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.

Further reading

Modern scholarship

• David HT, Mendel A (Eds), revised and expanded by C Wolff, The new Bach reader, 2nd ed, New York, Norton, 1999 (ISBN 0393319563)

:A significant repository of documentary evidence, including contemporary documents, some by Bach himself. This book includes an English translation of the biography of Bach, by the early 19th-century German musicologist Forkel.

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• Wolff C, Johann Sebastian Bach: the learned musician, New York, Norton, 2001 (ISBN 0393322564)

:A comprehensive and engaging account of Bach's life.

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• Williams P, The life of Bach, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004 (ISBN 0521533740)

:A shorter expose of the composer's life, using his obituary as the starting point; a valuable complement to Wolff's biography.

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• Hofstadter D, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid

:Explores cognition, formal methods, logic and mathematics?particularly Gödel's incompleteness theorem?in the music of Bach, the art of MC Escher and other sources.

Related Topics:
Gödel's incompleteness theorem - MC Escher

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• Stauffer G, JS Bach as organist: his instruments, music, and performance practices, Indiana University Press, 1999 (ISBN 025321386X)

Earlier scholarship

• Schweitzer A, JS Bach Vol 1, Dover, 1966 (ISBN 0486216314)
• Spitta P, Johann Sebastian Bach, ... , 1889

:An early, groundbreaking, three-volume study of Bach's life and music.

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