Coffee with Bach

One of life's great miracles is Coffee!

 

I am certain that most of you already know that. My sister commented on it recently. In fact, Europeans have had their eyes opened (heh) to this fact since the 1720s. Coffeehouses provided a meeting place for people of all social strata: rich and poor, aristocrats and tradesmen. One such coffeehouse, the Zimmerman Café (Zimmermannsche Kaffeehaus) in Leipzig was a popular hangout for Johann Sebastian Bach. That’s right, the famous composer Bach hung out at a coffee house and some evenings he would even play with his band. Doesn’t sound too different from the coffee house culture today.

In honor of his favorite drink, Bach wrote a special cantata. It’s official name is “Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht”, but it is often simply referred to as the “Kaffe Kantate” (Coffee Cantata). In the cantata, the father is at his wits’ end because he cannot keep his wayward daughter from drinking coffee. On her part she says that she cannot imagine living if she cannot have her coffee everyday. Below you can hear Bach’s homage to the wonder and beauty that is coffee. Here’s a link to the English translation if you want to follow along.