33
In the Bach genealogy already referred to C. P. E. Bach designates Johann Christoph a “great and impressive composer.”
34
A Lamento published under Johann Christoph’s name seems actually to have been composed by his father Heinrich (see Pirro, J.-S. Bach, 9 n.). Johann Christoph, however, is the composer of the Motet Ich lasse dich nicht, so often attributed to Johann Sebastian.
35
See Table VI. He was the father of Johann Sebastian’s first wife.
36
See note, p. 4 supra.
37
Spitta (i. 59 ff.) mentions twelve Motets by Michael Bach. Several of them are for eight voices. Forkel probably refers to the most remarkable of Michael’s Motets, in which he detects the romantic spirit of Johann Sebastian. It is set to the words Unser Leben ist ein Schatten, (Life on earth is but a shadow). The first choir consists of 2 S., A., 2 T., B., and the second choir of A. T. B. only. Spitta analyses the work closely (i. 70-72). Novello publishes his five- part Motet Christ is risen with an English text.
38
He succeeded his cousin Johann Christoph at Eisenach in 1703.
39
Spitta (i. 24 ff.) mentions four Suites, or Overtures, Clavier pieces, and Organ Chorals as being by him. That Johann Sebastian Bach highly esteemed the Suites is proved by the fact that he copied the parts of three of them with his own hand at Leipzig.
40
It is a curious fact that, prior to the career of Johann Sebastian Bach, the composers of the Bach family occur invariably in other branches than his. With two exceptions, the gift of composition appears to have been possessed, or exercised, solely by Heinrich Bach (see Table VI.), his two sons Johann Christoph and Johann Michael, already discussed, and his grandson, Johann Nikolaus (son of Johann Christoph). Heinrich Bach was a very productive composer in all forms of musical art employed at that time in church (Sp. i. 36). His grandson, Johann Nikolaus, composed a Mass and a comic operetta (ib., 132 ff.). The only other Bach composer known to Spitta is Georg Christoph, founder of the Franconian Bachs (see Table IV.) and Cantor at Themar and Schweinfurt (ib. 155). The other Bach composer outside Heinrich Bach’s branch is Johann Bornhard, already mentioned by Forkel.
41
In the Quodlibet different voices sang different well-known melodies, sacred and profane, and sought to combine them to form a harmonious whole. For an example see Variation 30 of the Aria mit 30 Veranderungen (Peters’ ed., bk. 209 p. 83). In it Bach combines two popular songs of his period.
42
See article “Quodlibet” in Grove.
43
The date is conjectural, and is deduced from the fact that the infant was baptized on March 23. The Gregorian Calendar was not adopted in Germany until 1701. Had it been in use in 1685 Bach’s birthday would be March 31.
44
Johann Ambrosius’ Court appointment is to be inferred from the fact that in 1684 the Duke refused him permission to return to Erfurt.
45
See Table IV.
46
Johann Ambrosius survived his brother by nearly eighteen months.
47
His mother died in May 1694, and his father in January 1695. At the latter date Johann Sebastian was three months short of his tenth year.
48
Excepting Johann Jakob, a lad of thirteen years, Johann Christoph was Bach’s only surviving brother, and the only one of the family in a position to look after him. Johann Jakob accompanied Sebastian to Ohrdruf (Pirro, p. 13) and afterwards apprenticed himself to his father’s successor as Town Musician at Eisenach. One of the daughters was already married. What became of the other is not stated. See Table V.
49
It is difficult to believe this statement. That the boy was destined for a musical career by his father hardly can be doubted. That he was of unusual precocity, the story told by Forkel in the text proves. His father’s asserted neglect to instruct him is therefore hardly credible.
50
Johann Jakob Froberger, born at Halle (date unknown); Court Organist at Vienna, 1637-57; d. 1667.
51
Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, c. 1660-1738 (actual dates of his birth and death unknown); Kapellmeister to Markgraf Ludwig of Baden at Schloss Schlackenwerth in Bohemia. His Ariadne Musica Neo-Organoedum (1702) was the precursor of Bach’s Das wohltemperirte Clavier.
52
Johann Caspar Kerl, b. 1628; Kapellmeister in Munich, 1656-74; Court Organist at Vienna, 1677-92; d. 1693.
53
Johann Pachelbel, b. 1653, d. 1706. In 1695 he was Organist of St. Sebald’s Church, Nürnberg. His influence upon the organ playing of his generation was enormous. Bach’s brother, Johann Christoph, was his pupil.
54
Dietrich Buxtehude, b. 1637, d. 1707; Organist (1668) of the Marienkirche, Lübeck, and the chief musical influence in North Germany.
55
Nikolaus Bruhns, b. circ. 1665, d. 1697; a. pupil of Buxtehude; Organist at Husum; the greatest organist of his time after Buxtehude.
56
Georg Böhm, b. 1661; date of death uncertain (c. 1739); from 1698 Organist of the Johanniskirche, Lüneburg.
57
In fact, Johann Christoph did not die until 1721, more than twenty years after Sebastian ceased to be under his roof.
58
The fact that Johann Christoph survived till 1721 disproves Forkel’s statement. The youthful Bach, aged fifteen in 1700, no doubt seized the earliest opportunity to relieve his brother of the charge of him. Moreover, Johann Christoph’s family was increasing (see Table V.). In spite of the story of Bach’s midnight copying, it cannot be questioned that he owed a good deal to his brother, who not only taught him but, presumably, maintained him at the Ohrdruf Lyceum, where Bach acquired a sound education and a considerable knowledge of Latin. See Pirro, pp. 14-16, on Bach’s education at Ohrdruf. He left the Lyceum in March 1700.
59
Georg Erdmann, Bach’s fellow-pupil at the Lyceum.
60
Bach’s entry into the choir of St. Michael’s Convent, Lüneburg, took place about Easter 1700. The step was taken upon the advice of Elias Herda, Cantor at the Ohrdruf Lyceum, himself a former member of St. Michael’s. Bach remained at St. Michael’s for three years, till 1703. The choir library was particularly rich in the best church music of the period, both German and Italian. Spitta is of opinion that Bach’s talents as a violinist and Clavier player were also laid under contribution. His voice, as Forkel states, soon ceased to be serviceable. His maximum pay was one thaler (three shillings) a month and free commons.
61
Probably Georg Böhm, who had relations with the Convent choir, inspired Bach to make the pilgrimage. Böhm, then at St. John’s, Lüneburg, was a pupil of Reinken of Hamburg. Spitta (i. 196) suggests that Bach’s cousin, Johann Ernst (see Table IV.), was at this time completing his musical education at Hamburg, a fact which may have contributed to draw Bach thither. He made more than one visit, on foot, to Hamburg. F. W. Marpurg published, in 1786, the story, which he received from Bach himself, that on one of his journeys from Hamburg, Bach sat down outside an inn and hungrily sniffed the savours from its kitchen. His pockets were empty and there seemed little prospect of a meal, when a window was opened and two herring heads were thrown out. Bach picked them up eagerly, and found in each of them a Danish ducat. Who was his benefactor he never discovered; the gift enabled him to satisfy his hunger and pay another visit to Hamburg.
62
Johann Adam Reinken, b. 1623, became Organist of St. Catherine’s Church, Hamburg, in 1664, and held the post until his death in 1722.
63
His introduction to French music marked another step in Bach’s progressive education. The reigning Duke of Celle (father-in-law of George I. of Great Britain and Ireland) had married a Frenchwoman. See Pirro, J. S. Bach, pp. 24-27.
64
He entered the Weimar service on April 8, 17
03 (Pirro, p. 29).
65
Bach’s engagement was in the private band of the younger brother of the Duke. He remained in his new post only a few months. He was engaged as a Violin player, and since his interests were towards the Organ and Clavier, it is clear that he accepted the engagement as a temporary means of livelihood.
66
He is, however, described in July 1703 as Court Organist (Pirro, p. 30). Bach was drawn to Arnstadt chiefly by the fact that the New Church recently had been equipped with a particularly fine Organ (specification in Spitta, i. 224), which existed until 1863. Bach inaugurated it on July 13, 1703, and entered on his duties as Organist of the church in the following month (Pirro, p. 30).
67
His earliest Church Cantata (No. 15) was composed here in 1704. To the Arnstadt period (1703-7) also must be attributed the Capriccio written on the departure of his brother, Johann Jakob (Peters bk. 208 p. 62), the Capriccio in honour of his Ohrdruf brother, Johann Christoph (Peters bk. 215, p. 34), the Sonata in D major (Peters bk. 215, p. 44), the Organ Prelude and Fugue in C minor (Novello bk. 2 p. 48), and the Organ Fugue in C minor (Novello bk. 12 p. 95).
68
In the Nekrolog C. P. E. Bach and Agricola remark of the Arnstadt period, that Bach then “really showed the first-fruits of his industry in the art of Organ-playing and composition, which he had in great measure learnt only from the study of the works of the most famous composers of the time, and from his own reflections on them” (quoted in Spitta, i. 235).
69
Bach’s stipend at Arnstadt was not inconsiderable, and his duties engaged him only at stated hours on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. He, therefore, had leisure and the means to employ it. In October 1705 he obtained four weeks’ leave of absence and set off on foot to Lübeck, after leaving an efficient deputy behind him. He stayed away until February 1706. On his return the Consistory demanded an explanation of his absence, and took the opportunity to remonstrate with him on other matters. They charged him “with having been hitherto in the habit of making surprising variationes in the Chorals, and intermixing divers strange sounds, so that thereby the congregation were confounded.” They charged him with playing too long preludes, and after this was notified to him, of making them too short. They reproached him “with having gone to a wineshop last Sunday during sermon,” and cautioned him that, “for the future he must behave quite differently and much better than he has done hitherto” (see the whole charge in Spitta, i. 315 ff.). Bach also was on bad terms with the choir, whose members had got out of hand and discipline. Before his Lübeck visit he engaged in a street brawl with one of the scholars. Then, as later, he was a choleric gentleman. In November 1706 he got into further trouble for having “made music” in the church with a “stranger maiden,” presumably his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, then on a visit to Arnstadt; he married her a year later. Clearly the relations between the Consistory and the brilliant young Organist were becoming difficult, and Bach’s migration to Mühlhausen no doubt was grateful to both. His resignation was made formally on June 29, 1707.
70
Bach was appointed on June 15, 1707, to succeed Johann Georg Able. Mühlhauson prided itself upon its musical traditions. Bach’s Cantata, No. 71, written in February 1708 for the inauguration of the Mühlhausen Town Council, was engraved (the parts only), the only one of the 206 Cantatas which have come down to us which was printed during Bach’s lifetime. He also composed Cantatas 131 and 196 at Muhlhausen, and perhaps three others. See infra, p. 188.
71
Bach’s petition to the Mühlhausen Consistory for permission to resign his post is dated June 25, 1708, and is printed in full by Spitta, i. 373. Bach mentions the Weimar post as having been offered to him, but bases his desire to resign the organ of St. Blasius, partly on the ground that his income was inadequate, partly because, though he had succeeded in improving the organ and the conditions of music generally, he saw “not the slightest appearance that things will be altered” for the better. Mühlhausen, in fact, was a stronghold of Pietism and unsympathetic to Bach’s musical ideals.
72
He was Court Organist and Kammermusikus. In the latter post Bach was of use as a Violinist and Clavier player. The Court band, or Kapelle, on special occasions appeared in Hungarian costume, which Bach presumably donned. His income began at a sum nearly double that he had received at Arnstadt and Mühlhausen.
73
The character of his employer, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, must be reckoned a factor in the development of the youthful Bach. The Duke was not only a cultured artist, but was also a man of genuine piety.
74
Though Bach retouched them in later years and wrote others, it may be stated in general terms that his Organ works were the fruit of the Weimar period, which lasted from 1708 till 1717.
75
Bach’s promotion to the position of Concertmeister had taken place certainly before March 19, 1714, on which date Spitta (i. 517) prints a letter in which Bach gives himself the title. The increase in his income early in 1714 also supports the conclusion, while a letter of January 14, 1714, written by Bach, is not signed by him as Concertmeister. It would seem that his promotion took place in the interval between the two letters. As Concertmeister it was part of his duty to provide Cantatas for the church services. Twenty-two were written by him at Weimar. See infra, p. 188, for a list of them.
76
Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau died on August 7 or 14, 1712.
77
Spitta (i. 513) infers that, in the later years of the Weimar period, Bach spent part of the autumn of every year in visits to the Courts and larger towns of Germany in order to give Organ recitals and to conduct performances of his Cantatas. Besides the visit to Halle, in 1713, to which Forkel alludes, Bach performed at Cassel in 1713 or 1714 before the future Frederick I. of Sweden, who presented him with a ring which he drew from his finger. Bach’s feet, an admirer recorded, “flew over the pedal-board as if they had wings.” In December 1714 he visited Leipzig and performed Cantata No. 61, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. In 1716 he was again invited to Halle, and at about the same time performed at Meiningen. Forkel records the famous contest with Marchand, the French Organist, at Dresden in 1717.
78
Forkel’s brief account follows the Nekrolog. Bach was in Halle in the autumn of 1713, a year after Zachau’s death. The latter’s post was still vacant and a new and particularly large Organ (sixty-three speaking stops) was being erected. The authorities pressed Bach to submit himself to the prescribed tests, and he complied so far as to compose a Cantata and to conduct a performance of it. On his return to Weimar he received a formal invitation to accept the post. After some correspondence Bach refused it, partly, perhaps chiefly, on the ground that the income was inadequate. The refusal was answered by the groundless accusation that he had merely entertained the Halle proposal in order to bring pressure upon Weimar for a rise of salary. The misunderstanding was cleared away by 1716, when Bach visited Halle again. In the interval Zachau’s post had been given to his pupil, Gottfried Kirchhoff. The whole matter is discussed at length in Spitta, i. 515 ff.
79
Frederick Augustus I. of Saxony was elected, as Augustus II., to the throne of Poland in 1697. He died In 1733.
80
Louis Marchand, b. 1669, d. 1732; Organist to the French Court and later of the Church of St. Honoré, Paris. His arrival in Dresden was due to his being in disgrace at Versailles. Whether or not he was offered a permanent engagement at the Saxon Court, he was regarded as the champion of the French style, and as such the challenge was issued to him by Bach.
81
Francois Couperin, b. 1668, d. 1733; Organist of St. Gervais, Paris. Forkel’s judgment upon his art is not supported by modern criticism.
82
Bach, however, admired Marchand’s compositions sufficiently to give them to his pupils. See Pirro, p. 52.
83
Jean-Baptiste Volumie
r, an acquaintance of Bach, according to Spitta (i. 583). Eitner, Quellen Lexikon. says that he was born in Spain and educated in France. Grove’s Dictionary declares him a Belgian. In 1709 he was appointed Concertmeister to the Saxon Court. He died at Dresden in 1728.
84
It is more probable that Bach was at Dresden either expressly to hear Marchand or upon one of his autumn tours.
85
Some years earlier Flemming had witnessed Handel’s triumphant descent on the Saxon Court, but had failed to establish friendly relations with him. See Streatfield’s Handel, p. 87.
86
The article on Marchand in Grove gives a different version of the affair, based upon Joseph Fétis (1784-1871). According to this story of the event, Bach, summoned from Weimar, attended Marchand’s concert incognito, and after hearing Marchand perform, was invited by Volumier to take his seat at the Clavier. Bach thereupon repeated from memory Marchand’s theme and variations, and added others of his own. Having ended, he handed Marchand a theme for treatment on the Organ and challenged him to a contest. Marchand accepted it, but left Dresden before the appointed hour.
87
The Prince was brother-in-law of Duke Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar. Bach was, therefore, already known to him and showed the greatest regard for him both at Cöthen and after he had left his service.
88
The reason for Bach’s migration from Weimar to Cöthen was his failure to obtain the post of Kapellmeister at the former Court upon the death of Johann Samuel Drese in 1716. The post was given to Drese’s son. On August 1, 1717, just before or after his Marchand triumph, Bach was appointed Kapellmeister to the Court of Cöthen. Duke Wilhelm Ernst refused to release him from his engagement, and Bach endured imprisonment from November 6 to December 2, 1717, for demanding instant permission to take up his new post. Probably his last work at Weimar was to put the Orgelbüchlein into the form in which it has come down to us (see articles by the present writer in The Musical Times for January-March 1917).
Delphi Masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach Page 43