Bach’s Vacation

By Romana Annette   01/20/2008

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was one of the greatest composers of all time.  During his lifetime, Bach’s fame rested primarily upon his skills as an organist, not as a composer.  Bach paid close attention to the details of his contracts.  He was inflexible about any undocumented changes, so his employers always viewed him as eccentric and difficult to work with, and viewed many of his innovative musical styles as annoying.

Bach spent nearly his entire life within a circle of cities, in central Germany : Eisenach, Ohrdruf, Lüneburg, Weimar, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Cöthen, and Leipzig.  Unlike many other composers, he did not travel throughout Europe to gain experience; instead, he became familiar with many musical styles by studying the published sheet music of other composers.

The exception to this local lifestyle was the famous vacation Bach took when he was merely twenty, while working for the Church Council in Arnstadt.

In 1705, he requested leave in order travel to the northern city of Lübeck, to hear the great organist, Dietrich Buxtehude.  The Council was quite generous; it granted him an entire month for his vacation, ostensibly to learn advanced keyboard skills

Bach walked all the way from Arnstadt to Lübeck, a distance well over 200 miles.  It was the chance of a lifetime for Bach: to learn as much as possible from the (then) most-famous German Composer.  Bach became so engrossed with the master, that he stayed almost three months longer than his allotted time.

When Bach returned to Arnstadt, the Church Council was not happy with his undisciplined schedule.  There was also a lot of fuss about Bach’s developing musical styles, which already showed much contamination from his collaboration with Buxtehude. 

Bach’s compositions were viewed as somewhat inaccessible for the day.  Someone actually took a popularity poll at the time: Bach came in tenth, while Georg Phillip Telemann came in first.  Telemann was popular, because he composed very accessible music, some of which nearly anyone could purchase and play themselves.

All of Bach’s compositions, even his many sacred works, were quite sophisticated for the time.  Bach is often characterized as having been a devout Lutheran; however, little is known about whatever personal beliefs he may have had or not had.  He was not known for cooperating with authorities.  He was an artist, and like most artists, he had a dislike for the rules of the establishment.  He had even been reprimanded once for casually playing music for a girlfriend in church.

By late 1706, Bach was in constant conflict with the Church Council.  When he heard that the chief organist in the town of Mühlhausen had died, he immediately applied for that post.  In June 1707, Bach left Arnstadt for good.

Famous composers of the time played musical chairs with their jobs, always striving for higher pay.  Bach did this too; however, he did it just as much over personal conflicts as over higher pay.

Bach got his last position of his life at Leipzig, after Telemann and others had applied and then declined in bargaining ploys with their current employers.