Johann Sebastian Bach was a hugely productive man. And I am not merely talking about his musical compositions. With his wives Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena, Bach fathered 20 children over his lifetime. So we decided on a little series placing the Bach Babies within the musical context surrounding their births.
Maria Barbara Bach
Johann Sebastian married Maria Barbara Bach in the small town of Dornheim on 17 October 1707. Since the extended Bach family had always been a closely-knit clan, it probably comes as no surprise that Maria Barbara was his second cousin. They surely knew each other from childhood but only became close during Bach’s tenure as organist at Mühlhausen. The marriage was able to go ahead because Bach had received an inheritance of 50 gulden—more than half his annual salary—from his maternal uncle Tobias Lämmerhirt. The young couple developed friendly relations with several high-ranking citizens of Mühlhausen, and the minister of the Marienkirche Georg Christian Eilmar would become the godfather of Bach’s first child, Catharina Dorothea.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196
Catharina Dorothea, however, was not born in Mühlhausen but in Weimar. Bach had once again secured employment at the ducal court under Duke Wilhelm Ernst. His duties at Weimar were rather light, as he was hired as the court organist and as a chamber musician. Bach also took on a number of students, including Johann Bernhard and Johann Tobias Krebs. Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara lived only a few hundred yards from the ducal castle where he worked, right between the Marketplace and the Park an der Ilm. The house has long since disappeared, but its location was next to the still famous hotel “Elephant.”
Market Square Weimar
The happy couple enjoyed the good life in Weimar, and Bach writes on 28 December 1708, “We also have a new baby, our first. We named her Catharina Dorothea and she is a healthy beautiful baby. Ah, our lives are so full and happy here in Weimar.” One day later, their daughter was baptised and developed into an accomplished singer. We do know that Catharina Dorothea helped her father with various musical tasks, including the copying of music. According to her father, she had the talent to be a good composer, but that really wasn’t an option for women in those days. Bach presumably wrote his Cantata BWV 196 in 1707/08 for a wedding in 1708.
Almost prophetic the text is taken from Psalm 115, assuring God’s blessing, especially for children!
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