However, even he could not fill in the gaps when it came to Bach's personality. Although the obituary stated that he was "pleasant to everyone" and received many visitors, historical records also show that Bach was often in conflict with his employers and was considered stubborn. In 2008, new research methods enabled Caroline Wilkinson to reconstruct what Johann Sebastian Bach might have looked like. In the background is the only portrait verified to have been made of Bach in his lifetime The documentary material filled three volumes, which Wolff was able to draw from. From 1950 to 2007, the Bach Institute in Göttingen and the Bach Archive Leipzig compiled a new annotated complete edition of Bach's works, using many original sources. In his 2002 biography, musicologist Christoph Wolff stuck to the facts. "In the march and songbook of the Hitler Youth, a corresponding song is rewritten to a melody from Bach's Well-Tempered Keyboard, says Hansen.
Oratorio texts that did not fit into the picture were simply rewritten or replaced. In the 1930s, the Nazis continued to venerate Bach as a national composer. "Bach was considered the archetype of the German Aryan composer," explains Bachhaus director Jörg Hansen. In it, he elaborates the theological messages in Bach's music and gives interpreters advice on how the message of the texts should be interpreted in music and song.
"Despite having few sources, he has basically created a truly pioneering work for music biographies," says Maul.Īlbert Schweitzer, the famous doctor, philosopher, theologian and musicologist, wrote a major Bach monograph in 1902. Nonetheless, he approached the subject with plenty of research. In 1872, Philipp Spitta wrote one of the most extensive Bach biographies to date, published one year after the foundation of the German Reich. Spitta also emphasized the patriotic element and regarded Bach as a product of German cultural history. Matthew Passion, it provided the impetus to a Bach renaissance.īach as a product of German cultural history The composer Felix Mendelssohn rediscovered Bach's sacred music in 1829, including his cantatas, oratorios and passions. When Mendelssohn performed a shortened version of the St. Johann Nikolaus Forkel wrote the first Bach biography in 1802. According to Michael Maul, director of the Leipzig Bach Festival, the biographer "paints the picture of a keyboard virtuoso who became a genius through German virtues such as seriousness and diligence." Michael Maul at the opening of the 2019 Bachfest
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