The Significance of Bach

There is also evidence from Bach's life that documents his doubts as to his career decision, such as the famous letter to Erdmann, a friend of his youth, in which he describes his work in Leipzig as an onus, a burden. But to me, these human problems never appear to call into question his career choice, the task of which he saw as the creation of an "organized church music" (regulierte Kirchenmusik), as he termed it in his request for release from his position in Mühlhausen.

I am quite aware that these are but simple thoughts on a complicated question. Nevertheless, they seem to me to suffice as a basic answer to the question of Bach's self-concept. The inscriptions Jesu juva ("Jesus, help") and Soli Deo gloria ("To God alone the glory") at the beginning and end of many of his scores are doubtless not mere formal flourishes, and the phrase Dem hochsten Gott allein zu Ehren, dem nechsten draus sich zu belehren ("To honor the highest God, and by doing so, to instruct one's neighbor") seems not just to be the caption of the Orgelbuchtein but the program of Bach's life's work as well.

This priority that Bach gave to church-music activity did not exclude creative work in other areas. Thus, Arnstadt, MCihlhausen, and Weimar saw the composition of most of the organ works-C@5then, the suites, the first portion of the Well-Tempered Clavier, and many solo concertos-and the late Leipzig years, the Musical Offering and the Art of the Fugue. But Bach's primary concern was church music. The cantata, as its most important musical form, accompanied him from his first creative year into those at the end of his life. Anyone seeking a basic orientation for the interpretation of Bach's music cannot ignore this self-concept and the priority he evidenced in his life's work.

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