Johann Sebastian Bach - booksnow.scholarsportal.info

308 APPENDIX.Magnifici.Most Noble, Illustrious, Learned and Worshipful Gentlemen andPatrons/August 12, 1736.May it please your worships graciously to allow me to represent toyou that, whereas according to your worships' ordering of the Schoolof St. Thomas, it pertains (is the duty of) to the Cantor to choose fromamong the scholars those whom he considers fit and able to bePrefects, and in electing them to have regard, not only to the voicethat it be good and clear, but also to see that the Prefects, and especiallythe one who leads the first Choir, shall be able to undertake thedirection of the Musical Choir in the absence or illness of the Cantor ;and whereas this rule has been hitherto observed by the Cantorswithout the concurrence of the Rectors : yet and notwithstanding, thepresent Rector, M. Johann Aug. Ernesti, has lately endeavoured,without my knowledge and approval, to assume the appointment of thePrefect in the first Choir, so that he recently appointed Krause, thePrefect of the second Choir, to be the Prefect of the first Choir, andrefuses to withdraw in spite of all my civil remonstrances. Since Icannot suffer this to pass, being against the aforesaid order andtraditional usage of the school, and to the prejudice of my successorsand to the injury of the Musical Choir, I now present to your Worshipsmy most dutiful petition, graciously to decide this difference betweenthe Rector and myself in my office ; and because this presumption onthe part of the Rector to the appointing of the Prefects might leadto strife and to the prejudice of the scholars, I pray that in your greatbenevolence and care for the School of St. Thomas you will direct theRector, M. Ernesti, to leave for the future, as hitherto, and accordingto the order and usage of the school, the appointment of Prefects tomyself alone, and thus graciously protect me in my office.Trusting to your Worships' most gracious indulgence, and abidingin the most dutiful respect,I am yours, &c.,Most obediently,J.S. BACH.August 13, 1736.Though only yesterday I in a most respectful memorial troubled yourWorships, because of the great indignity done to me by Herr RectorErnesti, through his attempted encroachment on the function hithertoassigned to myself of Cantor and of Director of the Musical Choir inthe St. Thomas School here, by his interference in the appointmentof the Prefect, and prayed for your Worships' gracious protection : yetI find myself under the necessity of again most humbly bringing to* The original is lavish in the reiteration of titles and attributes, which arehere omitted.