On this date in 1723 – 300 years ago today – Johann Sebastian Bach was formally inducted as Thomaskantor in Leipzig. In this capacity, he was to direct the St. Thomas School and provide music for four churches: primarily the St. Thomas Church and the St. Nicholas Church, but to a lesser extent also the New Church and St. Peter’s Church. It’s easy to understand why this would have been regarded as the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany. Bach held the position for 27 years until his death in 1750.

During that time he gained further prestige through honorary appointments at the courts of Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as that of the Elector Frederick Augustus in Dresden (who was also King of Poland).

As can be imagined, with all these professional obligations to fulfill, Bach churned out an extraordinary amount of music. In the first three years alone, he composed most of his over 300 cantatas (more than 100 of which have been lost).

The crushing workload must have seemed all the more burdensome because of frequent clashes with his employer, Leipzig’s city council, which was begrudging when it came to ever spending any money.

It may seem incredible in hindsight, but Bach was not the first choice for the position. That would have been Georg Philipp Telemann. But Telemann declined, because the money was too good in Hamburg.

The second choice was Christoph Graupner, not exactly a household name today, perhaps, but he composed a lot of music worth rediscovering. Graupner had an “in” as a former student of Bach’s predecessor as Thomaskantor, Johann Kuhnau. Unfortunately, his patron at the time wouldn’t let him go. But to his credit, Graupner graciously wrote Bach a glowing recommendation.

Both Telemann and Graupner were able to leverage the prestigious job offer to improve their worth to their current employers. In particular, Graupner was able to collect his back salary in financially rocky Darmstadt, and he was given a substantial raise.

Here is the first of the cantatas Bach wrote for his new post. “Die Elenden sollen essen” (“All the starving shall be nourished”), BWV 75, was first performed on May 30, 1723, the first Sunday after Trinity, in St. Nicholas Church, two days before the composer took up his official duties.

Leipzig certainly got its money’s worth with its new hire. You might say, it got a lot of bang for its Bach!

PHOTO: Bach statue outside St. Thomas Church