The Significance of Bach

Introduction • Interpretation Today • Bach’s Concept of Himself
Bach’s Church Music • My Own Position

Bach’s Concept of Himself

In order to undertake an evaluation of each of these interpretative viewpoints, we must first inquire into Bach’s concept of himself. Did he wish to be the “fifth evangelist,” as Albert Schweitzer and Phillip Spitta saw him, or did he strive for something completely different, and needed church music as a means of survival, as suggested in the newer picture of Bach suggested by Friedrich Blume?

I would like to explore three thoughts on this subject.

Bach’s life saw him initially in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Weimar, in each case employed as a church musician. Then he went to Cöthen as the court Kapeltmeister. Why did he then apply for the cantorate at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, and not for another position as Kapeltmelster?

Did Bach truly have no other choice than to become and to remain a church musician because of need? The same Bach who in his famous “divertimento” lamented the departure of his brother into the guard of the King of Sweden as an oboist? The same Bach who could have followed in the footsteps of Handel, who was born but a month before him and hardly sixty mites away? The same Bach who counted the famous and successful Telemann among his friends? The same Bach whose house was constantly hosting first-rank artists of his time who were passing through Leipzig?

A final point: the music that he composed in the carrying out of his churchmusic duties often betrays the traces of haste and deadline pressure, but never, truly never, do we encounter the routine, unimaginative, and undemanding type of composition that would have relieved him quickly of the task at hand in order to free him to deal with higher priorities.

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.

Next: Bach’s Church Music

Introduction • Interpretation Today • Bach’s Concept of Himself
Bach’s Church Music • My Own Position