Bachlandia

Welcome to Bachlandia!

I have been in Leipzig for almost two weeks now, and I have written very little about my experiences here in this city. Leipzig has a long tradition of being a cultural and intellectual center in Germany. In addition to Bach, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Telemann, Reger, and Wagner have all lived here at one time or another. In fact, Wagner's family is still buried here, in a small graveyard almost across the street from our hotel. Bach used to be buried there too, but some time ago they moved him to the sanctuary of the Thomaskirche - the church across town where he ran the school. Here is his grave:

 The grave is located down-stage center in the Thomaskirche, so it must be hard to hold services without stepping on the decomposing composer. Actually, towards the end of his life his working relationship with the school and church had become rather problematic, so I can only wonder how he feels about spending eternity in the sanctuary. One thing I know - the last thing I ever want is to be buried in one of the schools I taught in.

Here is a photo of the Thomaskirche I took at sunset one evening. Bach's home, where his raised his many, many children, and also housed various relatives, assistants, and private students, was inside the school where also all the boarding students lived. It must have been noisy, crowded, and as complicated as his most elaborate music. Sadly, they tore the building down about a hundred years ago, so we can't quite see what it was like. I hope somewhere he had a room to himself. Still, it is neat to picture family members and students and just about anyone who came into the house sitting around a long table copying parts of his music for him by hand.

The Thomaskirche remains very beautiful inside to this day. It is much larger than I had imagined it. The organ that was in it in Bach's time no longer exists, but today they do have two large pipe organs inside, both of which were played in the concert I attended last week.

Much of the city of Leipzig is quite modern - they saw significant destruction from bombing raids during WWII, although nothing like the destruction of Dresden. It was "spotty" destruction, so new modern office building and stores are located right next to 14th century buildings. It is the easiest city in Europe to navigate in that I have visited so far. I have been trying to get lost, but so far I have had no luck. While it has a strong tourist trade, it remains, as it has been for centuries, a University town. This prominent building

may look like a huge church, but is actually a part of the Leipzig University, and I believe is a completely secular institution. The building was built on the site of another church the Bach played (they're everywhere!), and was either torn down by the communists or bombed in WWII - I am not sure which. Anyway, this area of town is just crawling (actually mostly cycling) with college students. 

Leipzig is very proud of its musical heritage. You see it everywhere - especially in the street musicians. It is not unusual for the street musicians to be a top-knotch string quartet playing Mozart, or a woodwind trio (how often have you seen a street musician playing a bassoon?). There are the usual guitar players, but also accordion players, and even two Russians dressed up like cossacks singing incomprehensible Russian songs. Just about every musical style is represented, and all done well.

Yesterday afternoon I took a walk on the musician's trail. This is like the Freedom Trail in Boston, except it goes to important musical sites. You follow these neat artistic stainless steel markers embedded in the sidewalks:

And of course I got to visit the big guy himself:

One highlight of the walk is the Mendelssohn House, which has this cool electronic display where you can conduct some of his works. The music follows your gestures, and the speakers light up for each group of instruments as they come in. I conducted a selection from "Elijah"

Mendelssohn only lived for 38 years, but somehow he found time to compose and conduct a lot of music, as well as sit for many portraits.

Finally, one more big musical event happened last Sunday. A group of us traveled to Zschortau, which is a small town about half an hour away, to visit a church. This church was built sometime in the 16th century, and in 1746 Bach visited there to test the new organ that had just been installed by his friend Scheib. Bach frequently acted as an organ consultant, and was very proficient in organ design and construction. The instrument has been restored, and and I believe it is the last example of a functioning Scheib organ. Several of our group performed Sunday afternoon in concert on the instrument, and afterwards the pastor of the church allowed the rest of us to play it.

I wish I could say that I knocked out Prelude and Fugue, but actually I just improvised on what I hope was an interesting chord progression. Actually, as part of it I did play the theme from the Little Fugue in G Minor. I cannot tell you what a thrill it was to play on an instrument that He himself not only played, but helped construct! It was a moment I will never forget.

Tomorrow is my last day in Leipzig. I am headed for Munich for the weekend - once again traveling alone - the adventure continues!