"MUSIC: "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach" "The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, is one of the most iconic and dramatic pieces of music ever written." "Today, Bach is considered by many to be one of the greatest composers in history." "Yet in reality, he spent most of his life working diligently for the church, unknown to anyone outside a small part of Germany." "Bach was, in many ways, a one-man music factory." "He must often have felt undervalued, because for many years, he produced for the church work of the very highest quality, week after week, after week." "Bach spent most of his career writing sacred music for the Lutheran Church, established just 150 years earlier by another composer, Martin Luther, the monk who started the Protestant Reformation." "This is the story of how Martin Luther, and the 150 years of German music that followed him, would shape Bach's world and inspire him to create some of the most beautiful music ever written." "In the past, when people thought about Bach's choral music, they usually imagined pieces written for massed choirs and dozens of players." "In reality, Bach was severely restricted in the resources he had to play with." "He even drafted in friends to perform for free." "No 80-strong orchestras and 100-plus choirs for him!" "At the very most, he had a handful of players and instrumentalists to work with." "This is St George's Lutheran Church in London." "It opened in 1763, just 13 years after Bach's death." "Bach has become such a hugely important figure in our musical landscape." "His work has been performed and adapted in such a variety of ways that it's good to remind ourselves what his music sounded like to him." "And it's in that style, with just eight singers and a handful of period instruments, that Harry Christophers and The Sixteen play his music today." "During his lifetime, Bach wrote over 1,000 pieces of music." "And nearly two thirds of these were produced for the Lutheran Church." "And this is where Bach worked during the latter part of his life - the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in East Germany." "150 years earlier, another composer came to this same church." "His ideas would not only have a radical impact on sacred music, but would ultimately also change the course of Western civilisation." "Martin Luther, the Catholic monk who kickstarted the Protestant Reformation, redefined the role of congregational singing, even the part played by organ music, within Christian worship." "Allowing the congregation to sing hymns in their own language was also a hugely significant tradition established by him." "This is Eisenach, in Thuringia, East Germany." "In 1685, Bach was born here, and today, Eisenach attracts scores of Bach enthusiasts from all over the world." "This is the Bachhaus, the world's first museum dedicated to the composer." "It was opened in 1907." "The apricot-coloured house behind me is close to where Bach was born and brought up, which was...somewhere around here." "Probably...behind the beer garden, we really don't know!" "But Eisenach is famous for something else, as well." "For nearly 1,000 years, the town has been dominated by the impressive Wartburg Castle." "It was here that Martin Luther decided to do something that would change the Christian faith forever." "# Gloria in excelsis Deo" "# Et in terra... #" "At the start of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was the most powerful force in Western Europe." "At this time, the German nation as such did not exist." "It was a series of independent principalities and feudal states." "However, the real power lay in Rome, from where the Pope not only ruled on religious matters, but wielded huge influence over almost every aspect of political and cultural life." "In the beginning, it was never Luther's intention to upset this balance of power." "Luther was a Catholic monk who set out merely to reform the Church." "He ended up, however, challenging the authority of the Pope himself." "In fact, he ended up challenging pretty much everything that the Catholic Church stood for." "Not surprisingly, Luther was excommunicated." "When he came here to Wartburg in 1521, he was in hiding." "And it was in this room that he began the huge task of translating the New Testament into German." "This was the first step to creating a standard version of the German language." "Up until then, with the odd exception, all bibles were written in either Greek or Latin, which made them beyond the reach of ordinary people." "And although Luther wasn't the first to translate the Bible, his version was to be the most significant." "Whilst he was working, Luther became convinced that the Devil was in the room with him, and apparently he threw an inkwell at him." "His translation was revolutionary, not just because now anyone who spoke German could read the Bible, but because it represented a huge step towards the establishment of a single German identity." "AT the heart of Luther's thought was his belief that, in the eyes of God, at least, members of the congregation and members of the clergy were no different." "So, whereas in the Catholic Church, for the most part, the clergy sang and the congregation listened," "Luther's ideas about the role of music in church were very different." "# Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" "# Ein' gute Wehr und Waffen" "# Er hilft uns frei aus aller Not" "# Die uns jetzt hat betroffen... #" "According to Luther's doctrine, everyone had equal access to God, therefore, everyone should be able to worship through song." "So Luther introduced the concept of congregational singing." "Ein' Feste Burg, "A Mighty Fortress", written by Luther himself, is his most famous hymn." "Its name adorns the tower of one of the most important of all Lutheran churches, here in Wittenberg, a small town, some 250km from Eisenach." "# Es streit't fur uns der rechte Mann" "# Den Gott hat selbst erkoren... #" "Just across the square, in 1523, Luther held his first service and possibly encouraged his congregation to sing A Mighty Fortress for the first time." "# A mighty fortress is our God... #" "Today, Wittenberg is seen by many as the spiritual home of the Lutheran Church, drawing pilgrims from all over the world." "Pastors Bob and Arnie have come here to minister to the thousands of American Lutherans who visit Wittenberg every year." "But on the day I came, they seemed to be pretty much the only ones here." "So, is it a pilgrimage of a type?" "In a sense." "The significance of this place, in terms of the total Reformation and the history of the Church, it does become like a pilgrimage centre." "We met a woman fom Australia, and she said," ""You're the second Lutheran pastor I've met!" "This must be like Mecca to you folks!"" "And in a way, it's important that way to us." "I'm from Littleton, Colorado, if you remember the Columbine shootings...?" "Oh, yes." "I was involved in the follow-up work of that, and four of five days after that happened, we gathered in my church and stood around the baptismal font, and we sang A Mighty Fortress Is Our God." "And it was one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had, because it spoke to, you know, the whole situation where God is our fortress and strength, even in the midst of something as tragic as Columbine High School." "That's probably what Luther cottoned onto, wasn't it?" "That there's an emotional...grounding, when you sing a hymn in a large group." "Johann Sebastian Bach is called "The Fifth Evangelist."" "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the four, and the idea is that the music touches the soul in the way spoken word does not." "After the Word of God, it was music!" "It was music." "And Bach is the fifth evangelist!" "THEY LAUGH" "Luther's ideas about the role of music in church had a huge influence on Bach." "And one of Bach's most famous religious works is his interpretation of a Lutheran chorale." "# Jesus bleibet meine Freude" "# Meines Herzens Trost und Saft... #" "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is not only a beautiful expression of Bach's faith, but for Harry Christophers, it also is one of the finest examples of Bach's musical genius." "# Jesus wehret allem Leide... #" "For me, one of the biggest aspects of Bach's music is just how modern he sounds." "He stretches these boundaries of form, of writing, of the way he stretches the voice, he stretches the instrument he's writing for." "He uses every different form, be it dance, be it old polyphony, be it the chorale melodies, it's the way he utilises every musical form, turns it into his own, and makes it absolutely unique." "# Meiner Augen Lust und Sonne... #" "From birth, the Lutheran church and its music played a central role in Bach's life." "# Meiner Seele Schatz und Wonne... #" "In the shadow of Wartburg Castle stands St George's Church." "This is where Bach's uncle, Johann Christoph, served as an organist, and where Bach himself was christened." "It was originally built as a Catholic church, and here, as a small Catholic boy, Luther sang in the choir." "And above the door is carved the name of Luther's famous hymn." "Bach would have known it well - as a boy, he also sang in the choir here." "Bach was born into a very musical family." "Over 100 of his ancestors and relatives were professional musicians or composers." "Bach's father was the town piper, but it was his uncle, Johann Christoph, himself a famous organist, who taught Bach to play the organ." "150 years before Bach, Luther came back here to preach, and it's amazing to think this might have been the place where Bach, as a very young boy, first fell in love with the organ," "with his uncle playing." "Thanks to his family and their extensive collection of scores, as a child, Bach was exposed to a huge range of musical ideas." "As well as great composers of the day, like Pachelbel and Frohburger," "Bach would have heard court, religious, folk and dance music from across Europe." "He would later draw upon all these influences and incorporate them into his own music." "When he was 14, Bach won a choral scholarship to the prestigious St Michael's School in Luneberg, just outside Hamburg." "For two years, not only would he have sung in one of the best choirs in Germany, but he also would have heard some of the finest instruments of the time." "Shortly after graduating from St Michael's, Bach began work on his Cantata Number Four." "Based on the Lutheran hymn Christ Lag In Todesbanden, "Christ Lay in Death's Bonds,"" "it shows how quickly Bach had mastered writing for both voice and instruments." "He was just 22 years old when he wrote it." "In his own lifetime, Bach didn't always get to work with the finest musicians." "He would frequently struggle to get enough money to perform many of his religious pieces as he envisaged them." "The Catholic Church, however, had a very different attitude to money." "At the start of the 16th century," "Rome was filled with some of the grandest and most expensive churches and basilicas in the world." "And in approximately 1516, Pope Leo X decided to build one that would outshine them all - this " "St Peter's Basilica in the heart of the Vatican." "But he didn't want to use the Church's money to pay for it." "So the Pope despatched a Dominican friar, John Tetzel, to Germany, where he was to sell indulgences in order to raise the money." "An indulgence was granted when a sinner confessed his or her sins and received absolution." "The idea was that by granting an indulgence, the Church extended a merit from its treasure house of merits, that is, good deeds accumulated by the Saints, and these merits, or credits, could be bought and sold." "It was a little like buying an insurance policy for the afterlife, but one, Pope Leo X knew, the Church would never have to pay money out on." "And when John Tetzel said, "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings," ""the soul from Purgatory springs," Martin Luther reacted with fury." "As far as he was concerned, only God could grant forgiveness, and it certainly could not be bought and sold, even if the Pope did want to build the biggest church in Christendom." "Luther wrote," ""Why does not the Pope, whose wealth today" ""is greater than the richest Crassus," ""build the basilica of St Peter with his own money," ""rather than with the money of poor believers?"" "In fact, Luther wrote down a few other things that infuriated him about the Catholic Church, and he sent his list of grievances to the Pope's senior representative in Germany," "Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg." "But Luther didn't just write to the Archbishop, he nailed a full list of his complaints to the door of this church." "This is the 16th-century equivalent of putting it on the internet." "Luther's 95 Theses, as they became known, would, thanks to the newly invented printing press, spread throughout Europe." "But they appeared here first, nailed to this church door." "This is where, in effect, the Protestant Reformation began." "Luther's actions would have a big impact on European history." "Yet, in many ways, the start of the Protestant Reformation heralded a gradual change, rather than a sudden split with the Roman Catholic Church." "And this was particularly true of sacred music." "When, two centuries later, Bach wrote his Christmas Oratorio for the Catholic Prince Friedrich, the Elector of Saxony, he was still drawing heavily upon a musical tradition which had been established by the Roman Catholic Church." "# Wie soll ich dich empfangen" "# Und wie begegn' ich dir" "# O aller Welt Verlangen" "# O meiner Seele Zier?" "# O Jesu, Jesu, setze" "# Mir selbst die Fackel bei" "# Damit, was dich ergotze" "# Mir kund und wissend sei. #" "Luther himself loved a lot of Catholic music, and in 1517, when he sent his 95 Theses to the Pope, it was never his intention to divide the Catholic Church or break with its musical traditions." "As Luther sat back and waited for the Pope to respond, he had no idea his list of grievances would result in a death sentence." "Meanwhile, 600 miles away in Bavaria, the composer Ludwig Senfl was bemoaning the loss of his toe in a freak hunting accident." "GUNSHOT AND SCREAM OF PAIN" "Senfl didn't know it then, but Martin Luther was to have a big impact on his life, and his music." "Born in Switzerland in around 1486," "Senfl spent virtually all his working life in Germany." "It seems he was an eclectic composer, and a man that enjoyed the finer things in life." "As well as producing a wide variety of religious works, he wrote hundreds of songs about eating and drinking." "Like many composers of his day," "Senfl relied on the aristocracy for employment." "And in 1517, he landed a job as court composer to Maximilian I," "Holy Roman Emperor in Augsburg." "In his mid 20s, he travelled to Italy, where the French and Dutch polyphonic styles were taking the late-15th-century music scene by storm, and he brought those ideas back with him to Germany." "Apart from the loss of his toe, things were going well for him." "That is, until 1519, when the Emperor died, and Senfl had no choice but to hobble off in search of work." "In Rome, Luther's adversary," "Pope Leo X, was trying to work out how to deal with the 95 Theses." "He hoped the whole nasty business would die down of its own accord, describing Luther as a drunken German who, when sober, would change his mind." "But he was wrong." "Luther stood resolutely by his writings." "So on the 15th of June 1520," "Pope Leo threatened Luther with excommunication from the Catholic Church, unless he started behaving himself." "When Luther received the Pope's edict, he very publicly and ostentatiously burned it." "The following spring, Luther was summoned to a meeting with the big guns of the Catholic Church to determine his fate." "On the 17th of April 1521," "Luther came before the General Assembly of the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, or what became known as the Diet of Worms." "At the back of the room sat the nine-toed composer, Senfl." "He listened as the Archbishop of Trier presented Luther with his writings, asking if he were the author, and if he stood by their contents." "Yes, replied Luther, they were his writings." ""Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures, or by clear reason," ""I neither can nor will make any retraction," ""since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience."" "For five days, Senfl listened to Luther's defence." "And when the Emperor presented the final edict of Worms," "Senfl, like many people present, must have been dismayed at the result." "The edict declared Luther an outlaw, banned all his writings, and demanded his arrest." ""We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic,"" "said the assembly." "They made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food and shelter." "And finally, they allowed anyone to kill him, without legal consequence." "The trial must have made a huge impact on Senfl, and although he remained in the Catholic Church, a few years later, he and Luther entered correspondence." "Senfl wrote a couple of motets for Luther, of which Luther later said," ""I could never write such a motet, even if I tore myself to pieces."" "MUSIC: "Ecce Quam Bonum" by Ludwig Senfl" "In the Catholic Church, motets are developed as short choral works that could be used as a part of any service, and Luther was particularly fond of them." "200 years later, Bach wrote his Lutheran motet, Singet Dem Herrn, and by deconstructing it," "We can see how Bach took this musical form to a whole new level." "Harry, this is one of Bach's motets." "He wrote about..." "Six." "Half a dozen." "When would this be performed?" "This particular one was performed for New Year." "Right." "In 1727." "Right." "It's quite possible that Bach wrote it to actually train his students, his singers, in the arts of vocal techniques, and indeed, of musical form." "So we'd hope that he displays almost every single technique!" "He does." "It's an incredible work, full of surprises." "I'll just do the opening, in choir two." "Singet Dem Herrn." "It's in two choirs, so we have four singers singing one bit, and four..." "Soprano, alto, tenor, bass in each choir." "Choir two, he starts with just "singet", two syllables." "# Singet, singet... #" "Just very simple, isn't it?" "But over that, the first choir, the soprano, alto and tenor do an embellishment of it, a very embellished phrase, with the bass on the drone, the long, held note." "# Singet, singet... #" "So it's incredibly active, isn't it?" "This choir gives them ballast..." "This choir give the rhythm, and off they bounce!" "Let's put it together." "# Singet, singet... #" "Very simple technique - in the hands of a master, it's brilliant." "And there's more he shows off in this piece, isn't there?" "He certainly has." "He's done the double choir, and now he springs the final surprise on us - he brings in one of his famous fugues." "So he's now displayed all these techniques for his pupils, so he says, "Copy me."" "MUSIC: "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" by Johann Sebastian Bach" "For all of his religious work," "Bach would meticulously refer to Luther's translation of the Bible." "In fact, he owned not one, but two complete editions." "When Luther's Bible was published, it became an instant bestseller, making Luther a celebrity." "Published in 1522, Luther's translation of the New Testament sold an astonishing 5,000 copies in just two months." "Presumably flushed with success, he returned home, here, to Wittenberg." "Whilst he was here, he heard that a dozen nuns at a nearby convent had become disillusioned with the Catholic faith, and so he arranged for them to escape." "After a delivery of pickled fish, the nuns were smuggled out of the convent, hidden in empty herring barrels, and brought to Wittenberg." "Then, rather unexpectedly, Luther fell in love with one of them." ""Suddenly, and while I was occupied with far other thoughts,"" "he wrote to a friend," ""The Lord has plunged me into marriage."" "Katharina was 26 years old, and Luther was 42." "A century-and-a-half later, marriage was also on Bach's mind, or more precisely, he was thinking about how to avoid it." "After graduating from St Michael's School, he spent a short spell as a court musician in Weimar, and then as his reputation as a keyboard player grew, he landed a better-paid job here in Arnstadt as organist of St Boniface's Church." "This is the organ he would have played every Sunday, although not for long - he soon fell out with his employers about the quality of the singers in the choir, and so, in about 1705, he walked out." "And the young Bach walked..." "and he walked... and he walked... and he kept on walking, halfway across Germany." "Bach walked some 250 miles until, just outside Hamburg, he reached the small town of Lubeck, famous for its seven spires." "Lubeck was famous for a couple of other things as well." "Firstly, during a siege, when the town had nothing to eat but almonds and sugar, a local baker here invented marzipan." "Secondly, Lubeck was home to the most influential organist of his day," "Dietrich Buxtehude." "And this is where Buxtehude worked for most of his life, at the Marienkirche, one of the biggest churches in all of Germany." "Bach had come halfway across Germany to hear Buxtehude play this..." "ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS" "As the church organist here, it wasn't just Buxtehude's job to play, he also had to write a lot of the music." "The use of organ music within services had been one of Luther's many innovations." "I'm struck by just how much music there is." "There's a lot of music, including quite a lot of organ music." "It must have something to do with the idea that Luther himself loved music." "And so, the organ became very famous, and in the Lutheran tradition, the organ music became a very strong force." "There's an interlude, there's something to make people think about the words they've heard, and let them get mixed with another form of piety, or belief." "One of Buxtehude's innovations was establishing evening concerts here " ""Abendmusik"." "And people would come from far and wide to this church, just for the music." "Buxtehude must have been impressed by the 20-year-old Bach, because he offered him his job as organist, here at the Marienkirche." "It came with a condition, however " "Bach would have to marry Buxtehude's daughter." "He declined." "Interestingly enough, Buxtehude offered the same deal to another famous German composer, Handel, and he too turned down the position." "But Bach, and indeed Handel, hadn't come here for marriage, or, indeed, for a job." "They'd come to here Buxtehude's music." "300 years ago, Buxtehude must have made a huge impact on young Bach." "At around this time, the famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was written." "Since then, it's attributed to Bach, but as the style is quite different from his other work, some question whether he actually wrote it." "MUSIC: "Toccata And Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach" "In 400 years, Buxtehude has only had nine successors, and the man to hold the post currently is Professor Ernst-Erich Stender." "Professor, that was amazing to hear that, and on Buxtehude's organ." "And this is your wife, Hildegard." "The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor..." "some people don't think is by Bach." "So I just wondered what you felt was right..." "Is it by Bach or not?" "He thinks it is..." "Defnitely Bach." "Why did anybody ever propose that it wasn't by Bach?" "Buxtehude - do you feel him around the church, do you have a sense of history?" "He did one thing that we know of, which is that he said to Bach," ""I'll give you the job if you marry my daughter."" "Do we know anything about the daughter?" "Yes, she was not very nice!" "Old. 10 years older than Bach." "10 years older?" "'I couldn't resist when Professor Stender gave me the opportunity 'to play Buxtehude's organ.'" "Is it a G sharp?" "Yes, it is a G sharp, yeah." "Buxtehude's organ - what can you say, really?" "Professor Stender has been the organist at the Marienkirche for 34 years, but organ tuner, Herr Schumann, has worked here twice as long." "Herr Schumann, how many pipes in this organ?" "SPEAKS IN GERMAN" "8,220 pipes." "How long have you been doing this job, Herr Schumann?" "SPEAKS IN GERMAN 60 years!" "'He remembers tuning Buxtehude's original organ." "'Sadly, it was badly damaged during the war, 'and the current organ was installed in the 1960s." "'With pipes ranging from 10mm to a staggering 30m long, 'the organ is the size of two four-bedroomed houses." "'And it's all suspended 25m above the church floor.'" "So you go by ladder?" "From here up to there." "Bit dangerous!" "'It's impressive now, but 400 years ago, 'when Bach and Buxtehude were here, church organs like this 'were the biggest and the most complex machines of their time.'" "It's amazing." "It's like a landscape, isn't it?" "And look at the view!" "After studying for four months with Buxtehude," "Bach, still a bachelor, returned to his old post in Weimar." "He didn't stay for long, he moved from job to job, but he did find a wife." "And soon after, he fathered the first of his 20 children." "Over the next 15 years, Bach wrote comparatively few religious works." "His employer, Prince Leopold, was a Calvinist, who apparently preferred simpler church music to that of Bach's." "However, between 1708 and 1714, he began writing the Little Organ Book for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann." "It uses 45 traditional Lutheran chorales, or hymn tunes, to create a sort of organist's handbook." "The Orgelbuchlein, the Little Organ Book, was originally meant to be a set of 165 chorale preludes - small compositions based on the chorale melodies, which spanned the entire Christian year." "This wonderful book illustrates two major themes in Bach's life - firstly, his love of teaching, and secondly, his love of the chorale as a musical form." "He dedicated the book, "To the honour of the most high God alone,"" "and then he wrote, "To the next one, that he may learn out of it."" "It may be surprising to us now, but in his own lifetime, many of Bach's contemporaries thought his music to be old fashioned and out of date." "However, even with a simple teaching aid like the Little Organ Book," "Bach was able to take complex musical ideas and express them so simply that a child could understand them." "It's said that Bach invented nothing, so why is he considered a musical genius?" "Well, he was, unlike me, a virtuoso player, but perhaps his greatest achievement is bringing together so many ideas developed by his predecessors." "He may not have introduced any new forms, but it's Bach's masterful control of harmony that sets him head and shoulders above the rest." "When he puts two or three voices together, they not only harmonise well, but each individual line is a thing of beauty and elegance." "Put together, they touch the Divine." "And that, maybe, is Bach's genius." "# Ich will hier bei dir stehen" "# Verachte mich doch nicht" "# Von dir will ich nicht gehen" "# Wenn dir dein Herze bricht... #" "The St Matthew Passion is one of the finest examples of Bach's genius." "Not only is the sound distinctly his," "But Bach also consolidates a century and a half of musical ideas developed by his now often overlooked predecessors." "# Alsdenn will ich dich fassen" "# In meinen Arm und Schoss. #" "Bach has become such a towering figure in Western music that it's sometimes easy to forget, or to dismiss those German composers who came just before him." "Johann Schein was one of a trio of composers" "I learnt about at school - they came as a package." "The second was his lifelong friend, known as the father of German music," "Heinrich Schutz." "And the third was a man who gloried in the name, unfortunately for English speakers, of Samuel Scheidt!" "Schein was the music director here, at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig." "Schein, along with his friend Schutz, were among the first German composers to use the Venetian polychoral style in Lutheran church music." "The idea of using two choirs had originally been inspired by the way sound echoed around vast Italian basilicas." "And Schein was able to reproduce this technique with great effect in Germany." "While his friend Schutz made several trips to Italy," "Schein apparently spent his entire life in Germany, making his grasp of the Italianate style more extraordinary." "Schein and Schutz would have a big influence on the German school, and on composers like Buxtehude, but the man who brought all these ideas so spectacularly together was JS Bach." "MUSIC: "Jesu, der du meine Seele" by Johann Sebastian Bach" "This is the world famous boys' choir of the Thomanerschule in Leipzig," "They're rehearsing one of Bach's many Lutheran chorales, from his Cantata Number 78." "In 1723, Bach took the same job at the Thomanerschule that Schein had held almost a century before." "This required him not only to instruct the students of the school in singing, but also to provide weekly music for the two main churches in Leipzig, the Thomaskirche here, and the Nicholaskirche, as well as two smaller churches." "Today, the Thomanerschule choir is in many ways still run as it was in Bach's time." "I'm sitting here at the Thomanerschule, which is the school attached to the Thomaskirche, which is where Bach trained up his singers, some of whose descendants are presumably...there, behind me." "Teaching was one of Bach's great passions in life." "But in addition, he also had to produce a vast amount of new music every week." "CHOIR REHEARSING" "In an astonishing burst of creativity," "Bach wrote five annual cantata cycles in his first six years in Leipzig." "Many of the pieces Bach wrote for the church would serve a dual purpose, and he frequently used them to train his choir in different vocal techniques." "Today, the choir is 80-strong, but 400 years ago, it was much smaller, and Bach would rarely get to perform many of his big religious works as he conceived them." "and this would frequently bring Bach into conflict with his employer, the Church Council." "The Council provided only eight permanent instrumentalists, which was which was always a source of frustration for Bach, who had to recruit the rest of the 20 or so players wherever he could find them." "Money was always tight, and Bach would persuade his choir to perform at additional church services." "It's hard to imagine now, but in those days, you could book Bach for your wedding!" "# Und singen halleluja" "# Halleluja... #" "During his time in Leipzig," "Bach revisited many of his earlier pieces, transforming works he wrote in his youth, such as Christ Lag in Todes Banden, with the addition of new instrumental sections." "It was probably the only way Bach, ever the pragmatist, could deliver new music for four churches on an almost weekely basis." "And astonishingly, Bach kept up this phenomenal output for 27 years, until ill health finally ground this one-man music factory to a halt." "# Halleluja, halleluja. #" "In 1750, Bach's health deteriorated." "He suffered serious problems with his eyesight, and despite being operated on by an eminent British surgeon, he died shortly afterwards." "He was 65." "In stark contrast to the esteem in which we hold Bach today, he was buried here, in an unmarked grave." "Although he was a faithful servant of the Church for most of his life," "Bach wasn't considered important enough to be given a headstone." "In 1894, after digging up 47 graves to find his remains," "Bach was formally re-buried." "Then, after the war, he was finally laid to rest here in the Thomaskirche, in front of the altar of the church he devoted his life to." "My journey through the early history of sacred music began in medieval Paris, and has taken me across Europe and through centuries of musical development." "I've been to some of the most awe-inspiring places of worship in the world, and I've met many fascinating people who have kept this glorious music alive." "But above all I've sensed in this music, which transcends man's earthly worries, that there's remained an unbroken line of composers who, like Bach, made writing for the Church their primary ambition." "But Bach was both a beginning and an end." "At the time of his death in 1750," "Europe was in the middle of another revolution - a revolution even more far-reaching than Luther's." "New ideas in commerce, politics and industry would change the entire world." "And music, too." "But in this new world, Bach's music endured." "When NASA sent Voyager 1 into outer space, they chose his music to represent human beings to whoever or whatever they might find." "And when you listen to Bach, to this profoundly spiritual music, there's always a feeling that someone else, too, is listening." "Subtitles by Andy Bonar Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk" "Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0"