Bach Cities and Bach Places: Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt
1 Why Is Köthen One of the Bach Cities?
After Johann Sebastian Bach was finally released in the third of the three Bach cities in which he worked in Thuringia after four weeks - by the way dishonorable – he started his new job in Köthen. He already was band master here, that is music director, before he even arrived. And even more. He had fun with his job there. Because his sovereign, Prince Leopold of Saxony-Anhalt, didn't just only like to listen to Bach's music, but he performed music too. And he didn't do a bad job. However, the musicians which Leopold had hired played excellent. They were musicians of distinction. Way beyond the level, that actually matched such a small and really inconsiderable court. Bach had great freedom. He was even permitted to order and buy musical instruments. The band members were real professional musicians, however, he only missed an organ, that is what he didn't have to make his fortune complete.
Talking fortune, Köthen was the Bach city, which history tells, that Johann Sebastian Bach really liked. Here, he once said, he could picture himself to become old. I mean correspondingly. Trips too were part of Bach's job as a musician and that was, when Prince Leopold made a wellness trip to Carlsbad in the nowadays Czech Republic, and he definitely wanted to listen to his music there too. Maybe even more there. The end of one of those trips brought Bach a next significant, major trauma in his life. We well remember that he lost both mother and father at the age of nine respectively ten years of age. So he was used to bad blows of back than "moderate caliber" meanwhile, such as loosing his parents, siblings and own children as well. But this time when he came back to Köthen and his wife Maria Barbara had died, it was of a never experienced magnitude: in that short time, when he was out of town. And he left her in rude health. Even today, nobody knows, what caused her death.
Bach married again, not after a long time later. But it's certain he married because he fell in love again. However, the whole situation in Köthen had changed, because his royalty married too. This lady, Leopold's wife, didn't have fun with music. Plus, they went out of money and Bach was worried about the education of his sons. All these reasons together finally made him plan his way to Leipzig, the last of all Bach cities. But this decision didn't make things in Bach's life easier.
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2 Music by Bach + Pics From Köthen
No narration, just music and pics: Köthen, a Bach place. Probably the only Bach place, where the Bach Family would have loved to stay forever.
3 The Bach City of Köthen on 6 Pictures
Bach cities, Bach places. Hundreds of great pictures. Just click for more photos. You will find additional pics of Köthen too.
4 Info About the Bach City of Köthen
There are just 27,000 residents living in Köthen, but Köthen is proud of being the "World Capital of Homeopathy". Human beings, that is the first Kötheners so to speak, have lived here already a very long time ago. They found a handaxe. Used 250,000 years ago. Today it is stored in the Köthen Palace. Köthen is mentioned in a record for the first time in 1115. Exciting, aside of the connection to Johann Sebastian Bach, the link to homeopathy. There is the Hahnemann House. Samuel Hahnemann was the originator of homeopathy. Here the European Bibliography for Homeopathy is located. What else is worth to be mentioned? Once a year the "Köthen Bach Days" take place, a concert program. You should visit the palace, City Hall and of course the Town Church St. Jacob. And if you need more information about this exciting Bach city – than you know what to do: Here is the link to Wikipedia.
5 A Tiny Video: The Bach City of Köthen
Film, pics, music and narration: Köthen presented in a likable tiny video. Köthen is clearly a category A Bach city, one of the five cities in which Johann Sebastian Bach worked during his life.
6 Where Is this Bach City Located?
33 maps, 33 Bach cities or places. Köthen is a category A Bach city.
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