Thomasschule zu Leipzig

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Leipzig and the St. John Passion This particular incident was the death, half a year after Bach's second marriage, of Johann Kunau, who for more than twenty years had held the cantorship of St. Thomas School in Leipzig.

Whether or not the post seemed to Bach himself as desirable as a kapellmeistership, the sudden vacancy attracted a flock of candidates, some of them men of distinction.

Most preferable in the eyes of the Leipzig Civic Council was Georg Philipp Telemann, who in Bach's day ranked higher in the esteem of many musicians than Bach himself.

His duties were incredibly numerous and often heartbreakingly heavy.

He was responsible, it has been said, to all and to none.

Again and again, he had the rector of the St. Thomas School, the city council, the church consistory, and yet others about his ears.

He had to look after the musical services in four churches, two of them the most important in the town.

They either think of him as the composer of mathematical exercises in music, or else they confuse him with others of his family.

He was cantor of the St. Thomas School here in Leipzig, the perfect type of a true servant of our glorious art.

He wrote incessantly, but the greatest of his works lay forgotten after his death, and it was I, I, who disinterred this marvelous music drama of the Passion and gave it in Berlin 10 years ago, its first performance since Bach's death almost a century before.

But there," he added with an apologetic smile, "I talk too much.