Johann Sebastian Bach

Part 1: Eisenach and Ohrdruf: 1685-1700

(Establish AIR ON A G STRING. Then fade behind the Announcer)
ANNOUNCER:
The Fifth Evangelist: The Life and Music of Johann Sebastian Bach by Shaun MacLoughlin
Bring up Air on a G String again and fade behind the Narrator
NARRATOR:
TORTELIER:
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
Johann Sebastian Bach
NARRATOR:
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 following speech
Ambrosius, Bach's father
NARRATOR:
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.
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:
Bach's house in Eisenach
FORKEL:
The Bachs not only displayed a happy contentedness, indispensable for the cheery enjoyment of life, but exhibited a Clannish attachment for each other.
NARRATOR:
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.
Johann Pachelbel
CHILDREN:
(RECITING) Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant. (SLOWLY FADE FROM HERE) Amabo, amabas, amabat, amabamus, amabatis, amabant.
NARRATOR:
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
Wartburg Castle
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:
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.
Michaeliskirche, Ohrdruf
NARRATOR:
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:
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
St John the Baptist Lüneburg
NARRATOR:
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.
The Harz Mountains
Bring up Gregorian plain chant again and play out.

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

Music

Prisoners
The Flying Palaces of Angkor