Bach and The Tuning of the World

Everyone has heard of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier - but hardly anybody knows anything about his journey to F sharp major.

In March of 1700, shortly before his fifteenth birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach set off on his journey. His destination: to create perfect music, music that unites heaven and earth in harmony. His search finally brought him to Lübeck, where he became acquainted with Andreas Werckmeister and the well-tempered tuning. In this tempering - and that is new! - you can play everything, all keys, in major and minor. But perfection has its price: All notes are 'tempered' a bit, which means falsified; the music has a touch of artificiality from now on. And not only the notes and pitches - nature and people are also being tempered. Gardens are laid out with geometric precision, rivers are canalized, cities redesigned. Night becomes day thanks to street lighting, the pocket watch makes it possible to take along the time with you, the tuning fork enables choral pitch. The journey into an artificial world has begun. When Bach completed the Well-Tempered Clavier, he was overcome with profound doubt: Is not his work 'only of this world' - perfect, artificial, profane?

'For us, Bach's life consists primarily of biographical gaps. We know some things; but we don't know much. These gaps offer a novelist his chance. The facts were my fetters but they were also my source of inspiration. I did not invent anything 'freely' in the meaning of arbitrarily, though.' Jens Johler

'Jens Johler by no means turns the historical facts around.... Instead, he is writing a great of development novel in which private motifs and the course of time intertwine like fugue themes. ' Harald Asel, rbb Inforadio

Jens Johler, born in Neumuenster in 1944 and raised in Hamburg, now lives in Berlin. After several years of being trained and then working as an actor in Munich and Dortmund, he finally became a free-lance writer and, in addition to novels and thrillers, has written for the stage.

Auteur
Jens Johler, born in Neumuenster in 1944 and raised in Hamburg, now lives in Berlin. After several years of being trained and then working as an actor in Munich and Dortmund, he finally became a free-lance writer and, in addition to novels and thrillers, has written for the stage.

Résumé
Everyone has heard of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier but hardly anybody knows anything about his journey to F sharp major.

In March of 1700, shortly before his fifteenth birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach set off on his journey. His destination: to create perfect music, music that unites heaven and earth in harmony. His search finally brought him to Lübeck, where he became acquainted with Andreas Werckmeister and the well-tempered tuning. In this tempering and that is new! you can play everything, all keys, in major and minor. But perfection has its price: All notes are "tempered" a bit, which means falsified; the music has a touch of artificiality from now on. And not only the notes and pitches nature and people are also being tempered. Gardens are laid out with geometric precision, rivers are canalized, cities redesigned. Night becomes day thanks to street lighting, the pocket watch makes it possible to take along the time with you, the tuning fork enables choral pitch. The journey into an artificial world has begun. When Bach completed the Well-Tempered Clavier, he was overcome with profound doubt: Is not his work "only of this world" perfect, artificial, profane?

"For us, Bach's life consists primarily of biographical gaps. We know some things; but we don't know much. These gaps offer a novelist his chance. The facts were my fetters but they were also my source of inspiration. I did not invent anything 'freely' in the meaning of arbitrarily, though." Jens Johler

"Jens Johler by no means turns the historical facts around.... Instead, he is writing a great of development novel in which private motifs and the course of time intertwine like fugue themes. " Harald Asel, rbb Inforadio

Contenu
March 1722
1.Departure
2.Wicked Witchcraft
3.The Philosopher
4.Latin School
5.The Lion of Eisenach
6.The Three Musics
7.Adam Reincken
8.'That False Serpent, Opera'
9.The Muse
10.Circe
11.'It's the Affections that Matter'
12.'I Will Give my Heart to Thee'
13.Lackey
14.The Journey to F Sharp Major
15.Going South!
16.Evening Concerts
17.Angela
18.Mare Balticum
19.Dorothea Catrin
20.The New Tempering
21.'Strange Tones'
22.The Loft
23.The Consistory
24.The Wedding
25Curious Variations
26.The Ratswechsel Cantata
27.Weimar
28.Exult! Rejoice!
29.The Hunting Cantata
30.Black Birds
31.The Contest
32.Senesino
33.The Manuscript
34.The Loyal Subject
35.Landrichterstube
36.The Lord Chamberlain
37.Köthen
38.Handel
39.The Masterpiece
40.The Arrow
41.'Why Did You Leave Me?'
42.Praise from the Master
43.The Well-Tempered Clavier
44.Channelled Notes
45.The Night
46.H-C-A-B
47.Father and Son
48.The St Matthew Passion

Fact and Fiction