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Bach BiographyTalk About Bach Biography inthe Bach Talk Forum
Johann Sebastian Bach lived from 1685 - 1750. The year of his death is the closing year of the Baroque Period. MÜHLHAUSEN: 1707-1708 Bach arrived at Mühlhausen, a small Thuringian town proud of its ancient foundation and independence, to take up the post of organist to the town. Unfortunately, a quarter of the whole town had recently been devastated by fire; it was thus difficult for him to find suitable dwellings, and he was thus forced to pay a high rent. Nevertheless, shortly after his arrival, he brought his cousin Maria Barbara from Arnstadt, and on October 17th 1707 he married her at the small church in the picturesque little village of Dornheim. Maria Barbara came of a branch of the musical Bach family, her father being organist at Gehren. By now Bach had high ideals for the church music of Germany, and to start with, he began organizing the rather poor facilities of Mühlhausen; he started by making a large collection of the best German music available, including some of his own, and set about training the choir and a newly created orchestra to play the music. The first result of these efforts was his cantata 'Gott ist mein König' (BWV 71), given in hitherto unknown splendor in the spacious Marienkirche to celebrate the inauguration of the Town Council in February 1708. This, incidentally, was the only one of Bach's cantatas to be published during his lifetime and was due in this case to the Council's desire for publicity and prestige. This success gave Bach the courage to put in a long and detailed report, proposing a complete renovation and improvement of the organ in the St Blasiuskirche. The Council agreed to carry out the renovation and improvements, and Bach was given the task of supervising the work, for not only was he now a brilliant player, but had also become an expert on the construction of organs. However, before the organ was completed, a religious controversy arose in Mühlhausen between the orthodox Lutherans, who were lovers of music, and the Pietists, who were strict puritans and distrusted art. Bach was apprehensive of the latter's growing influence, in addition to the fact that his immediate superior was a Pietist. Music in Mühlhausen seemed to be in a state of decay, and so once more he looked around for more promising possibilities. More
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