The little Bach

2011 / 01 / 06 - Every Good Song

The little Bach lost his mother when he was nine years old, barely a year after his father died. That was how his older brother, organist at Ohrdruf, took charge of him.

The musical environment in which Bach´s parents had raised the boy and his brother, was impressive. All members of the family either composed or played. Therefore, after the death of his parents, Bach continued his musical studies with his older brother's help.

His passion for music was already evident at such a young age. He used to stir all day among the scores of his brother. This, as usual, would arouse his anger. We all know what a mess we all were at that young age.

One day Bach, knowing that his brother would not lend him a book of pieces from Fröberger, Pachelbel and Kerl, he took it secretly. Over the following six months, and with enormous patience, he copied it at nights with the moonlight. Until his brother discovered the theft and, in a fit of anger at the fact of having been disobeyed, he destroyed the manuscript.

It is said that since that episode the young Bach decided to keep in his memory all the scores he read and as many as he listened. By memory he was able to transcribe them, with a single glance at them or after listenning to them once. Stories like this inspired Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451.