Bach’s poor wives

J.S.Bach: the other side of that most productive life…

 


He made twenty children,
and when his first wife died
from exhaustion, overstrain and so forth,
he just got another and continued
making children, while she had to work
at home maintaining and supporting,
cooking, serving, washing,
doing everything for his immense expanding family;
and when he died, she had no pension
but was put away into an alms-house,
brutally neglected and ignored
by all her husband’s sons and children.
This domestic tragedy is easily forgotten
for his merry stimulating music,
which remains his better mark in history
than the expressive silence of his patient wives.

 

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gerry

Aurelio, It is in the interest of classical music lovers not to delve too deeply into the composer’s (Private) or in some cases not too (Private lives) I haven’t come across one to date who will pass muster 😉 Will you be doing Delius ? 😉
Gerry.

kipper

Hi Aurelio
An interesting observation on the way things were back then. J. S. Bach was not alone in producing lots of children. Luckily for us that was not the only thing he produced.
May I suggest a small but significant error on line 9 which once accepted did not spoil the narrative.
Regards, Michael