Original subtitles

- He was chapel master, director of the chamber music

at the court of Anhalt-Koethen.

My father was court and field trumpeter

at Weissenfels, and my brother was a trumpet

at Anhalt-Zerbst, where I had sometimes sung

at discretion with the chapel.

And I was soon engaged as a singer

to the prince at the court of Anhalt-Koethen.

His wife had died a year before, and from their marriage,

three sons and a daughter were alive,

Catharina Dorothea, Wilhelm Friedemann,

Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Gottfried Bernhard.

For Friedemann and the father had started

a little clavier book in which,

after various practice pieces,

came further pieces which were soon made

into two particular works for the profit

of musical youth desirous of learning.

He soon started a little clavier book for me as well.

He had a gracious prince who both loved and knew music,

with whom he also intended to end his lifetime.

But it had to happen that the serene highness

should marry a princess from Bernburg,

and it would now take on the appearance

as if his musical inclination was becoming rather cool,

all the more as the new Princess seemed to be an amusa.

So God disposed that he should be called to Leipzig

as director of music and cantor at the Thomas School,

although at first it didn't seem at all proper to him

for a chapel master to become a cantor.

Therefore, his irresolution dragged

on for a quarter of a year.

Ever since his youth, he had been moved

by a particularly strong desire

to hear as many good organists as possible,

so that from Lunenburg, when he was still at school,

he often went on foot to Hamburg.

And he was, when barely 18 years old,

called as organist of the New Church in Arnstadt.

From there, he once made, and indeed on foot,

a journey to Lubeck to hear the famous organist

of that place, Mr. Dietrich Buxtehude.

He was then called as organist at the church

of St. Blasius in Muhlhausen, and very soon as organist

to the court of Weimar, where his gracious Lord's pleasure

at his playing had inflamed him

to try everything possible in the art of handling the organ.

He knew also thoroughly the construction of organs

and had once been invited by the University of Leipzig

to examine the new large organ of the St. Paul's Church.

But as cantor, he had no duties as organist.

He was the most senior teacher at the Thomas School,

after the rector and the vice-rector.

And since this school provided the music for four churches

in the town, as well as for weddings and burials,

he had to apply all possible care so that the boys

who were capable of singing and could accomplish

something in music were well-instructed in this.

To the New Church and to St. Peter's Church

came the boys who had nothing to sing

other than motets and chorales,

and to the two principal churches,

St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, those who had

to do with other concert music.

He had the supervision of the organists

and of the town pipers and the violinists

who had to work here with the boys,

and he had to provide concert music for the Divine Service

every Sunday, except the last three Sundays

of Advent and the Sundays of Lent.

Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost

were celebrated with concert music for three days,

and for these great feasts, the music performed

in the morning service at one church

was performed again in the afternoon

during Vespers at the other church.

The same for New Year, the Feast of Epiphany, Ascension,

Trinity, St. John's and Michael, and the Reformation,

as well as for the three feasts of Mary

and the renewal of the town council.

There, too, he had to provide

the Passion music for Vespers on Good Friday.

Also, the Kyrie and Gloria and the Sanctus

were occasionally concerted,

and the Latin Magnificat at Christmas.

Of our first three children, death robbed us soon

of Christiana Sophia Henrietta, the firstborn,

and Christian Gottlieb, the second son.

I had a new little clavier book,

which Sebastian had started for me with two new suites.

And for the Michaelmas fair of the following year,

he had such a suite engraved in copper

as the first partita of a clavier practice.

It was the first composition that he had printed.

He then published such a partita every year, up to five,

which he had printed together with a sixth as Opus I.

He was soon charged by the students

with music for many extraordinary university celebrations.

And a further few years later, he received

the direction of the Collegium Musicum,

which Mr. Telemann had founded in Leipzig.

But when the student, Mr. Von Kirchbach,

charged him with funeral music

for the deceased Queen Christiane Eberhardine,

the organist of St. Nicholas, Mr. Goerner,

who had the direction of the New Divine Service

at the university church, protested to the university,

and the university would permit Sebastian

to perform his music only as a pure favor.

A year later, the Prince died in Koethen,

and as former court singer, I helped make

the funeral music there, composed

and performed by the former chapel master.

And three weeks later, he performed in Leipzig

his Passion music after the evangelist Matthew

during Vespers on Good Friday

at St. Thomas for the first time.

- He had then written to a friend of his youth

who had meanwhile become Imperial Russian Agent at Danzig.

- "Here, by God's will, I am still settled.

"But since now, one, I find this service

"by far not so considerable as it was described to me,

"two, many accidental fees of this station have gone,

"three, a very expensive place,

"and four, the authorities strange

"and little devoted to music, so that I have to live

"amid almost constant vexation, envy, and persecution,

"and consequently, with the Almighty's help,

"I shall have to seek my fortune elsewhere.

"Should Your Honor know of or find a suitable position

"in that region for an old and faithful servant,

"then I beseech you most obediently

"to put in a very gracious recommendation for me.

"I should not fail to devote myself

"to the best of my ability to give satisfaction

"to this most gracious intervention and intercession.

"My present position amounts to about 700 thalers,

"and when there are somewhat more corpses than ordinarily,

"the accidental fees augment proportionally.

"But when the air is healthy, then on the other hand,

"these diminish, as last year, when there was

"a loss of more than 100 thalers.

"from the ordinary accidental fees from corpses.

"In Thuringia, I can go further with 400 thalers

"than in this place with as many hundreds again,

"on account of the excessively high cost of living."

- He had many friends in Dresden

and often went there with Friedemann.

Friedemann was soon called there as organist

at the church of St. Sophia, where his father had

sometime before given a concert on the organ.

He was also invited to Kassel to examine

and to inaugurate in a public gathering

the renovated organ of the large church,

and took me with him on this journey.

We had just lost our one-and-a-half-year-old

Christiane Dorothea, and soon death robbed us also

of our four-year-old Regina Johanna,

and little Johann August Abraham, two days after his birth.

That year, the Prince had died at Dresden,

and Sebastian, with the deepest devotion,

dedicated to the new Elector a grand Mass,

consisting of Kyrie and Gloria.

- "For some years and till now,

"I have had the direction of the music

"of both principal churches in Leipzig,

"but have with all faultlessly

"had to suffer one offense or other,

"and also, from time to time, a diminishing

"of the fees pertaining to this function,

"all of which would however quite disappear

"if Your Royal Highness would render me

"the grace of conferring on me

"the title of Your Highness' Court Chapel,

"and to this end, would send to the proper place

"a royal order for the publication of a decree.

"Such an extreme gracious granting of my most humble prayer

"would pledge me to infinite devotion,

"and I offer myself, in a most indebted obedience,

"to show my untiring diligence in composing

"church music as well as for orchestra,

"at all times at Your Royal Highness' most gracious desire

"and to dedicate my entire strength to your service."

- And in the following months,

he gave several Dramata per musica and cantatas

in honor of the princely house.

And when the Prince with his wife then blessed

the town of Leipzig with their most august presence,

the students wanted, on the day on which His Majesty

had, one year before, been chosen King of Poland

and Grand Duke of Lithuania, to show

their most humble devotion through an evening of music.

At Christmas the same year, he gave

a grand oratorio in six parts,

and a further oratorio for the following Ascension.

- Then the rector let it be known to all pupils that,

under punishment of dismissal and castigation,

no one was to permit himself either to sing

or to direct the habitual motet in Krause's place.

So that in the afternoon sermon,

to Sebastian's greatest despect and prostitution,

not one pupil, for fear of the punishment,

would take it upon himself to sing,

even less to direct the motet.

That week, Sebastian had the supervision of the school.

- He looked to the council

for very soon and prompt help in vain.

He could not get rid of Krause.

But that year, the King bestowed upon him,

through Count Keyserlingk, the title of Court Composer.

Three days later, he gave a grand concert

on the new organ of the Church of Our Lady in Dresden,

in the presence of the count and other excellencies

and many members of the court chapel, artists,

and other persons, who heard him with particular admiration.

And he was then able, after Krause's stay

at the school had come to an end,

since he had also written in vain to the Consistory,

to beseech the King with the most deep humility

to order the Council to support

and protect the cantor in his right

to nominate the choir prefects without interference,

and to order the Consistory to demand an apology

from the rector for the affront made to the cantor,

and then also, by particular measure,

to charge the superintendent to exhort the entire school,

so that all the schoolboys should show the cantor

the appropriate respect and obedience.

And the King called upon the Consistory in writing

to act duly on the cantor's grievances, and the Consistory

asked for a report from the superintendent

and from the Council within a fortnight.

- All his pupils were afterwards able

to render service usefully to God and the republic.

And he sought to effect everything

to help promote the welfare of his children.

Friedemann was called from Dresden to Halle

as music director and organist at the Church of Our Lady,

a post which his father had once attained.

Emanuel lived for some time as a student

in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder at the

same time he informed the clavier.

And he soon became chaplain, musician,

and accompanist to the King of Prussia.

And Bernhard, when barely 20 years old,

was called as organist at St. Mary's Church in Muhlhausen.

But after Bernhard had been not two years in Muhlhausen,

his father had to pay not only for his table there,

but also a bill of exchange, which had

presumably caused his removal then,

and also to leave a few ducats

for the settlement of some debts.

And after he had then helped him

to be promoted to Sangerhausen,

in the hope that the more civilized manner of life

in Sangerhausen and the genteel patrons

would equally stir the misled son to other behavior,

the father had to learn yet again, with the utmost dismay,

that Bernhard had once more borrowed from here and there,

that he had not changed his way of life in the slightest

but had even absented himself without letting him

know the slightest part of his whereabouts.

Since no admonition nor even any loving care

and assistance would suffice anymore,

the father had to bear his cross in patience,

merely leaving the undutiful son to the mercy of God,

not doubting it would hear his sorrowful plea

and finally, according to the Divine Will,

effect that he should learn to acknowledge

how conversion is to be attributed

solely and uniquely to the Divine Good.

But Bernhard died suddenly in Jena,

where he was matriculated as a student of law

and lived with Mr. Johann Nikolaus Bach,

eldest of all the Bachs still living,

organist of the university as well as the town church.

That year, Sebastian published

the third part of the clavier practice,

consisting in diverse preludes

on the catechism and other hymns for the organ.

The second part, consisting in a concerto

after the Italian taste and an overture after the French

meant for a clavicymbal with two manuals,

he had had printed four years earlier.

Our dear and good cousin Mr. Johann Elias Bach,

well established cantor at Schweinfurt,

lived with us during those years.

He was matriculated at the University of Leipzig

as a student of theology and, at the same time,

received furtherance in music from Sebastian.

And Sebastian had entrusted him

with the instruction of my three sons, Gottfried Heinrich,

Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian.

And our cousin also had to prepare

them for the Lord's table.

For me, he had written several times

to his dear mother and sister that she should

send me a few plants of yellow carnations

because I was a great amateur of gardening.

And since Sebastian once reported to me

that he had seen a linnet at a cantor's house in Halle,

which, through the skilled instruction of its teacher,

did particularly well in singing,

our cousin had written to Halle to beg this cantor

to let me have his singer for a cheap payment.

And once, since I suddenly felt very unwell

while Sebastian was in Berlin visiting Emanuel,

and it was not known whether the violent agitation

of the blood would give rise to an insidious fever

or some other evil consequence,

our cousin had to write to Sebastian several times

and disturb him in his peace and contentment

so that he might quicken his journey.

A short time after his return, he had,

as a new clavier practice, an aria

with 30 variations for clavicymbal

with two manuals composed by him on a saraband

from my little clavier book, engraved in copper.

Count Keyserlingk, who was Ambassador

to His Imperial Russian Majesty at the court of Dresden,

had expressed to Sebastian that he would

like to have a few clavier pieces

for his harpsichordist, who had to play something

for him during his sleepless nights.

And since Sebastian had composed these variations for this,

the count had made him a present of a golden goblet,

which was filled with a hundred Louis d'or.

- In the last years, he performed

some of his earlier church pieces again.

Emanuel now already had a male heir,

who was born at about the time when we,

alas, had the Prussian invasion.

Thereupon, Sebastian once again made the journey

to Berlin, accompanied by Friedemann,

and since His Majesty, the King of Prussia,

had asked several times why he didn't

come one day, he went to Potsdam.

His Majesty himself played him a theme

for a fugue, which he at once, to His Majesty's

particular pleasure, developed on the clavier.

On the following day, before many listeners,

he performed to the general applause on the organ

of the Church of the Holy Spirit.

And in the evening, His Majesty wanted to hear

a fugue with six obligatory voices,

which he also accomplished at once,

to the amazement of the King and all musicians present.

Emanuel also showed him the new opera house in Berlin

and the large dining hall in it.

And he found that the architect had done here

a masterstroke, namely if someone above in one corner

whispered a few words very quietly towards the wall,

another standing diagonally opposite

in the other corner heard it quite clearly.

And otherwise in the middle or in the remaining places,

not one of the other persons heard the slightest sound.

He had soon noticed in Potsdam that,

through want of necessary preparation,

his performance would not succeed

at the theme given to him by His Majesty demanded.

And he had therefore taken the decision

and at once made bold to elaborate

this truly royal theme more completely

and then to make it known to the world.

And after his return, he committed to paper

a three-part ricercare and a six-part

and a trio for flute, violin and clavier together,

with a few other little pieces of art on the royal theme,

had these pieces engraved in copper

and dedicated them to the King as a musical offering.

He had now entered the Society of Musical Sciences

founded in Leipzig by his pupil, Mizler,

and also had engraved in copper a few canonic variations

for the organ which he had furnished

on his entry into this society.

- Papa?

Papa, Papa!

- The distance between our two towns

did not allow us to pay each other a personal visit,

else Sebastian wanted to take the liberty

of officially inviting our cousin from Schweinfurt

to the wedding of our daughter Liessgen

to the new organist of Naumburg, Mr. Altnikol,

which was to take place in January.

But since the inconvenient time of the year also would not

allow our cousin to be seen personally among us,

Sebastian still asked him to assist

the children in his absence with a Christian wish.

Our three youngest, Regina Susanna, Johanna Carolina,

and Johann Christian were still staying at home together

with Sebastian's daughter, Catharina Dorothea, unmarried,

and our eldest son, Gottfried Heinrich, whose genius

also inclined towards music but was not developed.

Our 18-year-old, Johann Christoph Friedrich,

entered the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe's chapel

at Buckeburg a few weeks before Sebastian's death.

To the Mass, of which he had dedicated to King August,

Sebastian had now composed a grand credo.

He added an earlier Sanctus.

And also wrote a Hosanna, Benedictus,

Agnus Dei, and Dona nobis pacem to it.

He had also started a new collection

of grand chorales for the organ,

and had been working for some time on an Art of the Fugue,

through which is shown what can

possibly be made out of a theme.

But he could only prepare one part for engraving,

and, at the end, a grand fugue was interrupted

through the illness of his eyes.

He wanted to remove this eye illness through an operation,

but it had to be repeated, and failed,

so that for four months thereafter,

he was almost always ill and could not use his sight.

In his blindness, he dictated a chorale for the organ

on the melody, When We Are in Greatest Need,

and then had it written down with a few more corrections

under the title, Before Thy Throne I Tread,

which is sung to the same melody.

And suddenly his eyes seemed to get better,

so that one day, in the morning,

he could see quite well again,

and could also support the light again.

Only a few hours later, he was overtaken

by a high fever, in which, despite all possible care

of two of the most skilled doctors in Leipzig,

he died one evening softly and blessedly.