That Thou dost hear our cry of grief,
And that our faithful trust in Thee
From earthly ills will set us free.”[52]
This trust, this deliverance did not fail him in those last days of pain and sorrow, in the last hard struggle. He rose triumphant over them, and the Almighty Father’s hand led him to a place in the choir of angels and holy spirits who stand before the throne in adoration, singing, “Holy! Holy! is the Lord! Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen.”—Spitta’s “Life of Bach,” Vol. III, p. 274.
On the thirtieth of July, 1750, the world’s greatest musician was buried in St. John’s churchyard, Leipsic.[53]
Appendix
The following is a chronological statement of the principal events in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach:
| 1685 | Born at Eisenach, March 21. |
| 1693 | Began his studies with his brother, Johann Christoph. |
| 1700 | Chorister at the College of St. Michael’s in Lüneburg. |
| 1703 | Organist of Arnstadt Church. |
| 1707 | Organist of St. Blasius’s Church, Mühlhausen. |
| 1707 | Married Maria Barbara Bach. |
| 1708 | Court Organist at Weimar. |
| 1720 | Death of first wife. |
| 1721 | Married Anna Magdalena Wülkens. |
| 1723 | Cantor of St. Thomas’s School, Leipsic. |
| 1725 | Composed first part of “Well-Tempered Clavichord.” |
| 1729 | Composed St. Matthew Passion Music. |
| 1734 | Composed Mass in B minor. |
| 1734 | Composed the Christmas Oratorio. |
| 1740 | Composed second part of “Well-Tempered Clavichord.” |
| 1747 | Dedicated “The Musical Offering” to Frederick the Great. |
| 1749 | Partly finished the “Art of Fugue.” |
| 1750 | Died at Leipsic in his sixty-fifth year, July 28. |
Footnotes
[1]Ohrdruff is a little manufacturing town in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, about eight miles south of Gotha.