Johann Sebastian Bach (72 page)

Anna Magdalena fulfilled many roles over the years: companion, professional partner, assistant, keyboard student, and maybe also critic, but above all she mothered a large and steadily increasing family. In marrying Bach, she took on a widower with four small children ranging in age from eleven to six. She then gave birth to thirteen children over nineteen years (see Table 11.1), averaging one a year for most of that span. The baptisms were witnessed by godparents chosen by Bach and his wife from their close family circle and from among good friends, sometimes also to satisfy social honor codes—as, for example, when Prince Leopold and Burgomaster Lange, respectively, stood godfather to the firstborns in Cöthen and Leipzig. Since, by convention, the same person was rarely chosen twice within a family to further as godfather or godmother a child's Christian upbringing—Anna Magdalena's
Herzens Freundin
(friend of heart) and neighbor, Christiana Sybilla Bose,
²³
being an exception—the overall company of godparents reflects a broad range of personal ties and social connections maintained by the Bach family. Only six of Anna Magdalena's children outlived early childhood, as did four of Maria Barbara's. Infant mortality was then a normal fact of life, and staying alive was considered a godsend. Joy and sorrow always stood side by side, with experiences of hardship, illness, and pain usually prevailing. Thus, Bach shared worries and much grief with both of his wives. But in addition to mourning the deaths of so many offspring, he and Anna Magdalena were also deeply concerned about two of their adolescent sons.

T
ABLE
11.1. Johann Sebastian Bach's Children

With Maria Barbara

1. Catharina Dorothea, baptized Weimar, December 29, 1708; died Leipzig, January 14, 1774.

Godparents: D. Georg Christian Eilmar (pastor in Mühlhausen), Martha Catharina Lämmerhirt (widow of Tobias Lämmerhirt, brother of Bach's mother, in Erfurt), Johanna Dorothea Bach (wife of Bach's elder brother in Ohrdruf).

 

2. Wilhelm Friedemann (“Friedemann”), born Weimar, November 22, 1710; d. Berlin, July 1, 1784.

Godparents: Wilhelm Ferdinand Baron von Lyncker (ducal chamberlain in Weimar), Anna Dorothea Hagedorn (daughter of pastor Eilmar of Mühlhausen), D. Friedemann Meckbach (attorney in Mühlhausen).

 

3. Maria Sophia, b. Weimar, February 23, 1713; d. March 15, 1713.

Godparents: Martha Regina Heintze (wife of S. Heintze of Suhl, J. G. Walther's predecessor as town organist in Weimar), Margaretha Hoffmann (wife of J. C. Hoffmann of Suhl, great-grandson of the town piper Hoffmann, father-in-law of Johann Bach [
4
]), Georg Theodor Reineccius (cantor in Weimar).

 

4. Johann Christoph, b. February 23, 1713; d. at birth (received emergency baptism).

 

5. Carl Philipp Emanuel (“Carl”), b. Weimar, March 8, 1714; d. Hamburg, December 14, |1788.

Godparents: Adam Immanuel Weldig (master of the pages and court singer), Georg Philipp Telemann (capellmeister), Catharina Dorothea Altmann (wife of C. F. Altmann, princely chamberlain at Arnstadt).

 

6. Johann Gottfried Bernhard, b. Weimar, May 11, 1715; d. Jena, May 27, 1739.

Godparents: Johann Andreas Schanert (county registrar in Ohrdruf), Johann Bernhard Bach (organist in Eisenach), Sophia Dorothea Emmerling (wife of the court chef in Arnstadt and cousin of Maria Barbara's).

 

7. Leopold Augustus, b. Cöthen, November 15, 1718; d. September 28, 1719.

Godparents: Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, Augustus Ludwig, prince of Anhalt-Cöthen, Duchess Eleonore Wilhelmine (wife of Duke Ernst August of Saxe-Weimar), Christoph Jost von Zanthier (privy councillor at the Cöthen court), Juliana Magdalene (wife of G. von Nostiz, principal court steward).

With Anna Magdalena

8. Christiana Sophia Henrietta: bapt. spring 1723 (baptism not recorded); d. June 29, 1726.

 

9. Gottfried Heinrich, bapt. Leipzig, February 27, 1724; buried Naumburg, February 12, 1763.

Godparents: D. Gottfried Lange (burgomaster of Leipzig and chair of St. Thomas's), Regina Maria Ernesti (wife of J. H. Ernesti, rector of the St. Thomas School), D. Friedrich Heinrich Graff (attorney in Leipzig).

 

10. Christian Gottlieb, bapt. Leipzig, April 14, 1725; d. September 21, 1728.

Godparents: Christian Wilhelm Ludwig (electoral Saxon official and singer, Leipzig), Maria Elisabeth Taubert (wife of J. Taubert, merchant in Leipzig), Gottlieb Christian Wagner (city official and son of the former burgomaster).

 

11. Elisabeth Juliana Friderica (“Lieschen”), bapt. Leipzig, April 5, 1726; d. Leipzig, August 24, 1781.

Godparents: Christina Elisabeth Küstner (wife of D. G. W. Küstner, city councillor), D. Johann Friedrich Falckner (attorney in Leipzig), Juliana Romanus (wife of D. C. F. Romanus, city judge in Leipzig).

 

12. Ernestus Andreas, bapt. Leipzig, October 30, 1727; d. November 1, 1727.

Godparents: D. Johann Ernst Kregel (judge at the electoral court, Leipzig), Magdalena Sibylla Baudis (wife of law professor and city councillor D. G. Baudis in Leipzig), D. Andreas Rivinus (professor of law in Leipzig).

 

13. Regina Johanna, bapt. Leipzig, October 10, 1728; d. April 25, 1733.

Godparents: Anna Katharina Meissner (wife of G. C. Meissner, court trumpeter in Weissenfels, and sister of Anna Magdalena), Johann Caspar Wilcke (court trumpeter in Zeitz, brother of Anna Magdalena), Johanna Christina Krebs (wife of J. A. Krebs, court trumpeter in Zeitz, sister of Anna Magdalena).

 

14. Christiana Benedicta, bapt. Leipzig, January 1, 1730; d. January 4, 1730.

Godparents: Benedicta Carpzov (daughter of D. J. G. Carpzov, archdeacon at St. Thomas's), D. Christian Gottfried Moerlin (attorney in Leipzig), Catharina Louisa Gleditsch (wife of J.G. Gleditsch, bookseller in Leipzig).

 

15. Christiana Dorothea, bapt. Leipzig, March 18, 1731; d. August 31, 1732.

Godparents: Christiana Sybilla Bose (daughter of G. H. Bose, merchant in Leipzig), M. Andreas Winckler (theologian and orientalist, Leipzig), Christiana Dorothea Hebenstreit (wife of M. J. C. Hebenstreit, conrector at St. Thomas's).

 

16. Johann Christoph Friedrich (“Friederich”), bapt. Leipzig, June 23, 1732; d. Bückeburg, January 26, 1795.

Godparents: Johann Sigismund Beiche (chamber commissioner in Pegau), Dorothea Sophia Weiss (daughter of C. Weiss, pastor at St. Thomas's), D. Christoph Donndorf (attorney in Leipzig, in 1731–32 Bach's interim landlord).

 

17. Johann August Abraham, bapt. Leipzig, November 5, 1733; d. November 6, 1733.

Godparents: M. Johann August Ernesti (conrector at St. Thomas's), Elisabeth Caritas Gesner (wife of J. M. Gesner, rector at St. Thomas's), M. Abraham Kriegel (
collega tertiusat St.
Thomas's).

 

18. Johann Christian (“Christel”), bapt. Leipzig, September 7, 1735; d. London, January 1, 1782.

Godparents: M. Johann August Ernesti (rector at St. Thomas's), Christiana Sybilla Bose (daughter of G. H. Bose, merchant in Leipzig), D. Johann Florens Rivinus (professor of law, Leipzig).

 

19. Johanna Carolina, bapt. Leipzig, October 30, 1737; d. Leipzig, 18, 1781.

Godparents: Sophia Carolina Bose (daughter of G. H. Bose, merchant of Leipzig), M. Christian Weiss (deacon at St. Nicholas's), Johanna Elisabeth Henrici (wife of C. F. Henrici Leipzig, [Picander], post office commissioner in Leipzig).

 

20. Regina Susanna, bapt. Leipzig, February 22, 1742; d. Leipzig, December 14, 1809.

Godparents: Anna Regina Bose (daughter of G. H. Bose, merchant in Leipzig, engaged to be married to F. H. Graff), D. Friedrich Heinrich Graff (attorney in Leipzig), Susanna Elisabeth Bose (daughter of G. H. Bose).

 

Note: Boldface type identifies individuals who lived to adulthood.

 

Bach's Genealogy describes Anna Magdalena's oldest, Gottfried Heinrich, as “inclined toward music, particularly clavier-playing,” but Carl later refers to him as “a great genius who didn't fully develop.”
²⁴
Suffering from some learning disability or mental deficiency, the youngster was unable to attend the St. Thomas School and instead received private tutoring. At fifteen, he was described by Johann Elias Bach as being “in great need of solid and consistent instruction.”
²⁵
Both parents evidently tried to further his unquestionable musical talents. Indeed, it may have been Gottfried Heinrich who entered—and possibly composed—the delightful little aria “So oft ich meine Tobacks-Pfeife mit gutem Knaster angefüllt” (Whene'er I take my pipe and stuff it full of good tobacco), BWV 515, into his mother's Clavier Book, as the childlike notation of the two-part song score (without words) suggests. Mother and father each lent a helping hand: she by copying the melody onto the opposite page, transposing it from D minor into the singable range of G minor and providing the text underlay; and he by significantly improving the bass line and fixing the first and second endings of the bipartite song structure.
²⁶

A more difficult and, in the end, tragic case was Johann Gottfried Bernhard, Maria Barbara's third son, doubtless an intelligent young man and a gifted musician but also an apparent ne'er-do-well. After graduating from the St. Thomas School in 1735, he applied for the organist post at St. Mary's in Mühlhausen. Johann Sebastian had learned that his former colleague Johann Gottfried Hetzehenn had died that April, and using his long-established connections and writing directly to the burgomaster, Bach managed to get his son scheduled for an audition.
²⁷
Early June saw both father and son traveling to Mühlhausen, where Bernhard auditioned for the opening and was elected for the job by the town council on June 16. Meanwhile, Bach had offered free advice on the rebuilding of the organ at St. Mary's, under contract with Johann Friedrich Wender and his son Christian Friedrich. Then, on the evening of the organist election, Bach and his son were wined and dined by the town council.
²⁸
But Bernhard did not remain in the Mühlhausen post for very long. Sixteen months later, Bach contacted Johann Friedrich Klemm of Sangerhausen, son of Johann Jacob Klemm, with whom he had dealt way back in 1702 as a candidate for the post of town organist in Sangerhausen. “I have dared,” he wrote, “to take the liberty (since I have heard that the organist of the Lower Church has died and the vacancy will probably soon be filled) of obediently asking you…not only for your gracious patronage on behalf of a person who is very close to me, but also to show me in this matter the special
faveur
of sending me most kindly a gracious note on the salary of the vacant post.”
²⁹
Additional correspondence with Sangerhausen followed, and again, thanks to his father's intervention, Bernhard was invited to audition on January 13, 1737, was elected the following day, and quit his Mühlhausen post about a month later.

No doubt an excellent organist who easily passed an audition, Bernhard had a very fine instrument at his disposal in Sangerhausen: the old organ his father had played in 1702 had by then been replaced by a new instrument by Zacharias Hildebrandt of Leipzig, a frequent collaborator with Bach, onetime apprentice of the renowned Gottfried Silbermann, and now ducal Saxe-Weissenfels court organ builder. But not even this attractive organ could bind the unsteady and restless Bernhard to Sangerhausen. In the spring of 1738, he suddenly disappeared from the scene without informing anyone of his whereabouts. The embarrassed and disappointed father expressed his despair in a letter that May to Friedrich Klemm:

 

With what pain and sorrow…I frame this reply, Your Honor can judge for yourself as the loving and well-meaning father of Your Honor's most beloved offspring. Upon my (alas! misguided) son I have not laid eyes since last year, when I had the honor of enjoying many courtesies at Your Honor's hands. Your Honor is also not unaware that at that time I duly paid not only his board but also the Mühlhausen draft (which presumably brought about his departure at that time), but also left a few ducats behind to settle a few bills, in the hope that he would now embark upon a new mode of life. But now I must learn again, with greatest consternation, that he once more borrowed here and there and did not change his way of living in the slightest, but on the contrary has even absented himself and not given me to date any inkling as to his whereabouts. What shall I say or do further? Since no admonition or even any loving care and assistance will suffice any more, I must bear my cross in patience and leave my unruly son to God's Mercy alone, doubting not that He will hear my sorrowful pleading and in the end will so work upon him, according to his Holy Will, that he will learn to acknowledge that the lesson is owing wholly and alone to Divine Goodness.
³⁰

 

For quite a while, Bernhard left no trace; no one could find him—according to an inquiry by the town council, “not even his father, the
Capell Director
in Leipzig.”
³¹
The distressed parents may not even have become aware of their lost son's matriculation in January 1739, as a law student at Jena University—an attempt on the part of the gifted young man struggling with obligation and inclination, intimidated son of a powerful father and uncertain of his own place in life, to turn things around? But only four months later, on May 27, shortly after his twenty-fourth birthday, Bernhard died “from a hot fever.”
³²
Nothing beyond this is known of his illness, death, or burial.

The educational opportunities in Leipzig for all the Bach children were rich and manifold. And there is no reason to doubt that the daughters, though at the time Latin schools and universities were closed to them, received the kind of schooling that would not have been so readily available to them in other places. Anna Magdalena may have played the major role in their musical training, and it is worth noting that in his letter to Erdmann Bach does not exempt his daughters from the vocal-instrumental family ensemble. On the contrary, he names only his wife's “clear soprano” and his eldest daughter, who “joins in not badly”—the sons remain unmentioned. There is no indication, however, that Catharina Dorothea or any of her sisters were guided toward a musical career. As professional career choices for women were generally extremely limited,
³³
Bach, in line with both social convention and family tradition, focused on the professional development of his sons and took their education very much to heart. He saw to their musical training himself, particularly their keyboard skills and exercises in composition.