German Town Celebrates Bach's Legacy

L E I P Z I G, Germany, July 24, 2000 -- 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.

“Leipzig is really a music metropolis. Bach is a veryimportant advertisement for the city,” said Bernhardt Hess, thefestival’s business manager. “The hotels are very happy. Theirrooms are full in the month when they are normally empty.”

Everybody is cashing in. The tiny Bach museum, overhauledfor the anniversary, expects to double its average number ofvisitors to well over 35,000 this year.

“There are a lot more people than normal, especiallyJapanese, British, Americans and Scandinavians,” said EvelinTippner, who runs a gift shop outside the St. Thomas Churchthat sells Bach-emblazoned pens, caps, T-shirts and umbrellas.

“We are going to a concert tonight. It is good they aredoing something special for someone who has contributed so muchto music,” said Rosemary Kikon, visiting from India.

The Cafe Concerto opposite the church sells special Bachchocolates, while the bookshop on the corner is full of newbiographies of the composer, posters and compact discs.

The nearest restaurant offers recipes from the kitchen ofBach’s second wife Anna Magdalena, who bore 12 of his 20children. Dishes include stuffed pig’s head and baked lemon.

Even the local hair salon has a Bach bust in the windowsurrounded by old-fashioned wigs, razors and curlers.

Church Gets Facelift

St. Thomas has been the main beneficiary of the anniversary.The 500-year-old church has undergone a $11 million makeover.Its steeply sloping tiled roof is new, the ceiling freshlypainted in deep red and cream and the organ pipes are gleaming,ready to accompany the church’s famous boys choir, which willperform during the festival.

The glitzy commemoration will contrast with that organizedby communist East Germany in 1985 to celebrate the 300thanniversary of Bach’s birth, when tiles fell from thedilapidated roof and hit the car of a government minister.

“The communist state ignored Bach’s church music but stillcelebrated him,” said Krumbiegel, who helped organize the 1985festival. “Lots of musicians came then from the Soviet Unionand Eastern Europe. Now they can’t afford it.”

Leipzig played a special role in the end of communism. TheSt. Nicholas Church, where many of Bach’s greatest works werefirst performed, became the focus of mass prayer vigils in theautumn of 1989 that helped speed the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Although the city is pulling out all the stops for thisyear’s festivities, some music lovers say Leipzigers still donot appreciate Bach’s importance.

Georg Christoph Biller, the 16th choirmaster at the St.Thomas church after Bach, says it is understandable that a citybuilt on trade fairs should want to focus on rejuvenating itseconomy, not its culture, after the ravages of communism.

“Outsiders are amazed that the city has taken for grantedthat the St. Thomas choir and other ensembles would protectBach’s memory,” Biller said. “It is incredible that every yearwhen the city is preparing its budget I have to remind them ofthe importance of the St. Thomas choir.”

Only a quarter of the tickets for the Bach festival havebeen sold in the city, but Hess pointed out that locals can hearthe St. Thomas choir any weekend of the year.

“Leipzigers love him but they don’t show it. They are proudof him, but Leipzig was always a town of trade fairs and so itwas always in contact with the world,” Hess said. “The localsassume everyone knows how important Leipzig is.