Johann Sebastian Bach Thoughts on Pipe Smoking

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numbersix

Lifer
Jul 27, 2012
5,449
53
My wife found this oout on the 'net and sent it to me. To be honest, I question that it was really written by Bach, but if not, it's a nice little poem anyway.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is far more well known as a composer than a poet. But in fact he wrote some poetry, including this about pipe smoking.
Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker
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.

 

phred

Lifer
Dec 11, 2012
1,754
4
It appears to be Bach's work - the poem is set to music in the second Anna Magdalena Bach notebook, which does contain some material written by others, but most of the "others" happen to be the Bach children, especially Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach.
Here's the original German:
So oft ich meine Tabakspfeife,

Mit gutem Knaster angefüllt,

Zur Lust und Zeitvertreib ergreife,

So gibt sie mir ein Trauerbild -

Und füget diese Lehre bei,

Dass ich derselben ähnlich sei.
Die Pfeife stammt von Ton und Erde,

Auch ich bin gleichfalls draus gemacht.

Auch ich muss einst zur Erde werden -

Sie fällt und bricht, eh ihr's gedacht,

Mir oftmals in der Hand entzwei,

Mein Schicksal ist auch einerlei.
Die Pfeife pflegt man nicht zu färben,

Sie bleibet weiß. Also der Schluss,

Dass ich auch dermaleinst im Sterben

Dem Leibe nach erblassen muss.

Im Grabe wird der Körper auch

So schwarz wie sie nach langem Brauch.
Wenn nun die Pfeife angezündet,

So sieht man, wie im Augenblick

Der Rauch in freier Luft verschwindet,

Nichts als die Asche bleibt zurück.

So wird des Menschen Ruhm verzehrt

Und dessen Leib in Staub verkehrt.
Wie oft geschieht's nicht bei dem Rauchen,

Dass, wenn der Stopfer nicht zur Hand,

Man pflegt den Finger zu gebrauchen.

Dann denk ich, wenn ich mich verbrannt:

O, macht die Kohle solche Pein,

Wie heiß mag erst die Hölle sein?
Ich kann bei so gestalten Sachen

Mir bei dem Toback jederzeit

Erbauliche Gedanken machen.

Drum schmauch ich voll Zufriedenheit

Zu Land, zu Wasser und zu Haus

Mein Pfeifchen stets in Andacht aus.

 

puffinbilly

Lurker
Jul 26, 2013
46
2
Germany
Hi Gents,
Thanks Phred I was just a'googleing myself.
Translating poetry is notoriously difficult, one often has to use an awful lot of poetic license. The original flows naturally and stimulates “the mind’s eye”, any translation will, in comparison, always appear stilted and the rhymes often construed.
Poet or not JS Bach is the creator of some of the finest music to smoke a pipe to. The Brandenburg Concertos in the garden on a warm summer evening.
Brandenburg Concertos
Bill

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Now this is a highpoint of Forums erudition; thank you! Both the English translation, the original German, and

a citation of the source. I like Albert Schweitzer's renditions of Bach on an organ at a small church in London,

that I've visited, noted for its superb organ. My all time favorite Bach recordings are those of Wanda Ladowska --

hope I have her name spelled correctly -- on the harpsichord playing "The Well Tempered Clavier." Both

technically crisp and meticulous and inspired. Love maximum effect from minimum means. That is why I

don't much care for Wagner, in small doses only. He's like an actor who shouts every line.

 

jbbaldwin

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 1, 2012
557
42
Wanda Ladowska
She had the state police in Connecticut close the road so she could record The Well-Tempered Clavier in her living room over a day or two.
I don't much care for Wagner
I think you can draw a straight line from Bach through Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert to Wagner.
Not that you have to like Wagner, of course.

 

sparrowhawk

Lifer
Jul 24, 2013
2,941
219
My favorite composer a pipe smoker!--and his thoughts on meditating while puffing so much like my own! Bach really touches me where I live. Puffin, you hit the nail right on the head; whenever I get a new pipe, I put Neville Mariner's rendition of the Brandenberg Concertos on.

 

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
Jb
I'm sorry but I can't agree on that straight line to Wagner
But I admire your attempt
Hayden to Beethoven yes; Shubart was a great admirer of Beethoven (Beethoven never really acknowledged Schubert). I can't draw the line to Wagner
We can agree to disagree

 

puffinbilly

Lurker
Jul 26, 2013
46
2
Germany
‘tis a huge leap (200 years) from Baroque, through the Classical era to the Romantics and who influenced whom on the way can tend to become a rather meandering road. Perhaps one should take all music on it's merits, just as we accept that a cheap pipe can be a good smoker, so too can a chap with all of Wagner's character flaws write a good tune.
Bill

 

phred

Lifer
Dec 11, 2012
1,754
4
I took piano and organ lessons all the way through high school, and Bach was one of my favorites - especially his two- and three-part inventions. I pretty much stopped playing after I graduated from college, but a couple of years back, my mom shipped our old piano to me - and much to my dismay, my skills have regressed to about a second or third year student's... but I bought a copy of the first Anna Magdalena Bach book and a complete set of the method books I learned from, and if I can get back to a regular practice schedule, I hope to recover enough to enjoy Bach once again.
And if not, I've got a pipe. "Zu Land, zu Wasser und zu Haus / Mein Pfeifchen stets in Andacht aus."

 
Aug 1, 2012
4,587
5,131
Thanks for both versions of the poem. I too can see certain tendencies developed and carried through the line mentioned from Back to Wagner but the great thing about opinion is you don't have to agree with mine. Wagner can be a bit of an acquired taste though.

 

jbbaldwin

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 1, 2012
557
42
I can't draw the line to Wagner
Wagner could -- he even wrote a short novel about Beethoven, with the intent that it would make apparent the beginnings of his own thoughts about music. Until 1851, Beethoven's was the only portrait on Wagner's wall (this from a letter to Liszt), and he transcribed for piano Beethoven's ninth, about which he said, "[The] Ninth Symphony became the mystical goal of all my strange thoughts and desires about music."
Wagner speaks time and again of Beethoven's influence in his autobiography; Beethoven was taught by Haydn; Haydn learned by studying the works of C.P.E. Bach, who, of course, learned composition from his father. (It might be said that J.S. learned his craft, or much of it, by making transcriptions of Vivaldi's compositions that his employer brought back to him after a trip to Venice.)
This looks like a straight line to me. Have a listen to Beethoven's Bb Piano Sonata (Op. 106), the Eb String Quartet (Op. 127), or one of the late symphonies and follow that with a hearing of Wagner's Symphony in C. It's not far from that to Dutchman and Tristan, and the Ring Cycle follows close on the heels of Isolde's death.
‘tis a huge leap (200 years) from Baroque, through the Classical era to the Romantics
'Tis but 90 years from Bach to Rienzi, and only 130 years from The Art of Fugue to Parsifal.
a chap with all of Wagner's character flaws write a good tune
One thing has nothing to do with the other. :)

 

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
Jb
I can see that you are really a musicologist and my arguments will fall short toe to toe with you.
I reluctantly will bow to your greater knowledge...
Performance was my forte, way, way back in another time

 

jbbaldwin

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 1, 2012
557
42
You're too gracious - I wasn't trying to "win" or show anyone up, just discuss something I love.
It's exciting to see what a lot of different topics come up here in the forums and I'm not an expert on anything (except my own opinion, as Brian Levine says).

 

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
Jb
Of course you weren't 'showing anyone up'. You clearly have done the research and it is obvious (at least to me) that you know what you are talking about.
I'm impressed.
Kudos

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,570
27,079
Carmel Valley, CA
So- to ask an otherwise irrelevant question- was old Franz gay? The Schumans, still O/T, had an active and interesting sex life.

 
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