Ohrdruf

Johann Sebastian was not yet ten years old when he found himself bereft of his parents by death.

He betook himself to Ordruf, where his eldest brother Johann Christoph was an organist, and under this brother's guidance he laid the foundations for his playing on the clavier.

The love of our little Johann Sebastian for music was uncommonly great even at this tender age.

In a short time, he had fully mastered all the pieces his brother had voluntarily given him to learn.

The abstract rumors of the Holocaust are suddenly replaced by staggering physical proof.

In early April, American forces overrun the Ordruf concentration camp near Weimar.

And the SS had force-marched the surviving prisoners away, but they left behind the dead.

When General Eisenhower walked through that camp, he was confronted by the smell and the piles of bodies.

Before blaming him, as is usually done, it may be well to reflect that Bach's brother was not necessarily moved by an impulse of cruelty but more probably felt the need of curbing somewhat an audacious and immature young genius who threatened to get out of hand.

During the five years he spent in Ohrdruf, Bach attended the town school, which enjoyed an unusually high reputation throughout Thuringia.

His studies naturally ranged much further afield than at Eisenach, and his scholastic progress appears to have been rapid.

His high, clear voice and instinctive musicianship not only assured him a place and rather substantial reward in the chorus of the institution, but in proper season gained him the friendly interest of Elias Oeder, a young musician summoned to replace Johann Arnold, a highly unpopular teacher who had been dismissed as a pest of the school, a scandal of the church, and a cancer of the community.

Before blaming him, as is usually done, it may be well to reflect that Bach's brother was not necessarily moved by an impulse of cruelty but more probably felt the need of curbing somewhat an audacious and immature young genius who threatened to get out of hand.

During the five years he spent in Ohrdruf, Bach attended the town's school, which enjoyed an unusually high reputation throughout Thuringia.

His studies naturally ranged much further afield than at Eisenach, and his scholastic progress appears to have been rapid.

His high, clear voice and instinctive musicianship not only assured him a place and rather substantial reward in the chorus of the institution, but in proper season gained him the friendly interest of Elias Ueder, a young musician summoned to replace Johann Arnold, a highly unpopular teacher who had been dismissed as a pest of the school, a scandal of the church, and a cancer of the community.

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Student at Lüneburg The time was ripe, at all events, for Johann Sebastian to leave Ohrdruf.

His brother's family was increasing apace and the organist's quarters had been growing uncomfortably cramped.