Bach Tried to Leave His Job. His Employer Locked Him Up.

Johann Sebastian Bach had secured a new position. What he could not secure was permission to leave the old one. When he pressed the matter, his employer responded by having him detained. The difficult job change took place in 1717, when Bach was thirty-two.

He had been working at the Weimar court since 1708, playing the organ and serving as a court musician. A promotion to concertmaster in 1714 brought regular responsibility for new church music. From a modern concert hall, it is easy to picture Bach as a great composer whom any institution would be grateful to accommodate. At Weimar, he was also an employee in a ruler's service. Musical achievement did not give him freedom to depart on his own terms.

His next employer was Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. The position of Kapellmeister would put Bach in charge of the court's music. Leopold was an enthusiastic musician who could join the orchestra as a violinist, and the court had a capable ensemble. There was a substantial musical life for Bach to direct once he arrived.

But Bach had signed his new contract before obtaining his release from Weimar. Duke Wilhelm Ernst refused to let him go. Bach continued to insist, and the disagreement became something considerably more serious than a negotiation over his final working day.

A terse entry by the court secretary records what happened next. On November 6, Bach was detained for his obstinate conduct in pressing for dismissal. The charge described in the record was not theft or a failure to provide music. He was being punished for insisting on leaving. In that administrative note, the famous composer appears as a subordinate refusing to accept his ruler's decision.

He remained in custody until December 2. Nearly four weeks passed before he was released, and permission to leave the duke's service finally came with that release. Even then, the court made its displeasure explicit. Bach obtained the result he wanted, but there was no gracious farewell.

He could at last take up his work in Köthen, where he directed instrumental music and later assembled the collection known as the Brandenburg Concertos. He had signed the contract in the summer. By the time he was free to begin, winter had arrived, and he had spent almost a month of the interval under arrest.

Permission to change employers would enter his career again from the other direction. When Leipzig was recruiting in 1723, Christoph Graupner, a candidate chosen ahead of Bach, could not obtain his own ruler's consent to leave. The post eventually went to Bach. A restriction of the kind that had trapped him at Weimar now prevented another musician from accepting the position.

His departure from Köthen was less bitter. After moving to Leipzig, Bach continued supplying music for occasions at Leopold's court. This time, the relationship survived the resignation.