Johann Sebastian Bach

Greetings,

            Johann Sebastian Bach was born in March 21,1685, and died on July 28, 1750.  As a young organist in Muhlhausen he served with a pastor who was deeply influenced by the pietism of Philipp Jakob Spener, the German Lutheran reformer.  Bach’s profound and simple faith, his deep religious experience, and his personal devotion to Jesus Christ are evident in his letters and his music, especially his treatment of German hymnody.  Contemporary worshipers are unable to think of the texts of “O Sacred Head Now Wounded” or “Jesus, Joy of Our Desiring” apart from his harmonizations.  He composed nearly three hundred church cantatas, as well as passions, oratorios, and motets, and a great deal of sacred organ music including preludes for many Lutheran chorales.  J. B. Mac Millan calls him “unquestionably the greatest composer of all time for the organ” (The New International Dictionary [Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Zopndervan Corporation, 1974], p.94).  His devotional interpretation of hymn texts through music has been called “the greatest of all contributions to the praise of God through the hymn” (Charles Winfred Douglas, Church Music in History and Practice [New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1937], p. 194).  He consistently inscribed his compositions “soli Deo gloria”—“to the glory of God alone.”  A few days before he died, he composed a prelude on a chorale whose text in English is:

                                                            Before thy throne, my God, I stand

                                                            Myself, my all are in thy hand;…

                                                            Grant that my end may worthy be,

                                                            And that I wake thy face to see,

                                                            Thyself for evermore to know!

                                                            Amen, Amen, God grant it so!

           

            When I was 14 or so my father gave me my first recording of Albert Schweitzer performing Bach.  While it was made in the early days of the recording industry, the power and clarity of it came through, and I was hooked on Bach.  In the late 1960’s the flamboyant classical organist Virgil Fox started playing Bach on powerful electronic organs at venues like Filmore East and Filmore West, attracting a rather large following of young people who did not know Bach. 

            Tastes in music change.  Organ music is decidedly not “in” now.  And the intricate, reasoned, beauty of counterpoint is far from the ear used to volume and sliding and pounding.  However, as long as anything like the music we know now endures, Bach will find at least a small following, and as the cycle comes round, will enjoy popularity again.

Yours & His,

DED