BACH STIFFED BY MARGRAVE

MY NEW BGF AND I GET TOGETHER WEEKDAYS AT 5 A.M. PACIFIC when she shares great tales of classical music. Colleen Wheelahan hosts SiriusXM “Symphony Hall” in its morning show, broadcast 3:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m Pacific. A University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music-trained percussionist (“I hit things,” Colleen says, “Sometimes I sing about it.”), she also observes, “Classic Music Is For You. Let Me Tell You Why.” Colleen has a marvelous way of researching her musicological topics. 

She’s a dish, as well.

Here are tidbits gleaned from Colleen’s account of Johann Sebastian Bach’s encounter with Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. 

“I Hit Things”: Bach’s Not Uneventful Careeer. Colleen recounts that “Bach wasn’t a model employee at his job in Arnstadt. First, he called one of his performers a ‘Zippel Fagottist’ (a weenie bassoonist), leading to a physical fight. Then, he asked for four weeks of leave, but actually took four months, in which he traveled 450km on foot to study with another organist.”

“He eventually took his skills to Weimar,” Colleen continues, “where things ended even worse. When he tried to quit that job his employer, the Duke of Weimar, had him put in prison for disobedience.”

Bach Sucks Up to the Margrave. “In 1719,” Colleen recounts, “Bach met the Margrave of Brandenburg while harpsichord shopping in Berlin.” Later, “Bach hinted pretty heavily that he was looking for a new role in the cover letter he included when he sent the 6 Brandenburg Concertos to the Margrave: ‘I noticed then that Your Highness took some pleasure in the little talents which Heaven has given me for Music.’—JS Bach, laying it on thick.”

 The Margrave Apparently Misplaces Things. “The Margrave essentially ghosted Bach,” Colleen says. “Never having the works performed, and not even sending a ‘your application has been received’ note.”

Quelle jerk, the Margrave.

The Concerti’s Later Years. Wikipedia notes that “After Bach’s death [1750] only the fifth concerto received any widespread attention, probably due to the fashion for keyboard concertos; the rest were seemingly forgotten. The pieces were rediscovered by Siegfried Dehn, who found them in Princess Amalia’s library in 1849 and had them published for the first time the following year, the centenary of Bach’s death.”

“The concertos,” Wikipedia continues, “were not included by name in the library inventory after Christian Ludwig’s death [1734], and it is uncertain who they went to. The next owner we have a record of was Bach’s own pupil Johann Kirnberger, who left the collection to Princess Anna Amalia on his death, who subsequently bequeathed it to the Joachimsthal Gymnasium from which it was transferred to the Royal Library of Berlin (now the Berlin State Library) in 1914. The manuscript was nearly lost during World War II while being transported for safekeeping to Prussia by train in the care of a librarian—the train came under aerial bombardment, and the librarian escaped from the train to a nearby forest, with the scores hidden under his coat. As of 2023 the manuscript remains in the Berlin State Library.”

Whew!

These days, Wikipedia observes, “Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments, meaning ‘Six Concertos for several instruments’… are widely regarded as some of the greatest orchestral compositions of the Baroque era.” Give a listen and I’m confident you’ll agree: 

My two favs are No. 2 in F major, (the one with the Stadtpfeifer; its third movement chosen by William F. Buckley Jr. for his Firing Line TV theme) and No. 5 in D major (Buckley, a harpsichordist, liked this one too).

Thanks, Colleen; meet you tomorrow at 5:00 a.m. Pacific. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026