English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy

THE FIFTH EVANGELIST:
The Life and Music of Johann Sebastian Bach

Part 1: Eisenach and Ohrdruf: 1685-1700

	(ESTABLISH AIR ON A G STRING.   THEN FADE BEHIND THE ANNOUNCER.)
ANNOUNCER: Air on a G String	The Fifth Evangelist: The Life and Music of Johann Sebastian Bach by Shaun MacLoughlin and Bob Pierson (BRING UP AIR ON A G STRING AGAIN. ESTABLISH AND THEN FADE BEHIND NARRATOR)
NARRATOR: TORTELIER:	Johann Sebastian Bach Bach's Air on a G String was the first of Bach's music to be recorded.  This was by the Russian cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich in 1902. The French cellist, Paul Tortelier, was asked who in his view was the greatest composer.  He replied: Oh.  It has to be Bach.  He is the supreme Master of Melody. (BRING UP THE AIR AGAIN AND FADE BEHIND THE NARRATOR)
NARRATOR:	Ambrosius Bach's father Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Thuringia, South Germany, on 31 March 1685.  He was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and of Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt.  There were so many musicians in Bach's family that, in Thuringia, people commonly referred to a musician as a "bach". (BRING UP THE AIR AGAIN AND THEN GRADUALLY FADE OUT UNDER THE FOLL0WING SPEECH) Sebastian was proud of his family's musical achievements, and around 1735 he drafted a genealogy, "Origin of the musical Bach family".  His great great grandfather, Vitus Bach, was a Hungarian white bread baker who, because of his Lutheran religion, fled to Germany in the sixteenth century.  He so enjoyed music that when he went to work at the mill, he took his cither with him and played it while grinding corn.  Over the next 150 years his descendants included some 60 professional musicians. Bach's house in Eisenach The family lived in a reasonably spacious home just above the town centre, with the ground floor for Ambrosius' teaching, rooms for apprentice musicians, and a large grain store.  The house was packed full with students and fellow musicians and with the couple's six children.  Johann Forkel, his first biographer, wrote:
FORKEL:	The Bachs not only displayed a happy contentedness, indispensable for the cheery enjoyment of life, but exhibited a Clannish attachment for each other.
NARRRATOR:	Johann Pachelbel But Sebastian's birth signalled the start of a grim transformation in the family's estate.  Within two years two siblings died of the plague, while their eldest son, Christoff, left home to study with Pachelbel in Erfurt.   Two more children were to die before Sebastian was seven.   This must have had a crushing effect on Ambrosius and Elizabeth and thus on their youngest child.   However perhaps they found consolation in music.  His father taught him to play violin and harpsichord.  In 1672, aged seven, he joined the local Latin school.
CHILDREN:	(RECITING) Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.  (SLOWLY FADE FROM HERE) Amabo, amabas, amabat, amabamus, amabatis, amabant.
NARRATOR:	Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther stayed Martin Luther had been a pupil there. Sebastian was taught reading and writing, Latin grammar, and a great deal of scripture, both in Latin and German. It was in Wartburg Castle standing high above the town, that Martin Luther, in hiding from his persecutors, had translated the New Testament into German. (CHURCH ACOUSTIC)
READER:	Im Anfang war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott, und Gott war das Wort.  (SLOWLY FADE FROM HERE)  Dasselbe war im Anfang bei Gott.
	(LOSE CHURCH ACOUSTIC)
NARRATOR: Pachelbel Canon in D Major	Michaeliskirche, Ohrdruf Bach was orphaned at the age of 10.  First his mother and eight months later his father died.  He moved in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph, the organist at the Michaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf. There, he copied, studied and performed music. (START TO FADE IN PACHELBEL'S CANON IN D) According to a popular legend, late one night, when the house was asleep, the young composer retrieved a manuscript from his brother's music cabinet.  This may have been a collection of works by Johann Christoph's former mentor, Johann Pachelbel.  For six months Sebastian copied it every night that there was moonlight.   This went on until Johann Christoph heard his brother playing some of the distinctive tunes from his private library.  He confiscated the laboriously copied music sheet and never returned it.  Years later Sebastian told the story to his son.
BACH:	We may gain a good idea of our little Johann Sebastian's sorrow over this loss by imagining a miser, whose ship, sailing for Peru, has floundered with its cargo of a hundred thousand thaler.
	(BRIDGE PACHELBEL INTO THE NEXT NARRATION)
NARRATOR:	St John the Baptist Lüneburg At Ohrdruf Bach began to learn about organ building.   The Ohrdruf church's instrument was in constant need of repair, and he was often sent into the belly of the old organ to tighten, adjust, or replace various parts.   This hands-on experience with the innards of the instrument would provide a unique counterpoint to his unequalled skill at playing it; Bach was equally at home talking with organ builders and with performers. At 14 he was awarded a choral scholarship to study at the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg.   In those days boys' voices often broke later than they do today (MIX INTO COUNTRYSIDE, BIRDSONG AND TREBLE HUMMING PACHELBEL WHILE WALKING.   THEN INTERWEAVE SOUND EFFECTS OF BOAT ROWING AND CART)
NARRATOR: Gregorian Chant Salve Regina	The Harz Mountains The journey of some 250 kilometres, partly through the Harz Mountains, would have been undertaken largely on foot, relieved where possible with a lift on a river barge or farmer's cart. (INTRODUCE GREGORIAN PLAIN CHANT AND WEAVE UNDER) He may well have been given free food and accommodation in the many monasteries along the route. Bach's later chorale melodies were often derived from Gregorian Chant, sometimes with minor variation, and fitted with new words. (BRING UP GREGORIAN PLAIN CHANT AGAIN AND PLAY OUT)

Part 2: Lüneburg, Weimar, Arnstadt and Mühlhausen 1700 - 1708

NARRATOR:	Celle Castle At Lüneburg he was well received because of his uncommonly beautiful soprano voice, and was immediately appointed to the select body of singers who formed the 'Mettenchor' (Matins Choir). There he met Georg Bðhm, organist of the Johanniskirche at Lüneburg, who introduced him to the great organ traditions of Hamburg. He also came under the influence of French instrumental music when, through his great proficiency on the violin, he played at the Court of Celle, 50 miles south of Lüneburg. Though distinctly German in its construction and outer appearance, Celle Castle was known as a 'miniature Versailles' for its rich interiors and musical tastes. Sebastian completed Latin school when he was 18, an impressive accomplishment in his day, especially considering that he was the first in his family to finish school. Wilhelmsburg Castle Weimar Considerably enriched by his musical experiences, he decided he would try to find employment as an organist in his native Thuringia.  So in January 1703, shortly after graduating he took up a post as a court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, a large town in Thuringia.  He was housed in the Wilhelmsburg, an impressive castle, housing a museum, art gallery and a valuable library.  But his job there was menial involving as much valeting as playing music.  In the records of the Weimar court he is referred to as a lackey.
	Bach Church Arnstadt During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboard player spread.  He was invited to inspect and give the inaugural recital on the new organ at St. Boniface's Church in Arnstadt - later known as the "Bach Church".  The Bach family had close connections with this oldest town in Thuringia, about 40 km to the southwest of Weimar at the edge of the great forest. (INTRODUCE TOCCATA AND FUGUE QUIETLY UNDER THE FOLLOWING)
Toccata and Fugue in D minor	Interior Bach Church In August 1703, at the age of only 18, he accepted the post of organist at that church, with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a fine new organ tuned to a modern system that allowed a wide range of keys to be used.  At this time, Bach was embarking on the serious composition of organ preludes.  His famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is said to have been composed about this time. (SWELL TOCCATA AND FUGUE.  ENJOY FOR A MINUTE OR SO THEN FADE UNDER THE FOLLOWING)
	However Sebastian was alienated by the boastfulness of some older choir members, already in their twenties.  One evening in 1705 in his third year at Arnstadt, he and his cousin Barbara Catherina Bach were walking home, when they met six students sitting on a wall.  Suddenly Geyersbach, a bassoon player jumped up holding a stick:
GEYERSBACH:	Why the hell did you abuse me, Herr Bach?
BACH:	What do you mean?  I don't abuse people.   I go my way in peace.
GEYERSBACH:	You did, you called me a prick of a bassoonist.  Do you think you weren't insulting me by insulting my bassoon?  Why the hell are you such a dirty dog?
	(SOUNDS OF STRUGGLE)
NARRATOR:	Geyersbach lunged at him with his stick, and Sebastian tried to draw his sword.  The two of them ended up struggling on the ground until the other students managed to separate them.
GEYERSBACH:	You're in serious trouble.  I won't condescend to have a duel with you.  I shall report you to the town council tomorrow.
NARRATOR:	Marienkirche, Lübeck He did.  But the town council did not find either way.  The matter was dropped, but Sebastian was left with a sense of resentment. In October 1705, his superintendent granted him leave to visit the north-German city of Lübeck to hear the great organist, Dietrich Buxtehude.  He took every chance to attend the famous evening concerts in the Marienkirche when Buxtehude's church cantatas were performed. Bach was so fascinated by these concerts, and by his discussions with the great master, that he remained in Lübeck over Christmas until the following February. Buxtehude from A musical party by Johannes Voorhout According to legend, both Bach and George Frederick Handel, who was born in the same year as Bach, wanted to become amanuenses of Buxtehude; but neither wanted to marry his daughter, as that was a condition for the position. He returned to Arnstadt three months late, having visited Bðhm in Lüneburg on the way, full of new ideas and enthusiasm, which he immediately put into practice in his playing.  The congregation however was completely surprised and bewildered by his new musical ideas: there was considerable confusion during the singing of the chorales.
CHURCH MEMBER 1: NARRATOR: CHURCH MEMBER 2:	Johann Sebastian Bach We do not appreciate your surprising variations and irrelevant ornaments!  They obliterate the melody and they confuse the congregation! The Church Council reprimanded him. We do not enjoy your strange sounds during the services.  Also would you kindly explain the unauthorized extension of your leave in Lübeck?
NARRATOR:	Maria Barbara Bach Bach did not attempt to justify himself before what he no doubt regarded as a group of narrow minded and conservative old gentlemen; yet the Council, in view of his skilled playing, decided to treat their impetuous young organist with leniency. However, new conflicts soon arose when Bach, citing a clause in his contract, refused to work any longer with the undisciplined boys' choir which he had been required to train for the sake of Council economy.  For this the Council further reprimanded him and added:
CHURCH MEMBER 1:	We gather that you have been entertaining a strange damsel in the organ loft!
NARRATOR:	The young lady was probably his cousin, Maria Barbara, the younger sister of Barbara Catherina, who had witnessed the brawl.  He was later to marry Maria.
	Dornheim Church In 1706 Bach was offered a more lucrative post as organist at St. Blasius's in Mühlhausen, a large and important city to the north.  Four months after arriving there, he married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach.  They were wed her at the small church in the picturesque little village of Dornheim.  They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood.
Gott ist mein Konig	Medieval Mulhausen (INTRODUCE THE CANTATA GOTT IST MEIN KONIG AND TAKE UNDER) At Mühlhausen he composed his cantata 'Gott ist mein Kðnig', given in the splendour of the Marienkirche to celebrate the inauguration of the Town Council.  However a religious controversy arose between the orthodox Lutherans, who were lovers of music, and the Pietists, who were strict puritans and distrusted both art and music. Bach was apprehensive of the latter's growing influence. BRING UP GOTT IST MEIN KONIG AND PLAY OUT AS APPROPRIATE)

Part 3: Weimar   1708 - 1717

NARRATOR: BACH: NARRATOR: Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring	The Ducal Palace Chapel Weimar After barely a year at Mühlhausen, Bach left, to become the court organist and concertmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. A far cry from my earlier position there as 'lackey'. The munificent salary at the court and the prospect of working with a well-funded contingent of professional musicians may have prompted the move.  The family moved into an apartment only five minutes' walk from the ducal palace. (ESTABLISH JESU JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING AND TAKE UNDER) It was about this time that he wrote Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, the English title of the 10th movement of the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. The English version of the words was written by the Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges.
FEMALE READER:	Jesu, joy of man's desiring, Holy wisdom, love most bright; Drawn by Thee, our souls aspiring Soar to uncreated light. (BRING UP JESU JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING AGAIN AND FADE AWAY AS APPROPRIATE)
NARRATOR:	Originally this piece was not written for the organ.  However at this time he also wrote profusely for the organ, and he was rapidly becoming known throughout the country as one of the greatest German organists. Organ pupils came from far and wide, and he was asked to test or dedicate many organs in various towns.  His tests were thorough and critical.
BACH: NARRATOR:	Bach as Konzertmeister in 1715 Above all I must know whether the organ has a good lung. Pulling out all the stops he produced the largest sound possible, often making the organ builders go pale with fright.  He would usually complete his trial by improvising a prelude and fugue: the prelude to test the organ's power, the fugue to test its clarity for counterpoint. The school rector Constantin Bellermann described his playing during a visit to Kassel.
BELLERMANN	His feet seemed to fly across the pedals, as if they were winged, and mighty sounds filled the church.
NARRATOR:	Bach was concerned with how his feet were clad when demonstrating his astounding footwork.  Among the effects listed in Bach's estate were "old-fashioned silver shoe buckles".  Mizler, the physician, mathematician and writer on music, states:
MIZLER:	His fingers were all of equal strength, all equally able to play with the finest precision.  He had invented so comfortable a fingering that he could master the most difficult parts with perfect ease, using 5 fingers instead of the then normal 3.  He was able to accomplish passages on the pedals with his feet, which would have given trouble to the fingers of many a clever player on the keyboard.
NARRATOR:	Uhrturmkasematte In 1717, through the help of Duke Ernst August, Bach was introduced to the Court of Anhalt-Cðthen, and as a result he was offered the post of Capellmeister, which he accepted. This infuriated the Duke of Weimar, so that when Bach put in a polite request for his release, he was arrested and put in the local jail.
	(RATTLING OF KEYS IN LOCK AND ECHOING CELL DOOR SLAMMED TO)
CONTEMPORARY REPORTER:	On November 6, the quondam concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge.
NARRATOR:	He was given reluctant permission to resign his office.  During his four weeks incarceration he had time to reflect on the ruthless dominance of the aristocracy, and his own failures to negotiate his way up the social ladder to a point where he could feel more secure.

Part 4: Cðthen   1717 - 1723

	(ESTABLISH CELLO SUITE No. 1 AND PLAY UNDER:)
NARRATOR: Cello Suite No.1 Prelude played by Mischa Maisky	St James Church Cðthen Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cðthen, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. The prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; thus, most of Bach's work from this period was secular, including the Orchestral suites, the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello and the Sonatas and partitas for solo violin. (BRING UP CELLO SUITE No. 1 AND PLAY OUT AS APPROPRIATE) On 7 July 1720, while Sebastian was in Carlsbad in Bohemia with Prince Leopold, tragedy struck: his wife, Maria Barbara, died suddenly. (ESTABLISH CANTATA BVW 21 AND PLAY UNDER:)
Cantata BWV 21	This was perhaps the most devastating event in Sebastian's life so far.  As a child he had lost his mother and father in quick succession and he and Maria had already lost two of their seven children.  Her death was further proof of the vulnerability of our life here on earth and that only the hereafter gives us hope. There is some evidence that on a trip to Hamburg shortly afterwards he played his cantata Ich hatte viel Bekummernis in mein Herzen, a remarkable expression of profound grief.
READER:	Sighs, weepings, sorrow, distress, Anxious yearning, fear and death Harass my aching heart. I had great grief but your consolations comfort my soul. (BRING UP CANTATA BVW 21 AND PLAY OUT AS APPROPRIATE)
NARRATOR:	Anna Magdalena Wülcken Indeed he was soon to be comforted.  One of Sebastian's duties as Cðthen Kapellmeister was to advise on the appointment of singers and instrumentalists.  Only eleven months after Maria Barbara's tragic death, he persuaded Prince Leopold to appoint an attractive, energetic and highly musical, 19 year old, singer as one of the court's chamber musicians. He married Anna Magdalena Wülcken on 3 December 1721.  Together they had 13 more children, six of whom survived into adulthood.
NARRATOR:	A week after Bach's wedding, the Prince also married.  But for Bach this was to be an unfortunate event, as the new Princess was not in favour of her husband's musical activities and managed, by exerting constant pressure - as Bach wrote in a letter:
BACH:	His marriage has tended to make the musical inclination of the said Prince somewhat luke-warm.
NARRATOR:	Bach also wrote to his old school friend, Erdmann:
BACH:	There I had a gracious Prince as master, who knew music as well as he loved it, and I hoped to remain in his service until the end of my life.
NARRATOR:	Less money was now devoted to music and Sebastian with time on his hands was motivated to seek a job elsewhere.  The post of organist at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig had recently been offered to Georg Telemann, who had turned it down.  After lengthy deliberations by the Leipzig appointments board, Sebastian was offered the post.

Part 5: Leipzig    1723 - 1750

NARRATOR:	Leipzig Marketplace Leipzig, with a population of 30.000, was the second city of Saxony, the centre of the German printing and publishing industries, an important European trading centre, and site of a progressive and famous university.  It was also one of the foremost centres of German cultural life, with magnificent private dwellings, streets well paved and illuminated at night, a recently opened municipal library, a majestic town hall, and a vibrant social life.  Outside its massive town walls were elegant tree-lined promenades and extensive formal gardens. The old-established university drew scholars and men of distinction from far and wide, and the famous book trade contributed much to the cultural life of the city.  One of Leipzig's most important features was its international commerce. St Thomas Lutheran Church During the Leipzig Trade Fair, the respectable town was transformed into a show-ground mixing business with pleasure. When Bach was appointed Cantor of Thomasschule, next to the Lutheran St. Thomas' Church, he also became Director of Music in the principal churches in the town. From the window of his study on the first floor of the Thomasschule, he would look out west over the town wall, to a magnificent view of the surrounding gardens, fields and meadows, a view about which Goethe later wrote:
GOETHE:	When I first saw it, I believed I had come to the Elysian Fields.
NARRATOR:	Bach's arrival was clearly a major event in the musical and social world, and one North German newspaper described it in great detail:
NEWSPAPER:	Last Saturday at noon, four carts laden with goods and chattels belonging to the former Capellmeister to the Court of Cðthen arrived in Leipzig and at two in the afternoon, he and his family arrived in two coaches and moved into their newly decorated lodgings in the school building.
NARRATOR:	The Bach family at that time comprised his wife and four children, of eight, nine, twelve and fourteen years of age. The Bach Family at music practice

	(ESTABLISH CONCERTO FOR OBOE AND ORCHESTRA AND WEAVE UNDER:)
NARRATOR:	Out of the 54 boys at Bach's disposal for use in the different choirs, he stated
BACH:	17 are competent, 20 not yet fully, and 17 incapable.
NARRATOR: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra	Zimmermann's Coffee House Music-making was a popular pastime in Leipzig, and there were regular concerts at Zimmerman's Coffee House.  So Bach could count on a fairly professional orchestra.  His many arias featuring the oboe attest to the presence of a good oboist among the town's wind players. Sebastian's contract stipulated a prodigious workload. (BRING UP CONCERTO FOR OBOE AND ORCHESTRA AGAIN AND PLAY OUT) As well as being in charge of Latin classes from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., and two singing lessons at 9.0 a.m and 12.0 p.m., he had to write a cantata to be performed every Sunday.
Das Wachet Auf	An Engraving of Bach For these he had to find texts or Librettists. (ESTABLISH DAS WACHET AUF AND TAKE UNDER) This challenging schedule produced some of his best music.  Most of the cantatas from this period expound upon the Sunday readings from the Bible for the week in which they were originally performed; some were written using traditional church hymns, such as Wachet auf, Sleeper Awake!  This piece was written in 1731 and Bach later arranged it for organ. (BRING UP DAS WACHET AUF AND PLAY OUT AS APPROPRIATE)
BACH	The aim and final reason of all music should be nothing else but the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit.
NARRATOR:	Meanwhile his family was growing apace.  In April 1725 Magdalena gave birth to his tenth, and her third, child, Christian Gottlieb.  Seven children now survived. (ESTABLISH ST. MATTHEW PASSION AND WEAVE UNDER) Two years later he completed his St. Matthew Passion to be performed at St. Thomas Church on Good Friday.  The composer considered this monumental work among his greatest masterpieces.
BACH	It is my great passion.
NARRATOR:	His biographer Julian Shuckburgh writes that it is:
SHUCKBURGH:	The longest and most complex work Sebastian had yet composed - and ever would - and perhaps the greatest musical composition in the whole of human history.
NARRATOR:	It required every available musician in town for its performance. Bach's representation of the essence and message of Christianity in his religious music is considered by many to be so powerful and beautiful that in Germany he is sometimes referred to as the Fifth Evangelist..
LEONARD BERNSTEIN	St Matthew Passion Suddenly the chorus breaks into two antiphonal choruses.  'See him!' cries the first one.  'Whom?' asks the second.  And the first answers:  'The Bridegroom see.  See?  Him!'  'How?'  'So like a Lamb.'  And then over and against all this questioning and answering and throbbing, the voices of a boy's choir sing out the chorale tune, 'O Lamb of God Most Holy,' piercing through the worldly pain with the icy-clear truth of redemption..... There is nothing like it in all music. (BRING UP ST. MATTHEW PASSION AND PLAY OUT THIS YOUTUBE EXCERPT)
NARRATOR:	In the seven years since he had arrived in Leipzig, Sebastian had frequently been at loggerheads with his employers; mostly in the form of lengthy letters.  The council members complained about his neglect of teaching and of falling academic standards at the school, while he complained of insufficient funds and support to train and employ skilled musicians.  Fortunately Sebastian's circumstances improved with the appointment of a new headmaster, Johan Matthias Gesner in 1730.  Here at last was somebody, who understood and appreciated Sebastian's musical skills, especially his exceptional ability as a conductor.
GESNER:	Statue at Eisenach Singing with one voice and playing his own parts, but watching over everything and bringing back to the rhythm and the beat, out of thirty or even forty musicians, the one with a nod, another by tapping with his foot, the third with a warning finger, giving the right note to the one with the top of his voice, to another from the bottom, and to a third from the middle of it - all alone, in the midst of the greatest din made by all the participants, and, although he is executing the most difficult parts himself, noticing at once whenever and wherever a mistake occurs, holding everyone together, taking precautions everywhere, and repairing unsteadiness, full of rhythm in ever part of his body - this one man taking in all these harmonies with his keen ear and emitting with his voice alone the tone of all the voices.
NARRATOR:	He had been seeking work elsewhere but now no longer felt compelled to do so.  However in 1733 to celebrate Electress Maria's birthday he wrote a secular cantata entitled Tonet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten!
READER:	Cantata BVW 214 Sound, you drums! Ring out, trumpets! Resonant strings, fill the air! Sing your songs, you lively poets Long live the Queen! This is our joyful shout. Long live the Queen! This is the wish of Saxony.
NARRATOR:	As Shuckburgh puts it:
SHUCKBURGH:	The lines go on to affirm that music-playing is a powerful source of self confidence, that nature represents optimism, and that the Muses - who were themselves divine singers - encourage the aristocracy to settle quarrels and become dear to their subjects.  Music, with the Queen's help, can help penetrate into the wide circle of the earth. (ESTABLISH GOLDBERG VARIATIONS AND TAKE UNDER:)
NARRATOR: Goldberg Variations	Count Kaiserling, the Russian ambassador to Saxony, suffered from insomnia and had his fourteen year old harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, play to him.  Sebastian composed the Goldberg Variations for him to act as a soporific for the Count.  In return the grateful Count helped Bach to receive the title of Court Composer to the King of Poland and the Elector of Saxony. (BRING UP GOLDBERG VARIATIONS AND PLAY OUT AS APPROPRIATE:) In the spring of 1742 Sebastian was commissioned to write a wedding cantata.  It is believed he wrote the text.
BACH:	Do we really believe that music leads us astray and does not harmonize with love?   Oh no!   It is like love, a great child of heaven, except that it is not so blind as love.  It steals into all hearts, be it high or low.  Music comforts in the hour of death.
NARRATOR:	In 1745 King Frederick the Great's expansionist Prussian policies led to his troops occupying Leipzig.  After their withdrawal in 1747 Sebastian made the long, uncomfortable journey to Potsdam near Berlin to visit his son Emanuel who had become the King's harpsichordist.
Musical Offerings	Frederick the Great playing the flute The King was a gifted musician who played the flute.  On hearing of Sebastian's arrival, the King called for 'old Bach' to visit him.  He played a theme and challenged the famous musician to improvise a three-part fugue based on it.  Bach presented the king with a Musical Offering including several fugues and canons based on the 'royal theme.' A Berlin newspaper reported:
NEWSPAPER:	Herr Bach found the theme proposed to him so exceedingly beautiful that he intends to set it down on paper as a regular fugue and have it engraved on copper.
NARRATOR:	Bach returned to Leipzig within a few days and worked non stop on what he entitled Musical Offerings. (BRING UP MUSICAL OFFERINGS AND PLAY OUT) He was inspired by the success of this venture to produce what his son Emanuel later called:
EMANUEL:	My father's great Catholic Mass. (ESTABLISH GLORIA FROM MASS IN B MINOR AND WEAVE THROUGH TO THE END)
NARRATOR: B Minor Mass Gloria	It was unusual for composers working in the Lutheran tradition to compose a complete Mass and Bach's motives remain a matter of scholarly debate.  The Mass in B minor is partly made up from pieces previously composed.  The Mass was most probably never performed in totality during Bach's lifetime, and the work largely disappeared in the 18th century.  Several performances in the early 19th century, however, sparked a revival both of the piece and the larger rediscovery of Bach's music.  The three trumpets in the Gloria symbolise the Trinity.  Alberto Basso, the Italian professor of music history, has written:
EMANUEL:	Started in 1733 for 'diplomatic' reasons, it was finished in the very last years of Bach's life, when he had already gone blind.  This monumental work is a synthesis of every stylistic and technical contribution the Cantor of Leipzig made to music. But it is also the most astounding spiritual encounter between the worlds of Catholic glorification and the Lutheran cult of the cross.
NARRATOR:	Bach had overworked in poor light throughout his life, and his eyesight now began to fail him.  On the advice of friends, Bach put himself in the hands of a visiting celebrated English ophthalmic specialist, John Taylor (who also operated on Handel, the Pope and King George II.  Two cataract operations were performed on Sebastian's eyes, in March and Apri1 1750, and their weakening effect was aggravated by a following infection which seriously undermined his health.
	Bach in old age He spent the last months of his life in a darkened room.  Then, on the morning of the 28th of July, 1750, he woke up to find he could bear strong light again, and see quite clearly.  That same day he had a stroke, followed by a severe fever.  He died 'in the evening, after a quarter to nine, in the sixty-fifth year of his life, yielding up his blessed soul to his saviour'. During his life time he composed over 1,000 pieces.  Forkel wrote:
FORKEL:	And this man the greatest musical poet and the greatest musical orator, that ever existed and probably ever will exist, was a German. Let his country be proud of him, but at the same time, worthy of him.
NARRATOR:	Albert Schweitzer added:
SCHWEITZER:	In his innermost essence he belongs to the history of German mysticism.  This robust man, who seems to be in the thick of life with his family and his work, and whose mouth seems to express something like comfortable joy in life, was inwardly dead to the world.  His whole thought was inwardly transfigured by a wonderful serene longing for death.
NARRATOR:	But let us give the last word to Bach:
BACH:	The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.  Where this is not observed there will be no music, but only a devilish hubbub. (BRING UP GLORIA FROM MASS IN B MINOR AND PLAY OUT UNDER CREDITS)
NARRATOR:	Iain McGilchrist I have been greatly impressed by Iain Mcgilchrist's insight into poetry and music in his book, The Master and His Emissary. Here is what he says about Bach: "Bach's music is full of discords, and one would have to be musically deaf not to appreciate them - in both senses of the word 'appreciate', because such moments are especially to be relished, as are the wonderful passing dissonances and 'false relations' in the music of, for example, Byrd and his contemporaries. But they are introduced to be resolved. The same element that adds relish to the dish makes it inedible if it comes to predominate. The passing discords so frequent in Bach are aufgehoben into the wider consonanee as they move on and resolve. Context is once again absolutely critical - in fact nowhere can context be more important than in music, since music is pure context, even if the context is silence. Thus, in harmony as elsewhere, a relationship between expectation and delay in fulillment is at the core of great art; the art is in getting the balance right, something which Bach consummately exemplifies."

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