"PREFACE.
No apology is offered for presenting a new edition of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion"; there must always be room for every effort to do justice, in an English form, to the noblest sacred work in existence.
In preparing this edition, our aim has been : —
(a) In the recitatives, to retain the words of the Authorised Version, and at the same time to reproduce Bach's declamation as closely as the English words allow, (b) In the other portions, to adopt a translation which should present, as clearly as possible, Bach's unique method of setting his libretto."
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