Johann Sebastian Bach by Christoph Wolff

Heineccius had not compelled me to compose and to perform the piece you know of.” 9 So Bach agreed to a formal audition, and on the spot—presumably in his comfortable and well-heated hotel room, cheered by tobacco and brandy—he composed a cantata to a text provided by pastor Heineccius, prepared the performing materials, rehearsed the piece, and performed it. The church board managed to circumvent the restrictions of the ongoing state mourning period either by staging a nonpublic performance at the church or, more likely, by finding a way to lift the restrictions for a public performance on the second Sunday in Advent, December 10 of that year, or during a weekday service. Moreover, Bach was paid an honorarium of 12 talers for his audition piece, 10 a gesture entirely out of line with established practices. In every way, Bach’s treatment by the church and town authorities proves that they attached extraordinary importance to having the court organist, organ expert, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach in town.
    The identity of the test cantata Bach wrote in Halle has, unfortunately, not been established, 11 but it impressed the church authorities so deeply that they chose to ignore the previous list of candidates, including Melchior Hoffmann, and elected Bach as Zachow’s successor, on December 13. The minutes of the church board meeting record not only the majority vote but also that Bach was asked to appear, probably on the following day, and that “the organist post was offered to him, for which he duly thanked the Collegium and accepted the position.” 12 On the next day, December 15, Bach returned to Weimar.
    The contract that was drawn up after Bach left but predated to December 14 specified the official duties of the organist in five paragraphs: 13 (1) to play the organ at the regular services on Sundays, Saturdays, and feast days; (2) “on high and other feasts, as well as on every third Sunday, to present with the cantor and choir students, as well as with the town musicians and other instrumentalists, a moving and well-sounding sacred work; and on particular occasions such as the second and third days of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, to perform short concerted pieces with the cantor and the students, and also at times with some violins and other instruments” (3) “to communicate in good time to the chief pastor…D. Heineccius, for his approval, the texts and music chosen” (4) “to accompany attentively the regular chorales and those prescribed by the minister…slowly and without embellishment, in four and five parts, on the Diapason, to change the other stops at each verse, also to use the Quintaden and the reeds, the Gedackt , as well as syncopations and suspensions, in such a manner that the congregation can take the organ as the basis of good harmony and unison tone” and (5) to take good care of “the large and small organs, as well as the Church regal and other instruments belonging to the Church.” Finally, the contract set the annual salary at the rate of 140 talers, to which were added 24 talers for housing and 7 talers 12 groschen for firewood. Catechism and wedding services would be paid separately at the rate of 1 taler each. However, “secondary employment during the present engagement” would not be permitted.
    The contract generally reflects the long and distinguished musical tradition at Our Lady’s Church, but some of its surprisingly detailed points, especially regarding the choice of cantata texts and music as well as the style of chorale accompaniment, reveal Heineccius’s strong interest in musical matters. There is no evidence that Bach objected to any of these instructions. The musician and the pastor enjoyed a relationship marked by mutual respect: for his Christmas cantata BWV 63, Bach used a text by Heineccius, and the two dined together with August Becker at the dedication of the completed organ in