But he continued to work, even through his hours of greatest suffering. He set the chorale “When we are in the greatest need” in four parts, dictating them to Altnikol, his son-in-law. An extraordinary thing happened ten days before his death; one morning he was able to see well and to bear daylight; but a few hours after an apoplectic stroke, followed by a violent fever, completely overcame him. The attentions of the two best doctors in Leipsic could not avail against the illness, and at a quarter past eight o’clock in the evening of July 28, 1750, he breathed his last.
St John’s Church, Leipsic
He was buried in St John’s churchyard, and, like that of Mozart, his grave was forgotten and lost. The churchyard was altered early in the nineteenth century, to allow of a new road being made, and his bones with those of many others were removed. Some remains lately discovered on the south side of the church are supposed with good reason to be those of Bach; but nothing is known for certain.
On his deathbed he had dictated to Altnikol the chorale “Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiemit.” The Leipsic Chronicle notices his death as follows: “July 28, at eight in the evening the famous and learned musician Herr Joh. Sebastian Bach, composer to His Majesty the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony; Capellmeister to the Courts of Cöthen and Weissenfels, Director and Cantor of the school of St Thomas, died.” Here follows a sketch of his life. “The Bach family came from Hungary, and all, as far as is known, have been musicians, from which perhaps arises the fact that even the letters b, a, c, h, form a melodic succession of notes.”[54]
That is all; not one word of regret. Nor do we find that much notice anywhere was taken of the death of the great man. A meeting of the Council took place shortly afterwards in which, while no expressions of sympathy were heard, the remark was made, “Herr Bach was a great musician no doubt, but we want a schoolmaster, not a capellmeister”; and they proceeded at once to arrange for the instalment of Harrer.
Fate of the Widow and Children
The sons of the first marriage took possession of all music that was of value, and sold the rest of the property. Görner, Bach’s former rival, undertook the duties of guardian to his younger children, and seems to have fulfilled the task with propriety and reverence. Bach’s widow was allowed her husband’s salary for six months, after which, receiving no help from her stepsons, she supported her younger children as well as she could, and becoming gradually poorer, died in an almshouse and was buried in a pauper’s grave. The youngest daughter, Regina, lived till 1809, and was supported by charity in her old age.
The family of Joh. Sebastian Bach gradually died out, and is now extinct, the last representative, a farmer of Eisenach, having died in 1846.
Bach’s music fell more and more into oblivion, and for a time his name seems to have been forgotten. In 1883 a room in the Thomas-schule was used as the English Church, and on the first floor a smaller room was used as the vestry. In the latter was a cupboard in which the communion plate and surplices were kept. The writer was told that this cupboard had formerly been full of music MSS., and that during the years of oblivion, whenever a Thomas-schule boy wanted a piece of paper to wrap up his “Butterbrod” he was allowed to tear out a sheet of paper from one of Bach’s manuscripts.[55]