Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.
Bach is back
Synopsis
As Leipzig’s chief provider of both sacred and secular music Johann Sebastian Bach probably gave a huge sigh of relief on today’s date in 1733.
The death of the Imperial Elector Friedrich Augustus the First of Saxony earlier that year had resulted in a four-month period of official mourning, which meant NO elaborate sacred music at Bach’s Leipzig churches, and certainly no frivolous secular concerts with the Collegium Musicum, an orchestra of professionals and amateurs that Bach assembled periodically at Zimmermann’s coffee house in that city.
Finally, Frederich’s successor said, “Enough was enough,” and this notice appeared in a Leipzig paper:
“His Royal Highness and Electorial Grace, having given kind permission for the [resumption of] music, tomorrow, on June 17, a beginning will be made by Bach’s Collegium Musicum at Zimmermann’s Garden, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, with a fine concert. The concerts will be weekly, with a new harpsichord, such as had not been heard there before, and lovers of music are expected to be present.”
So it’s not hard to imagine Bach at Zimmermann’s giving the downbeat to put the new instrument through its paces in one of his own harpsichord concertos.
J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750): Harpsichord Concerto in A, S. 1055 (Gustav Leonhardt, hc; Leonhardt Consort) Telefunken 97452