Steve Schwartz wrote:

>Bernard Chasan:
>
>>... according to some remarks of Robert Levin at concert he played, Bach
>>was considered not really qualified for the St. Thomas job because he did
>>not have a university degree!!  He was hired only after the first two
>>candidates, each with a degree,turned the job down,
>
>Did he happen to mention what the degrees were in? I don't believe one
>studied music at a university at that time.  It might have been that Bach
>didn't have a theology degree.

J.S. Bach was the hiring committee's third choice and its minutes contain
the unfortunate reference to having to settle for mediocrity, but musical
gifts may not have been what prompted these decisions or the comments in
the minutes.

Checking my New Grove to refresh my recollection from another source no
longer remembered, I discover that six men, not three had applied for the
post of Kantor, including Telemann.  One of the Kantor's duties was to
teach Latin, which Telemann refused to do, upon which he was offered the
job anyway, whereupon Telemann's current employers in Hamburg refused to
release him and increased his salary.  Since the Leipzig people had really
wanted someone who would teach Latin, they were less than devastated at not
getting Telemann.  Of the remaining five candidates, three were invited to
give trial performances; two dropped out, one because he would not teach
Latin.  (It's not clear from the Grove text whether these two were from
the three or not from the three.) Grove goes on to explain that Bach and
Graupner were the two Kapellmeisters applying for the post; the others
being Kauffmann, Schott, and Rolle.  Of these five, Graupner was preferred,
but he withdrew after having been offered more pay elsewhere.  The choice
was now among Bach, Kauffmann, and Schott.  Like Telemann, none of them
wished to teach Latin.  It was in this context that Councillor Platz said
that as the best men could not be got, they must make do with the mediocre.
Upon being approached by the Council, Bach declared that he would be
willing to pay a deputy to teach Latin, and was eventually given the job.
The change from Kapellmeister to Kantor was a step down socially.  Musical
talent in a Kantor was not deemed much more important than a willingness
to teach Latin and to the Lepzig council Bach was a "third-rater, a
mediocrity, who would not do what they expected a Kantor to do--teach
Latin, as well as organize the city church music." Bach didn't think too
highly of the council either.  While in theory, a Kantor may have been
outranked socially by a Kapellmeister, the fact that not only Bach, but one
other Kapellmeister had applied for the job suggests, that, at least at the
Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the position of Kantor was so associated with a
wealth of tradition and recognized as one of the most notable positions in
German musical life in the esteem it commanded, as to compensate for
otherwise falling short of Kapellmeister status.

Walter Meyer