May God Protect This Beautiful Organ

In chapter nine, Gottfried Silbermann’s construction of a new organ in the small town of Rötha serves as a case study of such projects, which were undertaken frequently in Bach’s Germany. Its unveiling in 1721 was celebrated with a performance led by Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor as Cantor of St. Thomas. Impressive organs like the one built in Rötha were spectacular feats of engineering and artistry. Such instruments were among the most complicated pieces of technology in existence and there was something promethean about the work of Silbermann and other organ builders: their work came as close as human beings ever did to fabricating fellow living creatures. As a result, organs often figured in the analogies of philosophers of the era, particularly those who sought to preserve a distinction between the physical (organ) and metaphysical (organist).

Two Teenage Countesses

Chapter five analyzes the repertoire associated with female musicians on the basis of the remarkably well-preserved music library of two teenage countesses in Darmstadt: Luise Charlotte and Friederike Sophie zu Epstein. Pedagogical treatises and parodies of Bach’s Germany suggest that female keyboardists were expected to perform “easy,” “comfortable,” music which was often marketed explicitly “for women.” Most of the repertoire prepared for the Countesses zu Epstein by their teacher, Johannes Merle, follows these stylistic parameters; it consists primarily of quick, dance-based movements with melody-and-accompaniment textures and no strict counterpoint. Close examination of their collection, however, also reveals that they copied music for themselves and one of them, Friederike Sophie, also taught herself to compose.

Male Amateur Keyboardists

Chapter seven discusses the place of music in the education and leisure time of boys and men who had no intention of pursuing musical careers. Unlike their female counterparts, male amateur musicians were encouraged to cultivate knowledge of music theory and to celebrate the social opportunities offered by music making, especially in university Collegium Musicum ensembles. This chapter draws from diverse sources including novels, poems, music manuscripts, and diaries. It concludes with case studies of two jurists: Johann Stephan Pütter of Göttingen and Johann Heinrich Fischer of Fulda. For Pütter, a musician of limited skills, performance quality was less important than the social aspects of making music. For Fischer, music theory was of great interest and led him to admire the music of the Lutheran composer J. S. Bach, despite the fact that Fischer was Catholic.

A Silver Merchant’s Daughter

Chapter three uses the musical life of Christiane Sibÿlla Bose, a young woman who lived near the Bach family in Leipzig, as a means of exploring the lives of women of her time and place. Ms. Bose played the keyboard recreationally and was a close friend of J. S. Bach’s wife, Anna Magdalena. Women typically spent time managing the acquisition of food, clothing, and medical care for their households. Playing the keyboard was a means by which they could make themselves more attractive to potential suitors. Pursuing professional careers as musicians, however, was generally discouraged. Ms. Bose likely viewed Anna Magdalena Bach as a role model, not only as a wife and mother, but also as a woman who had transcended cultural prejudices to pursue a successful career as a musician.

Civilizing Instruments

One of Bach’s librettists observed in 1725: “anything one can see, hear, smell, taste, feel, sense or in any other way experience or imagine has to be described as galant, totally galant, and completely galant.” This controversial word was closely associated with luxury, a product of Germany’s quickly evolving economic prosperity. New wealth inspired developments in aesthetics, philosophy, and science and the cultivation of expensive leisure time activities. Playing the keyboard increased in popularity over the course of Bach’s lifetime. The composer’s contemporaries associated themselves with galant music, especially minuets, bourrées, and gavottes of French origin, in order to establish social positions that had implications well beyond music. The merits of doing so were hotly debated by theorists such as Buttstedt and Mattheson.

A Dark-Haired Dame and Her Scottish Admirer

Chapter four uses the travel diary of James Boswell, a Scottish aristocrat and future biographer of Samuel Johnson, as the basis for a discussion of how keyboard music figured in courtship. Women were generally expected to remain passive in courtship, as revealed by novels, poems, paintings, and self-help manuals. The keyboard offered a means of showcasing talents for suitors and also a kind of innoculation against more nefarious entertainments during the vulnerable years before marriage. Some women, however, employed music making in a multivalent manner. Boswell’s flirtations with the daughter of Berlin’s city council president, Caroline Kircheisen, offer a vivid case in point. Her late-night harpsichord performances for Boswell expressed the exact opposite of what he wanted them to mean.

Conclusion

The conclusion of Beyond Bach affirms the principle that music is not an object but rather a means by which human beings relate to one another. In Bach’s Germany, those who heard keyboard performances listened not only to the notes and rhythms themselves but also for what they revealed about the character of those who played them. While keyboards were regarded by Bach’s contemporaries as having a civilizing effect, the innocence with which they were associated often veiled more controversial activities. Bach himself was universally admired for his extraordinary skills but many listeners found his music frustrating for its challenges. For a relatively small group of connoisseurs, however, his work embodied the noble ideal that music could do more than entertain.

The Daily Life of an Organist

Chapter eleven presents a case study of a professional organist named Carl August Hartung whose everyday life is unusually well documented by an account book he kept for thirteen years, from the age of twenty-nine to the age of forty-two. Analysis of his financial transactions reveals the minutiæ of his everyday life. It documents not only the food, clothing, furniture, books, and music that he purchased but also the subtlety of his social network of students, colleagues, patrons, family members, and friends. Hartung’s account book illuminates how professional musicians of Bach’s time achieved financial stability by performing, composing, copying music, selling instruments, and teaching both musical and non-musical subjects.

A Blacksmith’s Son

Chapter eight presents a case study of music in daily life based on the manuscript autobiography of Johann Christian Müller from Stralsund. Müller grew up playing the keyboard recreationally and it became a focal point of his social life while he was studying at the university in Jena. He used his abilities at the keyboard to cultivate and maintain relationships with his friends, landlords, patrons, and other acquaintances. Music making also featured prominently in his later years as a house tutor in Eixen, where he cultivated an intimate relationship with Lotchen von Lillieström, one of the daughters of the aristocratic family he served. The keyboard lessons he offered became the primary basis for their spending time together and led to considerable controversy within the household and beyond.

A Marriage Rooted in Reason

Chapter six presents a case study of one of the most famous and influential academic couples of the era: Johann Christoph and Luise Adelgunde Viktorie Gottsched. In addition to Frau Gottsched’s successful career as an author, she was also an avid amateur musician. For much of her life, keyboard and lute playing served as a means of expressing optimism that human beings could improve themselves and the world around them by cultivating their unique rational faculties. In later years, as her relationship with her husband began to fray, her faith in rationalist philosophy suffered, and she endured a crisis of both body and spirit. This chapter presents an account her musical activities within the framework of her courtship and marriage. Though Bach was a neighbor and collaborator, the Gottscheds seem to have preferred the music of other composers.