A few notes about Bach with a note about Handel
Johann Sebastion Bach was born in Eisenach, Thuringia in 1685 into a family of
professional musicians, including church organists and composers. Bach was a
devout Lutheran. He was a married twice, and happily. His first wife Barbara
bore him three children. After her death he married Anna Magdalena, a talented
singer and musician, who bore him seventeen more children! Bach, the youngest
of eight children and orphaned at age 10, once had to spend a month under
house arrest because he tried to quit his job composing and playing for a duke.
During that month, he wrote forty-six pieces of music.
Eyeballs were not the only thing Bach and Handel had in common. It was approximately 196  
walking miles from Salzburg to Nürnberg. This is the almost the distance young 21 year old Johann
Sebastion Bach supposedly walked just to hear the great Dietrich Buxtehude, 1637-1707, play the
organ at the Marienkirche in Lübeck (later destroyed by Allied bombing). An eighteen year old
Handel, the same age as Bach, had visited Buxtehude three years earlier in 1703 to witness his
phenomenal keyboard technique. Bach’s four week visit turned into a four month stay. After this
encounter, Bach's music, as Handel's, changed dramatically. He had taken the cantata and fugue, and
developed them into complex and sublime pieces. In 1723, Bach moved to Leipzig, and during this
period, his major works included: St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Suite No. 3 in D,
Magnificat in D Major, Christmas Oratorio , Italian Concerto, Goldberg Variations, named after
Bach's student Johann Gottlieb Goldberg), The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Musical Offering, and
The Art of the Fugue.
During Bach's time, Leipzig was the second largest city of
Saxony and the historic center of German printing and
publishing. An advanced European trading center, Leipzig
survived intact throughout the 30 Years War, and could
continue hosting its famous annual trade fairs.  Leipzig,
with elegant lanes, formal gardens, university, library,
elaborate town hall and wealthy burgers' mansions was
considered one of the world's foremost cultural centers.
In his position at the St. Thomas Church School in Leipzig he taught many subjects, including Latin
and music. Bach was the first to teach the use of all five fingers on the keyboard. At home he taught
music to all of his own children. Wife Anna Magdalena maintained a detailed Notebook which is
valued today. Bach consecrated all of his work of a Christian nature "to the only God’s glory."
After suffering a stroke, he wrote oratorios, including "Messiah" in 1741, and Psalms, motets,
anthems, passions, cantatas, instrumental chamber works, and works for keyboard. Handel never
married. Upon his death, more than 3,000 mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state
honors. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Ironically, both Handel and Bach were afflicted with
cataracts and both courageously underwent a crude surgical treatment at the hands of the same
doctor which involved manually shoving the cataract covered lens back into the eyeball without
anesthesia to let in a little more light. Handel lived out his life but went completely blind at the end,
the last music he ever heard being his own Messiah at his death on April 14, 1759. Bach was not so
lucky. He died July 20, 1750 from septicemia induced by the procedure.
Johann Sebastian Bach spent the last 27 years of his life, from
1723 to 1750, as Cantor of  the Thomaskirche, in 1735, during
which time he wrote the Art of Fugue, the Passions of St.
Matthew and St. John, and most of his 300 cantatas, only 190
of which have survived future wars and bombings. Bach was
a presence in many other churches during his lifetime.
It is said that Bach's last completed work was a chorale prelude for organ dictated to his son in law,
Johann Christoph Altkinol, from his deathbed: "When in the hour of greatest need" and "Before Thy
Throne Herewith I Come." His obituary read: "a little after a quarter to nine in the evening, in the
sixty-sixth year of his life, he quietly and peacefully, by the merit of his Redeemer, departed this life."
'Night shines deeper, to penetrate more deeply, But yet within there glows bright light. For
completing of the greatest work, One soul for a thousand  suffices.'
Last words attributed to Bach
By the end of his life, he had composed over 1,100 works in almost every musical genre except
opera. Bach's relatives and his children were also musically inclined and his sons would become
accomplished musicians. He was born in a musical land with magic towns.
Georg Friedrich Händel was born in Halle in the same year as Bach. He
was appointed violinist-composer for Hamburg's German opera in 1703. In
1706, he travelled to Italy where he met Corelli and the Scarlattis.  Upon his
return to Germany four years later, he assumed the post of Kapellmeister to
the Elector of Hanover, the future King George I of England. Handel moved
to London in 1712 where as a chapel master to the Duke of Chandos, he
wrote Italian operas. In 1719, Handel returned to his birthplace for eight
days in 1719 but a planned meeting between he and Bach mysteriously
never took place. Handel became a subject of the British crown in 1727.
The acoustics in the domed structure with its 3,200 seats are said to
have been very good. In 1736, famed organ maker Gottfried
Silbermann built an organ with 48 registers and 2,667 organ pipes for
the church. The organ was dedicated on November 25, and Johann
Sebastian Bach gave a recital on the instrument on December 1st. Its
distinctive silhouette enhanced the Dresden skyline. Known as the
"Stone Bell," the dome of the Frauenkirche rose above Dresden for
over 200 years. In 1733, when Bach was music director in Leipzig,
Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony died. The new elector, Friedrich
August II was to take his place in Dresden, and Bach took this
opportunity to obtain the favor of the new court and perhaps be granted
the title of court composer. Bach presented the elector, a new Catholic,
with a setting of the Missa, containing a Kyrie and Gloria, to music
which was performed in 1733 in Dresden. In 1736, Bach was finally
granted the title of "Hofkoponist" at the Dresden court. Bach would
later use this Missa as the first major section of his B-minor Mass.
The Dresden Frauenkirche was built as a Lutheran cathedral. Saxony's Augustus the Strong made
28,000 Taler available for the new church from a collection taken up for the Salzburger emigrants
who went on to Prussian lands. The original baroque church was built between 1726 and 1743 and
was designed by Dresden's city architect George Bähr (1666-1738), one of the greatest masters of
German Baroque style, who did not live to see the completion of his greatest work.
She and Augustus had only one legitimate heir, a son later known as Elector August II, 1696-1763,
Elector of  Saxony and Augustus III, King of Poland in 1733, was raised in Pretzsch Castle, and
even though he was raised Lutheran, he went to Italy and became Catholic to assume his role as
King of Poland. He married Maria Josepha, the Habsburg daughter of Joseph I.
When August the Strong married Christiane Eberhardine, the daughter of the
Mark count Christian-Ernst of Brandenburg Bayreuth, in 1693, it was written:
“The beauty of this princess seemed to exceed everything, which he had ever
seen on its journeys. He was in love with her as much as he was capable." Only
four years after their marriage, however, she went into self exile. When
Augustus became Catholic to accept Poland's crown,Christiane Eberhardine  
adamantly refused to renounce her Lutheran faith and opted instead for self-
exile in Pretzsch Castle on the Elbe where she remained until her death in 1727,
an uncrowned Queen loved by the strongly Protestant population.
Her death was deeply mourned. A special memorial service in the Paulinerkirche at Leipzig was
requested, and Johann Christoph Gottsched was commissioned to write a Mourning Ode, with Bach
to set it to music. The ceremony took place on October 17th, 1727 and began with the entire city
ringing bells. It is Cantata 198, the Trauer Ode for the Funeral of Queen Christiane Eberhardine.
A  Sad Song
Augustus II and Augustus III were lavish patrons of art and learning and greatly beautified the capital
city of Dresden. The universities of Wittenberg and Leipzig had long been leading intellectual centers,
and 18th century Leipzig was the core of German literature as well as music.