Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March, 1685 – 28 July 1750){{an|birthanddeath}} was a German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and keyboard drew together almost all of the pre-existing strands of the baroque style and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new musical forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust and dazzling contrapuntal technique, a seemingly effortless control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. His forceful suavity and vast output have earnt him wide acknowledgement as one of the greatest composers in the Western tonal tradition. Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, his works include the Brandenburg Concertos, the keyboard suites and partitas, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, A Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue and about 240 church cantatas. An example of a chorus from a cantata movement appears below: Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe from the Christmas Oratorio, written in 1734 during his mature period.

Biography

Formative years

JS (Sebastian) Bach was a member of what was probably the most extraordinary musical family of all time. For more than 200 years, the Bachs had produced dozens of worthy musicians and composers. Sebastian's father, uncles and elder brother, and numerous more distant relatives, were professional musicians. Into this family, Sebastian was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, an electorate in eastern Germany{{an|birthplace}}. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the town piper in Eisenach, a post that involved the organisation of all of the secular music in town, and participation in church music at the direction of the church organist. Sebastian's uncles were all professional musicians, ranging from church organists and court chamber musicians to composers. In an era when sons were expected to be apprentices to their fathers, Sebastian can be assumed to have copied music and played various instruments from an early age.

Related Topics:
Bachs - Eisenach - Germany - Johann Ambrosius Bach

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Sebastian's mother died in 1694, and his father in 1695, when Sebastian was not quite 10 years old. The orphan moved in with his elder brother Johann Christoph Bach, who was the organist at Ohrdruf, a nearby town in Thuringia. While in his brother's house, he continued copying, studying and playing music, and possibly received valuable tuition from him. At Ohrdruf, the boy probably witnessed and assisted the maintenance of the organ, stimulating a lifelong professional activity as a consultant in the building of organs, a valuable counterpart to his extraordinary skill in playing them. The organ?with its complex mechanism of trackers and stops?represented one of the most advanced European technologies of the period.

Related Topics:
Johann Christoph Bach - Ohrdruf - Organ

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In 1702, Sebastian was awarded a scholarship that allowed him to study at a prestigious school in Lüneberg, not far from Hamburg. His two years there appear to have been critical in exposing him to a wider palette of European culture than he was able to access in Thuringia. While at this school, he would have visited several of the great organists of the day, such as Böhm and Reinken and Bruhns. Shortly after graduation, in 1703, he took a post as organist at Arnstadt, Thuringia, which he held for some three years. He was then offered a more lucrative post as organist at Mühlhausen, to the north. Some of his earliest extant compositions date from this period, including his famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; however, much of his music from this period has been lost.

Related Topics:
Böhm - Reinken - Bruhns - Arnstadt - Mühlhausen - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

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Professional life

Despite the good working conditions at Mühlhausen, in 1708 Bach left to take up a position as court organist and concert master at the ducal court in Weimar. Here, he had the opportunity to play and compose for the organ, and to perform a varied repertoire of concert music with the duke's ensemble. A master of contrapuntal technique, Bach's steady output of fugues began in Weimar. The largest single body of his fugal writing is The Well-Tempered Clavier, which consists in all of 48 preludes and fugues, one pair for each major and minor key; this is a monumental work for its masterful use of counterpoint and its exploration, for the first time, of the full range of keys—and the means of expression made possible by their slight differences from each other—available to keyboardists when their instruments are tuned according to systems such as that of Andreas Werckmeister.

Related Topics:
Concert master - Weimar - Contrapuntal - Fugue - The Well-Tempered Clavier - Major - Minor key - Andreas Werckmeister

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During his tenure at Weimar, Bach started work on the Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ book") for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann; this contains traditional Lutheran chorales (hymn tunes), set in complex textures to assist the training of organists. The book illustrates two major themes in Bach's life: his dedication to teaching, and his love of the chorale as a compositional inspiration.

Related Topics:
Orgelbüchlein - Lutheran - Chorale

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Sensing increasing political tensions in the ducal court of Weimar, Bach began once again to search out a more stable job that was conducive to his musical interests. Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music). Prince Leopold, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. However, the prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; thus, most of Bach's work from this period was secular. The Brandenburg concerti and many other instrumental works, including the Six Suites for Solo Cello, the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, and the Orchestral Suites, date from this period.

Related Topics:
Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen - Kapellmeister - Calvinist - Brandenburg concerti - Six Suites for Solo Cello - Sonata - Partita

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In 1723, Bach was appointed Cantor and Musical Director of the Thomaskirche, Leipzig.{{an|cantor_thomaskirche}} This post required him to instruct the students of the St Thomas School (Thomasschule) in singing and to provide weekly music at the two main churches in Leipzig. For the first few years of his tenure at Leipzig, Bach composed a new cantata every week through much of the year. This challenging schedule, in addition to his more menial duties at the school, produced some of his most exquisite music, most of which has been preserved. Most of the cantatas from this period expound on the Sunday readings from the Bible for the week in which they were originally performed; some were written using traditional church hymns, such as Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme and Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, as inspiration for the music.

Related Topics:
Cantor - Thomaskirche - Leipzig - Thomasschule - Cantata - Bible

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On holy days, such as Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, Bach produced cantatas of particular brilliance, most notably the Magnificat in D for Christmas and St. Matthew Passion for Good Friday. The composer himself considered the monumental St. Matthew Passion among his greatest masterpieces; in his correspondence, he referred to it as his "great Passion" and carefully prepared a calligraphic manuscript of the work, which required almost every available musician in Leipzig for its performance. Bach's representation of the essence and message of Christianity in his religious music is considered by many to be so powerful and beautiful that in Germany he is sometimes referred to as the Fifth Evangelist.

Related Topics:
Christmas - Good Friday - Easter - Magnificat - St. Matthew Passion - Evangelist

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Family life

Bach married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, on October 17, 1707 in Dornheim after receiving an inheritance of 50 gulden.{{an|Maria_Barbara_marriage}} They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Little is known of Maria Barbara; she died suddenly on 7 July 1720, while Bach was abroad with Prince Leopold.

Related Topics:
Second cousin - Maria Barbara Bach - October 17 - 1707 - Dornheim - Gulden - 7 July - 1720

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While at Cöthen, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young soprano; they married on 3 December 1721. Despite the age difference?she was 17 years his junior?the couple seem to have had a happy marriage. Together they had 13 children. His sons Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Johann Christian Bach, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach became accomplished musicians, and three (CPE, JC, and WF Bach) were important composers in the rococo style that followed the baroque. Most of Sebastian's manuscripts were passed on through his children, particularly CPE and WF Bach.

Related Topics:
Cöthen - Anna Magdalena Wilcke - Soprano - 3 December - 1721 - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach - Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach - Johann Christian Bach - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Rococo

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At Leipzig, Sebastian seems to have maintained active relationships with several members of the faculty of the university. He enjoyed a particularly fruitful relationship with the poet Picander. Sebastian and Anna Magdalena welcomed friends, family, and fellow musicians from all over Germany into their home. Court musicians at Dresden and Berlin, and musicians including George Philipp Telemann (one of CPE's godfathers) made frequent visits to Bach's house and may have kept up frequent correspondence with him. Interestingly, Georg Friedrich Händel, who was born in the same year as Bach in Halle, only 50 km from Leipzig, made several trips to Germany, but Bach was unable to meet him, a fact that he appears to have deeply regretted.

Related Topics:
Picander - George Philipp Telemann - Georg Friedrich Händel

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Later life

Having spent much of the 1720s composing cantatas, Bach had assembled a sizeable repertoire of church music that allowed him to continue performing impressive Sunday music programs while pursuing other musical genres. Many of these later works were collaborations with Leipzig's Collegium Musicum. Among them were the four volumes of the Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice), a large collection of works for organ and harpsichord that includes the Six Partitas (Vol. I), the Italian Concerto, the French Overture (Vol. II), and the Goldberg variations (Vol. IV).

Related Topics:
Collegium Musicum - Clavier-Übung - Partitas - Goldberg variations

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During this period, he completed the Mass in B Minor, which incorporated newly composed movements with parts of earlier works. In 1735, he presented the manuscript to the elector of Saxony in a successful bid to persuade the monarch to appoint him as Royal Court Composer. Although the mass was never performed during the composer's lifetime, it is considered to be among the greatest choral works of all time.

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In 1747, Bach went to Frederick the Great's court in Potsdam, where the king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme. Bach improvised a three-part fugue on Frederick's pianoforte, then a novelty, and later presented the king with a Musical Offering which consists of fugues, canons and a trio based on the "royal theme", nominated by the monarch. Its six-part fugue includes a slightly altered subject more suitable for extensive elaboration.

Related Topics:
Frederick the Great - Potsdam - Pianoforte - Musical Offering - Royal theme

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The Art of Fugue, was written months before his death, and was unfinished. It consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme. A magnum opus of thematic transformation and contrapuntal devices, this work is often cited as the summation of polyphonic techniques.

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The final work Bach completed was a chorale prelude for organ, dictated to his son-in-law, Altnikol, from his deathbed. Entitled Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit (Before thy throne I now appear); when the notes of the final cadence are counted and mapped onto the Roman alphabet, the word "BACH" is again found. The chorale is often played after the unfinished 14th fugue to conclude performances of The Art of Fugue.

Related Topics:
Altnikol - BACH

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Bach spent his last days in Leipzig and died there in 1750, at the age of 65. During his life he had composed over 1,000 works.

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