Details: If only God had made our world as perfect as Bach made his divine. Cioran During his years in the service of Prince Leopold Anhalt-Coethen, Bach, Lutheran musician in a court of Calvinist faith, put aside service-intended compositions, cantatas and organ works, to dedicate himself exclusively to instrumental music. Arriving in Leipzig in 1723 as Cantor of the Saint Thomas Church, no doubt Bach found joy in composing the sacred vocal works required by his new duties: without delay, and in order to enrich his church with a fresh repertoire, he begins work on what will become nearly three complete cycles of cantatas for the Sundays and the feasts of the liturgical year. This work occupies the greatest part of his artistic activity, and Bach will wait until the end of the decade to offer the organ vast preludes and fugues, as well as the chorale settings that are today a summit of the instrument’s repertoire. The composer nevertheless keeps an eye on the musical education of his young children, and Nikolaus Forkel, Bach’s first biographer, reports that it was for the purpose of improving the flexibility and accuracy of his son Wilhelm Friedemann’s fingers and feet that Bach pens, sometime between 1723 and 1729, the three voices of his six Organ Sonatas.
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