Leipzig – Part 1
Our first full day of Leipzig was eventful and fun. I woke up and took a city run and found a couple solid parks (Germans do parks well), but of course incomparable to Sans Souci. It was actually raining a lot, so that made things…interesting.
In the morning, we visited the Bach Archive, which is larger and more detailed than the Bach exhibit in Eisenach. Bach became the cantor for Thomaskirche, right next to the archive, on April 22nd, 1723, and would remain in that position for the rest of his life, dying in 1750. He initially didn’t apply for the job, as his wife Maria Barbara had just died in Kothen while he and Prince Leopold were traveling. (He married Anna Magdalena about a year and a half later). Leipzig cantor Johann Kuhnau had passed away, so the church was in need of a replacement. Other organists, including George Philipp Telemann, Christoph Graupner, and Johann Friedrich Fasch were all offered the job but turned it down; they only applied so that their current churches would offer them more money.
When Bach took over the position, he was assuming a lot of responsibility: music for Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, and other churches in Leipzig; writing funeral and wedding music; teaching and dorrm parenting at Thomasschule; giving instrument lessons; selling books and sheet music. Apparently Bach neglected a lot of his dorm parent duties – unsurprising, considering how much else he had to do. While in Leipzig, he set himself writing a cantata for every week of the year, with copiers immediately making perfected versions when he finished.
When we arrived, we were greeted by an archive director named Michael Mauer, a younger, well-dressed German and Bach fanatic. He explained that he traveled over 300,000 kilometers around central Germany in search of information about Bach and actually found the first piece of music by the composer discovered since 1928! He was on NPR. He took us into the main room which contained the legendary portrait of Bach, done by Elias Gottlob Haussman in 1748. It was the second one Haussman painted, the first in 1746. The portrait is Bach at around age 60 in official garb and wig. He’s holding a real canon in his hand – Michael thinks the hand is ridiculously unrealistic and puffy-looking (it is) – which we actually studied in class.
The exhibit also contained many of Bach’s original pieces written on cloth paper, in his hand or his copiers’ hands. Michael explained that a lot of work has been done studying Bach’s handwriting, the type of paper, and watermarks to determine the dates of the pieces. Bach always filled all the staves on his papers to be economical, wrote little notes on the next section of each piece while the previous section’s ink dried, and even made errors in the lyrics. He often borrowed sections of other pieces in his works, so you could say he was also a cover artist of sorts.
The whole exhibit was really well done. There was a full room dedicated to Martin Luther and his influence on Bach, plus an upstairs that carefully chronicled Bach’s life. The final room was dedicated to his time in Leipzig alone. At the top of the stairs is a large family tree that Bach himself painstakingly documented. The only noteworthy thing about it is his whole family is named Johann.
My favorite part of the exhibit was the instrument room. In the center were some of the obscure instruments in Bach’s work, and overhead, different Bach works would play. Around the room were little glass panels with drawings of specific instruments and their players. These panels would light up if that instrument was included in the piece playing. If you clicked the button in front of the panel, that instrument’s part would increase in volume, so you could pick it out of the piece. SO FUN. I loved emphasizing the kettle drums.
In the Leipzig room, I also liked reading all the details about what boarding at Thomasschule was like, as a former boarding school kid myself. These kids had it particularly rough – they’d get flogged or imprisoned if they missed church or left the dorms at night. There was a nice miniature of the school building and all the dorm beds, plus notes taken by Bach’s sons from their classes, with caricatures of their teachers! Overall, an enjoyable museum visit and still enlightening even after a couple weeks of learning about this guy.
After the museum, we went to lunch at the Auerbach Keller, a restaurant based off Goethe’s Faust. I have yet to read Faust, so I didn’t get the references, but it was delicious all the same.
With some free time in the afternoon, I visited another bouldering gym, about a half hour walk from the hostel, called Boulderhalle Leipzig. Pretty similar experience as Berlin, but this gym was about 2.5 times the size. 7 euro, no waiver, and very, very greasy holds. They definitely didn’t care as much as the staff at Boulderklub, but it was still worth the visit.
In the evening we saw a Mendelssohn concert. Mendelssohn was absolutely essential in the revival of Bach and even arranged for the St. Michael’s Passion to be performed for the second time 100 years after its first performance. We heard an overture and a Clavier Concert by Mendelssohn, which included a brilliant Argentinian pianist. He really hammed it up entering, playing, and bowing at the end. After these two pieces, we heard Beethoven’s 7th, also solid. The orchestra and conductor overall were very young, but talented.
On to the Mendelssohn House tomorrow!
