This was the point of departure for German Protestant oratorio. Another important work of Schütz was his setting of the ‘Seven Words of Jesus,’ written and performed in 1645. This departs even more from the liturgical chant, and the part of the Evangelist, instead of being chanted, is treated as a recitative, first for alto, then for tenor, then for soprano and tenor accompanied by the other two voices, thus bringing it into quartet form. The first and last choruses are in five parts and each is called ‘Chorus of the Congregation.’ After the first chorus and before the last (therefore separating the actual scenes from the chorus of the people), an instrumental number called _symphonia_ is inserted, thereby giving more dramatic force to the narration. These two symphonias are in five parts and while the instruments are not indicated, they were probably played by the strings. Parts of the work are very touching and beautifully expressive. For some unknown reason this work was not published until 1873 (228 years after its first production), edited by Carl Riedel. Possibly his greatest work is his setting of the four Passions entitled _Historia des Leidens und Sterbens unseres Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi_ and following the text of the four Evangelists. This was written in 1665-66 but was not published during his lifetime and only the ‘St. John Passion’ exists in manuscript, but a complete copy of the four Passions was made by Grundig in 1690, comparatively soon after the death of Schütz. These Passions are built up largely with short choruses which, though conceived in deep devotion, are at times very dramatic. The parts not given to the chorus are recitatives in liturgical form, sometimes accompanied[76] and sometimes for the voice alone. The texts of some of the choruses were taken from well-known church hymns. The ‘St. Matthew Passion’ is the most fluent melodically. These settings of the Passion comprised the composer’s last works and in them lay the kernel of what was later perfected by Bach and Handel, both of whom completed in their respective lines what Schütz had begun. It has been regarded significant that the year of his birth was exactly one hundred years before that of Bach and Handel.