Bach and The Tuning of the World

Everyone has heard of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier – but hardly anybody knows anything about his journey to F sharp major.In March of 1700, shortly before his fifteenth birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach set off on his journey. His destination: to create perfect music, music that unites heaven and earth in harmony. His search finally brought him to Lübeck, where he became acquainted with Andreas Werckmeister and the well-tempered tuning. In this tempering – and that is new! – you can play everything, all keys, in major and minor. But perfection has its price: All notes are "tempered" a bit, which means falsified; the music has a touch of artificiality from now on. And not only the notes and pitches – nature and people are also being tempered. Gardens are laid out with geometric precision, rivers are canalized, cities redesigned. Night becomes day thanks to street lighting, the pocket watch makes it possible to take along the time with you, the tuning fork enables choral pitch. The journey into an artificial world has begun. When Bach completed the Well-Tempered Clavier, he was overcome with profound doubt: Is not his work "only of this world" – perfect, artificial, profane?"For us, Bach's life consists primarily of biographical gaps. We know some things; but we don't know much. These gaps offer a novelist his chance. The facts were my fetters but they were also my source of inspiration. I did not invent anything 'freely' in the meaning of arbitrarily, though." Jens Johler"Jens Johler by no means turns the historical facts around.... Instead, he is writing a great of development novel in which private motifs and the course of time intertwine like fugue themes. " Harald Asel, rbb Inforadio

March 17221.Departure2.Wicked Witchcraft3.The Philosopher4.Latin School5.The Lion of Eisenach6.The Three Musics7.Adam Reincken8.'That False Serpent, Opera'9.The Muse10.Circe11.'It's the Affections that Matter'12.'I Will Give my Heart to Thee'13.Lackey14.The Journey to F Sharp Major15.Going South!16.Evening Concerts17.Angela18.Mare Balticum19.Dorothea Catrin20.The New Tempering21.'Strange Tones'22.The Loft23.The Consistory24.The Wedding25Curious Variations26.The Ratswechsel Cantata27.Weimar28.Exult! Rejoice!29.The Hunting Cantata30.Black Birds31.The Contest32.Senesino33.The Manuscript34.The Loyal Subject35.Landrichterstube36.The Lord Chamberlain37.Köthen38.Handel39.The Masterpiece40.The Arrow41.'Why Did You Leave Me?'42.Praise from the Master43.The Well-Tempered Clavier44.Channelled Notes45.The Night46.H-C-A-B47.Father and Son48.The St Matthew PassionFact and Fiction