ABSTRACT
In eighteenth-century Germany there were two acclaimed philologists. For some years both were colleagues together in the Thomasschule in Leipzig, as rector and conrector, where Bach served as the school’s cantor and the city’s director of music. The significance of the new Vorsteher becomes clear when the career of Johann August Ernesti is reviewed. The conflict between the two men, Bach and Ernesti, was not over differences in theology, since they both held substantially the same basic beliefs. It describes Bach as the consummate virtuoso both in his own performance and in his direction of the performance of others. Given the nature of the anthology that Rothe translated, the addition of Gesner's footnote effectively aligns Bach with the other important names from Leipzig's immediate past. Music was extremely important in the liturgical reforms, and all the men who spearheaded the introduction of the changes had impressive musical pedigrees.
