Spyros Cavallieratos and Yiannis Achyropoulos continue to "contradict" each other discussing the musical phenomenon of Bach. What was it that sparked his genius?
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Giannis Achyropoulos
What always struck me when reading biographies of Bach was the fact that this genius musician worked all his life and produced this impressive work in a "official" regime.
His works were for the most part due to the services he undertakes as an appointed professional and the duties which these impose upon him. He was always the servant of a powerful mother, a religious synod or a municipality.
He humbly and conscientiously works for them, exclusively for them, and does not seek to attract the attention of the crowd to himself. He never used his genius for personal glory. He composes to fulfill a duty within an official contract, rather than to gain fame; moreover, few works were published during his lifetime.
Did he despise the audience?
No, but he obviously didn't care; he was rather out of it, as if he was unaware of its existence.
He thought like an employee of a high ideal that had been entrusted to him. Of course, not all employees are Bach, who in his own field is the ideal, the orderly, the modest worker, who follows a career where he promotes himself and defines his horizon according to the service and tasks he has been asked to provide.
Certainly the era he lived in played an important role in his attitude.
In the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, music was not offered to satisfy the curiosity of the crowd, the public. It is closed in a church, in a room, in a living room. There are no lingering critics.
Bach never took a position for himself as an artist who knows that the public is watching him and seeks this watching.
Contrary to the great later musicians (Beethoven, Wagner, Berlioz, Chopin...) he never thought of expressing in his music the joys and sorrows of his private life. He makes a work of circumstance, condition, adaptation, never with the intention of expressing a personal pain or an inner happiness; quite possibly the strictness that characterizes Protestantism – Bach was a Protestant – made him feel scandalized by such an aesthetic.
And it would not be possible for him to understand how the musician could channel the concerns of his "I" into a work of religious music intended for the worship of "The Lord". As a consequence of his Protestant ethic, worldly love – the one that so tormented the other great rock of music, Beethoven – has no place in Bach's work.
A fact of enormous importance if we consider that music has been defined as a "creation of love" and that Bach is considered the greatest musician of all time. And if so, it means that his life was devoid of romance and great passions, characteristic of all great artists.
Bach's works are performed today in the biggest concert halls, i.e. in the only places and in front of the only audience that Bach never imagined.
Typical are some of the terms of the contract he signed with the city council of Leipzig when he took the title of music teacher for good in 1723, taking an oath that he would perform his duties with zeal and faith:
1) To encourage the students, setting a good example, and leading a serious and modest life. To keep class times accurately and to teach with awareness of my duties.
2) To make every effort to improve the music in the two main churches of the city
3) Not to admit any student to a school who does not already have the required foundations or who does not show the ability to benefit from music education. Not to take any relevant action without the approval of the city's chief inspectors and managers.
4) To avoid unnecessary expenses in churches, to conscientiously teach students not only vocal music but also instrumental music.
5) For the existence of order in the churches, to make sure that the musical part does not last too long. Even to be careful so that it does not acquire a theatrical character but on the contrary contributes to the drowning of the listeners.
6) To treat students with sympathy and love. In case of disobedience, punishing them moderately or showing them more is the right thing to do.
7) Not to leave the city without the mayor's permission.
As he mentions in his biography, his second wife, Anna Magdalene Bach, although he was an exemplary and conscientious municipal employee, "He was hurt by the miserable fights and disagreements with the council members, at the school of St. Thomas (Leipzig). Many times these gentlemen asked him to do the impossible. Instead of enhancing his prestige, they also deprived him of an allowance that is rightfully his, thus preventing him from using the musicians he needed. In a thousand ways they tried to make life difficult for him, and when, with his usual frankness, he told them plainly what he thought of the way they were acting, they accused him of being 'incorrigible' and reviled him."
Is Bach the best proof that a talented and conscientious "employee", public or private, in any place and at any time, can work miracles even in adverse conditions?
As he himself said:
"I worked carefully. Anyone who works like me will have the same result."
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Spyros Cavallieratos
The tops of the Earth's crust, at least as long as humanity exists, are not going to change. But the pinnacles of Art change, and sometimes not in the expected way. For the entire 19th century and half of the 20th, Beethoven was considered the pinnacle of Music, but then, for the first time in the History of Music, he was not replaced by a next greatest composer and more suited to the aesthetics of the time, but by an earlier one, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach died in 1750 and already his sons were among the pioneers of the new style that went hand in hand with the Enlightenment and the shift towards naturalism. His work, apart from the Well-Tempered Clavier which was used as a piano teaching manual, was completely forgotten for a hundred years and it took about that long to publish it in its entirety. It is mainly the admiration of the musicians themselves in the face of a genius that the mind struggles to grasp, especially in the combination of range and depth, that shifted the top from Beethoven to Bach.
What were the factors that contributed to the creation of such a miracle that I believe has no equal in any other art and science?
- The tradition of the guilds of the Middle Ages. The fine arts and music were not very different in the way they were produced from the arts of carpenters, blacksmiths, instrument makers, etc. Johann Sebastian's family numbered at least five generations of musicians before him, passing down the "secrets" and daily practices to posterity.
- The tradition of Pythagorean mathematics as it was taught in occult organizations in 18th century Europe. Bach's work teems with Numerology and has the clearest mathematical proportions of any other composer's work. The deeper one goes, the more one is startled by their abundance and clarity.
- Most of all, Luther's Reformation. First of all, Luther's appreciation of music as a means of submission in the temple "cleansed" of images and sculptures. That all musical instruments were allowed to be played in the temple is perhaps the most important factor in the development of music as we know it, since instruments were no longer considered secular and profane.
Then the more general asceticism of the Protestant ethic, especially regarding the profession (Beruf = call from God). In Bach's Protestant world (so different from the Greek one!) only the glory of God (almost always signed with the initials SDG, i.e. SOLI DEO GLORIA) was of value through each person's art. He himself channeled his volcanic vitality only into music, and allowed himself the luxury of tobacco, coffee and…having children…
These simple findings of the influence of the social situation on Art, may perhaps be an occasion to ask what Art results from the gradual accumulation of all values in one dominant: Money.
*Cover photo: Portrait of Bach at the Church Organ, 1725