, in his day, was the Lutheran church. The church began to look at Bach’s writings and saw the opportunity to possibly use his music in their masses. Thus was the slow birth of the German chorale, which Bach later became renowned for. Bach’s virtuosic career did suffer minor setbacks along the way. He occasionally would be passed over for deserved positions within the court that he worked. However, in 1715 when he did not receive a truly desired position of “Kapellmeister” (choral master) of Weimer, he was insulted and left the city. He accepted a position as a court conductor in Cothen, where he began to work on another part of his musical genre, that of instrumental music. Up until this point, Bach was mainly writing organ pieces and church cantatas. One of his most famous, “Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme,” became well known around the world and is still looked upon as a classic today. However, when he arrived in Cothen he began to focus on all other instruments and used his talents as a string player and knowledge of “wind & brass” instruments to begin composing instrumental pieces. It was during his stay here in Cothen that the orchestral masterpiece known as the “Brandenburg Concerto” was born. Bach’s tenure in Cothen lasted approximately seven years. In that time his wife Mara became ill and died. Although distraught, he soon remarried to Anna Magdalena. It was during this time that Bach had several children, three in particular would grow to become talented musicians like their father. Wilhelm Friedmann, C.P.E. Bach, and J.C. Bach. They to became virtosos of the organ and later the harpsichord, much like their father was. After Bach left Cothen, he received a prestigious position as music director at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany. Here Bach accepted his most demanding position of all. He had the responsibility of composing cantatas for the St. Thomas an...
