[Appendix]
To facilitate the perusal of our work, we will close with a short sketch of J.S. Bach's life.
Bach was born March 21, 1685, at Eisenach. His father, Ambrosius Bach, was a musician of the town; his uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, an organist.[199]
When Bach was nine years of age his mother died; the next year followed the decease of his father, and the boy was taken in by his elder brother, organist at Ohrdruf. Here he attended the Lyceum, where the teaching of music held an important place; the chorus, formed of the pupils, was renowned. Young Sebastian, gifted with a good soprano voice, was a member of this chorus; and in addition studied the clavecin under the direction of his brother, a pupil of Pachelbel. With such zeal did he devote himself to these studies, that he copied by moonlight a volume of pieces which he had been forbidden to play, his brother wishing to reserve for himself the right to conquer their difficulties.
He did not remain long under the charge of his brother, whose family was gradually increasing. In 1700, undoubtedly upon the recommendation of Elias Herda, cantor of the school in Ohrdruf, Bach was admitted to St. Michael's School in Lüneburg; but he was now no longer a pupil, for in return for the general instruction which he received he was obliged to act as a sort of assistant chorusmaster for his comrades; at least as a leader. When his voice changed, which soon came about, he was charged with the clavecin accompaniment at chorus rehearsals, or with playing a violin part in the orchestra. He had, in fact, studied that instrument since his earliest childhood, his father having been a good violinist. He profited in his new surroundings by the advice of Georg Böhm, organist of St. John's Church in Lüneburg, and a musician of merit, whose influence upon Bach is apparent in many of the latter's earlier compositions, especially in the chorales.
The location of Lüneburg permitted him also, from this time on, to make trips on foot to Hamburg, where he heard Adam Reinken and Vincent Lübeck, or to Celle, where the orchestra of the ducal court performed French music; then the fashion, complains Mattheson, not because of a value whose existence this German critic denied, but simply—the final misfortunes of the reign of Louis XIV. had not yet dimmed this glory—because it was French.
In 1703 Bach left St. Michael's School; he had been so busily occupied with music while there, that he very likely had been unable to exhaust the depths of the general curriculum, which in itself was rather limited. Not that they had been satisfied with giving him instruction of a too elementary nature; but Bach, in point of intellectual culture, was much inferior to most of the great musicians of his time, Mattheson and Händel, for instance, both of whom had attended the University.
In any case, Bach's scant means would have forbidden his availing himself of a university education. On leaving St. Michael's School he was obliged to provide for himself; but here his talent for the violin came to his aid, and procured him admission, at Weimar, not only to the court orchestra, but to an orchestra which Johann Ernst, the brother of the reigning Duke Wilhelm Ernst, maintained at his own expense. He did not remain there long; in the summer of 1703, as a result of a journey to Arnstadt, where he was heard upon the organ of the New Church,[200] the position of organist of this parish was offered him. The place was a modest one (seventy thalers salary), but advantageous for Bach, who at his leisure could perfect himself in organ-playing and practise vocal composition, having a choir to conduct; his first cantata dates from Arnstadt.