Johann Sebastian Bach: A Very Brief History
By Andrew Gant
()
About this ebook
Part One: The History (What do we know?)
This brief historical introduction to Bach explores the social, political and religious factors that formed the original context of his life and work, and considers how those factors affected the way he was initially received.
What was his impact on the world at the time and what were the key ideas and values connected with him?
Part Two: The Legacy (Why does it matter?)
This second part explores the intellectual and cultural ‘afterlife’ of Bach, and considers the ways in which his impact has lasted and how his music has been interpreted by later generations.
Why is he still considered important today? And what aspects of his legacy are likely to continue to influence the world in the future?
The book has a brief chronology at the front plus a glossary of key terms and a list of further reading at the back.
Andrew Gant
Andrew Gant is a lecturer at St Peter's College, University of Oxford. A church musician, author, singer and composer, he was the organist, choirmaster, and composer at Her Majesty's Chapel Royal from 2000 to 2013. He is the author of Christmas Carols: From Village Green to Church Choir (Profile Books, 2014), O Sing Unto the Lord: A History of English Church Music (Profile Books, 2015), Music: Ideas in Profile (Profile books, 2017) and a major study of Handel's 'Messiah' (Bodleian Press, forthcoming).
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Book preview
Johann Sebastian Bach - Andrew Gant
First published in Great Britain in 2018
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
36 Causton Street
London SW1P 4ST
www.spck.org.uk
Copyright © Andrew Gant 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.
Extracts from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978–0–281–07957–5
eBook ISBN 978–0–281–07959–9
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by Manila Typesetting Company
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Prologue
Part 1
The history
1 Hinterland: The Bach family and their world 11
2 A musician’s life: Spaces, places, colleagues and competitors 14
3 The music in context: Bach’s works by genre 34
4 The learned musician: Some technical aspects 42
Part 2
THE LEGACY
5 The roots of the legacy: Bach’s reputation in his own day 59
6 ‘Compared with him, we all remain children’: Custodians of the legacy 65
7 Evangelists: Supporters and performers into the nineteenth century 75
8 Bach reheard: The twentieth century and beyond 85
Epilogue 93
Notes 96
Further reading 103
Index 105
Acknowledgements
With very many thanks to William Whitehead, Geoffrey Webber, all the students who have helped me explore the music of J. S. Bach, and to Edward and Clare Caswell for sharing some of the musical past and present of Leipzig with me.
Chronology
Childhood and youth
1685 Johann Sebastian Bach born in Eisenach, 21 March
1694 Bach’s mother, Maria Elisabetha, née Lämmerhirt , dies
1695 Bach’s father, Johann Ambrosius, dies Bach goes to live with his brother Johann Christoph in Ohrdruf
1700 Bach enters the Michaelisschule in Lüneburg
Weimar, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen
1703 Employed as court musician in Weimar, March– September
Appointed organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, 9 August
1705 Travels to Lübeck to visit Buxtehude, staying away longer than permitted
1707 Appointed organist at Blasiuskirche, Mühlhausen , 15 June
Marries Maria Barbara, née Bach, 17 October
Weimar
1708 Appointed organist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst at Weimar
First child, Catherina Dorothea, born (d. 1774)
1710 Second child, Wilhelm Friedemann, born (d. 1784)
1713 Third and fourth children (twins), Johann Christoph and Maria Sophia, born (both d . 1713)
1713/14 Competes for, is offered, and declines organist’s post at Halle
1714 Appointed to additional post of Konzertmeister at Weimar
Fifth child, Carl Philipp Emanuel, born (d. 1788)
1715 Sixth child, Johann Gottfried Bernhard, born (d. 1739)
Cöthen
1717 Appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold at Cöthen. Initially refused permission to leave and imprisoned by Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar
1718 Seventh child, Leopold Augustus, born (d . 1719)
1720 Bach’s wife, Maria Barbara, dies while he is away with Prince Leopold
Bach visits Hamburg and is offered organist’s post at the Jakobikirche, which he declines
1721 Brandenburg Concertos dedicated to Margrave Christian Ludwig
Marries Anna Magdalena, née Wülcken
Prince Leopold marries
1722 Enters candidature for cantor’s post at Leipzig
Leipzig
1723 Eighth child, Christiana Sophia Henrietta, born (d. 1726)
Appointed Thomaskantor in Leipzig
Magnificat performed in Thomaskirche
1724 Ninth child, Gottfried Heinrich, born (d . 1763)
St John Passion performed in Nikolaikirche
1725 Tenth child, Christian Gottlieb, born (d . 1728)
1726 Eleventh child, Elisabeth Juliana Friederica, born (d. 1781)
1727 St Matthew Passion performed in Thomaskirche
Twelfth child, Ernestus Andreas, born (d. 1727)
1728 Thirteenth child, Regina Johanna, born (d . 1733)
1729 Dispute with Leipzig town council over musical standards of pupils
Bach becomes director of collegium musicum
Prevented by illness from meeting Handel in Halle
1730 Fourteenth child, Christiana Benedicta Louisa, born (d. 1730)
Memorandum on the organization of church music submitted to Leipzig town council
Writes to former schoolmate Georg Erdmann in Danzig describing his employment difficulties
1731 Clavier- Übung I published
Fifteenth child, Christiana Dorothea, born (d. 1732)
St Mark Passion (now lost) performed in Thomaskirche
1732 Sixteenth child, Johann Christoph Friedrich, born (d. 1795)
1733 Son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach becomes organist of Sophienkirche, Dresden
Bach visits Dresden, presents Missa (Kyrie and Gloria of what later became the Mass in B Minor) to Elector Friedrich August II
Seventeenth child, Johann August Abraham, born (d. 1733)
1734 Christmas Oratorio parts I– III performed
1735 Christmas Oratorio parts IV– VI performed
Clavier-Übung II published
Son Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach becomes organist of Marienkirche, Mühlhausen
Eighteenth child, Johann Christian, born (d. 1782)
1736 ‘Battle of the prefects’ with Rektor Ernesti of the Thomasschule
Bach appointed Hofcompositeur to the Elector of Saxony (also King of Poland)
1737 Son Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach becomes organist of Jakobikirche, Sangerhausen
Public debate over Bach’s style begins with publication of critical article by J. A. Scheibe
Johann Elias Bach joins the household as secretary and musical assistant
Nineteenth child, Johanna Carolina, born (d. 1781)
1738 Son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach becomes harpsichordist to Prince Frederick of Prussia
Son Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach gets into debt, flees, dies the following year
1739 Clavier- Übung III published
1741 Anna Magdalena seriously ill
Clavier-Übung IV published
1742 Twentieth (and last) child, Regina Susanna, born (d. 1809)
1745 Grandson, Johann August, born (son of C. P. E . Bach)
1746 Son Wilhelm Friedemann becomes organist of Liebfrauenkirche, Halle
1747 Visits court of Frederick the Great at Potsdam
Composes the Musical Offering on the thema regium given him by the king
Joins Lorenz Mizler’s Society of Musical Sciences
1748 Grandson, Johann Sebastian, born (son of C. P. E. Bach), becomes a successful artist in later life
1749 Bach’s daughter Elisabeth Juliana marries his student Johann Christoph Altnickol
Their son, Johann Sebastian Altnickol, born and dies
Bach completes the Mass in B Minor
1750 Son Johann Christoph Friedrich becomes court musician at Bückeburg
Bach oversees engraving of The Art of Fugue
Undergoes operation on his eyes
Dies 28 July
Legacy
1750 W. F. Bach falls out with his employers at Halle over money and his extended absence while settling his father’s estate
J. C. Bach (aged 15) goes to live with his adult half-brother C. P. E. Bach
1756 J. C. Bach travels to Italy, studies with Padre Martini, converts to Catholicism
1760 Anna Magdalena Bach dies
1762 J. C. Bach moves to London, becomes a successful concert promoter and composer of opera and concertos, meets the young Mozart
1764 W. F. Bach leaves his employment in Halle after a series of rows, fails to secure regular employment
1768 C. P. E. Bach leaves Berlin to succeed his godfather Telemann as Kapellmeister in Hamburg
1802 Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s Ueber Johan Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke published
1818 Hans Georg Nägeli announces publication of the B Minor Mass
1820 Forkel’s biography published in English translation, probably by A. C. Kollmann
1829 Mendelssohn conducts the St Matthew Passion (with cuts) in the Singakademie, Berlin
1841 Mendelssohn conducts the St Matthew Passion in the Thomaskirche, Leipzig
1843 Bach memorial in the Thomaskirche dedicated, promoted by Mendelssohn and others
1850 Formation of the Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society), which publishes a complete edition of his works over the next half century
1873/80 Philip Spitta’s biography Johann Sebastian Bach published in two volumes
1884/5 Spitta’s biography published in English as Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 , translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland
1902 The Thomasschule, Bach’s home and workplace in Leipzig, closes
1905 Publication of J. S. Bach: le musicien-poète by Albert Schweitzer
1908 Installation and dedication of Carl Seffner’s statue of Bach outside the Thomaskirche
1950 Neue Bachgesellschaft (New Bach Society) formed
Bach’s grave relocated to chancel of the Thomaskirche
Wolfgang Schmeider’s thematic catalogue, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, issued
1955 First volume of a new complete edition, the Neue Bach-Ausgabe ,