“Nota Bene: In A Music Of Worship, God Is Always Present With His Grace” — Johann Sebastian Bach. “Mass in B Minor”.

Johann Sebastian Bach, aged sixty-one, in a portrait by 

Elias Gottlob Haussmann, second version of his 1746 canvas. Bach is holding a copy of the six-part Canon BWV 1076.

Artist: Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1695–1774).

Date: 1748.

Collection: Bach-Archiv Leipzig.

Source/Photographer: https://www.jsbach.net/

bass/elements/bach-hausmann.jpg

(Wikimedia Commons)

“Mass in B Minor”.

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Monteverdi Choir.

Watch on YouTube

HERE

Philharmonie de Paris, 2015.

Available on YouTube

HERE

English: Signature of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Português: Assinatura de Johann Sebastian Bach.

Русский: Подпись Иоганна Себастьяна Баха.

Date: 4 October 2010.

Source: Own work, traced from https://www.bach.de/leben/pics/signature.gif

Author: Morn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor,

one of the greatest Sacred compositions ever written,

was completed in 1749, just a year before his death.

English: 

Organ of St Paul's Church in Leipzig, 

tested by Bach in 1717.

Deutsch: 

Kupferstich der Scheibe-Orgel in der 

Paulinerkirche Leipzig, Sachsen, Deutschland.

Bach created this masterpiece by revisiting 

and expanding on music he had written earlier in his life. 

Zimmermann's Coffee-House, Leipzig. Engraving 

by Johann George Schreiber (Detail). Important in 

Johann Sebastian Bach’s life as a  meeting-place of 

his Collegium Musicum since 1729.

Date: Circa 1720.

Author: Johann Georg Schreiber (1676–1750).

(Wikimedia Commons)

This is a memorable and honourable performance under 

the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, a conductor renowned 

for his historically-informed interpretations of Bach.

A hand-written note by Bach 

in his copy of the Calov Bible. 

The note next to 2 Chronicles 5:13 reads: 

“NB Bey einer andächtigen Musiq ist allezeit 

Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart”.

“N(ota) B(ene) In a music of Worship, 

God is always present with His Grace”.

Date: Before 1750.

Source: http://bach.csl.edu/media/calov

Author: Martin Luther (1483-1546), Abraham Calov 

(1612-1686), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

(Wikimedia Commons)