Bach Premieres Jesu Nun: Masterpiece of Baroque Sacred Music
Trumpet fanfares opened it. Trumpet fanfares closed it. Bach composed BWV 41 for New Year's Day 1725 and built the entire piece as a symmetrical frame — a structural choice that musicologists have been picking apart for three centuries. "Jesu, nun sei gepreiset" premiered at Leipzig's Thomaskirche, where Bach served as cantor, producing cantatas at a pace that borders on inhuman: roughly one new work every single week during the liturgical season. This particular piece threads a 16th-century hymn by Johannes Herman through six movements of escalating complexity and demands trumpet writing that's brutally difficult even by modern professional conservatory standards. But Bach's performers weren't professionals. Church musicians, mostly amateurs, sight-reading parts that would challenge trained orchestral players today. He expected excellence from them and somehow kept getting it. The manuscript survived only because Bach's widow Anna Magdalena sold his papers after his death to keep the family from starving.
January 1, 1725
301 years ago
What Else Happened on January 1
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January 1, 153. Roman consuls begin their year in office.
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