From the very beginning, his playing on the new organ excited admiration, but his artistic temperament frequently threatened to be his undoing.  For the young enthusiast was no sooner seated at the organ to conduct the church music than he forgot that the choir and congregation were depending on him and would begin to improvise at such length that the singing had to stop altogether, while the people listened in mute admiration.  Of course there were many disputes between the new organist and the elders of the church, but they overlooked his vagaries because of his genius.

Yet he must have been a trial to that well-ordered body.  Once he asked for a month’s leave of absence to visit Luebeck, where the celebrated Buxtehude was playing the organ in the Marien Kirche during Advent.  Luebeck was fifty miles from Arnstadt, but the courageous boy made the entire journey on foot.  He enjoyed the music at Luebeck so much that he quite forgot his promise to return in one month until he had stayed three.  His pockets being quite empty, he thought for the first time of returning to his post.  Of course there was trouble on his return, but the authorities retained him in spite of all, for the esteem in which they held his gifts.

Bach soon began to find Arnstadt too small and narrow for his soaring desires.  Besides, his fame was growing and his name becoming known in the larger, adjacent towns.  When he was offered the post of organist at St. Blasius at Muelhausen, near Eisenach, he accepted at once.  He was told he might name his own salary.  If Bach had been avaricious he could have asked a large sum, but he modestly named the small amount he had received at Arnstadt with the addition of certain articles of food which should be delivered at his door, gratis.

Bach’s prospects were now so much improved that he thought he might make a home for himself.  He had fallen in love with a cousin, Maria Bach, and they were married October 17, 1707.

The young organist only remained in Muelhausen a year, for he received a more important offer.  He was invited to play before Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, and hastened thither, hoping this might lead to an appointment at Court.  He was not disappointed, for the Duke was so delighted with Bach’s playing that he at once offered him the post of Court organist.

A wider outlook now opened for Sebastian Bach, who had all his young life struggled with poverty and privation.  He was now able to give much time to composition, and began to write those masterpieces for the organ which have placed his name on the highest pinnacle in the temple of music.