Fun-Loving Playboy Poem by gershon hepner

Fun-loving playboy, Leopold
loved music written by Sebastian,
but Friederica wasn’t sold
on what he wrote, which raised the question
whether to fulfill his promise
in Kothen or in Leipzig where
he went, Director of St. Thomas,
not far from my first pied-à-terre.

No playboys ever came from there,
which may be why I had to leave,
and from the LA G-string air
get from Bach’s music a reprieve,
while sticking to the morals taught
like Muttermusik by my Vater,
which sometimes I believe I ought
to write up as Altneu Cantata.

Prince Leopold von Anhalt-Kothen (1694-1728) was a young, fun-loving playboy. He was also an amateur musician, and so impressed with Bach he appointed him as his Capellmeister. The two of them remained on excellent terms and it was here that Bach began composing his famous Brandenburg Concertos. Then, in 1720, while he was away on a trip with the Prince, Bach’s wife died, leaving him with four young children. They had had a happy marriage, but Bach wasn't the sort to grieve forever. On 3 December 1721, he married Anna Magdalena, a young soprano at the Court with whom he had probably already been having an affair, and with whom he was subsequently to have twelve children, only four of whom were to survive to adulthood and two of whom, the sons, Johann Christoph Fredrich, and Johan Christian were to become successful musicians and composers. Shortly after Bach's marriage his patron too wed and perhaps as a consequence became less interested in music - certainly Bach seems to have resented the new Princess Friederica Henrietta von Anhalt-Bernburg for her anti-musical stance - which she, to look at things from her perspective, probably only assumed to put a dampener on the wild carousing that went on with the music appreciation.
Feeling the musical atmosphere waning in Kothen, Bach decided he needed a new appointment elsewhere - though he didn't sever relations with his beloved Prince, remaining his honorary Capellmeister until the Prince's untimely death at the young age of 33 in 1728. Anyway, right now in April 1723, he chose to move to Leipzig to assume post as the director of music at the St. Thomas School there. He was to remain in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750, and this was to be his last and longest-lasting appointment. His principal duties were to teach Latin to school boys and to provide music and choirs to the four churches associated with the St. Thomas School - Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Peterskirche, and Neue Kirche. As he didn't particularly care to be a Latin Teacher, he hired someone else to do that and concentrated on the music. His Cantata production during this period was prodigious, averaging at almost one Cantata per week and, even astonishing, practically every single one was a master-piece.


6/2/08