Johann Sebastian Bach's Interview

1. What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?

Honestly, I could not have escaped music even if I had wanted to. My father, also named Johann, was the town musician in my birthplace, Eisenach. He gave me my first violin lessons. Before him, there were several generations of musical Bachs. It has been recorded that “… anybody who was a reputable musician was automatically referred to as a ‘Bach’.” (Cross, 1953)
Sadly, my father’s music was silenced in 1695 when he died. My mother had died a year earlier. So orphaned at 10, I went to live with my oldest brother, Johann Christoph. He did not always appreciate me being there. He once destroyed a whole pile of music I had worked on copying by candlelight, night after night. Actually, that’s how I learned about music. I copied it, transcribed it, imitated it, and listened to it. I did not have much formal education.
I had a good voice and great skills as a violinist and organist. I also composed lots of music from a very young age. In my life I wrote music for every form but opera. Outside of music, though, I had very little interest in the arts. I created and performed music to worship God.




2. What role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?

Well, my earliest mentors were my father and brother, who taught me violin and keyboard. Some would say that my skills were unequaled so I would say that instead of mentors, I had benefactors. The church fathers who hired me as organist and choir directors gave me a place to explore and develop my talents.


3. What was the world of art like when you entered it?

The Baroque Era was a period of artistic creativity of the seventeenth century. It came after the Counter-Reformation and was popular in royal courts. In the courts, it symbolized emerging power of the new monarchies following the Thirty Years War.

During the Baroque period, music was more elaborate and lavish; singers and instrumentalists were virtuosos; instrumental parts were more complicated; melodies were rich. Opera became popular during the Baroque Era, though I did not write any operas. Caravaggio, Rembrandt and Bernini were creating their art elsewhere in Europe, a little before I was born, but you can see the drama in their work.

Through my meticulous copying, traveling and imitation of the earlier musicians, I had a good knowledge of my contemporaries, like Pachelbel and Buxtehude. Later, I had contact with the likes of Telemann, and Handel and Vivaldi all of the Baroque era


4. How did the major cultural, economic and political situations of the time impact your work?

In Germany we were still recovering from the effect of the Thirty Years War. The population was finally growing and the living conditions were improving. Many new principalities had been created and the new princes wanted to increase their popularity among the people. So the arts flourished, especially architecture and music. Musicians like myself began to be paid.

Religious conflict between the Catholics and Martin Luther’s reformers brought the Protestant Church into being. No more Latin services! Music and services in my native German helped choral music flourish. My organ and harpsichord talents were sought out and rewarded.


5. What were your major accomplishments and the methods you used in your art?

Besides the sheer volume of my compositions, I think that The Mass in B-Minor was my favorite piece. It took me more than 30 years to complete and I did it for myself. I was a Lutheran and the Mass is a Catholic liturgical element. Still it expressed a piety and devotion I loved.

My work was marked by a certain improvisational skill I developed as a young composer; virtuosity I gained over years of diligent work, and a good understanding of the way my instruments worked. I knew a lot about organs, particularly.

6. What were the key opportunities that led to turning points in your life and art?

My first opportunity arose when I was about 15 years old. I left Johann Cristoph’s home in 1700 when I was hired as a choir boy at the Michaelis Monastery at Luneburg. They took care of poor boys who showed musical talent. So I had a happier personal life and a better exposure to choral and orchestral performances. After my voice changed, I stayed on at Michaelis as a violinist and accompanist.

I wanted to go back home, Thuringia, and had the chance when they invited me to test out an organ in the “New Church” in Arnstadt. I played well and they hired me as the organist. I loved playing for the church and composing music for the services. My paid musical career started in Arnstadt.

While in Arnstadt, the authorities accused me of breaking the strict rule allowing for only males in the choir. I had allowed a woman to sing. That woman was Maria Barbara Bach, my cousin. Following the accusation, I left Arnstadt. My uncle Tobias Lammerhirt died about the same time and left me an inheritance, enough to let me marry Maria Barbara. We left for Mulhausen and began our family of seven children. I had a little bit of controversy with church authorities in Mulhausen, too. The Pietists who did not favor music and the Lutherans who loved music, were fighting with each other. I was unable to do my work without opposition, so I resigned.

Another opportunity occurred in 1717 when my young family and I moved to Cothen, where I was the Director of Music for King Leopold. Leopold was a good friend of mine, even standing as the godfather of one of the children. The Prince loved music and played the viola de gamba quite well. He traveled to Italy and often brought back the newest music. It was a perfect place until he took his second wife, who was not at all interested in music. I called her an “amusa, one who had no feeling for things of the aesthetic realm” (Bettman, 14). Leopold soon dismissed his court orchestra and I moved on to Leipzig in 1723.

Leipzig presented its own opportunities. My children could attend a good school there, St. Thomas. I especially enjoyed directing the Collegium Musicum. Collegia Musica were associations of musicians, mostly students, who played in cafes, public outdoor places and verandas. I spent my old age in Leipzig.


7. What personal choices did you make to become successful?

As I moved from Luneburg, Arnstadt, on to Mulhausen, Weimar and Cothen, and finally to Lepizig, my compositions and creative work reflected each assignment. For instance, while I was the organist at Arnstadt, I wrote mostly organ work. At Cothen, I wrote hundreds of cantatas because it was my job as Kapellmeister.

I changed jobs when I felt stifled or underappreciated. After Leopold married that young silly girl and cut off much of the court music, I left Cothen for Leipzig. Earlier in Mulhausen, when I argued with the pastor about the kind of music, I resigned. In some ways, I guess my moving around to different jobs exposed me to musical environments and allowed me to add compositions to many genres of repertoire.

And speaking of moving around, I traveled on foot as a young man to see other performers, play other instruments and participate in other musical endeavors. It was not uncommon in my lifetime for musicians to do so.

8. What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?

I had been the court musician at Weimar for nine years when the opportunity to direct the Weimar Orchestra presented itself in 1716. Unfortunately for me, Duke Wilhelm Ernst wanted to keep the position in the previous director’s family and so he appointed Drese Weimer’son to the job. I was outraged and left Weimar. They arrested me for not fulfilling my contract. I left the next year for Cothen. My job there as Kapellmeister required me to write for an orchestra of 18 players. Much orchestral and chamber music came during this period. My playing and composing for the organ was all but done. So being overlooked for the job at Weimar made me move on, and in doing so, put me on another path. My first wife, Maria Barbara died in 1720 while we were in Cothen.

As I grew older, my eyesight failed. I was unable to finish my last work The Art of Fugue because of my blindness. All those nights of copying music by candlelight caught up with me, I guess.


9. What kind of limitations did you run onto as both and artist and a person?

My compositions were not limited in number, but my popularity with audiences
during my life was. I composed thousands of pieces, which later were collected and catalogued in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, known as the BWV. My virility was not limited; I fathered enough children to make my own small orchestra! But my children did not respect me as much as you might expect.

The tragedies in my life including my parents’ children’s and first wife’s deaths
might have broken another man, but sorrow was an everyday thing for me.

I was paid for my musical leadership and instruction when I was just a young man, but there never seemed to be enough money. I had a limited education outside my music.

My failing eyesight and the operation to save my vision were hard to accept. I was
unable to finish The Art of Fugue in my last days in Leipzig.

10. What personal anecdotes best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?

Like many of my fellow musicians, I would frequently send compositions to important people in the hope of receiving some money, an appointment or some token of appreciation. Since I was the father of so many children, I did this often because I needed the money.
Back in 1721, I knew of a very powerful man, the son of the Prussian King. His name was Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. I had written Six Concertos for Various Instruments for the margrave. Together the six concertos featured the instruments of the Baroque Age: flute, violin, harpsichord, viola, piccolo, trumpet recorder and oboe. I expected good news from him at least; some money at best. But nothing came back. Margrave’s response to my work was very typical. I was largely unappreciated during my active years of composing.

Note: Six Concertos for Various Instruments was never performed during the Margrave’s life. His orchestra was unable to play the demanding music and it was simply put aside. After the Margrave’s death in 1734, one of Bach’s students bought the bundle of music for pennies. In the 1800s, the six concertos were discovered by Bach’s biographer and they became one of Bach’s most popular compositions. Known today as the Brandenburg Concertos, the six pieces are lively, dazzling and frequently performed and recorded by the best orchestras.