Bach really is No. 1

A decade ago, while working at a translation agency in Texas, I listened to the radio via an earpiece to help the hours go by. When a co-worker learned that the radio was tuned to a station devoted to classical music (rather than what—rock & roll? country & western? hip-hop? talk radio? reports from the stock market?), he seemed surprised. Although I had no background in classical music, I gravitated in that direction because it is soothing and enjoyable, sometimes even inspiring. Oh, I can do without symphonies, operas and some other things that fit in the “classical” category. What I really like is the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. I may be a dilettante, but in my view there has never been a greater composer of classical music than Herr Bach, whose life spanned the years 1685 to 1750.

I could not distinguish an oratorio from a cantata to save my life. And the only reason I know Bach was a master of polyphonic music of the late Baroque era is that I looked it up on Wikipedia. Bach synthesized several styles and could build an intricate web of counterpoint that is complex and beautiful. I love Bach! I love his music, most of all the Brandenburg Concertos, six instrumental pieces he composed in honor of a German count who would be long forgotten if not for this fact. Forgotten is right. The count (to whom Bach had written a long and supplicating dedicatory address) put the musical scores in his library and there they gathered dust until his death 13 years later. I have heard each of the Brandenburg Concertos hundreds of times, and they never fail to give me the most exquisite auditory pleasure. I like “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” “The St. Matthew Passion,” “The St. John Passion,” “The Goldberg Variations” and other musical masterpieces. It would be pretentious for me to say I understand or grasp even a fraction of the soaring grandeur of Bach’s music. I do not, and I never will. But is this not part of his genius? He appeals to both the unschooled like me and those who truly know.

Now, let’s talk a bit about the man’s life. He was not rich, at least not in the financial sense. But he was blessed to be born into a family of superb musicians, people who wrote and played both sacred and secular music. Orphaned before the age of 10, Bach’s formal education ended when he was 17 and he earned his bread thenceforth as a teacher, kapellmeister, organist, harpsichordist and violinist. He was well-respected throughout Europe, although he never got out of Germany. Bach lived in Eisenach, Arnstadt, Weimar, Ordruhf, Luneberg, Muhlhausen, Kothen and Leipzig, where he spent the last 27 years of his life. Only indirectly did he make contact with the musical influences of Italy, France or the Netherlands. I especially like the story of how Bach, in his late teens, walked some 250 miles to the northern German town of Lubeck just to meet and learn from the great organist Dieterich Buxtehude. He was the father of numerous children, many of whom carried on the Bach family’s musical legacy—most especially Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emanuel.

After his death, though, Bach’s reputation went into decline and his works were seldom played. Tastes had changed, and he was seen as old-fashioned. Fortunately, a couple of things happened. An admiring biography was written in 1802, which caught the attention of Beethoven and others. Twenty-seven years later, Felix Mendelssohn performed “The St. Matthew Passion” in Berlin to great acclaim. Ever since, Bach has been regarded as a maestro of the highest order.

I was prompted to write this piece by something I read recently in the New York Times. Anthony Tommasini, music critic for the Times, is at the opposite end of the spectrum from me. He has two degrees from Yale and got a Ph.D. in musical arts from Boston University. Tommasini, who clearly knows his stuff, embarked on the preposterous exercise of naming the top 10 classical music composers of all time. He sought comments and opinions from his readers, and then boldly strode forth with his own. You know who came out on top—my man Johann Sebastian Bach, the unparalleled master of musical engineering, profound expression of Christian fervor, visceral flair and rhapsodic harmony.

Tommasini’s two through ten? Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Stravinsky, Brahms, Verdi, Wagner and Bartok.
 

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