# Bach's expectations



## Aurelian (Sep 9, 2011)

Are there letters or other documents that give indications of JS Bach's expectations of being remembered after his death? I have the feeling that he had no idea he would be considered one of the greatest figures in music history.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I've never seen anything that suggested Bach expected (or even wanted) to be remembered by posterity. I think Beethoven pretty much started that sort of thing. Could be wrong, and will welcome any contrary information!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Haydn said he considered an outstanding length of run for the play of a piece to be about seventy years. I believe the reasoning was after that it would not speak to later generations (ironic in the case of Haydn.) I think the composers of his generation and those earlier were thinking of the here and now. 

You write a cantata a week over the duration of a post you hold, and I think you are thinking of artisan-like work produced for immediate consumption only....

With all those children, work, and how much written, it would be a wonder if Bach had much time to think of anything else but producing music for a living, and that a constant making of new pieces, not thinking or reliant upon even current copies, sales or revenues therefrom, was all it was about.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

There are actually several signs that Bach thought about preserving his work for posterity. In the later years of his life, he revised and published collections that he considered important "best-ofs" of his work, including the B-minor Mass (which is a summation of his vocal/religious music) and The Art of Fugue, as well as some of the chorale works.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Mahlerian said:


> There are actually several signs that Bach thought about preserving his work for posterity. In the later years of his life, he revised and published collections that he considered important "best-ofs" of his work, including the B-minor Mass (which is a summation of his vocal/religious music) and The Art of Fugue, as well as some of the chorale works.


Certainly the late works and compilations (especially the B minor Mass and AoF mentioned) that never expected or received performances suggest that Bach may have been thinking about the future -- even, like Shostakovich, sneaking his name into one of the compositions! Pity we can't ask him.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Bach expected without question to be delivered into the all embracing arms of the God he so faithfully and unswervingly served throughout his tenure in Leipzig... Hell, one doesn't even have to be religious to know that.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Certainly the late works and compilations (especially the B minor Mass and AoF mentioned) that never expected or received performances suggest that Bach may have been thinking about the future -- even, like Shostakovich, sneaking his name into one of the compositions! Pity we can't ask him.


The B minor mass is in fact impractical for actual liturgical use, being far too long.

He also tended to revise his works (such as the Brandenburg Concertos), and write out title pages, even when publication was not planned in the immediate future.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Bach's solo keyboard and violin works all have a religious reverential quality to them. He rarely composed anything truly secular. He seems to have known where he was going.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Bach's solo keyboard and violin works all have a religious reverential quality to them. He rarely composed anything truly secular. He seems to have known where he was going.


zOMG, an artist with their head in the clouds, maybe with only one toe touching the earth's surface, who was barely, if at all, writing for 'the audience?' That is shocking


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> zOMG, an artist with their head in the clouds, maybe with only one toe touching the earth's surface, who was barely, if at all, writing for 'the audience?' That is shocking


I'm glad from a compositional standpoint that he never really came Bach to earth.


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