It is Wednesday, the 8th of April, 1668. Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt, daughter of a furrier and coachman in the German city of Erfurt, is about to marry Johann whom she has known since childhood. The wedding will take place in the old church, Kaufmannkirche, in Erfurt.
Little does she know what impact that decision is going to have on the world.
She is 24, he 23 years of age. Her future husband is a musician, and the home they will be sharing will one day be full of music! And not just her husband’s. For later on the young couple moves out of Erfurt and settles in Eisenach, where Maria Elisabeth, age 41, gives in 1685 birth to their eighth child, Johann Sebastian Bach.
Here’s perhaps the most popular composition of this son of hers - Air, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major - composed in the year 1731 when he was 46 years of age. She never got to hear it, but luckily we do: