When the stars line up, magic can happen, regardless if it is DPOLS or Bach's oevre.
What lined up?First and foremost, his talent that in childhood was nurtured inside the family.
Then the "apprenticeship" programs of the day that focussed on the rules and regulations of church music composition (this is a HUGE deal).
Opportunities to get paid with the requirement to create functional music weekly
To have ensembles capable of performing this level of work
Then the requirements to train the choir, organise the soloists, get the orchestra musicians all on the same page
To have creative texters that provide him with the libretti for his works
To have Gottfried Silbermann making magnificent organs
To have public acceptance for new tuning strategies
To have wives fine tuned to give him the space that he needed
To have clergy in the church willing to cooperate
To have a baroque era that was full of cultural, technical discovery AND financing
To have prolific colleagues like Vivaldi, Telemann and Händel
There is a huge amount of additional factors
So we see that Bach was a child of his times. Never since have we had anyone cranking out that quantity of meaningful works. There is immense depth to any one of the things listed. |
|