> > Not completely true. 95% of Bach's work -- which sets a good part of the
> > foundation of western music is religious. joanna
> True. But who was paying him? I think most of his work, religious or
> not was sponsored by a series aristocratic courts. I could be
> wrong. Bach might have had conductor work at a few churchs. I don't
> know.
In his youth, Bach worked for princes and dukes and such, but the last 27 years were spent in Leipzig as Director of Music for the churches in the area. Although it was a government job, it was certainly in a religious capacity. He wrote over 300 sacred cantatas while at Leipzig (1/3 of which are lost), as well as sundry other pieces.
-- "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others." -- John Andrew Holmes