Johann Sebastian Bach

The Leipzig council elected Bach cantor of the Thomasschule and director of music for the city in 1723, after its first two candidates, Telemann and Graupner, proved unavailable. Spitta's biography records the council's own description of the appointment, that Bach "was considered the best of the candidates, and had been unanimously elected." The Mass in B minor's Kyrie and Gloria were composed as early as 1733; Bach did not return to add the missing Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei until the late 1740s. No performance of the complete Mass in B minor during Bach's lifetime is documented; his son Carl Philipp Emanuel performed the Symbolum Nicenum, its Credo movement, at a benefit concert in Hamburg on 9 April 1786. The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, were printed no earlier than the Michaelmas fair of 1741, as the fourth part of the Clavier-Ubung. The Musical Offering, BWV 1079, grew out of a visit Bach made with his son Wilhelm Friedemann to the Prussian royal court at Potsdam on 7 and 8 May 1747, reported at the time in the Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und gelehrten Sachen. It was published at the Leipzig Michaelmas fair later that year, with a preface dedicating the work to Frederick II dated 7 July 1747.

011736

St Matthew Passion, BWV 244, autograph score ↗

Passio secundum Matthaeum, Mus.ms. Bach P 25, held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and catalogued as the autograph. The library records the year of origin as 1736 and elsewhere gives the period of origin as about 1740; both are its own statements and neither is adjudicated here. The first page carries the caption title "J.J. Passio D. N. J. C. secundū Matthæum".

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv. Public Domain Mark 1.0

1. 021733 to 1749

   Mass in B minor, BWV 232 ↗

   Digitised by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register in October 2015.

2. 031741

   Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 ↗

   Printed no earlier than the Michaelmas fair of 1741, as the fourth part of the Clavier-Ubung.

3. 041747

   Musical Offering, BWV 1079 ↗

   Grew from a documented visit to Frederick II's court at Potsdam; published at Leipzig's Michaelmas fair with a dedication to the king dated 7 July 1747.

1. 1723

   Elected to the Leipzig cantorate

   Chosen cantor of the Thomasschule and director of music for the city of Leipzig, third on the council's list after Telemann and Graupner.

2. 1733 to 1749

   Mass in B minor, BWV 232

   Kyrie and Gloria composed in 1733; the Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei added in the late 1740s, in his own hand as Mus.ms. Bach P 180.

3. 1741

   Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

   Printed no earlier than the Michaelmas fair of 1741, as the fourth part of the Clavier-Ubung.

4. 1747

   Musical Offering, BWV 1079

   Composed after a documented visit to the Prussian court at Potsdam on 7 and 8 May 1747; published at the Leipzig Michaelmas fair that year, dedicated to Frederick II.

5. 1750

   Died in Leipzig

   Died in Leipzig in 1750.

6. 1786

   First documented performance of part of the Mass

   Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach performed the Symbolum Nicenum, the Credo movement of his father's Mass in B minor, at a benefit concert in Hamburg.

7. 1802

   First full biography published

   Johann Nikolaus Forkel's Uber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke published in Leipzig by Hoffmeister und Kuhnel.

8. 1835

   First performance of all four parts of the Mass

   An abridged performance of all four parts of the Mass in B minor given in Berlin by Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen and the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, the Kyrie and Gloria shortened and without the Dona nobis pacem.