Bach FAQ 37
Was Johann Sebastian Bach Once Self-Employed?..
No, Johann Sebastian Bach was not self-employed. The concept as we know it today did not exist back then. And it would have been hardly imaginable to support a family—especially one as large as Johann Sebastian Bach’s—without a steady job..
One of Bach’s four famous sons worked for a time as a sort of freelance musician. In Johann Sebastian Bach’s day and before, being a musician was more of a craft than an art. It was a way to earn a living. Just as a miller baked bread and a tailor sewed clothes..
Bach was never self-employed, if only because everyone knew—except for a relatively brief period between his time in Lüneburg and the start of his first, very short period at the court in Weimar—what he was doing. And who he was employed by. On the contrary: Working for oneself today means having a certain degree of freedom. It means working for the person you really want to work for. If you can afford it. And that is something most self-employed people cannot do even today. Because they, too, have to earn money. During his nine years in Weimar, for example, Bach was more the opposite of self-employed. He even belonged to the Duke. Like everyone else in the Duchy of Ernst von Weimar. He was not even allowed to change his job or his place of residence without first obtaining permission from the ruler..
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