German Town Celebrates Bach's Legacy
L E I P Z I G, Germany, July 24 -- When Johann Sebastian Bach died250 years ago, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the easternGerman city of Leipzig and soon forgotten.
The city where Bach spent almost half his life never fullyembraced the prolific composer, but now Leipzigers are makingamends and laying on a huge celebration of his life.
Bach was considered “mediocre” by some of the Leipzigofficials who hired him as the choirmaster at the St. ThomasChurch in 1723, and he had a rocky ride in the city where hecomposed most of his major works.
Ahead of Leipzig Times
“When he came here he was too modern for Leipzig — he wastoo operatic. Leipzig was used to soothing church music,” saidCornelia Krumbiegel, director of the city’s Bach Museum. Bach, born in the small central German town of Eisenach in1685, died on July 28, 1750, after an unsuccessful eyeoperation, and was buried at Leipzig’s Johanniskirche. His bonesand his music lay dormant until musicians rediscovered his worksa century later.
The revival of his music sparked an interest in where he wasburied and in 1894 the city commissioned an anatomist toidentify Bach’s bones from three different exhumed skeletons.Experts examined the skulls and proclaimed they had “veryprobably” identified the composer’s remains.
Bach was reburied in a grand tomb inside the Johanniskirche,but after the church was damaged in World War II his remainswere transferred to St. Thomas and reinterred.
Making Up for Lost Time
Leipzig is making up for those years when it treated itsmost celebrated adopted son with indifference.
“Just as it was seen as an honor for Bach to be called onby Leipzig in 1723, we are showing in 2000 that it was an honorfor Leipzig that Bach came and stayed,” said Christian Fuehrer,a priest at the city’s St. Nikolai Church.
Leipzig is certainly alive with the sound of Bach. The cityis expecting some 15,000 visitors for a 10-day festival thismonth that is all but sold out. The festival is called “Bach —End and Beginning,” a play on a comment by 19th-centurycomposer Max Reger that Bach was the beginning and end of allmusic.
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