20. Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach – a Working Couple: Private Students. Part I

There were frequent changes in the usage of the rooms in the Bach family apartment, with rooms becoming free and then reallocated. To give a few examples: Friedelena Margaretha Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach’s sister-in-law, died on the 28^th of July 1727. She received the Eucharist several days before in the Bach family apartment (see 19. Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach–a Working Couple. Supplement: Friedelena Margaretha Bach), so it can be assumed that she lived alone in a room, at least for the last days of her life.

The son Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784) embarked on a study of law at Leipzig University in 1729. His brother Carl Philipp Emanual Bach (1714–1788) was enrolled there in 1731. The allocation of the rooms in the apartment would have taken into account that they needed some quiet for their studies. Wilhelm Friedemann took up a post as organist in Dresden in 1733, and Carl Philipp Emanuel moved to Frankfurt/Oder University in September 1734. Another son, Johann Gottfried Bernhard (1715–1736), took up his post as organist in Mühlhausen in 1735.

Between 1724 and 1742 Anna Magdalena Bach gave birth to twelve children, of which only nine survived their first few days. There are several indications that they were looked after by employed nurses. These had to live near the child so that we can assume that after the birth a nurse had her own bedroom with the child.

The living circumstances therefore enabled private pupils to be taken in to the household. Unfortunately, there is no description for Leipzig as detailed as the one given by Philipp David Kräuter (1690–1741) for Weimar, where Johann Sebastian Bach lived from 1708 until 1717. Kräuter was his pupil, and his studies were financed by the Augsburg School Authorities. His reports of how he used the money have been preserved. They show that he lived in the Bach household, was taught there and had his meals there (Dok V, pages 117 ff.). He paid 80 Talers per year for this, which was considerably more than a trained miner in the Saxon silver mines earned in a year (Spree 2019, page 37).

It can also be shown that private pupils lived in the St. Thomas School. Johann August Ernesti (1707–1781) was the rector of the institution from 1734 until 1759 and lived in an official apartment in the building, as did Johann Sebastian Bach. There were “always well-paying” pupils living with him (Kaemmel 1909, page 351).

Figure: St. Thoms School in Leipzig 1732. The cantor’s apartment where the Bach family lived was in the left-hand part of the building and extended over four floors. The rector’s apartment was on the right-hand side.

(Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Object GM000402)

It is hardly conceivable that Johann Sebastian Bach did not also make use of this opportunity. The teaching of private pupils was close to his heart. On Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, Georg Philipp Telemann (1685–1764) wrote:

“So sleep!

your name remains free of decline:

The pupils, your brood, and their row of pupils serves,

through their knowledge,

as your crown of honour”

(Dok III, pages 7 f.).

(„So schlaf!

dein Nahme bleibt vom Untergange frey:

Die Schüler deiner Zucht, und ihrer Schüler Reyh

Dient, durch ihr Wissen,

dir zur schönen Ehrencrone“ )

Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749–1818) dedicated a complete chapter to Johann Sebastian Bach’s teaching method in his Bach biography, which was published in 1802 and for which he used information from Bach’s sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. There he says: his teaching was “the most instructive, most effective and surest, that there has ever been” (Dok VII, page 49). In the annual Bach Jahrbuch of 2019, Bernd Koska documented 61 certain, 44 potential and 33 possible private pupils of Johann Sebastian Bach, from whom documents are preserved relating to his teaching (Koska 2019, pages 13 ff.).

With the pupil permanently living in the teacher’s apartment, the instruction could be even more intensive. The aforementioned Philipp David Kräuter describes this in detail. Additionally, the Bach family could considerably supplement their income in this way.

It is therefore not surprising that there is evidence of private pupils living in the Bach apartment during the Leipzig period. The son of one private pupil writes about a certain Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728–1788): “The Capellmeister Bach received him very warmly and gave him accommodation in his house.” (Dok II, page 497). Müthel started his studies in May 1750. A few weeks before, Bach had had an eye operation and was suffering from the effects. On the 26^th of May 1750 he wrote to an acquaintance: “Please give my regards to Mr. Schröter until I am able to write again” (Dok I, page 124). So he was confident that he would recover but died on the 28^th of July 1750. That under these circumstances a new private pupil moved into the apartment is a clear indication that it must have been a routine procedure (see Dok III, page 613).

Johann Elias Bach (1705–1755), a remote relation of Johann Sebastian Bach, was the private secretary and home teacher in the Bach household while he was studying at Leipzig University between 1737 and 1742. He wrote in a letter: “My lodgings are with Capellmeister Bach at the St. Thomas Square” (Dok II, page 396). In a letter of 1739, he mentions a “Stuben Purschen” that means a “roommate” (Dok II, page 363). Reports from the time show that two students often shared a room (Müller 2007, pages 102, 288; Telemann 1740 pages 258 ff.). That was not necessarily for financial reasons. The student Christian Müller (1720–1772) described how he suffered from homesickness: “My father tried to encourage me in every possible way, he suggested whether I did not have enough to choose the company of a room-mate?” (Müller 2007, page 72).

The Bach family apartment was big enough to use at least one room for two private pupils. It would be to accuse them of a lack of economical ability if their use of this opportunity were to be ruled out. These private pupils therefore belonged to the household of which Anna Magdalena Bach together with her husband was the head. She was “to be regarded as wife and mother, but from the point of view of the hierarchy and housekeeping she is to be respected as the lady of the house” (Zedler 1735, Volume 12, Column 907). She was responsible for looking after the private pupils living in the household, monitoring their behaviour and making sure they completed their tasks appropriately. It can also be shown that she was involved in the teaching processes. She used the experience gained here as a widow – the next article will go into this.

Translation: Alan Shepherd

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