Scala Radio Book Club: The Great Passion by James Runcie
Love and Death. Grief and Joy. Music that lasts forever
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week (31st March 2022), Richard Allinson chatted to British documentary filmmaker, television producer, playwright and novelist James Runcie, on his brand-new novel, The Great Passion.
Love and Death. Grief and Joy. Music that lasts forever.
Leipzig, 1726. Eleven-year-old Stefan Silbermann, a humble organ maker's son, has just lost his mother. Sent to Leipzig to train as a singer in the St Thomas Church choir, he struggles to stay afloat in a school where the teachers are as casually cruel as the students.
Stefan's talent draws the attention of the Cantor - Johann Sebastian Bach. Eccentric, obsessive and kind, he rescues Stefan from the miseries of school by bringing him into his home as an apprentice. Soon Stefan feels that this ferociously clever, chaotic family is his own. But when tragedy strikes, Stefan's period of sanctuary in their household comes to a close.
Something is happening, though. In the depths of his loss, the Cantor is writing a new work: the Saint Matthew Passion, to be performed for the first time on Good Friday. As Stefan watches the work rehearsed, he realises he is witness to the creation of one of the most extraordinary pieces of music that have ever been written.
Richard began the interview by asking how James came up with the story. ‘Can you take us back to Leipzig in 1726 because there's a skeleton of known facts, but you've weaved in this incredible, imaginary story. How do you bring to life J.S Bach as a real person, a working musician, a husband, a family man? Where do you start?’
‘I can't know what it's like to be Bach, but you can imagine him as a working musician, as Head of Music at a school, and responsible for 55 boys in the choir,’ said James. ‘I do know what it's like to have been at a boarding school. So, I enjoyed telling the story from a boy's point of view with all that competitiveness, bullying and dodgy food. It's told from the point of view of this eleven-year-old boy who is involved in the St. Matthew Passion.’
Richard then asked how long it took James to write the novel.
‘Well, I spent five years writing the novel, and I wrote it three different times, in three different ways because I couldn't get it right. I thought, “This isn't really coming together”. If I can write it from a boy's point of view, I was once a boy. I can actually sort of feel what it might be like, from that point of view.’
Richard then asked, ‘Why did you decide to focus on this particular part of Bach’s life, whilst he was writing the St Matthew Passion?’
‘I think it would have been very difficult covering Bach’s whole life. This novel takes place over one year. The one year leading up to the St Matthew Passion. The last 27 years of his life were spent in Leipzig, and that’s the kind of core section of his life. I think that focus was vital when writing the novel.’
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