Johann Georg Künstel (1645-1694)

Anyone who wants to know where Johann Sebastian Bach possibly got his first ideas for his Passion dramas should take a look at the St Mark Passion by Johann Georg Künstel (c1645-1694).
With its characterisation, the expressive turbae, the 17 plot-bearing chorales and the words of Christ accompanied by strings, it anticipates many ideas that the great Thomaskantor later immortalised in an unsurpassable manner in his epic Passion settings.