Johann Sebastian Bach: A Very Brief History

By Andrew Gant

His name and his music are internationally known, but with only one verifiably authentic portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach, has history painted him as something that he's not?

In this brief historical introduction, Andrew Gant explores the social, political and religious factors that shaped Bach's life and work, and traces how his legacy went from a composer who nearly faded into obscurity to one of the most central figures of classical music today.

Travel back to the eighteenth century with this Very Brief History and discover the man behind the music.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SPCK
• Release date: Oct 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9780281079599

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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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

eBook by Manila Typesetting Company

Produced on paper from sustainable forests

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 ,