“Died Gently and Blessed in God”-Johann Sebastian Bach's End
Perhaps in memory of the countless setbacks in the process of choosing of a successor to the Thomaskantor Johann Kuhnau, who died in 1722, and the almost one-year interregnum that followed, the Leipzig City Council made hasty arrangements in June 1749 in preparation of Johann Sebastian Bach suddenly dying. It is questionable whether there was any acute need for action at this point in time. The ignoble nominating of Gottlob Harrer as successor may have encouraged the incumbent Thomaskantor to carry on rather than let himself be demotivated. Bach once again developed a variety of musical activities: The score of the mass in B minor was completed and several of his works were performed. Among these works, there could also have been a Pasticcio-Passion arranged from compositions by Carl Heinrich Graun, Georg Philipp Telemann and Bach's own movements, performed on Good Friday 1750. At the earliest on Holy Saturday or Easter Monday 1750, Bach underwent that fateful eye operation by the London ophthalmologist John Taylor “partly on the advice of some of his friends”, of which he died four months later. According to a statement by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, his father still had lively “soul and physical strength” until that momentous operation. Only his eyesight was severely impaired. A second operation took place between April 4th and 8th, 1750. Due to the surgical procedure, Bach's “otherwise extremely healthy body ... was completely thrown into disarray, by added harmful drugs and other things”. The result was a feverish infection, of which he ultimately died. By Pentecost 1750 at the latest, Bach was unable to fulfill his obligations, so that Prefect Johann Adam Franck replaced him in his office until his death on July 28th and probably directed the church music in Leipzig's main churches until the end of September 1750.