William Kinsolving sang Bach from the time he was six in a lot of choirs. When he was in drama school in London, he wangled his way into a chorale performance of St. Matthew Passion in Royal Festival Hall. He subsequently performed in a lot of musicals and a lot of nightclubs.
As a writer, he's published five novels (one a NYTimes best seller), wrote, adapted, and/or doctored some 54 screenplays for every major studio in Hollywood. And he writes plays, one that won him a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant and was produced by the Shakespeare Festival in Canada.
About the musical's originator
William Kinsolving
"I don’t remember exactly when the idea for this Bach musical came in on me. Somewhere, I read about his sudden urgency for a cantata in 1731. I do remember when the ‘7s’ hit me -- 7 days, 7 Bachs, 7 movements of one of Bach’s greatest cantatas."
“I soon knew I needed musical guidance and performers. Through luck, fate and whimsy, I found — by way of pandemic zoom — some brilliant baroque performers and musicians. Within about seven (!) bars of hearing what they could do, I urged them to be my collaborators. I am a very lucky word-guy. Just wait until you hear what they can do!”
About William Kinsolving
I’m a writer, with musical cravings ever since childhood. I sang Bach from the time I was six in a lot of choirs. When I was in drama school in London, I wangled my way into a chorus that performed the St. Mathew Passion in Royal Festival Hall. I performed in a lot of musicals and a lot of nightclubs. Could this possibly qualify me to write lyrics to the instrumental music of one of the greatest composers of all time, and then portray the intimacy, joys and shattering struggles of his family in a musical? I’m not about to answer that, but will offer an example as evidence, a song lyric of Bach arguing with God about his many struggles, sung to the “Badinerie” of the Orchestral Suite #2, BWV 1067:
BACH'S PRAYER
What, dear God, am I to do,
taking care of all these children?
How am I to create for You,
with their bellowing caterwauling,
with the infants always falling,
and their screaming tears – appalling!
Every day in every way I dare to say, it’s very bad!
Am I damned to all this noise,
Never having blessed silence?
Do You know how vile are boys,
Banging din in gross percussion,
thinking shouting is discussion,
blasting brass that cause concussion!
It’s too much to deal with such: the devil’s touch! You’ll drive me mad!
I suppose You damn my courtship,
Think my marriage is priapic.
You gave me a wife to worship!
Marriage is a sacrament and childbirth is an act of God!
The fault is Yours, and Your purpose flawed!
Ach, dear God, forgive my raging.
It must be because I’m aging.
That is the reason, don’t You see,
I’ve no time to be assuaging.
I race death, the contest wag’ring
That my life can do what it-must-do for Thee.
There they go with their rampaging!
I’ve no chance of disengaging.
Here am I in hellfire bathing,
When I should compose the airs that drill
the words of Luther’s text through wax-filled ears,
which is indeed Your will!
Am I losing faith, I wonder.
Is my music all a blunder?
That is what reason does to me,
Blasting faith with human thunder.
I race death, a frantic fumbler.
Can my life e’er do what it-must-do for Thee?
As a writer, I’ve published five novels (one a NYTimes best seller). I wrote, adapted, and/or doctored some 54 screenplays for every major studio in Hollywood (and several distinctly minor ones). And I write plays, actually get them on their feet, one that brought me a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant and was produced by the Shakespeare Festival in Canada. Yes, it’s an eclectic career but great preparation to write a musical: THAT WEEK WITH THE BACHS.
I don’t remember exactly when the idea for the musical came in on me. I’d read about Bach whenever I saw an article or a new book. Somewhere, I read about the sudden urgency for a cantata in 1731, as I was learning more about the astonishing family dynamics. I do remember when the ‘7s’ hit me, 7 days, 7 movements, 7 family members — and 7 scenes each ending in one of those 7 movements, of what happens to be one of Bach’s greatest cantatas! So I started work with quixotic expectations.
It wasn’t long before I knew I needed musical guidance and performers. It’s beyond luck, fate and whimsy that I found myself amongst — by way of pandemic zoom — some brilliant baroque specialists, performers and musicians for whom I’d never dare to hope, in Minneapolis, a metropolis with which I have no connection whatsoever. Within about seven (!) bars of hearing what they could do, I urged them to be my collaborators. I am a very lucky word-guy.