The perception of musicians from long-ago as stodgy or prosaic is difficult to dislodge from the minds of the modern public. After all, the visual images that have come down through the years are often only dour portraits, and classical music (rightly or wrongly) has come to be associated with high society, with being cultured and refined. Here, however, are some examples of the rougher side of the great J.S. Bach.
Bach's Famous Swordfight
One of the great stories about Bach is the one that recounts a street brawl he engaged in with some of his own music students! The thing about being one of the great musical geniuses of history is that Bach had little tolerance for mediocrity in music, and yet he was surrounded by it. His first professional post was organist in Arnstadt, and this position saw him teaching a number of musicians in the church orchestra.
A bassoonist by the name of Johann Geyersbach took umbrage at the 20-year-old Bach publicly calling him a zippell faggotist, which translates roughly as 'rapscallion of a bassoonist,'[1] but is also an onomatopoeic reference to a bodily function that might sound somewhat like a bassoon poorly played.
One night when Bach was coming home late, Geyersbach and several of his friends jumped the young master; they had wooden clubs, so Bach drew his sword. A scuffle ensued, in which fortunately no one was seriously hurt.
Bach’s Incarceration
In 1717, Bach had been serving as an organist and chamber musician for Duke Ernst of Weimar for four years, and was very tired of it. The exciting, musically talented young Prince Leopold of nearby Anhalt-Cöthen wanted Bach at his own court, offering him the much more prestigious position of Kappellmeister, but the Duke of Weimar would not release him from his service.
Bach raised a stink with the Duke in such a repeated, obstinate fashion that finally the nobleman had his presumptuous servant imprisoned for several weeks, during which time Bach fleshed out the first draft of his enormously important keyboard work The Well-Tempered Clavier. He was eventually released both from prison and from the Duke’s service and moved on to Cöthen
The Infamous Temper of the Leipzig CantorAnother example of his intolerance of shoddy musicianship came when he occupied the important post of Cantor at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. His organist there was an arrogant, utterly mediocre musician by the name of Gottlieb Görner.
According to an eye-witness’ story recounted by renowned Bach biographer Albert Schweitzer, "Once, at the rehearsal of a cantata, he [Bach] flew into such a passion with the organist...that he tore off his wig and threw it at the man's head, telling him that he would have done better to [be a] cobbler."[2]
Stories that challenge pre-conceived notions of the behavior and temperament of well-known icons can be shocking and enlightening. But musicians have always been musicians, so it should be no surprise that even a shining pillar of the Baroque era had a bit of a rowdy past.
[1] Martin Geck, Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work. (Rowholt Verlag GmBH, ©2000. Eng. Translation ©2006, John Hargraves), p 53.
[2] Albert Schweitzer, J.S. Bach (Dover Publications, Ltd.,© 1966), Vol. 1 pp 117-120.
 |
