bach - biografía completa

8/12/2019 Bach - Biografa completa

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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH'S LIFE (1685-1750)

Compared to most other major composers, Johann Sebastian Bach's life and career were confined to a verylimited geographical space. Born and raised in Thuringia, he never went farther north than amburg and!"bec#, or farther south than Carlsbad. $n a similarly confined way, his east%west range stretched from&resden east( to )assel west(. is complete geographical space can be found on a map derived fromChristoph *olff's great scholarly Bach study Chr. *olff, Bach, +ssays on is !ife and usic. arvard

-niversity ress, Cambridge, ass., /00/(.

The little map on the current page derived from a &utch boo# on Bach1 J. 2ubinstein, !. 3an asselt, and T.)oopman, Bach. Terra, 4utphen, /056( shows the places where Bach actually lived and wor#ed. $t is aclic#able map, which means thay you can follow the course of Johann Sebastian Bach's life by clic#ing thetowns on the map with the mouse of your computer. $f you want to follow Johann Sebastian's complete*erdegang, just start with his birthpace +isenach bottom left(, follow the arrows, and end in !eip7ig, where hedied in /869. Thus, the right order is as follows1

+isenach /:56%/:06 ;hrdruf /:06%/899 !"neburg /899%/89< *eimar /89=%/89= >rnstadt /89=%/898 "hlhausen /898%/895 *eimar /895%/8/8 )?then /8/8%/8lthough ;hrdruf has its Johann%Sebastian%Bach%Strasseat the place where Johann Christoph's house and the school used to be, these buildings no longer eEist.

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L%ne! 1700-170Bach left for !"neburg on /6 arch /899, together with his school friend Aeorg +rdmann. >ccording to an oldregulation, children of poor parents could attend the !atin school here and pay for their costs by singing in thechoir of the ichaelis#irche and %schule St. ichael's choir and church(. St. ichel's church is what you seethe eEterior of here. >n image of the interioris also available.Bach who had a much%praised soprano voice before his voice bro#e( and +rdmann were singers of the

ettenchor matin choir( here and were paid some money according to the surviving payroll. Bach's choice forSt. ichel's can, apart from financial necessity, be seen as a conscious step towards an advanced musicalcareer. The school had an impressive musical tradition and had a famous music library, to which the greatcantor Driedrich +manuel raetorius /:ltogether, the library contained //9< titles of about /86 composers at the death of raetorius. ossibly, thefoundation was laid here for Bach's legendary musical erudition and certainly for his profound familiarity withthe /8th century Aerman choir tradition.

St. ichael's also housed the F2ittera#ademieF, a college for young nobles, at which Drench music andmanners were cultivated. There were regular concerts by the famous Drench band maintained by the du#e ofnearby Celle. Current Bach scholarship tends to stress the importance of Drench influences on Bach duringthis period.

>t the end of this short period in !"neburg, Bach appears to be be an organ virtuoso of some renown. Since itis impossible that his s#ills in this respect came out of the blue, he must, apart from his earlier training in thefamily, have had plenty of opportunity for #eyboard playing in !"neburg. @othing is #nown about this, but it isnot unli#ely that he too# lessons from the older Aeorg B?hm who came from the same Thuringian bac#groundas Bach. B?hm was organist at the Johannis#irche, the organ of which is shown on the picture here. Thisorgan was, incidentally, in bad shape. B?hm also wrote Drench%inspired #eyboard music. B?hm's influence isobvious in Bach's earliest organ wor#s.

>t least as important for the young Bach was the influence of Johan >dam 2ein#en, the 85 year old organist ofthe )atharinen#irche in amburg and perhaps the former teacher of B?hm who certainly was in amburg forsome years(. Bach went to amburg several times in order to get familiar with 2ein#en's wor#. $n the summervacation of /89/, for instance, Johann Sebastian wal#ed to amburg 5 #m to the @orth( to hear 2ein#en andothers in amburg. 2ein#en, of &utch origin, was of the school of the great /8th%century &utch composer and

>msterdam city organist Jan ieters7. Sweelinc#, who was a major influence on the northern Aerman organscene. Sweelinc#, in turn, was much influenced by the virtuoso variation techniGue of the +nglish virginalistsBull, Byrd, Aibbons, and others(. >ll in all, then, Bach not only underwent Drench influence in !"neburg but via2ein#en also considerable &utch, and indirectly, +nglish influence.

The end of Bach's !"neburg period is somewhat obscure. e left around +aster /89ugust /89=. >part from his application to the post of organist in Sangerhausen see !"neburg(, wedo not #now what Bach did between his departure from !"neburg around +aster /89< and his short job as livedecoration in *eimar. !uc#ily, Bach would soon become organist in >rnstadt.

A!ns,a", 170+-1707>rnstadt at Bach's time was a very charming town of only =599 inhabitants. $t was here that Johann Sebastiangot his first serious job1

$n >ugust /89= he was appointed organist of the @eue )irche. This was the third church of the town after the;ber#irche and the !iebfrau%#irche(, but it had an attractive new *ender organ. ;bviously, Johann Sebastianalready had a certain mar#et value as organist, because he got a relatively high salary1 twice as much as hissuccessor in /898, his cousin Johann +rnst. > receipt of payment has been preserved.

Sebastian's tenure in >rnstadt was not entirely successful. e was obsessed by the organ and refused toseriously practice with the boys of the church's school choir not his official duty anyway(. e got into conflictand in the summer of /896 he even had a street fight with the bassoon player Aeyersbach after JohannSebastian had called him names(.


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!ater in /896 he obtained a four wee# leave of absence to go to !"bec# to get acGuainted with the music of&ietrich BuEtehude. $n ;ctober /896 he wal#ed the rnstadt his cousin Johann +rnst(. BuEtehude's vocal wor#s li#e Castrum &oloris, of whichonly the teEt has survived( presumably had a direct influence on Bach's own early vocal wor#s, li#e Aottes 4eitis die allerbeste 4eit '>ctus Tragicus'(, B*3 /9: officially belonging to the "hlhausen period(.

$nstead of after four wee#s, Bach only returned to >rnstadt in the middle of January /89: >bendmusi#en orjust a girlH(. The church authorities were not amused. oreover, Bach applied his new virtuoso organtechniGue during the church services and was thus said to confuse the unprepared congregation. e was alsoaccused of going into the wine cellar during sermons and ma#ing music with a Fstranger maidF in the church.ost biographers presume that this was his second cousin and later wife aria Barbara. ;n what evidenceHaria Barbara, who lived for a while in the same house of her relative mayor Deldthauss( as Sebastian, wasnot really a Fstranger maidF for the very small population of >rnstadt.

>ll in all, then, Johann Sebastian did not eEactly live the life of a saint during his >rnstadt period. *ithout tryingto ma#e our hero more romantic than he really was, it also must be said that it seems a somewhat unrealisticinterpretation of the ambitions of an energetic nyway, Bach's days in >rnstadt were counted. +ventually, he found a new position in "hlhausen andapplied for his resignation in >rnstadt.

*or#s3ery few wor#s have survived of the >rnstadt period. erhaps Capriccio sopra la lontanan7a del suo fratellodilettissimo Capriccio on the &eparture of is ost Beloved Brother(, B*3 00rnstadt/89(. Durthermore, the chorale prelude *ie sch?n leuchtet der orgenstern, B*3 8=0, is ascribed to this

period around /896(. The autograph of this prelude is also the oldest surviving Bach autograph. >nother youthwor# is the fragmentary early version of the relude and Dugue in A inor, B*3 6=6a. erhaps, some of the"hlhausen cantatas also have their origin in >rnstadt, li#e Christ lag in Todesbanden, B*3 , and @ach dir,err, verlanget mich, B*3 /69.

%h.ha#sen 1707-1708Johann Aeorg >hle, organist of the Blasius#irche in "hlhausen, died on < &ecember /89:. The city wantedto revitali7e its declining music life. ;n +aster Sunday /898 pril(, Johann Sebastian Bach gave a testperformance, as organist, and possibly also with the cantata Christ lag in Todesbanden, B*3. e obtainedthe prestigious position as organist in June of the same year. Things went more smoothly here for Bach than in>rnstadt. oreover, a small inheritance from his uncle, Tobias !mmerhirt, made it possible for him to getmarried to his beloved second cousin aria Barbara Bach the Thuringia of those days was not free of in%breeding(. ;n /8 ;ctober /898, Sebastian and Barbara had their ceremony in the church of &ornheim.

$n "hlhausen, Bach developed an interest in composing vocal church music. This new interest might haveoriginated under the impact of BuEtehude's >bendmusi#en. $t is also a fact that the Blasius#irche had a muchricher vocal tradition and offered a more favorable setting for vocal music than the @eue )irche in >rnstadt thechurch also had a great music library, where Bach studied and copied a lot of traditional church music(. ariaBarbara is almost never mentioned in this conteEt, but it is not eEcluded that she too played a role in herhusband's shift of interest she was the daughter of a prolific composer of vocal wor#s, after all(.

>nyway, even Bach's very first cantatas are superb masterpieces. ;ne of the "hlhausen cantatas, the2atswechsel Fcity council changeF( cantata, Aott ist mein )?nig, B*3 8/ was even printed. $n fact, it wouldremain the only cantata to appear in print during Bach's life time. @one of Telemann's or ndel's wor#s hadappeared in print yet, so, the performance on Debruary /895 must have been a real triumph for the


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Drohne, were in general less favorably inclined towards rich church music, modern Bach scholarship tends tominimi7e the effect of the dispute on Johann Sebastian. > more crucial event might have been the great firethat destroyed one fourth of "hlhausen on =9 ay /898. This catastrophe no doubt had a deep economicalimpact on "hlhausen, which made its climate less favorable for church music. $t must also not be overloo#edthat Bach was very ambitious, eager to improve both his financial position and his social status. *ith his fastgrowing reputation as an organ virtuoso and composer, he had just outgrown his "hlhausen position in oneyear. $n spite of this, Bach managed to maintain good relationships with "hlhausen. e continued

supervising the rebuilding of the Blasius church organ, which was started on his recommendations. e alsohad a personal relationship with pastor +ilmar, who later on became the godfather of Bach's first childCatharina &orothea.

*or#sajor organ wor#s of the "hlhausen period are the famous Toccata and Dugue in & inor, B*3 6:6 and therelude and Dugue in & ajor, B*3 6=nother masterpiece ascribed to this period is the organassacaglia in C inor, B*3 65part from Aott ist mein )?nig, B*3 B*3 8/, Bach presumably composedthe following cantatas in "hlhausen although >rnstadt roots are not eEcluded(1 >us der Tiefen, B*3 /=/,sometimes said to be Bach's first cantata /898H(, also mentioned in connection with the fire catastrophe of/898I and, last but not least, the masterly Aottes 4eit ist die allerbeste 4eit, '>ctus Tragicus'(, B*3 /9:.Some other cantatas of these period are lost. The cantatas of this period often have a /8th century motet style,using bible teEts and choirs, with ariosos at best. @evertheless, the form is more varied than the more

stereotypical $talian recitativo plus aria style that Bach developed during his neEt *eimar period.ei*a! (II) 1708-1717ere we are in *eimar, one of the major courts in the area in which Johann Sebastian rose to fame. is moveto *eimar, 9 miles to the north of "hlhausen, was a significant step in his career, both financially his salarywas doubled( and professionally. Bach had been here before, for a very brief period as violinist in /89=, andwe already met one of the du#es of *eimar, Johann +rnst, who died in /898. *eimar, uneasily governed byno fewer than two du#es, was now governed by the formadible loo#ing du#e *ilhem +rnst picture on the left(and since /890 also by his nephew and successor of Johann +rnst, +rnst >ugust smaller picture on the right(.*ilhelm +rnst /::ugust. +specially, Johann +rnst Jr., who died when he was only /0 years old, was musically gifted.e too# composition lessons from Bach's friend and relative in *eimar Johann Aottfried *alther. Johann+rnst also had the the good idea to ma#e a trip to >msterdam, to return in /8/= with a rich collection of $talianmusic. Johann Sebastian Bach made various organ transcription of the $talian material, and particularly3ivaldi's /8/< collection of concertos, !'+stro armonico had a profound influence on Bach's style ofcomposition. This was in fact a decisive moment in Bach's development1 from now on he combined his earliercounterpoint style, with its northern Aerman and Drench influences, with 3ivaldi%li#e harmonic planning andthematic development.

Bach was only


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$n /8/=, Bach had the opportunity of succeeding Driedrich *ilhelm 4achow, former teacher of andel, at the!iebfrauen#irche in alle. Bach gave an organ concert here and perhaps a performance of the cantata $chhabe viel Be#"mmernis, B*3 nhalt%)?then /:0%/8


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Two years before, young !eopold had ta#en over the government of the princedom from his mother, Aisela>gnes, an active !utheran at this Calvinistic court, who still held considerable power. @either Calvinism normama prevented !eopold from spending almost a Guarter of the total revenue of the princedom to his greathobby1 the band. The prince had hand%pic#ed his eEpensive virtuosos from Berlin and now things evenbecame super for the young ruler because he succeeded to attract already famous Johann Sebastian Bach ashis Capellmeister, for the considerable sum of 99 Taler a year.

The prince played the violin, the viola da gamba and the clavier himself and loved to join the band as asophisticated )arao#e player. >parently, mama did't want to have the band in the palace all the time, so, theyhad to practice at the house of !eopold's friend Sebastian, who received some eEtra money for theinconvenience Bach loved eEtra money for this or for that(.

>part from repertoire for the band, Bach wrote lots of chamber music in )?then. $n /8/0 he went to Berlin toget a great iet#e harpsichord for the court, which greatly stimulated his #eyboard output. Bach did not have towrite church music at this Calvinistic court. $nterestingly, he did not seem to miss this at all because from therecord it appears that he had the time of his life, just by producing chamber music in relative freedom, or byma#ing a trip now and then to test an organ. layboyish prince !eopold even too# his musicians to Carlsbad,where he Ftoo# the watersF during the summers of /8/5 and /8nna agdalena employed by !eopold since/8ll available evidence, however, points in a different direction. Dirst of all, recall that aria Barbara's sister,Driedelena agdalena, was part of the Bach household till her death in /8nna agdalena *ilc#en or *"l#enI daughter of the trumpeter of the*eissenfels court(, was a very gifted soprano, who even earned half the salary of her famous /: year olderCapellmeister and lover Sebastian. >nna agdalena was probably only /0 years old when she and her =6year old boss fell for each other. They had been wor#ing together for more than a year when they finally gotmarried on = &ecember /8rnstadt(. ow and when had their courtship begunHow do we have to eEplain the life%long resentment of the children from the first marriage, who completeley left

her alone after their father's death in /869H >lthough Bach's first marriage was reportedly a happy one, thereis much more evidence for the happiness of the second marriage.

rince !eopold was inspired by all this to marry one wee# later, to his cousin Driederica enrietta von >nhalt%Bernburg inbreeding was not limited to Thuringia(. This charming princess see picture( has become the mostfamous amusa i.e., anti%musical persona( of the history of music. This is due to the fact that Bach himselfblamed the declining climate for music in )?then on the poor princess in a letter to Aeorg +rdmann of /8=9(.odern scholarship has established, however, that !eopold had to contribute more and more to the russianmilitary, so that he had less money for music. $t should also be mentioned that the terrible amusa had alreadydied before Bach's departure to !eip7ig.

@o matter the causes of the declining musical life in )?then, Bach applied three times for another post since/8lready at the end of /8


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>nother indication that Bach was loo#ing for another job was the dedication of his siE Brandenburg Concertosto argrave Christian !udwig of Brandenburg. Christian !udwig had a band in his Berlin Castle, and Sebastianreminded him of Fthe small talents for music which eaven had granted himF. This implicit application did nothave any effect. Sebastian's third application was successful, however, be it that he was only third choice. $n>pril /8part from the declining musical situation in )?then, Bach was see#ing another position in connection with theeducational needs of his sons letter to Aeorg +rdmann, /8=9(. >nother common biographical interpretation isthat Bach wanted to write vocal church music again, hence his intererest in the amburg and !eip7ig positions.Some biographers even associate this alleged new interest in church music with the death of Bach's first wife.There is almost no evidence, however, that Bach saw church music as his true vocation. >lthough he certainlywrote a lot of church music, his purely instrumental output was much more constant and spread over a muchlarger part of his life. The documentary record seems to show that Bach's applications were almost alwaysmotivated by a down%to%earth desire to improve his position, musically, but certainly also in terms of prestigeand, above all, money. $t should also be noted that his flirtation with the argrave of Brandenburg had nothingto do with church music.

$t is, in this conteEt, also somewhat curious that Bach's nna agdalena is almost never

mentioned. ow could a composer, dearly in love with a gifted soprano, fail to have some renewed interest invocal musicH *hat Sebastian's three applications have in common, however, is that they are for positions inbig cities. ;ne can easily imagine that >nna agdalena and the upgrowing children were bored to death in)?then1

There is absolutely no place here where one can spend one's Talers or have some fun. So1 F&ad, let's go toamburg or Berlin for a change, and perhaps even !eip7ig will doF $n spite of the Bachs's move to !eip7ig,Sebastian continued to serve his prince as honorary Capellmeister, the prince he had so dearly loved and whodied in /8


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The St Thomas School had a choir tradition of centuries and was in Bach's time a #ind of musical serviceinstitute that had to supply the four major churches in !eip7ig with choirs on Sundays and other Christianholidays. The school is shown here on the right( in its old form on the left of the picture(. before theremodelling of the /8=9s, when two stories were added. There were four churches, the churches of St ThomasThomas#irche, on the picture on the right((, St @icholas @i#olai#irche(, St eter eters#irche(, and the @ewChurch @eue )irche(. The St @icholas church was the most important, followed by the St Thomas church. So,four choirs had to be formed out of the 66 pupils of the school. +ach choir had minimally eight singers two

sopranos, two altos, two tenors, and two basses( and four soloists. The best singers were used for the StThomas and St @icholas churches cantatas, passions, motets(, while the boys without talent had to sing lessambitious music in the St eter church.

There were choir rehearsals on onday, Tuesday, *ednesday and DridayI and on Saturday the boys werejoined by the instrumentalists for the rehearsal of the Sunday cantata. 3ery often, however, there waspractically no time for rehearsals. Bach wor#ed harder than ever before in those years and is supposed tohave written 6 yearly runs i.e., 6 E 60 cantatas( altogether. The first annual cycle of /8


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regular Sunday service in its St aul church auliner#irche( shown on the left below(. This service was calledthe FnewF service, neEt to the traditional FoldF service eight church high festivals only(. >fter )uhnau's death,the -niversity had given both services in the hands of a man of their own, Johann Aottlieb A?rner, organist ofthe St @icholas church. This discontinuation of the tradtional connection with the Thomas School made Bachfurious. $t made it very difficult for him to recruit students for the musical services in the other !eip7ig churchesand it also cost him money. >fter a long battle, it was decided that Bach could legally consider himself &irectorof usic of the -niversity of !eip7ig, but that his traditional prerogative only eEtended to the FoldF service, not

to the FnewF service. Bach lost his interest in these FoldF services and left them to an assistant. Dinancially,Bach completely lost the battle because the -niversity did not commision compositions anymore to theThomas Cantor, who therefore lost one of his sources of income.

Aradually, Bach became completely dissatisfied with his position, both financially and in terms of musicalfacilities. &uring the last twenty years of his life he devoted himself more and more to other musical projects,beginning in arch /8round /8=9, Bach's gigantic cantata production ran out of steam for a number of reasons. The materialcircumstances for church music were less than ideal and the various conflicts had made Bach weary of hisfunction. $n a famous memorandum to the !eip7ig city council of /8=9, Bach eEplained his grievances. Thisdocument is the most important source of information about Bachs's performance practice and ideas about the

desired si7e of choirs and instrumental groups. ;f the same year, a letter has survived that Bach had written tohis childhood friend Aeorg +rdmann, who lived in &ant7ig as diplomat in 2ussian service. $n this letter, Bachbitterly complains about his disappointing !eip7ig circumstances, and eEpresses serious interest in a functionin &ant7ig. @othing of this #ind wor#ed out, however.

!uc#ily, Bach had also found a new challenge since /8nother recent viewis that many of Bach's concertos including the famous violin concertos in > inor B*3 /9/( and & inorB*3 /9=( and also the ;uverture in B inor, B*3 /9:8( stem from this period and not from the )?thenyears, as was believed in the past(.

Till /8=6 Bach still composed a small number of church cantatas and oratorios, including the St ar# assion/8=/(, the Christmas ;ratorio /8=K=6(, the +aster ;ratorio /8=( and the >scension ;ratorio /8=6(, butafter /8=6 his religious canatata production came to an almost complete halt most of the wor#s just mentionedwere parodies of secular cantatas(. The production of secular cantatas, however, went on till at least /8< theyear of the easant Cantata, B*3


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western city wall. $n Bach's time it was neEt to a gate, with a little bridge, leading to the fields west of the city.The building was demolished in /09ugust +rnesti /898%/85/( picture on the left, below(. Dor some years, Bachhad had good relations with him, because +rnesti was godfather to two of Bach's children >ugust >braham in/8== and Johann Christian in /8=6(. But in the second half of the /8=9s, things went completely out of hand

between the two men. +rnesti, perhaps inspired by certain +nlightenment ideals, wished to diminish the role ofmusic in the Thomas school and came into conflict with Bach rector and cantor lived in the same noisybuilding, which was full of music all the timeI maybe, we shouldn't blame +rnesti too much on his growingdisli#e of music(. The conflict culminated in a, often public, fight about the right to appoint prefects leaders ofthe choirs(. Traditionally, this had been the privilege of the cantor, and when +rnesti tried to ta#e over thecantor's role in this respect, Bach was furious the enlightened +rnesti, one of the smartest faces in our portraitgallery in my opinion, wanted to dismiss a prefect that had beaten a studentI this was against Bach's will(. Thevery unpleasant struggle lasted from /8=: till /8=5, when everybody became silent all of a sudden,presumably by order of the SaEonian court in &resden !eip7ig's somewhat dormant but nevertheless highestauthority(.

The crucial point is that Bach had been appointed court Capellmeister and composer in &resden in /8=:without special duties(, to the service of the +lector of SaEony Drederic# >ugustus $$ #ing >ugustus $$$ of

oland(. Bach had applied for this function in /8==, with a very humble letter and under submission of twoparts the )yrie and Aloria( of the later( ass in B inor. This application had been prepared for years by thewriting of flattering congratulatory cantatas for members of the royal family. $n /8=:, Bach finally succeeded,presumably with some help from the influential Count )eyserling#, who greatly admired Bach and who waslater rewarded with a dedication of the Aoldberg variations.

>t the local !eip7ig( level, Bach would presumably have lost the fight about the prefects in the long run, butthe &resden interference now seemed to suffice to bring the overt conflict to an end. *ith a sufficient supply ofchurch cantatas from the /8


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Since /8==, the &resden connection had become very important for Sebastian. $n contrast with the stagnating!eip7ig situation, &resden had a very lively music scene, with lots of interesting musicians, li#e the violinist and3ivaldi promotor isendel, the Drench flute virtuoso Buffardin, and the director of church music at the SaEoncourt Jan &ismas 4elen#a, who was a promotor of the alestrina style. The opera was led by Bach's friend andprolific composer for the theater, Johann >dolf asse, who wrote more than :9 operas and who was marriedto the then famous star soprano Daustina Bordoni picture on the left(. >ll these people were admirers of Bach,which made it easier for Sebastian to maintain a regular personal contact with &resden. The &resden

connection was in general very important for Bach's new style, which incorporated elements of both the newgalant fashion and the stile antico old fashioned strict contrapunt in the style of alestrina(. The $talianconnections of the &resden musicians were, presumably, instrumental in Bach's acGuaintence with these newstylistic elements.

$n the last decade of Bach's life, all these interests were deepened and eEtended under the influence ofSebastian's many theoretically gifted students and under the influence of Bach's growing connection withBerlin. Bach's son Carl hilipp +manuel had become court musician there since /8=5, and, obviously,otsdam and Berlin were the future in the Aerman spea#ing world, both in terms of power and in terms ofculture.

The first time Bach had been in Berlin was in /8/0, when he purchased the great iet#e harpsichord for the)oethen court. *ith Carl hilipp +manuel in Berlin, Bach became a more or less regular visitor. e was in

Berlin in /8/, when >nna agdalena became seriously ill for a while, as we #now from the correspondence ofBach's second%cousin Johann +lias Bach, who was part of the Bach household between /8=8 and /8


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$n the past, Bachs oeuvre was often seen as the the culmination point of a development of centuries, as theterminal point of the polyphonic period in the history of music. odern Bach scholarship, however, also tendsto stress the pre%classic, FprogressiveF elements in Bach's late wor#s and even his preoccupation with the stileantico can be seen as an element that points to the future rather than to the past. Bach's new historicaldimension grew in connection with his large circle of theoretically gifted and historically%minded students suchas !oren7 i7ler, the founder of the Societaet der musicalischen *issenschaften and the translator of DuE'sAradus ad arnassum /8ltnic#ol. This

has always sounded too virtuous and pious to be true, and indeed, modern Bach scholarship hasdemonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that this was a myth all along. Bach was not very much of a religiouslyinspired composer anyway during the last two decades of his life.Bach's estate and legacy was divided among his wife and children, not without difficulties, because for somereason Sebastian had failed to ma#e a will. The sons of Bach's first marriage didn't do very much for theirstepmother >nna agdalena afterwards her own sons were still too young(. @obody #nows the reason for thiscurious neglect. She died on Debruary nna agdalena were successful musicians and composers as well. Johann Christoph Driedrichborn in /8=fter a brief andsuccessful stay as opera composer in @aples, he went bac# to ilan. is neEt station was !ondon, where hewas very successful as a composer of operas and chamber music. $n /8: he came in touch with the visitingo7art and had a direct and lasting influence on the young genius. $n spite of these early successes, his musicwent out of fashion, he tended towards alcoholism, built up considerable debts and died at age : in /85ltnic#ol in /80. The other three daughters neither found a husband nor had received the

education to support themselves in a financially satisfactory way.

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bach - biografía completa

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