For at least the last eighteen centuries, some formula for prayer at the end of the day has been part of the Christian tradition. While no one knows precisely what the earliest form of Vespers looked like or sounded like, certain themes have managed to endure, including confession, gratitude, and light. While Vespers never quite became a significant part of Lutheran piety, that it is still kept at all in the Lutheran tradition may be thanks to one church: the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
Johann Sebastian Bach was 38 years old when he arrived in Leipzig, Germany in 1723 to start his new position as cantor at St. Thomas’s Church. The three years that followed his first
three years in Leipzig were a time of intensive creative expression in which he composed many of his key cantata cycles for the liturgical calendar.
To celebrate the 300th anniversary of Bach’s arrival in Leipzig, the 56th Season of Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity marks the enormous promise of that moment with “Becoming Bach,” a season-long program that curates key works of that highly-influential period in Bach’s musical journey.