 2010, when it was also directed by Jones. Jones says he does not recall any pushback when it was performed in 2010.

“At that time I addressed the problems inherent in the Gospel text with the choir and audience alike, through pertinent articles, dialogues within the choir, informative program notes, and a pre-concert talk,” Jones wrote.

This year, just over a decade later, Jones at first followed a similar method, sharing theological and musicological articles about the piece with choir members, and providing background and context for the controversial passages.

This time, though, Jones ultimately concluded that the “state of the world at this moment” would make performing the work untenable this spring due to “the possibility for misinterpretation.”

Before pulling the plug on the performance of the Passion, Jones reached out to Rabbi Jonah C. Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, and Matthew I. Potts, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, to “discuss various aspects of the work.” Steinberg said he generally does not interfere with how other religious entities carry out their services, but he felt compelled to voice his opinion on the potential performance in Memorial Church.

“We chaplains each do not usually tell the other's community how to practice,” Steinberg wrote in an email. “I wish I could say that a choir of Harvard students singing St. John’s Passion under kindly musical direction ipso facto would counter or even nullify the work’s anti-Judaism; but if one animates the piece according to its spirit – as surely a skilled Harvard choir would – then I doubt we can say its nature is subdued.”

After their consultation, on Saturday, Feb. 19, Jones made the final decision to change the repertoire for their April 3 concert from Bach’s St. John Passion to two other choral masterpieces by Bach, citing concerns about fanning anti-Semitic bigotry on campus.

“The sad truth is that the world (and the U.S.) is in a very fractious state, and even on this campus there is a lamentable rise in hate-crime; on reflection, it didn’t seem like the right time to present this piece,” Jones wrote. “Despite all our efforts at a critical exegesis of the work—including substantial program notes and dialogue before the concert—it would sadden me deeply to think that anyone attending the work could think, quite wrongly, that this choir/church is promoting a message of hate,” he added.

Steinberg was pleased with Jones’ decision not to have the Choir perform the work in Memorial Church. Still, he acknowledges the cultural value of analyzing “St. John Passion” in an academic context.

“As a Jewish chaplain at Harvard, I appreciate the decision at Memorial Church not to put on the St. John Passion this spring,” Steinberg wrote.

“I generally abhor censorship, and I believe in confronting history head on,” Steinberg wrote. “I certainly believe Bach’s St. John Passion should be studied, musically, culturally, and historically.”

Jones clarifies that his decision was based on particular campus conditions, not on an ideological principle. “In my case, this is not an ideological statement saying that I don’t think this piece should ever be done, I don’t think the gospel should ever be read,” he said in an interview. “I’m saying in this particular instance, on this particular campus at this particular moment, it just seemed like not the right time to do it.”

“Censorship had nothing to do with my decision,” he wrote in a separate email.

Rena A. Cohen ’22, the senior choir secretary of the Harvard University Choir, said that she hopes Jones’ actions can serve as an important example of “coming together and making a decision as a community.”

“I hope it can serve as a model for other musical groups that are thinking of performing works that have a difficult history,” she said.

“This is the best of what can happen when people who think about things together, think about things together,” Steinberg said.