Thuringia

We are spending this hour with one of the most extraordinary human beings who ever put pen to paper, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Born in Eisenach in the German state of Thuringia on the 21st of March, 1685, and dying in Leipzig on the 28th of July, 1750, Bach lived 65 years.

In those six and a half decades, he produced a body of work so vast, so varied, and so technically astonishing, that even today, nearly 300 years later, scholars are still mapping its full dimensions.

The catalog of his works, known as the Backwerke for Seichness, or BWV for short, lists over 1,080 individual compositions.

Chapter 1.

Childhood and Youth To understand Johann Sebastian Bach, you need to understand the world he came from.

The Bach family of Thuringia was, by the 17th century, so thoroughly synonymous with music making that local people reportedly used the words Bach and musician interchangeably.

Sebastian's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was court trumpeter and director of the town musicians in Eisenach.

In the fifth century the Franks fell into three sections.

There were the Franks who remained near the cradle lands of the race in Thuringia, those who settled along the Middle Rhine and who were called the Ripuarian Franks, and those who moved farther north and occupied those lands north of the Roman province of Gaul that were afterwards called the Low Countries.

Early in the 5th century, these northern Franks under a chief named Clodion moved southward

and drove the Roman garrison out of Cambrai in 445.

done to his lord

death finished him with mighty torments Grimoald's premature bid for sovereignty seemed for a time to have ruined the prospects of his house, and the next thirty years of Frankish history is a dreary record of confusion and disintegration.

The peoples on the frontiers of the Frankish realm began to shake themselves free from the Frankish yoke, and Thuringia, Bavaria, and the Vents, beyond the Elbe, defied the impotent rulers who kept the semblance of authority at Metz or Paris.

the only strong man of the time was ebroin mayor of neustria whose character as drawn by the possibly biased ecclesiastical chroniclers of the time appears as a compound of cruelty avarice and ambition after a few years of his rule the nobles of neustria led by leodegar bishop of otan whose name is still familiar to us as st leger called the austrasian king to their help and seized de bruyne and his puppet king ebroin was compelled to take monastic vows in the monastery of luxeuil and for a time leodegar administered neustria till a fresh intrigue sent him to join his late enemy at luxeuil next year the king died and three puppet claimants were set up by different factions Taking advantage of the confusion, Ebroin escaped from his monastery and succeeded in securing the office of mayor of Neustria again under his old puppet king Theodorich.

So much is certain that Veidt Bach, the founder of the family, and all his descendants, even to the present seventh generation, have been devoted to music, and all save perhaps a very few have made it their profession.

This fight had been expelled from Hungary in the 16th century for religious reasons and had later settled in Thuringia.

Many of his descendants have also made their homes in that province.

Among the many members of the Bach family who have excelled in practical music, as well as the building of new musical instruments, the following, in addition to our Johann Sebastian, are particularly noteworthy for their composition.

He went and he got a few of these things when he needed to.

But most of it, you know, he just stayed there, focused.

Maybe it's a bit of a stretch to connect 17th century Thuringian polyphonic organ playing to Sakoku.

But if I don't, who will? So thanks very much for listening.

He was leaving his troubles behind, he thought, heading for a new start in the new world.

We know that he comes from Thuringia in Germany and that Relatively few people from that region and indeed from his background came to the UK.

Francis Muller had come over to London.

He was known as quite a polite young man.

Luther returned to Erfurt from Rome, and in the summer of 1511 was sent as one of the three new professors to Wittenberg, here he came under the influence of john von staupitz vicar of the augustinian order who showed warm sympathy and understanding toward the earnest young priest as yet luther had been unable to convince himself of god's love mercy and forgiveness his quest carried him along the path of good works but he never could feel that he had done enough to save himself he tried the path of confession but concluded that there was more wrong with men than could be cleansed by enumerating a list of particular offenses luther's problems of faith did not mount up through clearly defined stages to a sudden soul-free climax rather he passed through a series of crises staupitz did much to comfort him in some of these grave periods he encouraged the zealous monk to trust in the god who loved and sent his son to redeem man rather than to try to appease god through his own works staupitz's theology was quite different from luther's it admitted man's weakness and called him to completely submerge himself in god there was no striving no assertion of self eventually the individual found peace in a blissful atmosphere surrounded entirely by god luther's efforts were virtually the opposite his every act was replete with self-assertion directed toward winning merit he tried the mystical way of staupitz but could never completely lose himself in the essence of a god whom he conceived to be an angry judge luther's troubled spirit did not lower him in the vicar's estimation and perhaps to get his mind off it staupitz advised him to study for a doctor's degree and assume the chair of bible at the university it was good medicine for thus the distressed monk came to closer grips with the source-book of his faith so far writings about the bible rather than the book itself had been his main diet he studied for the degree and preached in the monastery's rickety chapel until october eighteenth and nineteenth of fifteen twelve when he became martin luther doctor of sacred scripture professor of bible at wittenberg university The Awakening Since May 1512, Luther had been sub-prior and regent in the school connected with the Black Cloister at Wittenberg.

In May 1515, he became district vicar for Thuringia and Meissen, and having eleven monasteries under his care.

Meanwhile, he was discharging his duties as professor in the university.

frequently the solution to great problems comes quite undramatically as one goes about the daily tasks luther's awakening to a god who makes man righteous in order to save him came in such a way he knew the teaching that the righteous shall be saved by faith but who he asked himself is righteous as he studied and taught and looked after his wards in the monasteries he gradually discovered he had been misled by the mediaeval concept that grace could be earned this he found was contrary to the new testament grace can't be earned god gives it man therefore does not make himself righteous it is god who makes the man righteous he makes man righteous as a free gift grace so that he can be saved out of this came the doctrine of justification by faith at this point luther still felt that he was in total agreement with the teaching of the roman church in a humble way he believed that he had discovered for himself what had always been that he had just been slow in catching on deeper study, however, made it clear to him that there was a great difference between his own and the theology of the Middle Ages.

His own impulse to condemn Luther right away was restrained, because he needed the goodwill of the Germans in other measures coming before the Diet.

a plan was evolved whereby a select group of theologians would call on luther and try to effect a reconciliation through persuasion the discussion always bogged down when luther insisted he must be persuaded on the basis of scripture having received a twenty one day safe-conduct luther set out for wittenberg on april twenty sixth the diet closed officially on may twenty fifth and the next day following a rump session of prejudiced nobles the emperor signed the edict of worms according to it luther was the devil himself in a monk's habit he was to be seized on sight and turned over to the emperor an outlaw of the church and the state End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Martin Luther by Karl E. Kopenhauer This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Drastic Changes Wartburg to Wittenberg fortunately for luther there was more than noisy adulation among the people a few sober minds knew how relentless the papal wolves would be in tracking him down after the safe conduct expired and so a kidnapping and removal to a safe place was planned luther made a detour along the road to wittenberg in order to visit relatives at For months the outside world knew only that he had been captured near there in the Thuringian forest by a band of knights.

Many lamented him as dead, but gradually the flow of thorny letters to his adversaries and the new treatises rolling from the press allayed their fears.

John wended his way through Carinthia and Styria to Vienna.

From there, his progress led him to Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Bavaria, and Thuringia, and then back again to Poland, Transylvania, and Russia.

The most astonishing miracles confirmed his words.

He cured innumerable sick persons, raised dead people to life again, and with only his mantle spread upon the waters, crossed rivers with several companions.

Consequently, a dispute involving an archbishop could leave one not only worrying about their estate, but also their soul as well, which is quite inconvenient.

One such dispute involved Conrack of Wittelsbach, Archbishop of Mainz, and Ludwig III, Landgrave of Thuringia.

During his rule, Ludwig sought to enlarge his territories and consolidate his authority.

His ambitions brought him into conflicts with neighboring nobles and religious institutions quite frequently and often required the emperor himself to intervene.