-Howard Boatwright
Howard Boatwright’s setting of “The Passion according to St.
Matthew” follows the form and character
of a great many passion settings; the best known of which is probably the
monumental setting by J.S. Bach. Other
composers including Telemann, Handel, Schutz, and Pärt have drawn on the
dramatic readings from the Gospel for settings of this story as well.
Howard Boatwright composed this passion setting in 1962 for
the choir of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, New Haven, Connecticut. This church
has a longstanding tradition of high quality music and counts Charles Ives
among its past organists. A conversation with retired tenor soloist, Jim
Shults, who studied the piece with Howard revealed that the hymn tune PETRA was
included because it was Helen’s favorite. Shults also shared that while
coaching with Howard for the role of the Evangelist that Howard told him he had
written the role for the Yale professor and renowned Bach tenor, Blake Stern
who would sing both the Boatwright and the Bach St. John Passion in New Haven.
The work is structured like the Bach setting with the
Evangelist (a solo tenor) taking us through the events of the day with the text
of Matthew 27:1-54 as the source material. Other characters including Pilate,
Pilate’s Wife, Jesus, and Judas help to share their part of the narrative. The
choir and congregation participate in the drama by taking responsibility for
many of the day’s events singing hymns drawn from The 1940 Hymnal and set by
Boatwright. The piece is a dramatic and
emotional setting of this familiar text exploiting Boatwright’s understanding
of the passion form and of dissonance to capitalize on the turbulent nature of
the text.
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