Klaus Mertens - Bob van Asperen

At home with Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Twenty children, of whom most had musical talent: in their midst a father driven by limitless ambition, spilling over with creative energy, working in candle light - completing his three-hundredth cantata within six years. The sheer volume of the oeuvre of the Thomascantor from Leipzig would suggest that he had little time for family life. Some smaller works, especially the 'Clavier Büchlein', however indicate the opposite. Little Gottfried Heinrich Bach seems to have written the charming aria 'So oft ich meine Tobacks Pfeife mit gutem Knaster angefüllt' into his mother's 'Büchlein'- a piece without lyrics in two parts, obviously written by a child's hand. His parents do seem to have given some help: Anna Magdalena copied the melody on to a following page, and added text, while father Bach improved upon the baseline and touched up the couplet's connection. Family friends, such as Georg Böhm (1661-1733), also contributed to the musical albums, which give an outstanding insight into the Bach family's private life.