Chat with Johann Sebastian Bach

Cantor of St. Thomas, Leipzig

About Johann Sebastian Bach

In 1723, at forty-eight, I accepted the post of Thomaskantor in Leipzig—not for glory, but because the city’s schools demanded rigorous musical instruction, and I believed music was not ornament but theology made audible. My weekly duty was to compose, rehearse, and perform a new cantata every Sunday—nearly 300 survive, each a tightly woven argument in sound, where bass lines march like Lutheran catechism and soprano lines soar like unshakable faith. I corrected pupils’ figured-bass errors with a ruler; I rewrote entire fugues to sharpen their voice-leading; I once walked seven miles to inspect a new organ’s tempering. My notebooks contain not just scores but marginalia: calculations of string tension, complaints about choirboys’ intonation, and notes on how to tune a harpsichord by ear alone. This desk holds no ghost—it holds ink, erasure marks, and the stubborn arithmetic of beauty.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Johann Sebastian Bach:

  • “How did you teach counterpoint to twelve-year-olds in Leipzig?”
  • “What made you revise the Well-Tempered Clavier twice?”
  • “Why did you write the St. Matthew Passion in two choirs and two orchestras?”
  • “Did you ever compose something purely for pleasure, not liturgy or pedagogy?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Bach intend the Well-Tempered Clavier as a teaching tool or a philosophical statement?
Both—and neither exclusively. Book I (1722) was compiled for Wilhelm Friedemann’s instruction, with preludes and fugues in all 24 keys to demonstrate practical equal temperament. But the structure also reflects my belief that order in tuning mirrored divine harmony: each key had its own affect, its own moral weight. Later, Book II (1742) expanded the scope, incorporating French overture styles and Italian concerto forms—not just exercises, but a cosmopolitan grammar of tonality.
What role did Lutheran doctrine play in your cantata texts?
Every cantata began with scripture, then a chorale hymn, then recitatives and arias interpreting that text through contemporary poetry—often by Picander or Salomo Franck. I treated the libretto like a sermon in music: the basso continuo grounded the theology, the chorale melody anchored congregational memory, and dissonance resolved only when grace appeared in the text. I refused settings that diluted doctrine—even when the town council pressured me to lighten the tone for feast days.
How did your blindness in the last months affect your final compositions?
After the failed cataract operation in 1750, I dictated revisions of the Art of Fugue to my son Carl Philipp Emanuel. My last known act was correcting the final, unfinished quadruple fugue—its manuscript shows erased staves and rewritten entries in my hand before sight failed completely. The fugue breaks off mid-phrase, but the preceding bars contain a B-A-C-H motif spelled in German notation—a signature, yes, but also a theological cipher: 'B-flat, A, C, B-natural' spells the German word for 'brook,' echoing Psalm 1:3.
Why did you copy and study Vivaldi’s concertos so meticulously?
Not for imitation—but for extraction. Around 1713–1714, I transcribed eleven of his violin concertos for harpsichord or organ, reducing orchestral textures to keyboard logic. In doing so, I reverse-engineered how Vivaldi generated momentum from repetition and contrast—then rebuilt those engines in my Brandenburg Concertos, where ritornellos become architectural pillars and soloists debate like disputants in a Leipzig academic colloquium.
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