10- Day Birthday

Yesterday was Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday. Or was it? Look it up and you’ll see some sources name March 21^st and some March 31^st. What’s going on?

 

Back in 45 BC, Julius Caesar changed the Roman lunar calendar to a 12-month solar calendar with 365 days, plus a leap day every four years. It was designed to fix inaccuracies in the Roman lunar calendar but over-corrected the solar year by about 11 minutes. In Bach’s time, Germany used the Julian Calendar (named for Julius) and according to that calendar, he was born on March 21^st. 

 

However, in 1582, Pope Gregory made another calendar reform (the Gregorian Calendar), which corrected the 11-minute-per-year inaccuracy and added 10 days to the Julian Calendar. When Bach was born in 1685, that part of Germany still used the Julian Calendar and then changed in 1700 to the Gregorian one. Suddenly Bach’s birthday was March 31^st. 

 

So take your pick. Or better yet, celebrate Bach’s birthday for 10-days straight. A man of his caliber of genius deserves it. In honor of the occasion, a few choice quotes from fellow composers/ musicians:

 

Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars.      - Friederick Chopin

 

“Not Brook but Ocean should be his name. ("Bach" is the German word for "brook").        - Ludwig Van Beethoven 

 

Bach is the beginning and end of all music.       - Max Reger

 

 

Bach is thus a terminal point. Nothing comes from him; everything merely leads to him.      - Albert Schweitzer

 

Music owes as much to Bach as religion to its founder.    - Robert Schumann

 

...the most stupendous miracle in all music!      - Richard Wagner

 

 

To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervor, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time.      - Pablo Casals

 

Bach’s is the most touchingly human, phenomenally emotional, and at the same time mind-blowingly complex and intricate music I have ever heard. One can be superbly emotional, or have fantastic range, or be mind-blowingly perfect in mathematically precise counterpoint, but he seems to be an impossible combination of all of this - and yet he existed.  -Brad Mehldau: Jazz pianist

 

My advice to young musicians? Listen to Bach for two hours a day. —Coleman Hawkins: Jazz saxophonist

 

Compared to Bach, we all suck. – Pat Metheny: Jazz guitarist

 

 

God owes Bach a lot. – Igor Stravinsky

 

And Bach’s view of his own accomplishments? Humble, but not even close to true!

 

“I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well."  

 

Happy 341^st birthday to Johann Sebastian Bach! You remain a path to restoring hope and faith in the promise of all humanity.