J.S. Bach: Highlights of a Life

A Journey Through the World of Bach.
By Steve McQuiddy

Youth (1685-1703)

“With my prying nose I dipped into all composers, and found that the houses they erected were stable in the exact proportion that Bach was used in the foundation.”

— JAMES HUNEKER, Old Fogy, 1913

The Bach family of musicians has been compared to a giant oak tree, growing through the years and spreading its canopy over all things below, then finally dying out and returning to the earth. Johann Sebastian, born at Eisenach in 1685, is considered the strongest bough at the height of the tree’s prime. Everything before was building toward him, everything after growing progressively weaker.

Veit, or Vitus, Bach (1555-1619) is the earliest known ancestor. A baker by trade, he was also known for playing the zither. Hans Bach of the next generation was known as Der Spielmann, or the minstrel, due to his musical skills. His brother Lips Bach was also a musician. Christoph Bach (1613-1661) was the Stadtpfeifer, or town musician, in several cities, including Weimar. Next came Johann Ambrosius Bach, a court musician in Eisenach, and father of Johann Sebastian. Oddly enough, the direct line since Johann Sebastian Bach died out in the latter nineteenth century. Although he fathered twenty children (with two wives), only ten of them lived to adulthood. They brought him seventeen grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. The last direct-line Bach was Carolina Augusta Wilhelmine, who died May 13, 1871.

Young Bach

Not much is known about Bach’s youth. His parents died a short time apart, when Johann Sebastian was ten years old. He was raised thereafter by his brother Johann Christoph, fourteen years his senior. Five years of schooling followed, including musical instruction. But, according to fable, this was not enough. One oft-repeated anecdote relates how Johann Christoph kept a volume of organ pieces by prominent composers locked in a cabinet, deciding that they were too difficult for Johann Sebastian. The younger brother sneaked down at night, slipping the sheets through a crack in the cabinet doors, and copied the music down by moonlight—only to have Johann Christoph later take the copies away.

The First Cut

After completing his studies at Lüneberg, and a short tenure as violinist in the court orchestra at Weimar, Bach earned a post as both organist and choir director at the New Church in Arnstadt. During his four years there (1703-1707), his work as a musician was highly respected. As choir director, however, he was known for his short patience with less-than-able students. One evening, as Bach was walking across the marketplace with his cousin Barbara Catharina, a student named Geyersbach jumped up and came at him with a stick, claiming the teacher had insulted him earlier. When Bach denied insulting him, Geyersbach retorted that he had insulted his bassoon, and whoever insults his bassoon, insults him as well. The student then called Bach a dirty dog, or Hundsfott, and struck at him. Bach drew his dagger, and the two wrestled until other students present intervened.

A court hearing shortly after found that Bach had indeed called Geyersbach a nanny-goat bassoonist, or Zippelfagottist, and he was reprimanded for doing so. A man must live among the imperfect, Bach was told, and the students and teacher must do their best with what they have.

Against the Grain

Also during his time at Arnstadt, Bach made his famous pilgrimage to Lübeck, so that he might hear the renowned organist Buxtehude play. While most biographers consider this to be a pivotal event in the composer’s career, his employers at the time were not amused, as the following record reveals:

Actum, February 21, 1706
The Organist in the New Church, Bach, is interrogated as to where he has lately been for so long and from whom he obtained leave to go.

Ille: He has been to Lübeck in order to comprehend one thing and another about his art, but had asked leave beforehand from the Superintendent.

Dominus Superintendens: He had asked for only four weeks, but had stayed about four times as long.

Making Music

Bach was also cautioned to keep his compositions and playing time within accepted standards. His "variationes in the chorale," they said, "mingled many strange tones in it," and "the congregation has been confused." But there was no confusion as to what happened later in the same year:

Actum, November 11, 1706
It is pointed out to the organist Bach that he is to declare himself as to whether he is willing to make music with the scholars as he has already been instructed to do, or not; for if he considers it no disgrace to be connected with the Church and to accept his salary, he must also not be ashamed to make music with the students assigned to do so, until other instructions are given. For it is the intention that the latter shall practice, in order one day to be better fitted for music...

Nos: Thereupon ask him further by what right he recently caused the strange maiden to be invited into the choir loft and let her make music there.

That "strange maiden," according to Philipp Spitta’s exhaustive nineteenth-century biography, Bach, was very likely Maria Barbara Bach, the composer’s cousin, whom he married in October of the following year.

Next: Weimar

Youth | Weimar | Cöthen | Leipzig | Beyond