Issue 16 - Bach as father

The prelude and postludes this Sunday were composed by J. S. Bach and are based on the great German hymn Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr. The hymn can be found in the LBW at 166. In the LBW, the hymn is placed under the section for "The Holy Trinity". (If I'd been in town on June 3rd, I might have played these to go with Holy Trinity Sunday!) But the text truly works well for any time of year. This hymn was the traditional Gloria that was sung during Bach's time. (In our services at St. John's, it would be sung in place of "Now the feast and celebration... " or "This is the feast of victory..."). We call it a "Hymn of Praise" instead of a Gloria.

In honor of Father's Day, I thought it might be fun to focus on J. S. Bach as a father (as opposed to J. S. Bach as the greatest of composer of all-time!). Piecing together surviving documents about Bach paints a delightful picture of his family life.

In an excerpt from disciplinary writings regarding the 21-year-old Bach when he was organist in Arnstadt, we learn of his courtship with his first wife: "Thereupon ask him by what right he recently caused the strange maiden to be invited into the choir loft and let her make music there". Soon after, he marries the previously referred to "young maiden", Maria Barbara Bach (who also happened to be his cousin). They were married thirteen years and had seven children (four of whom survived childhood) before Maria Barbara died in 1720.

A year later, Bach (then 36) married 20-year-old Anna Magdalena who, like Bach, came from a musical family. Her father was the court trumpeter in Weissenfels and her mother's father was also an organist. Anna Magdalena was a fine musician in her own right and assisted Bach in transcribing many of his compositions. Together, they had 13 children - more than half of whom died during childhood.

J. S. Bach boasts about his family in this letter in search of a new job in 1730: "...The children of my second marriage are still small, the eldest, a boy, being six years old. But they are all born musicians, and I can assure you that I can already form an ensemble [made of] both [voices] and [instruments] within my family, particularly since my present wife sings a good, clear soprano, and my eldest daughter, too, joins in not badly."

Johann Nicolaus Forkel (1749-1818) was the first biographer of J. S. Bach and wrote this of Bach's character, "Besides Bach's great merit as so accomplished a performer, composer and teacher of music, he also had the merit of being an excellent father, friend and citizen. His virtues of a father he showed by his care for the education of his children." Bach indeed taught his children well; several, including Carl Phillip Emmanuel, went on to be more famous and prosperous then even Bach was at that time.

Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach wrote this of his father in 1754: "Of his moral character, those may speak who enjoyed association and friendship with him and were witnesses to his uprightness toward God and his neighbor." I can't imagine better praise written about a father by his son!

Happy Father's Day!

(Quotations from "The Bach Reader" edited by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, 1945)
(Image: “Bach with his Family at the Morning’s Devotion” by Toby Edward Rosenthal)