Who knew Bach enjoyed a pipe?

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ethicsminer

Might Stick Around
Jul 4, 2018
85
794
Ohio
Turns out Bach may have enjoyed a pipe.
"Whene'er I take my pipe and stuff it

And smoke to pass the time away

My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,

Dwell on a picture sad and grey:

It teaches me that very like

Am I myself unto my pipe.

Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,

Is made of naught but earthen clay;

To earth I too shall be returning,

And cannot halt my slow decay.

My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,

Of mortal life is but a token.
No stain, the pipe's hue yet doth darken;

It remains white. Thus do I know

That when to death's call I must harken

My body, too, all pale will grow.

To black beneath the sod 'twill turn,

Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.
Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,

Behold then instantaneously,

The smoke off into thin air going,

'Til naught but ash is left to see.

Man's fame likewise away will burn

And unto dust his body turn.
How oft it happens when one's smoking,

The tamper's missing from it's shelf,

And one goes with one's finger poking

Into the bowl and burns oneself.

If in the pipe such pain doth dwell

How hot must be the pains of Hell!
Thus o'er my pipe in contemplation

Of such things - I can constantly

Indulge in fruitful meditation,

And so, puffing contentedly,

On land, at sea, at home, abroad,

I smoke my pipe and worship God."
Johann Sebastian Bach - 1725 (1685-1750)

From: The Second Little Clavier Book For Anna Magdalena Bach​
https://web.archive.org/web/20080516212245/http://waeshael.home.att.net/edifying.htm
Anyone like to indulge the idea of what kind of tobacco he may have enjoyed?

 
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Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,260
108,374
Nothing new under the sun. :wink:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/johann-sebastian-bach-thoughts-on-pipe-smoking

 

tuold

Lifer
Oct 15, 2013
2,133
165
Beaverton,Oregon
@sablebrush52
Yep, and he also enjoyed a good cuppa joe
You refer, course, to the Coffee Cantata .
It also has great lyrics such as, "If I don't have my three cups of coffee every day I'm like a dried up piece of roast goat" :rofl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nifUBDgPhl4

 

dino

Lifer
Jul 9, 2011
1,937
13,448
Chicago
I just posted this on the original thread, to which Chasing Embers referred:

Hey folk, I noticed that no one has bothered to post the actual Bach aria. It's from the Anna Magdalena Songbook, BWV 515a.

Here's an interesting performance by Klaus Mertens, baritone, and Ton Koopman, harpsichord.



https://www.youtube.com/embed/fkgKdVzexsI

 

anantaandroscoggin

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2017
647
1,008
70
Greene, Maine, USA
Now I've gotta go and find an MP3 of a performance of this aria to buy and download!
The only other pipe song I have is the Rupert Davies "Smoking My Pipe" mp4 someone posted somewhere a while back.

 

npod

Lifer
Jun 11, 2017
2,942
1,024
Funny, this creative genius never seemed to need any sort of drugs, was never addicted to alcohol, although from time to time, as his poem put it, "I smoke my pipe and worship God." But, never anything self-destructive. If he was addicted to anything, other than music to the glory of God, it was begetting children, being the father of twenty.

 
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