J.S. Bach: Highlights of a Life

Leipzig (1723-1750)

“And what thy pen had writ, the highest art displaying,
Did some with joy and some with envy contemplate.”

— GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN, 1751

An Understatement

Bach held the position of Cantor at St. Thomas Church and School in Leipzig for more than twenty-five years and composed many of his greatest religious works there. But he was not their first choice. Two others were preferred by the council, but were unavailable. Only then was Bach offered the post, prompting chief councilor Platz to comment that since the best man could not be obtained, a mediocre one would have to be accepted.

The Master's Life

Bach had a busy life in Leipzig. He wrote or directed at least one cantata a week during this time, though he composed most of them prior to 1730. He composed the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B Minor, and produced concerts for weekly gatherings at Zimmermann’s Coffee House. He taught music (and for a time, Latin) at the school, and performed many administrative duties. "The result was a neverending series of disputes and squabbles with the school and church authorities," writes music critic Herbert Kupferberg.

No diary exists of Bach’s specific daily schedule, but imagine walking into the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig at seven a.m. on a Sunday morning to organ music produced by the grand master Bach. Church services lasted until the afternoon. Throughout the week, the Cantor held singing classes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, at nine and noon, and on Fridays at noon. The cantata for Sunday was rehearsed on Saturday, and once a month the Cantor inspected the students.

Bach’s official residence was in the left wing of the School House. When he arrived in 1723, the Cantor’s wing was but two stories, under the shadow of the church. But with four children from his first marriage, and with a new child each year until 1729, Bach moved out in 1731 so that an additional story might be added. The new wing was dedicated the following year, and Bach’s secular cantata Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden was played. He stayed there until his death, and the wing remained the official residence of the Cantor until the School moved in 1877.

The rules of the School House applied to all members living there. Like everyone else, Bach was compelled to rise at five a.m. in the summer and six in the winter. Mid-day dinner was at ten and supper was at five in the afternoon.

Coffee and Concertos

But all was not rigid work. From 1729 until 1739, on Friday evenings from eight to ten, Bach would repair to Zimmermann’s Coffee House in Leipzig to conduct a group of young musicians. The group was called the Collegium Musicum, or Musical Society, established by Georg Philipp Telemann, Bach’s predecessor as Cantor. These more or less public concerts featured student songs from the University of Leipzig and other town schools, and very likely some of Bach’s own work. The Brandenburg Concertos, the suites for orchestra, and the harpsichord concertos might be played, featuring Bach and his sons as solo performers.

The shows were popular enough to prompt local poet and Bach compatriot Mariane von Ziegler to complain of the low wages the musicians were paid. "Most of the listeners seem to think that these sons of the Muse just extemporize the music, she said. "The reward they get is very poor indeed, and often they have to he content with a bare bone to pick for all the hours of preparation they put in.”

A Lucrative Lullaby

Many musical pieces in Bach’s day were composed with a specific object in mind. In one case Count Hermann Carl von Kayserling, Russian ambassador to the Court of Dresden. Kayserling suffered from insomnia, and often had a clavier player named Johann Gottleib Goldberg play for him during the night. Bach was commissioned to provide appropriate music, whereupon he submitted the work known since as the Goldberg Variations. If Kayserling couldn’t sleep, he was surely entertained, for he sent Bach a snuffbox containing the sizable sum of 100 louis d’or.

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