The Eudaimonia Blog

“With devotional music, God is always present in His grace.” -J.S. Bach

Pictured here is the birthhouse of Johann Sebastian Bach born in March of 1685. The reason the picture isn’t zoomed out a bit is because immediately to the right of the picture is a rather modern structure housing a museum in commemoration of the great composer. I thought it would be nice to get the 17th and 18th century portrait of the house without the 21st century “add-on.” Greg, Chad and I travelled about four hours by train to the town of Einsenach where Bach spent many of his childhood years. By spending time in the Bachhaus museum, we also learned a lot of fascinating insights about the composer and his music as well. For one, many of Bach’s compositions unfortunately have been lost forever, despite meticulous searches for them. From printed texts that have survived, we know that some of his church cantatas have been lost as well as much of his instrumental music. In fact, only a few of his works were printed during his lifetime. So following his death in 1750, most of what existed of Bach’s music were personal copies printed by him by hand. Therefore, following the death of his sons as well as his students, as the end of the 18th century would approach, the danger existed of Bach’s work being lost forever. It was the blessing of a renewed interest in his work in the early 1800s, that publishers such as Hoffmeister & Kunnel, Breitkopf & Härtel, Schlesinger and Trautwein would work furiously to preserve and publish Bach’s works. Their focus in particular was on Bach’s keyboard and organ works. A great debt of gratitude is owed to these publishers.

Bach was also a man of deep faith. He was baptized in St. George’s Church in Eiesenach as a child. And would grow into his baptism his entire life. Bach wrote that music is “mandated by God’s Spirit” and that “God is always present in His grace” in devotional music. He also began and signed off on most of his music with the initials S.D.G., “Soli Deo Gloria.” S.D.G. was one of the “five solas” of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, meaning, “to God alone be the Glory.” In fact, for the last three decades of his life, Bach would build up a formidable theological library comprised of 52 titles in 81 volumes, larger than many church libraries at that time.

That being said, Bach did not always have an easy time with church leaders and members. Church folks complained that he would “play so many wondrous variations and mix in so many strange tones that we were left completely confused.” For those who have worked in the church for any amount of the time, the kerfuffles over church music is no surprise here and unfortunately seems like a perennial issue from generation to generation. It was Martin Luther who once quipped that the Devil enters the church through the choir room. You can only imagine the factions in the church wanting to get rid of J.S. Bach as their music director for his substandard music. How crazy?!

Well, nonetheless, we had a splendid time at the Bachhaus in Eisenach. Here is a picture of the three of us standing in front of a statue of Bach in that location, a picture I shared earlier. S.D.G.