“In the closed world of choral singing few names carry more weight, awe and mystique than that of Charles Wood. At turns rapturous, at turns harrowing, his music penetrates deeper than almost any other English composer”

The earliest known musical settings of the Passion story were sung in England as early as the 1430s and 1440s, and an impressive setting by Richard Davy, composed c.1490, survives in the Eton Choir book. It was not until the late 19th century that English composers regained their enthusiasm for the Passion narrative, encouraged both by the general upsurge in the fortunes of church music at the time, and by the Bach revival.
 

John Stainer composed his oratorio The Crucifixion in 1887. Most composers after Stainer who set the Passion story, such as Maunder, followed Stainer's lead by setting a contemporary libretto rather than one of the Gospel accounts A return to the biblical Passion came in 1920 with The Passion of our Lord according to St. Mark by Charles Wood, then University Lecturer in Harmony & Counterpoint and Organist of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Wood's setting of the Passion differs from those of his contemporaries not only in its use of a biblical text but also in its musical language. King's College Cambridge were desperately looking for a new Passion as it was thought about time that Stainer be superseded "by something new. "The Bach Passions are far too vast for an ordinary choir, however good." A new Passion was essential for  "a tremendous and growing need of the Church". (AH Mann ,organist of King's)
St Mark Passion - Conclusion
Performed on April 10 2011 by St Alban's Choir with Nigel Walton (organ) and Ed Davies (conductor)

The initial final scheme was for a setting of the St. Mark account of the Passion, with the final part of the story "done according to the usual Sarum ending - the priest mono toning and inflecting the narration and the various speeches, 'voces turborum', comments, words, etc., by the various individuals in the Choir". Verses from 'Pange lingua' were an integral part of the scheme, and another plainsong hymn was added ('Verbum supernum prodiens'), Two further hymns were included: 'Lord, when we bend before thy throne' and 'My God, I love thee; not because'.
.

The familiar style of Wood's well-known anthems and service are present, full of flowing melody and sonorous diatonic harmony, along with harmony of the 16th-century hymn and psalm settings. But it is the modal writing in the work that sets it apart so strongly from the other settings of the period, and that gives the work its unique flavour. More musical variety is given to the work as a whole by Wood's arrangement of the hymns and psalm tunes: a solo treble voice soars above the final verse of 'My God, I love thee', and echoes of J.S. Bach's chorales from the Orgelbuchlein appear in the organ accompaniments to the hymns.
 

Wood's St. Mark Passion has never achieved the popularity Stainer's Crucifixion,which has has the advantage of its congregational hymns . There is little congregational participation in  Wood's setting. Contemporary journals immediately valued its unusual nature and high quality. The Church Times called it "An unique and precious gift to Church Music" and The Musical Times wrote that it was "on a plane far above much of the Church Music of the day. A deeply devotional spirit pervades the whole, and the music maintains a lofty standard throughout". 

‘”Only an English choir could bring life to such music as this. Few understand the depths the English soul can sound, nor fathom that lucidity of feeling.  We want no screeching sopranos to caterwaul the bitter road to perdition,but  delicately must they sing.”