Johannes Bach

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Johannes Bach (* around 1550 or around 1580 in Wechmar ; † 1626 there) was a son of Veit Bach , the founder of the Bach family of musicians . Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a town piper in Gotha and stayed here as a town piper for a while before he returned to Wechmar. He died of the plague during the Thirty Years War . Johannes Bach had three sons, Johann Bach , Christoph Bach ( Johann Sebastian Bach's grandfather) and Heinrich Bach .

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote about his great-grandfather in his family chronicle written in 1735:

“Johannes Bach, the previous son, initially took the Becker profession. But while he had a special affection for music, the city Pfeiffer in Gotha took him to his apprenticeship. At that time, the old Grimmenstein Castle was still standing, and according to the usage at the time, its teacher lived at the Thurme Castle. With which he was in condition for some time even after years of apprenticeship; But after the castle was destroyed (as happened in Anno 15th) and since his father Veit died in the meantime, he sat down in Wechmar there, Jfr. Anna Schmiedin, the daughter of an innkeeper from Wechmar, married and took possession of her father's property. Since he was here, he has often been prescribed to Gotha, Arnstadt, Erffurth, Eisenach, Schmalkalden, and Suhl to help those local city musicians. Died in 1626 in the then rampant contagion time. But his wife lived 9 years after his death as Wittib, and died in 1635. "

Johannes Bach's Gotha teacher, who is not named in the quote from the family chronicle, was, according to Geiringer, the Gotha town piper at the time, Caspar Bach, a relative (probably an uncle or brother). Whether Johannes Bach really lived at Grimmenstein Castle , however, is questionable, since it was finally razed in 1567. Geiringer also doubts the statement that Johannes Bach only married Anna Schmied after the death of his father Veit Bach in Wechmar, since Veit Bach did not die until 1619, but Johannes Bach's eldest son Johann Bach was born in 1604. Johannes Bach probably returned to Wechmar a long time before the death of his father Veit.

On the other hand, these chronological inconsistencies would be resolved according to Christoph Wolff's theory , according to which Johannes Bach and his father Veit were each born about a generation earlier than previously assumed. Johannes Bach would then have been born around 1550 and could therefore very well still have lived at Grimmenstein Castle. His teacher there, however, was not a Bach name bearer, but Matz Zisecke. Wolff also assumes that Veit Bach died before 1577/78, so that Johannes Bach could not have gone to Wechmar until after the death of his father. Johannes Bach is mentioned as a house owner in Wechmar in 1577, so by that time he had already taken possession of his father's property. However, according to this theory, he would only have started a family at a relatively old age, since he would have been around 50 when his eldest son was born in 1604.

In Wechmar's death register, Johannes Bach appears in 1626 as "Hanss Bach a minstrel". The funeral sermon of Johannes Bach's son Heinrich Bach (1615–1692), given in 1692 by JG Olearius, shows that Johannes Bach was also active as a carpet weaver.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Wolff u. a .: The New Grove Bach Family . New York: WW Norton & Company , 1997, p. 22.
  2. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians . 1958, p. 12.
  3. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians . 1958, p. 12 f.
  4. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians , 1958, p. 7.
  5. ↑ D. h. "Contagious epidemic", foreign word from Latin contagio , cf. H. Georges: Lat.-German. Handwortbuch Vol. 1. Darmstadt 1995, Sp. 1588 f.
  6. ^ Chronicle of the musical-Bach family
  7. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians . 1958, p. 12.
  8. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians . 1958, p. 13.
  9. ^ Wolff: The New Grove Bach Family . P. 6.
  10. ^ Wolff: The New Grove Bach Family . P. 6.
  11. ^ Wolff: The New Grove Bach Family . P. 6, 22.
  12. ^ Wolff: The New Grove Bach Family . P. 7.
  13. ^ Geiringer: The Bach family of musicians . 1958, p. 12 f. with note 1 p. 13.
personal data
SURNAME Bach, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Son of Veit Bach
DATE OF BIRTH around 1550 or around 1580
PLACE OF BIRTH Wechmar
DATE OF DEATH 1626
Place of death Wechmar