In 1700 Sebastian turned 15, the age when young Saxons traditionally began to support themselves. Cognizant of the inconvenience he imposed upon Johann Christoph, and mindful that his next older sibling, Jacob, had already hired himself out as an apprentice in Eisenach, Sebastian would surely have desired to seek gainful employment himself. Providentially, the subjects at which he excelled in Ohrdruf qualified him for a scholarship in the northern city of Lüneburg. Behind the scenes theology teacher, Herda, had lobbied to open a space for his outstanding student at the Michaelisschule at Lüneburg, Herda's own alma mater.
It is possible that, during one of Sebastian's visits with his cousin Ernst, Böhm would have favored him to carry letters of introduction to Hamburg's Jan Adams Reincken. Whether young Bach studied the organ with Böhm or Reincken, it is difficult to say. We do know, however, that Sebastian became very close to Reincken later in life, and that his practice was to visit the elderly organist whenever he had the occasion to be in Hamburg. These visits continued to within weeks before Reincken's death at 99 years of age.
The third cultural advantage of Lüneburg was its Ritteracademie, sister institution to Bach's own Michaelisschule, but where young noblemen were sent to study the French language and social graces (fencing and dancing). For young Bach, this afforded an opportunity to hear French music. It seems that on several occasions Bach also accompanied an instructor of the Ritteracademie fifty miles south, to Celle, where Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg maintained a bevy of francophile musicians in the manner of Versailles.
It was probably in Celle that Sebastian Bach first heard the music of Lully, Couperin, Muffat, Fischer, and Raison. Here, too, Sebastian may have copied Nicolas de Grigny's moving collection of hymn variations for the organ, Premier livre d'orgue. Although that work did not see publication until 1711, it is known that Bach made a copy in his youth, probably from an unpublished manuscript circulating in Germany during this decade.
