Johann Sebastian Bach, his Life, Art, and Work Part 2

The Cantor of St. Thomas' was charged formerly with the musical direction of four Leipzig churches: St. Thomas', St. Nicolas', St. Peter's, and the New Church. He was also responsible for the music in the University Church of St. Paul, the so-called "old service," held originally on the Festivals of Easter, Whit, Christmas, and the Reformation, and once during each University quarter. On high days music also had to be provided at St.

John's Church.

Bach, as Cantor, succeeded to a more restricted responsibility, which dated from the early years of the eighteenth century. The New Church, originally the Church of the Franciscans, had been restored to use in 1699. In 1704 Georg Philipp Telemann, who came to Leipzig as a law student three years before, was appointed Organist there. He also founded the Collegium Music.u.m, or University Musical Society, a farther slight upon the Cantor's position. Not until 1729 did the Society pa.s.s under Bach's direction and its members become available as auxiliaries in the church choirs under his charge. Notwithstanding that Bach's predecessor Kuhnau had protested against Telemann's independence, the direction of the New Church's music pa.s.sed out of the Cantor's control, though the School continued to provide the choristers. Six years later the University Church of St. Paul also began an independent course. In 1710 the authorities resolved to hold a University service in the church every Sunday. Kuhnau a.s.serted his prerogative as Cantor. But he was only able to maintain it by offering to provide the music for the "new service" as well as for the "old service" at the fee of twelve thalers which the University so far had paid for the latter. After his death the University appointed (April 3, 1723) Johann Gottlieb Gorner, already Organist of St. Nicolas'

since 1721, to control the music both of the "old" and "new" services, for which the University provided the choir. Not until after a direct appeal to the King did Bach succeed, in 1726, in compelling the University to restore to the Cantor his emoluments in regard to the "old service," the conduct of which had been restored to him on his appointment as Cantor.

The "new service" remained under Gorner's direction. As to St. Peter's, its services, which had entirely ceased, were revived in 1711. The music, however, was simple, and consisted only of hymns.

Thus Bach, as Cantor, was responsible for the music in the two princ.i.p.al churches, St. Thomas' and St. Nicolas'. The School also provided the choir for St. Peter's and the New Church. The junior and least competent singers sang at St. Peter's. The rest were pretty equally distributed between the other three churches. At the New Church the music was performed under the direction of a Chorprafect. At St. Thomas' and St.

Nicolas' Bach personally directed the concerted music. On ordinary Sundays a Cantata or Motet was performed in each church alternately. At the great Festivals, New Year, Epiphany, Ascension Day, Trinity Sunday, and the Annunciation, Cantatas were sung at both churches, the two choirs singing at Vespers in the second church the Cantata performed by them in the morning at the other church. On these occasions the second choir was conducted by a Chorprafect. The princ.i.p.al Sunday service in both churches began at seven in the morning, ended at eleven, and observed the following order:

1. Organ Prelude.

2. Motet, related to the Gospel for the Day; (omitted in Lent and replaced by the Benedictus).

3. Introit.

4. Kyrie, sung alternately, in German and Latin.

5. The Lord's Prayer, intoned at the altar.

6. Gloria, intoned at the altar and answered either by the Choir's Et in terra pax hominibus, or by the congregation with the Hymn, Allein Gott in der Hoh' sei Ehr, the German version of the Gloria.

7. Collect, intoned in Latin; preceded by the preces Dominus vobisc.u.m and Et c.u.m spiritu tuo.

8. Epistle.

9. Litany, in Advent and Lent only; intoned by four boys, the Choir responding.

10. Hymn, appropriate to the Gospel.

11. Gospel.

12. Credo, intoned; (in Lent, last three Sundays of Advent, and Festivals of Apostles, the Nicene Creed, sung in Latin).

13. Prelude, followed by a Cantata, lasting about twenty minutes; on alternate Sundays in each church.

14. The Creed in German, Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, sung by the congregation.

15. Sermon, lasting one hour (8-9 A.M.).

16. Hymn, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend, followed by the reading of the Gospel, on which the Sermon had been based.

17. General Confession, prayers, and Lord's Prayer.

18. Blessing.

19. Hymn.

20. Communion Service; Hymns and Organ extemporisation.

21. Benediction.

Vespers began at a quarter past one and was a comparatively simple service; the music consisted of Hymns, a Motet, and the Magnificat. On the last three Sundays in Advent and throughout Lent neither Cantatas nor Motets were sung. The Organ was silent. On the three great Festivals the appointed Hymn for the season was sung at the beginning of the princ.i.p.al service, before the Organ Prelude: at Christmas, Puer natus in Bethlehem; at Easter, Heut' triumphiret Gottes Sohn; at Whitsuntide, Spiritus Sancti gratia. During the Communion service the Sanctus and concerted music were sung. A festal hymn followed the Benediction. The three great Festivals were each observed for three consecutive days, on the first and second of which Cantatas were sung at both churches. On the third day concerted music was sung at only one of the two churches.

The other week-day Festivals for which Cantatas were provided were the Feast of the Circ.u.mcision (New Year's Day), Epiphany, Ascension Day, Purification of the B.V.M., Annunciation of the B.V.M., Visitation of the B.V.M., Feast of St. John Baptist (Midsummer Day), Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. The Reformation Festival was kept on October 31, or if that date was a Sat.u.r.day or Monday, on the previous or following Sunday.

On Good Friday the Pa.s.sion was performed in the two princ.i.p.al churches alternately. Leipzig adopted no official Hymn-book. The compilation from which the Hymns were chosen by Bach was the eight-volumed Gesangbuch of Paul Wagner, published at Leipzig for Dresden use in 1697. It contained over five thousand Hymns but no music, merely the name of the tune being stated above the Hymn. For the most part the Hymns for special, and even for ordinary, occasions were prescribed by custom. Otherwise the power of selection was in the hands of the Cantor, and Bach's exercise of it caused some friction with the clergy in 1728.

The provision and direction of the music at weddings and funerals was in the Cantor's hands. He arranged the choirs and the music sung at the scholars' annual processions and perambulations of the town, which took place at Michaelmas, New Year, and on St. Martin's and St. Gregory's Days.

Augmenting the School's choristers, the Town Musicians took part in the Church services and were under the Cantor's direction. Their numbers and efficiency were inadequate.

Upon the staff of the School the Cantor ranked third after the Rector and Sub-Rector, and took a share in the general instruction of the scholars.

Cla.s.s III. went to Bach for Latin lessons, a duty which the Council eventually permitted him to fulfil by deputy. Singing cla.s.ses were held by the Cantor on three days of the week, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, at nine and noon, and on Fridays at noon. His instruction in singing was given to the four upper cla.s.ses only. On Sat.u.r.day afternoons the Cantata was rehea.r.s.ed. Once in four weeks the Cantor took his turn to inspect the scholars. Like the other masters, he was required to conform to the regulations of the School House, in which he lived. He rose at five in summer, at six in winter, dined at ten and supped at five in the afternoon.

Holidays were numerous. A week's vacation was given at the Easter, Michaelmas, and New Year Fairs. At Midsummer the School had a month of half-holidays. Whole holidays were given on the birthdays of the four upper masters. There were no morning lessons on Saints' Days, on the occasion of funeral orations in the University Church, and on the quarterly Speech Days. Hence, though Bach's office carried large responsibility, it left him considerable leisure for composition.

As Cantor Bach had an official residence in the left wing of the School House. In 1723, the Cantor's wing was of two storeys only, dwarfed by the greater elevation of the main edifice and under the shadow of the church.

Bach brought to Leipzig four children of his first marriage, and his second wife, Anna Magdalena, presented him with a son or daughter annually from 1723 to 1729. The accommodation of the Cantor's lodging therefore rapidly became inadequate. In the spring of 1731 Bach found a house elsewhere while an additional storey was added to it, which provided a new music-room, a good-sized apartment whence a pa.s.sage led to the big schoolroom in the main building. The new wing was formally opened and dedicated on June 5, 1732, when Bach's secular Cantata Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden was performed; the libretto being by his colleague Winkler. From thenceforward till his death eighteen years later Bach's occupancy was not disturbed. The wing continued to be the official residence of the Cantor until the School moved to the suburbs of the city in 1877.

In addition to his residence, which he occupied rent free, the Cantor enjoyed a revenue from various and fluctuating sources, amounting in gross to 700 thalers (=106 per annum). His fixed stipend was only 100 thalers (=15). About 12 thalers came to him from endowments. In kind he was ent.i.tled to 16 bushels of corn and 2 cords of firelogs, together with 2 measures of wine at each of the three great Festivals. From the University, after his successful protest, he received 12 thalers for directing the "old service." By far the larger part of Bach's income was derived from fluctuating sources. They were of three kinds: (1) School monies, (2) funeral fees, (3) wedding fees. The School monies represented perquisites derived from funds obtained by the scholars, partly by their weekly collections from the public, partly from the four annual processions or perambulations of the city. From the weekly collections a sum of six pfennigs multiplied by the number of the scholars was put aside for the four upper masters, among whom the Cantor ranked third. From the money collected at the New Year, Michaelmas, and St. Martin's Day processions the Rector took a thaler, the Cantor and the Sub-Rector each took one-eleventh of the balance, sixteen thirty-thirds went to the singers, and one-quarter of what remained fell to the Cantor. Out of the money collected on St. Gregory's Day (March 12) the Rector took one-tenth for the entertainment of the four upper masters, and the Cantor took one-third of the residue. For funerals one thaler 15 groschen was paid when the whole school accompanied the procession and a Motet was sung at the house of the deceased. When no Motet was sung the Cantor's fee was 15 groschen. For weddings he received two thalers.

Reckoned in modern currency, and judged by the standard of the period, the Cantor's income was not inadequate and served to maintain Bach's large family in comfort. When he died in 1750, in addition to a mining share valued at 60 thalers, he possessed in cash or bonds about 360 thalers, silver plate valued at 251 thalers, instruments valued at 371 thalers, house furniture valued at 29 thalers, and books valued at 38 thalers. His whole estate was declared at 1158 thalers, or somewhat less than the savings of two years' income. But for the inequitable distribution of his property, owing to his intestacy, which left Anna Magdalena only about 400 thalers and the mining share, Bach's widow and unmarried daughters ought not to have been afflicted with excessive poverty, as in fact they were.

At the beginning of his Cantorate Bach worked amid discouraging and unsatisfactory conditions. The Rector, Johann Heinrich Ernesti, was over seventy years of age in 1723. The School was badly managed, its discipline was relaxed, the better-to-do citizens withheld their sons from it, and its numbers were seriously diminished. In 1717 the junior cla.s.ses contained only 53 as against 120 in Ernesti's earlier years. The proximity and operatic traditions of Dresden and Weissenfels also had a bad effect; the St. Thomas' boys, after attaining musical proficiency, were apt to become restless, demanding release from their indentures, and even running away to more attractive and lucrative occupations. Moreover, the governors of the School were the Town Council, a body which had little sympathy with or appreciation of Bach's artistic aims and temperament. To these difficulties must be added another. The Town Musicians, on whom Bach relied for the nucleus of his orchestra, were few in number and inefficient.

So long as Ernesti lived, there was little prospect of reform. But, after his death, in October 1729, Bach made vigorous representations to the Town Council. Already he had remonstrated with the Council for presenting to foundation scholarships boys who lacked musical apt.i.tude. The Council retaliated by accusing Bach of neglecting his singing cla.s.ses, absenting himself without leave, and of other irregularities. He was declared to be "incorrigible" and it was resolved (August 2, 1730) to sequestrate the Cantor's income, in other words, to withhold from him the perquisites to which he was ent.i.tled for the conduct of the Church services.(114)

Bach was not deterred from offering, three weeks later (August 23, 1730), a "sketch of what const.i.tutes well-appointed Church music, with a few impartial reflections on its present state of decay" in Leipzig. The doc.u.ment reveals the conditions amid which Bach worked. Its representations may be summarised:

The foundation scholars of St. Thomas' are of four cla.s.ses: Trebles, Altos, Tenors, Ba.s.ses.

A choir needs from four to eight "concertists" ( solo singers) and at least two "ripienists" to each chorus part, i.e. a minimum of twelve voices.

The foundation scholars number fifty-five, by whom the choirs of the four Churches, St. Thomas', St. Nicolas', St. Peter's, and the New Church are provided. For the instrumental accompaniments at least twenty players are required: viz., 2 or 3 first Violins, 2 or 3 second Violins, 4 Violas, 2 Violoncelli, 1 Contraba.s.so, 2 or more Flutes, 2 or 3 Oboi, 1 or 2 f.a.gotti, 3 Trombe, 1 Timpani. To fill these places there are eight Town Musicians, and at the moment there are no players available for third Tromba, Timpani, Viola, Violoncello, Contraba.s.so, third Oboe (or Taille).

To augment the Town Musicians the Cantor has been wont in the past to employ University students and instrumental players in the School. Upon the former "at all times" he relies for Viola, Violoncello, and Contraba.s.so, and "generally" for the second Violins. But the Council, by its recent resolution, no longer affords the Cantor the means to employ them. To place the scholars in the orchestra weakens the choir, to which they naturally belong.

By presenting to foundation scholarships boys unskilled and ignorant of music, the resources at the Cantor's disposal are still farther lessened.

Hence, Bach concludes, "in ceasing to receive my perquisites I am deprived of the power of putting the music into a better condition."

No answer was made to Bach's memorial, and he contemplated resigning his position. But with the advent of Johann Matthias Gesner as Rector in September 1730 a happier period dawned upon the "incorrigible" Cantor. In 1732 Gesner procured the withdrawal of the Council's ban on Bach's perquisites. The fallen fortunes of the School revived, and Bach did not again make an effort to leave Leipzig. In 1736 the grant of the post of Hof-Componist to the Saxon Court gave him at length a t.i.tle which compelled the deference of his civic masters.

Bach's early misunderstanding with the University cut him off from a.s.sociation with the most dignified, if not the most important, inst.i.tution in Leipzig, and deprived him of opportunity to display his genius beyond the radius of his Church duties. The situation changed in 1729, when he became director of the University Society, and he held the post for about ten years. The Society gave weekly concerts on Fridays, from 8 to 10, and an extra concert, during the Fair season, on Thursdays at the same hour. It performed vocal and instrumental music and was the medium through which Bach presented his secular Cantatas, Clavier and Violin Concertos, and Orchestral Suites to the public. The proficiency of his elder sons and pupils, and his wife's talent as a singer, were a farther source of strength to the Society, whose direction undoubtedly made these years the happiest in Bach's life. He took his rightful place in the musical life of the city, and relegated to a position of inferiority the smaller fry, such as Gorner, who had presumed on Bach's aloofness from the University and Munic.i.p.ality to insinuate themselves.

His increasing reputation as an organist, gained in his annual autumn tours, also enlightened his fellow-townsmen regarding the superlative worth of one whom at the outset they were disposed to treat as a subordinate official.

The Leipzig of Bach's day offered various opportunities for musical celebration; official events in the University, "gratulations" or "ovations" of favourite professors by their students, as well as patriotic occasions in which town and gown partic.i.p.ated. The recognised fee for pieces d'occasion of a public character was fifty thalers. Bach's conductorship of the University Society enabled him to perform festival works with the resources they required, and to augment the band and chorus needed for their adequate performance.

Even before he undertook the direction of the University Society, Bach more than once provided the music for University celebrations. On August 3, 1725, his secular Cantata, _Der zufried-engestellte Aeolus,_ was performed at the students' celebration of Doctor August Friedrich Muller's name-day. In 1726 he revived an old Cantata(115) to celebrate the birthday of another of the Leipzig teachers. In the same year the appointment of Dr. Gottlieb Kortte as Professor of Roman Law was celebrated by Bach's Cantata _Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten._ In 1733 the birthday of another Professor was marked by the performance of the Cothen Cantata to yet another text (_Die Freude reget sich_). On November 21, 1734, the lost Cantata _Thomana sa.s.s annoch betrubt_ was sung at the induction of Gesner's successor, Johann August Ernesti, as Rector of St. Thomas' School.

But Bach's activity as a secular composer at Leipzig was chiefly expended on patriotic celebrations. His compositions of this character are particularly numerous during the years 1733-36, while he was seeking from the Dresden Court the post of Hof-Componist. The first of these celebrations took place on May 12, 1727, the birthday of Augustus II. of Poland-Saxony, when Bach's Cantata, _Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne,_ was performed in the Market Place by the University Society. The King was present and listened to the performance from a convenient window. The music is lost. Six years elapsed before Bach was invited to collaborate in another celebration of the royal House. On September 5, 1733, less than two months after his application for the post of Hof-Componist, the University Society celebrated the eleventh birthday of the Electoral Prince by performing Bach's dramma per musica, _Die Wahl des Herkules,_ or _Herkules auf dem Scheidewege._ Barely three months later, on December 8, 1733, Bach produced another Cantata in honour of the royal family, _Tonet, ihr Pauken, erschallet Trompeten,_ of which he was both author and composer. On no less than three occasions in 1734 Bach did homage to his unheeding sovereign. In January the University Society, under Bach's direction, performed his Cantata _Blast Larmen, ihr Feinde_ to celebrate the coronation of Augustus III. The music had already done duty in Dr.

Muller's honour in 1725. On the following October 5, 1734, when the King visited Leipzig, Bach's hurriedly written Cantata, _Preise dein Glucke, gesegnetes Sachsen,_ whose first chorus became the Osanna of the B minor Ma.s.s, was performed in the Market Place. Two days later, on October 7, 1734, the King's birthday was celebrated by another Bach Cantata, _Schleicht spielende Wellen,_ performed by the Collegium Music.u.m. In 1738, having received the coveted t.i.tle of Hof-Componist in the interval (1736), Bach performed a work-_Willkommen, ihr herrschenden Gotter der Erden_-now lost, in honour of the marriage of the Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony to Charles of Sicily, afterwards Charles III. of Spain.

Apart from his musical activities and the house in which he lived there is little that permits us to picture Bach's life at Leipzig. a.s.sociation with his friends Johann Christian Hoffmann, Musical Instrument Maker to the Court, Marianne von Ziegler, J. C. Gottsched and his musical wife, Johann Abraham Birnbaum, among the Professoriate, Picander and Christian Weiss, Bach's regular librettists, suggests the amenities of an academic and literary circle. But the claims of his art and the care of his large family had the first call upon Bach's interest. And few men had a happier home life. While his elder sons were at home the family concerts were among his most agreeable experiences. As his fame increased, his house became the resort of many seeking to know and hear the famous organist.

Late in the thirties he resigned his directorship of the University Society. His sons were already off his hands and out of his house, and he turned again to the Organ works of his Weimar period. Their revision occupied the last decade of his life, and the hitherto constant flow of Church Cantatas ceased. Pupils resorted to him and filled his empty house, to one of whom, Altnikol, he gave a daughter in marriage.

A man of rigid uprightness, sincerely religious; steeped in his art, earnest and grave, yet not lacking naive humour; ever hospitable and generous, and yet shrewd and cautious; pugnacious when his art was slighted or his rights were infringed; generous in the extreme to his wife and children, and eager to give the latter advantages which he had never known himself; a lover of sound theology, and of a piety as deep as it was unpretentious-such were the qualities of one who towers above all other masters of music in moral grandeur.

Four, perhaps only three, contemporary portraits of Bach are known. One is in the possession of the firm of Peters at Leipzig and once belonged to Carl Philipp Emmanuel's daughter, who with inherited impiety sold it to a Leipzig flute player. The second hung in St. Thomas' School and is reproduced at p. 48 of this volume. It was painted in 1746 and restored in 1913. Both portraits are by Elias Gottlieb Haussmann, Court Painter at Dresden. The third portrait belonged to Bach's last pupil, Kittel, and used to hang on the Organ at Erfurt, whence it disappeared after 1809, during the Napoleonic wars. Recently Professor Fritz Volbach of Mainz has discovered a fourth portrait, which is printed at p. 92 of the present volume. He supposes it to be none other than the Erfurt portrait, as indeed it well may be, since it represents a man of some sixty years, austere in countenance, but of a dignity that is not so apparent in Haussmann's portraiture.(116)

Bach left no will. In consequence his widow, Anna Magdalena, burdened with the charge of a step-daughter and two daughters, was ent.i.tled to only one-third of her husband's estate. Neither Carl Philipp Emmanuel nor Wilhelm Friedemann was her own child. But the fact cannot excuse gross neglect of their father's widow. Her own sons were in a position to make such a contribution to her income as would at least have kept want from her door. In fact she was permitted to become dependent on public charity, and died, an alms-woman, on February 27, 1760, nearly ten years after her great husband. The three daughters survived her. One died in 1774, the second in 1781. The third, Regine Susanna, survived them, her want relieved by gifts from a public that at last was awakening to the grandeur of her father. Beethoven contributed generously. Regine Susanna died in December 1809, the last of Bach's children. In 1845 her nephew, Johann Christoph Friedrich's son, also died. With him the line of Johann Sebastian Bach expired.

[Johann Sebastian Bach, circa 1746. From the picture by Haussmann.]

Johann Sebastian Bach, circa 1746. _From the picture by Haussmann._