Johann Sebastian Bach by Christoph Wolff Page A

1716, a clear indication that Bach’s rejection of the Halle offer had no lasting effect. The position, incidentally, was filled in May 1714 by Melchior Hoffmann, but his attempt at moonlighting with the Leipzig Collegium Musicum got him fired in little more than a month. On July 30, the church board appointed Gottfried Kirchhoff, who stayed at Our Lady’s for more than thirty years until, in 1746, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach accepted the post that his father had “found reasons to reject” (as the Obituary put it). 14
    In his March 19 letter to August Becker, Bach makes it clear that economic reasons forced him to refuse the appointment and firmly rebuffs any accusation of having engaged in shady tactics:
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    It is not to be assumed that one will go to a place where one’s situation is worsened; but this I could not learn accurately in a fortnight or three weeks, since I am wholly of the opinion that even after many years one cannot rightly know one’s livelihood in a place where one must count incidental fees as part of one’s income, let alone in a fortnight; and that is more or less the reason why I first accepted and then, on request, in turn rejected the appointment. But it is by no means to be inferred from all these circumstances that I should have played such a trick upon the Honored Church Board in order to induce my most Gracious Master to increase my salary, since the latter already shows so much graciousness toward my service and art that I do not have to journey to Halle in order to have my salary increased. Accordingly I regret that the assurance of the Honored Church Board has thus had a somewhat uncertain outcome, and add the following: Even if I had received just as good a salary in Halle as here, should I not then have been bound to prefer the prior service to the other one? 15
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    An issue the letter does not raise, because it would have been of no interest to its recipient, was that of personal career choice, a choice that Bach was clearly aware of making. The prospect of having at his disposal a new and very large organ would, without any doubt, have furthered the organist and virtuoso in Bach; the Cuntzius organ under construction would have opened up unanticipated and fabulous perspectives. On the other hand, the section of the Halle agreement regarding the opportunity to compose and perform cantatas on a regular monthly schedule must have appealed to him so greatly that he used it as a bargaining point to achieve basically the same goal in Weimar. Indeed, he could envision that composing for and performing with the Weimar court capelle would be more satisfying than working with the Halle church ensembles—even though as city organist and music director in Halle, unlike the post of court organist and concertmaster in Weimar, he would not be subordinate to any other musician. The decision against Halle, then, amounted to nothing less than a profound change in his basic orientation: away from a primary focus on organ and keyboard skills and toward the broader options and deeper commitment of a composer, with an ever-expanding musical horizon.
    Although we have no information about Bach’s negotiations with the Weimar ducal court, we can assume that he never formally asked for dismissal, since the court was ready to adjust his salary, rank, and duties. To be sure, the court could have blocked Bach’s departure regardless, but if it had, Bach would certainly have mentioned to Becker that he had not obtained permission to leave court service. For all intents and purposes, he could count on the continuing support of the court, notably from Duke Ernst August at the Red Palace. For the time being, he could be pleased with what he procured for himself: a salary increase, a title change within a newly defined rank order, and, most important, expanded responsibilities, especially the assignment “to perform new works monthly.”
    M OSTLY M USIC FOR “T HE H