his native German force and solidity. His most
prominent work, "Die Auferstehung Christi," first performed at Dresden in
1623, where he was chapel-master to the Elector George I., is regarded as
the foundation of the German oratorio. The passion-music was usually
assigned to three priests, one of whom recited or intoned the part of
Jesus, the second that of the evangelist, and the third the other parts,
while the chorus served for the "turbae," or people. In Schuetz's music,
however, the narrative is given to a chorus of evangelists, the
accompaniment being performed by four viole di gamba and organ. There is
also a wide departure from all his predecessors in the entire absence of
dramatic action. His first work was followed by another, entitled "Die
sieben Worte Christi" ("The Seven Words of Christ"),--a subject which
Haydn subsequently treated with powerful effect,--and four different
compositions on the passion of our Lord. In these works are to be found
the real germs of the modern oratorio; they were preparing the way for
Handel and Bach. Johann Sebastiani succeeded Schuetz, and in 1672
published a passion-music, in which the narrative appears in recitative
form and solidly harmonized chorales are used,--with this peculiarity,
that only the treble was sung, the other voices being taken by the
strings. In 1673 still another passion, written by Theile, was produced
at Luebeck. From this time until 1704 there appears to be a gap in the
sequence of works of this kind.

In the latter year, however, two more were produced, which made a
sensation all over Germany, "The Bleeding and Dying Jesus," by Reinhard
Keiser, and the "Passion nach Cap. 19 S. Johannis" by Handel. In the
former, cantatas were substituted for the narrative and chorales, one of
the numbers being in the nature of a love-song,--an innovation upon the
established forms which brought down upon the composer the indignation of
the critics both in the pulpit and out of it. The passion-music of Handel
was but a weak prelude to the colossal works which were to follow from
his pen. Between 1705 and 1718 several other passions appeared, written
by Keiser, Handel, Telemann, and Mattheson, preparing the way for the two
composers who above all others were destined to develop the chorale and
make it not only the foundation, but the all-pervading idea of their
passions; they were Carl Heinrich Graun and Johann Sebastian Bach. The
former's greatest work, "Der Tod Jesu,"