A Few Things You Never Knew About JS Bach...

JS Bach (1685-1750)

• 'Bach’ translated into English is ‘stream’ or ‘brook’. Beethoven said of this ‘not ‘Bach’ (stream/brook), but ‘Sea’ should be his name’.

• Although Bach travelled frequently, he never ventured beyond what we now understand as modern Germany; only travelling as far as Lübeck and Hamburg in the north and Carlsbad in the south.

• In his early twenties, Bach is recorded as having had an altercation with a bassoonist called Geyersbach, who had been casting aspersions on his musical abilities. Bach is supposed to have called him a ‘nanny-goat bassoonist’, to which Geyersbach replied Bach was a ‘dirty dog’. Bach then pulled out his sword ready for a duel, but Geyersbach jumped on him and they brawled on the ground until they could be pulled apart.

• In 1705, as a man of 20, Bach was given leave to study with Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), the great German-Danish organist and composer. Legend claims that he walked over 200 miles to Lübeck for these studies.

• Bach’s first wife, Maria Barbara Bach, was his second cousin and daughter of Johann Michael Bach.

• In German, Bach’s name spells out four musical notes B- B flat, A- A natural, C – C natural, H – B natural

• On Bach’s death in 1750 the bulk of his manuscripts were divided between his two eldest sons; Carl Phillip Emmanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann. Emmanuel looked after his, but Friedemann carelessly gave away and sold many of his. By 1774, destitution as a result of his party-boy lifestyle caused him to auction off a large number of his father’s autographs

• After the division of Bach’s estate between Anna Magdalena and his nine surviving children, on top of payment of outstanding debts and expenses, Anna’s share was valued at less than half her husband’s annual earnings. Neither Emmanuel nor Friedemann appear to have felt any obligation to help their stepmother after the death of their father. So Anna remained in Leipzig with her daughters and stepdaughter, existing mainly on charity, until her death as an impoverished almswoman in 1760.

 

Southern Sinfonia opens the Winchester Festival on 6 July 2012 with JS Bach's B Minor Mass with The Bach Choir at Winchester Cathedral. They also perform JS Bach's Nun danket alle Gott BWV 192 with Somerset Chamber Choir on 28 July at Wells Cathedral. For more information please see our website www.southernsinfonia.co.uk.

Getting to know...CPE Bach

The Man

• Full name: Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach
• Born 8^th March 1714, died 14^th December 1788
• Fifth child and second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach
• Named in honour of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann
• Entrepreneurial - establishing a system of agents in many of the musical capitals, which ensured the circulation of his work across Europe
• Mozart famously said of him ‘Bach is the father. We are the children!’
• In the second half of 18^th Century, the name ‘Bach’ was almost exclusively associated with Carl Philipp Emanuel, and not his father John Sebastian.

His Times

• Born at a time of transition between the Baroque and Classical Eras, his work filled a vast stylistic gap between these two musical styles.

His Work

• He was the foremost representative of Empfindsamer or ‘sentimental style’
• This style tried to forge a direct emotional connection between the musician and listeners, valuing intimacy and passion.

• One of his greatest achievements- The Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments- remains the most famous treatise of its kind and is in fact a work of prose.
• It provides technical advice and introduces the now standard practice of using thumbs in keyboard playing.
• It also emphasised a performance style which for the first time placed emotional expression on level pegging with technical capability, saying:

‘Since a musician cannot move others unless he himself is moved, he must of necessity feel all of the effects that he hopes to arouse in his listeners’

Keywords:

• Unorthodox
• Forward-thinking
• Transitional
• Dynamic 

Southern Sinfonia performs CPE Bach's Magnificat with Somerset Chamber Choir on Saturday 28th July at Wells Cathedral.