03/21/2026
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEBASTIAN!
The Berkshire Bach Society wishes JSB a very happy 341st birthday
If in dim ages past the sound of Orpheus’ lute
Just as it did touch men, touch’d ev’ry creature mute,
Then, O Great Bach, must thy success be even higher,
Since thine art none but thinking men can ever fire.
And surely this doth fit experience full well:
For mortals oft like animals are seen to dwell,
When their too empty souls fail thy deserts to see,
And they no more than beasts in pow’r of judgment be.
Scarce sendest thou thy tones to my attentive ear,
It seems the choir of all the Muses that I hear;
An organ chord by thee must even put to shame
The serpent’s tongue of envy and of sland’rous blame.
Apollo long ago gave thee the laurel crown,
And of thy name in marble etched the great renown,
But thou alone, through thy strings’ living harmony
Preparest, perfect Bach, thine immortality
― Ludwig Friedrich Hudemann (1732)
