Birthday Note(s)

Many anniversaries are remembered. A few demand grateful celebration. Three centuries ago today Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, and the human spirit ever since has been the better for it. A temperamental and often quarrelsome man, Bach attracted little love from his contemporaries and slight appreciation from his several employers, and for half a century after his death in 1750 his music was largely neglected. But his influence on later composers--on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven especially--was great, and the enormous musical legacy that he left has proved triumphantly enduring.

For Bach, the chief aim of all music “should be none else but the Glory of God and the recreation of the mind.” He produced, often under the stimulus of deadline, an enormous quantity of work, little of which was published while he lived, some of which has only recently come to light. It was just a few months ago that Yale University announced the discovery of 33 previously unknown Bach choral preludes for organ in its manuscript collection. The first performance of these works is scheduled for Sunday.

But the Bach tricentennial is not for a day only. The coming weeks will see numerous celebratory performances of Bach’s music, including a series of 20 programs that National Public Radio will broadcast beginning in April. In Bach’s own lifetime some few thousand knew his works. He has since come to belong to uncounted millions, and to secure his place for the ages.