Happy Birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach!

Happy Birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach!

March 21, 2010, was Johann Sebastian Bach's (March 21, 1685-July 28, 1750) 325th birthday. By the time of his death, Bach was regarded as a relic of the past. Although he was respected for his achievements as an organist, composer, and teacher, his music was very much in decline as the new style that would lead to Mozart and Haydn was on the rise. Within a very few short years, the name "Bach" in Europe would be understood to refer to his sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel or Johann Christian, both of whom were instrumental in forming the new Classic style and enjoyed great popularity and influence.

J.S. Bach was well aware of changes in musical style during his day, but he was not an innovator. His contribution is as the great master of the Baroque Era. Indeed, even though Handel, who was born about a month earlier than Bach and outlived him by nine years, we usually date the end of the Baroque Era with Bach's death in 1750. What was begun by Monteverdi around the year 1600 reached its peak in Bach.

Although music historians and performers revere Bach for the music he composed (rightly so!), we church musicians can also look to his example as one of us. All that he wrote and all that he composed was done Soli Deo Gloria -- For the Glory of God Alone. It was his custom to complete his compositions by writing the initials S.D.G. in the margin. He taught the young musicians in his churches and schools and always had students living in his own home along with his rather large family. His standards for choosing texts were always set according to their faithfulness to Scripture and theology. He was uncompromising in his pursuit of musical excellence in concert and in worship, and he did not hesitate to engage the political authorities when he found them to be an obstacle to achieving that excellence.

The United Methodist Hymnal contains a generous number of Bach's compositions or arrangements:

• 214, "Savior of the Nations, Come"
• 223, "Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light"
• 247, "O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright"
• 265, "O Christ, the Healer, We Have Come"
• 319, "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands"
• 414, "Thou Hidden Love of God"
• 532, "Jesus, Priceless Treasure"
• 631, "O Food to Pilgrims Given"
• 644, "Jesus, Joy of Our Desiring"
• 683, "The Day Is Past and Over"
• 720, "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying"
• 771, "Psalm 36"