What works did Bach write in Weimar. Cantatas of the Weimar period: new poetry, new forms and images. Bach's creative heritage

The outstanding German composer, organist and harpsichordist Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. He belonged to a ramified German family, most of whom had been professional musicians in Germany for three centuries. Johann Sebastian received his primary musical education (playing the violin and harpsichord) under the guidance of his father, a court musician.

In 1695, after the death of his father (his mother died earlier), the boy was taken into the family of his elder brother Johann Christoph, who served as a church organist at St. Michaelis Church in Ohrdruf.

In the years 1700-1703, Johann Sebastian studied at the school of church singers in Lüneburg. During his studies, he visited Hamburg, Celle and Lübeck to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of his time, new French music. In the same years he wrote his first works for organ and clavier.

In 1703, Bach worked in Weimar as a court violinist, in the years 1703-1707 as a church organist in Arnstadt, then from 1707 to 1708 in the Mühlhasen church. His creative interests were then mainly focused on music for organ and clavier.

In 1708-1717, Johann Sebastian Bach served as court musician to the Duke of Weimar in Weimar. During this period, he created numerous choral preludes, an organ toccata and a fugue in D minor, a passacaglia in C minor. The composer wrote music for the clavier, more than 20 spiritual cantatas.

In 1717-1723, Bach served with Leopold, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, in Köthen. Three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin, six suites for solo cello, English and French suites for clavier, six Brandenburg concertos for orchestra were written here. Of particular interest is the collection "The Well-Tempered Clavier" - 24 preludes and fugues, written in all keys and in practice proving the advantages of a tempered musical system, around the approval of which there were heated debates. Subsequently, Bach created the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier, also consisting of 24 preludes and fugues in all keys.

In Köthen, the "Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach" was started, which includes, along with pieces by various authors, five of the six "French Suites". In the same years, "Little Preludes and Fughettas. English Suites, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" and other clavier compositions were created. During this period, the composer wrote a number of secular cantatas, most of them not preserved and received a second life with a new, spiritual text.

In 1723, his "Passion according to John" (a vocal-dramatic work based on gospel texts) was performed at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig.

In the same year, Bach received the position of cantor (regent and teacher) in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig and the school attached to this church.

In 1736, Bach received from the Dresden court the title of Royal Polish and Saxon Electoral Court Composer.

During this period, the composer reached the pinnacle of mastery, creating magnificent examples in various genres - sacred music: cantatas (about 200 survived), "Magnificat" (1723), masses, including the immortal "High Mass" in B minor (1733), "Passion according to Matthew" (1729); dozens of secular cantatas (among them - the comic "Coffee" and "Peasant"); works for organ, orchestra, harpsichord, among the latter - "Aria with 30 variations" ("Goldberg Variations", 1742). In 1747, Bach wrote a cycle of plays "Musical Offerings" dedicated to the Prussian King Frederick II. The last work of the composer was the work "The Art of the Fugue" (1749-1750) - 14 fugues and four canons on one theme.

Johann Sebastian Bach is the largest figure in the world musical culture, his work is one of the pinnacles of philosophical thought in music. Freely crossing the features of not only different genres, but also national schools, Bach created immortal masterpieces that stand above time.

In the late 1740s, Bach's health deteriorated, with a sudden loss of sight particularly worrying. Two unsuccessful cataract surgeries resulted in complete blindness.

He spent the last months of his life in a darkened room, where he composed the last chorale "I stand before Thy throne", dictating it to his son-in-law, the organist Altnikol.

On July 28, 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig. He was buried in the cemetery near the church of St. John. Due to the lack of a monument, his grave was soon lost. In 1894, the remains were found and reburied in a stone sarcophagus in the church of St. John. After the church was destroyed by bombing during World War II, his ashes were preserved and reburied in 1949 in the altar of St. Thomas Church.

During his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach enjoyed fame, but after the death of the composer, his name and music were forgotten. Interest in Bach's work arose only at the end of the 1820s, in 1829 the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy organized a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin. In 1850, the Bach Society was created, which sought to identify and publish all the composer's manuscripts - 46 volumes were published in half a century.

With the mediation of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in 1842 in Leipzig, the first monument to Bach was erected in front of the building of the old school at the Church of St. Thomas.

In 1907, the Bach Museum was opened in Eisenach, where the composer was born, in 1985 - in Leipzig, where he died.

Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice. In 1707 he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. After her death in 1720, in 1721 the composer married Anna Magdalena Wilcken. Bach had 20 children, but only nine of them survived their father. Four sons became composers - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788), Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), Johann Christoph Bach (1732-1795).

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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Weimar again. Bach in secular service. Introduction to world musical art

In 1708, Bach was again in Weimar in the secular service of a horn organist and court musician of the Duke of Weimar. Bach stayed in Weimar for about ten years. The long stay in the city - the residence of the duke - was by no means caused by satisfaction with the position achieved. There was essentially no difference between the present and the past. But serious considerations kept Bach the musician. For the first time, I had the opportunity to reveal my many-sided talent in versatile performing activities, to test it in all directions: organist, musician of an orchestral chapel, in which I had to play the violin and harpsichord, and from 1714 the position of assistant bandmaster was added. In those days, creativity was inseparable from performance, and the work that Johann Sebastian did in Weimar served as an indispensable school of composer's skill.
Bach composed a lot for the organ, wrote various kinds of pieces for violin and harpsichord, as an assistant conductor, had to create a repertoire for the chapel, including cantatas for performance in the court church. All this required the ability to write quickly, in a variety of genres and forms, applying to different performing means and possibilities. A huge number of everyday practical tasks consumed a maximum of time, but also brought invaluable benefits: a virtuoso flexibility of technology was developed, creative ingenuity and initiative developed. For Bach, it was also the first secular service, where it was relatively free to experiment in the area of ​​secular musical genres that had previously been little accessible to him.
A very important circumstance was contact with world musical art.
Bach previously knew the music of France and Italy and considered many things, especially in Italian music, to be a model for himself. But the type of his own works to a large extent depended on the requirements of the type of service. Bach - a church organist - already before Weimar had considerable experience in composing organ music; in the Weimar period, as an organ composer, he reaches creative heights. The best that Johann Sebastian created for this instrument was written in Weimar: toccata and fugue in D minor; prelude and fugue in A minor; prelude and fugue in C minor and a number of other works.
In organ work, Bach relied on the long-established traditions of national art, enriched by the activities of the composer's immediate predecessors - the German organists Reinken, Boehm, Pachelbel, Buxtehude. Without changing the spirit of German music with its inherent philosophic nature, inclination towards self-deepening and contemplation, Bach improved his art on the examples of Italian masters. Bach learned from them to give his creations artistic completeness, clarity and beauty of form, flexibility of texture. For Bach, brought up on the ascetic sound of a Protestant chorale, brought up in the traditions of national music, in many respects constrained by the severity of the cult, contact with the sunny art of Italy was extremely beneficial.
A serious study of Italian violin art with its brilliant concert style, which naturally combined the most difficult virtuoso technique with the plasticity of expressive cantilena melodies, brought tangible results. Johann Sebastian put in a lot of work to master new genres and creative techniques of Italian virtuosos. To this end, he transcribed Antonio Vivaldi's violin concertos for organ and harpsichord; in a number of organ and clavier fugues he developed the thematic material of Arcangelo Corelli, Giovanni Legrenzi, Tomasio Albinoni.
The study of French music, in particular the harpsichord, did not go unnoticed. Already in his youth, Johann Sebastian was able to appreciate her; in the Lüneburg collection of works transcribed by the composer's hand, there are also French harpsichord pieces; "Capriccio for the Departure of My Beloved Brother" reveals the influence of program clavier music created by French musicians.
In Weimar there is a further and more in-depth development of French music. The grace of style inherent in her, the filigree finishing of the smallest details and the richness of pictorial and visual means delighted Bach. On the works of French harpsichordists and especially Francois Couperin, Bach learned the techniques of clavier writing.
Simultaneously with his work on the genres of organ and clavier music, Bach composed cantatas. In addition to spiritual cantatas, the first secular cantata “Only a merry hunt amuses me” (“Was mir behagt ist nur die munter Jagd”) appears. It was written and performed in 1716. Subsequently, Bach repeatedly made changes to it (concerning mainly verbal text) and adapted it to other official festivities; eventually the music of the cantata passed into the spiritual repertoire.
The more flexible use of the orchestra in the Weimar cantatas reveals traces of influences and, consequently, Johann Sebastian's familiarity with orchestral music from other countries.
So, in terms of creativity, Weimar is an extremely important stage for Bach. In the central, main area of ​​Bach's art, in organ music, the Weimar period is the heyday and full creative maturity. Bach creates classical creations that no one has ever surpassed, surpassing everything that has ever existed for this instrument. For clavier and other types of instrumental, as well as vocal music, the Weimar period is interesting as a period of experiments, searches and remarkable individual finds.
At this time, Bach worked, not sparing himself, all night long. And yet there was not enough time. Much of what was conceived or previously sketched was realized and acquired its final form later, when, after leaving Weimar, Bach moved to Köthen.

In 1708, Bach returned to Weimar to serve as an organist. His stay here lasted for 10 years. During this time, the composer managed to visit several positions - each had its own nuances of work. (I had to write music for several instruments at once). The composer gained invaluable experience in composing while he was in Weimar. No wonder it was here that he wrote the best works for organ.

It is worth adding that even in his youth Johann Sebastian proved himself to be an excellent virtuoso organist. Periodically, he took trips for, and these performances helped spread the fame of Bach as an outstanding improvisational performer. In the city of Kassel, for example, such variations were performed using the pedal that the listeners were delighted. According to the information that has come down to us, Bach was phenomenal and this fact left all his rivals far behind. He could vary within 2 hours the same theme, while doing it all the time in a variety of ways.

One of the episodes from the life of the composer often mentioned by biographers happened in 1717. Bach received an invitation to perform with Louis Marchand (a famous French virtuoso clavier player) in the city of Dresden. At the concert, Marchand performed a French song, and, for its brilliant performance, he received a long applause from the public. Then Johann Sebastian was invited to the instrument. After a short but masterful prelude, the composer repeated the song played by Marchand, also applying many variations to it, built in a way that no one had hitherto heard. Bach's superiority was evident, and when Johann Sebastian offered his opponent a friendly duel, Marchand, fearing failure, preferred to leave Dresden as soon as possible.

However, no matter how great the superiority of the German composer over others, this did not improve his general position. In Dresden, one might say, they were amused and let go.

It is noteworthy that Bach never boasted of his successes; moreover, he did not like to remember them. When asked how such a high level of performance is achieved, he replied that everyone can do this with the same efforts. He was modest and impartial, therefore he retained a sense of benevolence towards other people - his idol, for example, was Handel. Bach always wanted to meet him and strived for this, but the meeting never took place.

After 10 years in Weimar, Johann Sebastian occupied only the position of assistant bandmaster, despite the fact that he did all the main work. Therefore, when the vacancy of the court bandmaster opened up, Bach had every reason to take it, but the position did not go to him, but to the mediocre son of the deceased conductor. This naturally seemed to Johann Sebastian an insult, so he demanded his resignation. The duke reacted to this very harshly, but in the spirit of princely morals, taking the disgruntled employee under arrest - supposedly a simple servant dared to question the highest command. So Bach was repaid for 10 years of service in Weimar with an arrest.

Bach's life in Köthen

After Weimar, Bach, together with his wife and children, came to Köthen (this was in 1717). His work here consisted of directing the court orchestra, as well as teaching the prince of Köthen. The rest of the time the composer could spend for. Due to the lack of an organ, I had to concentrate on clavier music in my work.

As time went on, Johann Sebastian became increasingly bored in the small provincial town and thought about leaving. But besides boredom, two more circumstances spurred this step on - 1720 (his wife Maria Barbara died), the desire to give his children a good university education. At first, Bach tried to get a job as an organist in the city of Hamburg at the Church of St. James. He performed in this city during one of his recent artistic trips and pretty much delighted everyone with his organ playing, including the already aged Reinken who was present there. Bahu again did not get the coveted position, it was received by a person who knows nothing about music, but who contributed a round sum to the church fund. I had to wait some more time before new prospects appeared.

In 1721 the great composer married again. The chosen one was called Anna Magdalena, she was from a musical family and she herself had a strong voice. Thanks to some character traits (softness, responsiveness), Anna became a support and support for her husband.

Bach's life in Leipzig

Soon the composer tried to get a job as a cantor in the city of Leipzig. He petitioned the magistrate, but they were looking for a more famous musician. The available candidates refused, so it was decided to accept Bach, and even then on humiliating conditions.

The school of singers, which, thanks to the same conditions, was in the department of Johann Sebastian, was in complete ruin. The members of the choir did not cope with their task, many of them simply did not have the appropriate training, while others were generally not suitable for singing in the choir. It was the same story with the musicians who played in the orchestra. Johann Sebastian wrote reports to the magistrate, but received no support. It was much easier for the petty-bourgeois aristocrats who stood at its head to shift all the blame on the new cantor, which they did in their numerous documents. Thus, in Leipzig, relations with the authorities did not develop, but Johann Sebastian did not want to move somewhere, since he already had considerable experience in such things.

The only thing that somehow smoothed out the feelings about the constant attacks and humiliation of the superiors was the composer's artistic travels. His incredible skill allowed him to win the sympathy of people, as well as make many new acquaintances, since Bach's music was highly regarded by some of the outstanding personalities of that time.

But still, the composer's contribution (the main thing that the composer spent his time on) remained underestimated. Bach's works were not published, as if no one cared about them. A wall of misunderstanding seemed to have grown between the musician and society, leaving Johann Sebastian as a lonely artist (I must say that his wife gave him great support). And so it was, unfortunately, until the death of the composer.

Bach's latest creations are distinguished by a philosophical abstraction alien to the real world. In them, he seems to fence himself off from the cruel reality of the world. But this does not detract from the significance of these works, which are deservedly considered the pinnacle of polyphonic art.

On July 28, 1750, Bach died. This event did not attract much attention. However, in our time, countless people gather in the place where the remains of the composer are located - they are all ardent admirers of his work.

Researchers of Bach's life and work call the period from 1703 to 1717 "Weimar", but in fact he was in Weimar for a relatively small part of this time. He actually spent the first six months there, working as a musician in one of the choir chapels. But soon, in search of new perspectives and impressions, Bach moved to Arnstadt. There he becomes an organist at the "New Church" and gets a lot of free time to hone his musical skills. Here, for the first time, the composer's genius of Johann Sebastian Bach awakens to unprecedented strength. The spiritual cantata "You Won't Leave My Soul in Hell" for organ, choir and orchestra becomes his debut. In another early work, the clavier piece Capriccio for the Departure of a Beloved Brother, the most characteristic features of his composing style are for the first time noticeably manifested. Then Bach goes on foot to Lübeck, where the outstanding organist Buxtehude gives concerts. This event becomes a turning point in the composer's work.
Buxtehude's organ music impresses the young Bach with skill and innovative compositional techniques, and the composer stays in Lübeck for more than two years. Upon his return, he meets the reproaches of the church council, because they let him out of the church for only four months. Striving for independence, Bach leaves Weimar.
The town of Mühlhausen becomes a new haven for the genius, where he also works as a musician in the church. Throughout the year of work, Bach unsuccessfully tries to raise the level of musical culture in the town, attracting the attention of the church and city authorities. During this short period, he writes and performs his Electoral Cantata, which became the only work published during his lifetime.

Soon, in 1708, Bach again came to Weimar, which he had left, and this time he entered the position of court musician. During this period, his performing talent developed, honed by playing the violin, harpsichord and organ. Bach is famous for his improvisations on these instruments.
The organ became a "creative laboratory" for Bach during the "Weimar period". He, like a true scientist, studies its structure and all the features of sound production, thereby raising organ music to a hitherto unknown level, which Bach's notes tell us today. His creative "horse" was the legendary polyphony (polyphony). He writes the famous "Toccata and Fugue in de minor" and many other works for organ.
After the death of the Weimar Kapellmeister in 1716, Bach did not receive his position, as he had hoped. The post is given to a mediocre, but pleasing to the authorities, musician. Outraged by the injustice, Bach resigns and for "disrespect" falls under arrest, after which he again leaves Weimar and moves with his family to Kethen.

IN WEIMAR

Sebastian happened to visit the palace of Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar when he served in the Red Castle.

The duke, already elderly, was considered an enlightened ruler. However, no matter how diligently the officials served, requisitions from subjects did not allow the duke to equal in patronage with the rich courts of feudal Germany. He did not invite foreign artists and was proud of his patronage of German masters. It was cheaper. The duke loved organ music, kept a small orchestra, obliging the chapel musicians to perform as singers. According to an old habit, he was not averse to putting on the costumes of haiduks, traveling lackeys on the days of the festivities, and some of the musicians also coped with the duties of cooks. Such arbitrariness did not surprise anyone. And the service musicians put up with the whims of their benefactor. The duke paid them relatively well. Among the musicians were excellent, able to play more than one instrument. Bandmaster Johann Samuel Drese, of advanced years, calmly relied on the coherence of his small orchestra of twenty people. A young violinist, harpsichordist and organist who appeared quickly took root in the chapel. The bandmaster's assistant, his son, was of little ability, so that old Drese saw in Bach a good help in directing the orchestra.

Almost no information has come down to us about the first four years of Sebastian's life in Weimar. Obviously, apart from a trip to Mühlhausen, he did not leave Weimar during these years. Shortly after moving here, at the end of December 1708, Maria Barbara's daughter Katharina Dorothea was born. The young father, of course, was delighted, but according to a long-standing family tradition of German craftsmen of all workshops, the birth of sons, especially the first-born, aroused true pride in fathers - they had to continue the work of their fathers, they were passed on the secrets of craftsmanship, whether it was a family of mechanics, furriers or musicians.

On November 22, 1710, such an event happened in the Bach family: Maria Barbara gave Sebastian her first child, Wilhelm Friedemann. Two years will pass - twins will be born in the family, but they will die in infancy; a year later, in March 1714, another son, Carl Philip Emmanuel, will be born. And a year later, Maria will give birth to a third son, Johann Gottfried Bernard. Sebastian by June 1715 will be the sixth himself.

Weimar was the main city of Thuringia, quite lively. But it was not yet that famous Weimar - the city of poetry, the city of Goethe and Schiller, which entered the history of German culture in the era of "Sturm und Drang". Long since, however, the roots of culture in this city have grown stronger. Replaced by tiles on the old houses of Weimar, the Gothic walls of the buildings still remembered Luther's times. For Sebastian Bach, Weimar was dear to the memory of Luther, perhaps also of Heinrich Schutz, whose works he studied in his early youth.

Weimar was also destined to become the city of Johann Sebastian Bach. On hot summer days, the young family of the court musician, along with other townspeople, was seen walking in the forest behind the outpost. Is it often? The life of the composer-organist appears before us so tensely fruitful that it is difficult even to embrace with hearing and thought everything created by Sebastian Bach in the Weimar years. Unappreciated by contemporaries, the works of the young composer, composed precisely in Weimar, are the great, enduring, mature Bach.

Listeners of our time, involved in the world of his organ music, find it hard to believe at first that most of the concert programs consist of works by the composer's youth. The concert hall is filled with the sounds of the organ; any critical thought subsides; a hundred-toned instrument expresses majestic thoughts that captivate our ears, hearts, and minds. Gradually, the imagination draws the image of the “old Bach”, familiar from common portraits, in a wig, in a strict camisole; the image of a musician of a difficult life, a father of many children, tired of the struggle with the church and burgher-bureaucratic routine, is presented.

What a surprise it is when a listener, inexperienced in the biography of the composer, learns from a notographic reference book that most of these famous works were created at the age of 23 to 30 years old!

Bach's musical outlook found its perfect reflection in organ works. Organ music most corresponded to the philosophical, moral, poetic aspirations of the time. The organ was Bach's instrument of thought, as the piano was Chopin's, the orchestra was Beethoven's; “Bach thought in an organ” - this phrase is found in many books about Bach, and we will not leave it aside either. But a caveat is needed. Bach composed more works for the clavier in his lifetime than for the organ. He thought and "clavier". His genius is so all-encompassing that it is impossible to reduce his musical thinking only or mainly to organ art. Bach was an artist and thinker of polyphony - this is a more general description of him as a composer and musician. The improvement of polyphony in all genres of music is his main artistic task.

During the first years of his life in Weimar, Johann Sebastian served as the Duke's corrugator. That is why the organ then became an instrument of his polyphonic art.

The omnipotent instrument, the organ replaced the composer and performer with an orchestra, clavier and even a choir with solo voices. Hundreds of pipes are grouped into register groups. Unlike other instruments, the organ registers are distinguishable by timbres; register pipes have the same timbre and different pitches. Dozens, hundreds of registers. With its rich sonority and variety of colors, the organ was beyond comparison with other instruments. Both purely organ sounds and voices colored in the timbres of bowed and woodwind instruments differed: violin, gamba, double bass, oboe, flute, bassoon. Voices were heard that resembled brass, even percussion, for example, the sound of timpani. And the timbres of human voices; the semblance of a human voice in organ sound has long been called in Latin: vox humana, another register was called the “angelic voice” - vox angelica.

In Weimar, Bach played the organ of the palace church. It was a church of strange architecture. Tall, three-story, it had a building in the altar part in the form of an elongated pyramid tapering towards the ceiling. The parishioners, in their own way, good-naturedly called this altar structure "the road to the kingdom of heaven." The organ of this church, although it had few registers, was an excellent instrument.

Weimar in the time of Bach was not yet the "German Athens", but it seems that Sebastian felt less spiritual loneliness here than in any other city during all the years of wandering.

Able musicians served in the chapel.

In Weimar lived a distant relative of Sebastian on the maternal branch, his peer, performer, composer, music theorist Johann Walter. Subsequently, he will become very famous for his works, in particular the "Musical Lexicon", where he will give information about several Bachs, of course, and about Johann Sebastian.

A native of Erfurt, Walter was educated at the Erfurt University, studying philosophy and law. At the age of eighteen he served as an organist in his native city. He was not even twenty, when his "Instruction on composing music" was published. Gradually preparing his Lexicon, Walter corresponded with music theorists and composers. The erudite young scientist appreciated the virtuosity of his relative, it was with him that Sebastian went to Mühlhausen, his friend assisted him during the performance and witnessed the organist's artistic success.

Walther served as a musician in the city church of Weimar; there was an organ with more registers than in the palace temple, so, perhaps, Sebastian practiced this instrument, and Walter was sometimes the first and only listener of new preludes, fugues, toccata "sh. fantasies of his friend. The musicians exchanged notes of works composers of Germany, Italy and other countries. They were engaged in processing them, each in his own spirit. It was an exciting competition in the art of polyphony. Time gave full preference to such works of Bach: his arrangements of concertos and works of other genres turned out to be richer, more vital. Just one example: fugue in B minor on a theme by the Italian composer, an older contemporary of Bach, Corelli (579). It originally had 39 measures. Sebastian developed the theme in interpretation for organ up to 102 measures. Bach wrote clavier and instrumental-orchestral works. There is evidence that some -that he created on the advice of a friend.

Walter excelled his friend in learning. He used the Weimar library and in the introduction to the "Musical Lexicon" he recalled with gratitude those "information about music and musical figures" that he "could glean from the excellent library of the city of Weimar." He had much to share with Bach.

Friends knew each other at home. Sebastian became the godfather of Walter's son. During the hours of lively conversations, the composers exchanged musical themes, offering each other intricate forms of their development. It is authentically known that in the summer of 1713 they exchanged "mysterious canons". Such canons were recorded in notes for one voice. The moments and intervals of the introduction of other voices had to be guessed by the performers themselves. Even one date has been preserved: Bach brought his ingenious canon to Walter on August 2.

Friends joked one - over the other. Sebastian amazed everyone by free reading from a sheet of plays of any difficulty. This he did not mind being proud of. Once Walter decided to play Bach. He composed the most complicated etude and put the music notebook on the clavichord. He was expecting a guest today. Sebastian entered the study in good spirits and, out of habit, immediately rushed to the clavichord. Walter, under the pretext of taking care of breakfast, left the room, but began to watch the guest through the door slot. He confidently sat down at the instrument to play an unknown piece. Introductory phrases sounded - and a misfire. A new attempt - again embarrassed. Walter saw Sebastian's long face, the nervous movements of his hands. Could not stand it and burst out laughing at the door. Bach understood the host's joke. The cunningly and scientifically invented exercise did not succumb to his hands!

Let's name another interlocutor and well-wisher of Bach during the Weimar period - a modest, educated philologist, assistant to the rector of the gymnasium, Johann Matthias Geoner. An ardent lover of music, Gesner often listened to Sebastian's organ and clavier playing; he admired the young virtuoso with admiration. Remember, reader, this name: Gesner.

More than once visited Weimar and was in the family of Sebastian, his school friend Georg Erdman. He willingly hummed the arias they once sang in Ohrdruf and Lüneburg. I even remembered the funerals of respectable townspeople, when they, chorus boys, were paid a pittance. Erdman praised Sebastian's artistic mastery of the organ, listening to him play the harpsichord at home. But he himself chose the bureaucratic field. And therefore, he willingly turned the conversation about music into a story about the benefits of serving at the courts of other European powers. For example, with the Russian. Emperor Peter willingly takes on the service of useful and knowledgeable people. He himself, Erdman, would consider it a great success to enter the service of the Russian government: salaries there are paid incomparably more than in the German principalities ... he would not extend a helping hand to his lyceum comrade ... In Weimar, they met as friends, although they were alien to Erdmann and Bach's ardent search for the art of polyphony was incomprehensible. Not strong in verbal reasoning, Bach preferred to express his heartfelt impulses and thoughts addressed to friends in musical notation, in the sounds of an organ or harpsichord. Walter and he interrupted the speech, yielding primacy to the improvisations of his friend.