True Stories #432 - The Tempermental Musician

John's talent got him a job. His temper got him jailed.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Seth Andrews, and what you're about to hear is
a true story. John was a talented guy. He was
a terrific organist. He also had a reputation as a
hot head. He made a little money playing music, and

(00:22):
he made no money writing music. He spent some time
working as a teacher, and he got a job as
a church organist. August of seventeen oh three, John was
hired as a court musician in the chapel of Duke
Johann Ernst in Weimar, and he got noticed as a
guy with talent. He composed music for a premiere ensemble,

(00:46):
the Weimar Court Orchestra. But John was still a low
man on the totem pole. He was a subordinate to,
He was accountable to and under the shadow of a
tenured music director in the at chapel, someone who had
long held the job, a guy named Samuel Dreasey. Well,
that was the job that John wanted and felt he deserved,

(01:09):
and so he waited in the wings until low and behold.
In December of seventeen sixteen, Samuel Dreasey died and the
top chair was open. It was John's for the taking,
but it was not to be, because Samuel Dreasey's son,
will Helm was appointed the music director instead of John.

(01:32):
Willhelm not as talented, not as qualified, he was a
nepotism higher John thought, and oh, John felt resentment for
being passed over, and he was really angry at being
the minion of a guy he saw as inferior. Well,
given this unfortunate event, John decided he was going to
float his resume and get another job, and he was

(01:55):
offered a position twenty five miles away. The problem was
this John's employer was Prince Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, and
the Prince would not accept John's resignation. He was a
subordinate that the pleasure and command of the Prince, a
royal master who would not let him quit and move on.

(02:16):
It would only be will Helm Ernst who would decide
if and when John could stay or if he could go.
And you can imagine how John, the ambitious and impatient hothead,
received that news. For three full months, John tried to resign.
He petitioned over and over, please release me, let me go,

(02:37):
let me quit and move on, and time and again
he was refused, until in early November of seventeen seventy three,
John finally lost his temper. Now we don't exactly know
what happened here. We don't know who started or escalated.
There was, no doubt, a big argument. It's assumed that

(02:58):
the argument asked related it into a fist fight. It's
also certain that whether or not John won the fight,
he lost his freedom over it, punished with prison. On
November sixth, seventeen seventy three, John got tossed into jail.
The goal was to put him in his place, send

(03:19):
him a message. You know, if you're going to be
arrogant and insubordinate, there will be consequences. The court believed
that John would repent after a few days. Yeah, let
him sit and think about it for a little while.
He'll change his tune. But two days became four days,
became seven days, became a month, until finally the Prince

(03:42):
was the one who blinked. He released John from jail
and then immediately fired him, which is pretty much what
John wanted all along. Now, John's music had always been
much like his personality, strong, ambitious, and many said two
comp located the organ. Music that he played inside church

(04:04):
halls was often said to be too daring, so unpredictable
that the Lutheran Church complained people didn't even know where
to sing with all those musical notes flying in every direction.
But John never apologized. He never changed his style, and
he never changed who he was as a person, and

(04:24):
the world would come to be thankful that he never
did that. He never settled for the simple. He would
not be suppressed or remain subordinate, and he would go
on to imprint his complex concertos onto the ages as
John or Johann Sebastian Bach. And that's a true story.

(04:58):
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