When Frederick the Great was told that Johann Sebastian Bach had arrived the Prussian emperor said to his retinue appreciatively, "Old Bach has come." It was at that meeting at the Potsdam palace that Bach composed on the spot, in response to Frederick's challenge, a six part ricercar that came to be known as the Musical Offering.
J.S. Bach was not appreciated, as he was by Frederick, by the public in his time. His sons Carl Philipp Emmanuel, who worked at the Potsdam palace, and Johann Christian, were better regarded. Not until years after death in 1750 did he come to be recognized, as he is by many, as the greatest musical composer in human history. Bach's musical output was astonishing, over 1,000 compositions that included orchestral works, chamber music, cantatas, chorales, and fugues. All of it was done in service to Protestant Christianity. Bach's music is in the heavens today, on the Golden Record of humanity aboard the Voyager spacecraft. And on this, Julian calendar, date in 1685 Old Bach came into the world.
Image: The Haussman portrait.
