Come on, Kevin, I do not want to sanctify Bach.  It would even be an easy
job today, on the verge of the third millennium, but it wouldn't be fair.
I am with you, things were rather different two hundred and fifty years
ago.  Bach himself was not an angel, we must admit it.

That said, I would never be convinced to say a good word for what I still
consider one of the most negative examples where the interactions between
arts and politics are concerned.

Let's face it.  Telemann was a famous composer.  Better yet, he was the
most famous German composer at the time.  Now Leipzigers asked him to
devote himself to the teaching of Latin, to the running of the dormitories
and the like.

In 1723, Bach was not as famous as Telemann, although he was in the top
three (together with Handel).  Toward the end of his life Bach's notoriety
had grown even furter.  F.W.Marpurg in 1751 wrote:  "Just like Greece had
one and only one Homer, and Rome had one and only one Virgilio, Germany had
one and only one Bach.  In both composition and playing he had no rivals in
the whole Europe, and he will never have in the future."

The more I read Mr.  Stieglitz's meditation, 11 days after Bach's death,
the less I can find something positive in it.

Now, let's postpone the "quarrel" for the next fifty years, please.:)

Roberto Strappafelci