Читать книгу Bach - C. F. Abdy Williams - Страница 11

Table of Contents

Bach’s salary—He borrows a cart from the Consistory for his furniture—The agreement is made verbally—Bach’s first marriage—His duties at St Blasius—The festival compositions—Repairs to the organ—Difficulties with the Pietists—He resigns his post—Is appointed chamber-musician at Weimar—His duties there—His relations with Walther—Studies instrumental music—His journeys—His competition with Marchand.

The competition took place at Easter 1707, and terms were arranged a month later. An organist is rarely a highly paid individual: but modern organists may well be astonished at the meagreness of the salary for which the greatest of their predecessors was content to work. The request for the loan of a cart to bring his modest furniture from Arnstadt brings the matter very plainly before us. One sees in Thuringia, even at the present day, the clumsy four-wheel carts which have not varied in shape for centuries, drawn by a cow and a pony, rarely by two horses; and one can easily imagine such a cart conveying the household goods of the young musician across the plain from Arnstadt to Gotha, and from Gotha to Mühlhausen.

The terms were eighty-five gülden (about £8, 10s.); three malter (twelve bushels) of corn, two cords of wood, six trusses of brushwood; the last in place of some arable land formerly held by the organist. The cost of conveyance to his door was to be borne by the Council. In addition, he was to receive annually three pounds of fish, and he asked that a cart might be lent him for transporting his furniture from Arnstadt, to which request the Council agreed.

A fire had, a fortnight before, destroyed a large portion of the parish of St Blasius, and when the clerk brought the agreement to the Council to sign, pens and ink were not forthcoming, so that a verbal agreement was made to all the terms.

The actual appointment took place on June 15th; and a fortnight later he was again in Arnstadt, where he thanked the Council for past favours, announced his resignation, and gave up the key of the organ. A sum of five gülden was due to him as salary, but he requested the Consistory to pay this to his cousin Ernst,[23] who had formerly assisted him, but who was now ill and poor.

Work at Mühlhausen

His duties at St Blasius were to play the organ on Sundays, saints’ days and festivals. He was anxious to raise the whole of the church music to a higher level, and mentioned this wish to the Council in an address. His predecessor Ahle had left a number of compositions which were frequently performed, but Bach, not being satisfied with them, as quickly as possible made a good collection of music and had it performed, paying for it out of his own pocket. He also made efforts to improve the choir and orchestra.

He received considerable assistance in these endeavours from his pupil Johann Martin Schubart (who afterwards succeeded him in his post at Weimar), and from his choir leader, Johann Sebastian Koch, afterwards Capellmeister to Count Reuss, and a Bachelor of Theology at Jena University.

In October 1707, Bach returned to Arnstadt for his wedding, which took place on the 17th of that month, and it is evident that he had parted on good terms with the Consistory, for the prescribed fees were remitted. In September of the same year Tobias Lämmerhirt, of Erfurt, a maternal uncle of Sebastian, had died, and left 50 gülden (about £5) to each of his sister’s children, and this legacy must have been welcome to Sebastian at the time of his wedding.

Among the duties expected of the organist of St Blasius, was the composition of a cantata for the yearly change of Town Council (Rathswahl); and it was customary to have the music printed after the performance, at Mühlhausen.

The first of the cantatas thus composed by Bach is preserved; it was for the festival of 1708, and was performed in the Church of the Holy Virgin on February 4 of that year. The text is taken from the Old Testament, together with part of a hymn or a chorale, and Bach called it a motet. It was accompanied by three trumpets, drums, two flutes, two oboes, a bassoon and strings, the band being divided into four groups of brass, wood-wind (with cello), reed, and strings. The form is in imitation of some of Buxtehude’s church cantatas.[24]

St Blasius Organ

Bach found the organ of St Blasius in very bad condition. It had not sufficient bellows, and there was insufficient pressure on the bass pipes, owing to there being too small a wind passage. There was no 32 feet stop and the trombone was too weak. Moreover the choir-organ had become useless, as had also several stops in the great.

Repairs the organ

He drew up a list of deficiencies which he presented to the Council, and asked for the addition of a “Glockenspiel” or peal of bells, to be acted on by pedals, an invention of his own. The latter addition was at once subscribed for by the parishioners. There was a smaller organ in the church, which he proposed to sell and apply the proceeds to repairing the principal organ. The Council placed the entire management of the matter in his hands, and he obtained an estimate from Wender the organ-builder who agreed to do the work for 230 thalers,[25] and to allow 40 thalers for the small organ.

The requirements were:—

Three new bellows; stronger wind to the four old ones,[26] a new 32 feet stop with a separate wind chest for it; renewal of the old bass wind chests; new and larger pipes, with differently arranged mouthpieces for the bass trombone; the addition of the new glockenspiel of twenty-four bells; the trumpet on the great to be removed and a 16 feet bassoon to take its place; the gemshorn to be changed for a viol da gamba of 8 feet; a 3 feet nassat to be put in instead of the quint; revoicing of all the rest of the pipes; sundry alterations in the choir-organ; and a coupler to connect it with the third manual; the tremulant to be put in working order.

Unfortunately, however, difficulties soon began to arise. He was looked upon as an outsider, for the post had previously always been held by a native; and obstacles which appeared insurmountable soon began to beset him. Religious differences arose between the “Pietists” and the “Old Lutherans,” the former being led by J.A.Frohne, dean of Mühlhausen, and the latter by G.C. Eilmar, archdeacon of the Church of the Blessed Virgin.

Pietist view of music

Bach sided with the orthodox Lutherans, and Eilmar was godfather to his first child. The Pietists conceived of art as part of “the world,” and therefore absolutely hostile to a Christian life: it could only be rightly used in religion, and then only in the narrowest possible of “spiritual songs” from which all expression must be excluded. Hence any attempt to introduce higher forms or new ideas must be sinful. It is easily seen, therefore, that Frohne would naturally place what obstacles he could in the way of Bach’s endeavours to raise church music to the highest possible artistic standard. Moreover, the Pietists were opposed to the doctrine of regeneration by baptism, and to the whole of the simple but truly religious views which Bach had inherited from generations of his family, dedicated to the work of the church as organists and cantors. He was no theologian, and was perfectly content with the faith of his fathers.

The most beautiful and deeply religious of his church cantatas were a sinful abomination in the eyes of the Pietists. What wonder then that he should have found difficulties and obstacles and want of appreciation in carrying out his aims. Even while he was in the midst of the interesting work of repairing his organ, the situation began to become intolerable, and a post at Weimar falling vacant, he took steps to obtain it.

Resigns his post

On June 5 he went to Arnstadt for the second wedding of his friend Pastor Stauber, who had performed the service a year before at Bach’s own wedding, and on June 25th 1708 he sent in his resignation to the Council at Mühlhausen, a year after he had received the appointment. He had always been on the best of terms with them, and it is evident, from the tone of his letter of resignation, that he was sorry to leave them. The Council on their side also regretted the step, but granted his dismissal, only requiring that he should supervise the repairs to the organ, which were not completed till 1709.