Documentary evidence shows that the passion text evolved into music in the early Christian church. The respected New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians states: "At a very early date, special lesson tones were developed for reciting the passion." This shows that the passion text was now being recited on a certain musical pitch. Furthermore, a Spanish nun named Egeria, visiting Jerusalem in the fourth century, recorded detailed information about the religious ceremonies. Through this evidence, we know that a single singer chanted the Passion text monophonically. Gradually the single line of the soloist evolved into recorded manuscripts, receiveing markings for pitch, tempo, and volume as early as the ninth century. In this manner, the passion changed from a spoken story to a monophonic musical work.
By the fifteenth century, the church's idea about the passion had changed. Instead of focusing on the redemptive side of the term, the church proclaimed that worshippers could emotionally participate in the suffering of Christ. The passion story could more immediate and meaningful if presented both musically and dramatically, in the form of a play. To that end, the church developed plays from the passion text, containing three main parts: Christ, the Evangelist, and the Turba, or crowd. These lines were set to music, with the choir singing the part of the Turba. The musical lines were also elaborated. Composers of the time wrote two or more melodies that were sung simultaneously, a technique known as polyphony. Therefore, the passion in this period changed from a simple melody to a complex musical drama.
The Reformation not only affected the political structure of the church, creating the Lutheran sect, but also reshaped musical ideas. The Lutheran Church wanted to reach out to all social classes and educational levels by making the music not only understandable, but enjoyable. Certain musical forms in the passion, most specifically the recitative style, came to resemble the opera, a very dramatic and intense secular drama. Music for the entire church congregation to sing, called chorales, were inserted in the passion. Furthermore, the Lutheran Church added poetic texts not associated with the Gospels. Likewise, instruments played a more important role in the music. These additions to the passion helped it gain more attention from all classes of people.
Into this tradition of the passion came J. S. Bach. He continued the Biblical and liturgical tradition in his passions, using the text from the Gospels, hut he also went further. The Lutheran passions discussed above used secular texts in certain parts; Bach used them in a section of the passions normally reserved only for the Gospels, namely the motet. Earlier composers conservatively incorporated chorales into the passion; Bach added them without reserve, sometimes using eleven or more. Previous composers used a couple of instruments and a small choir; Bach composed for a mammoth orchestra and large choir, using both a double choir and double orchestra in his St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244). But despite all of this grandeur, Bach keeps the fundamental element of the passion the same: to proclaim the Gospel text about the Passion of Jesus Christ. For these reasons, Bach can arguably be called the greatest of all passion composers. He took the rich tradition and history of the Passion to a higher level. Ironically, the passion as a form of music seemed to disappear after Bach. Is it possible that later composers saw Bach's work as the ultimate climax to the deep tradition of the Passion?