Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque Period. Although Bach sang, played several instruments and composed music, he is better known for his compositions on the organ. Some people consider his work to be the greatest organ music ever.
Background
Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany, the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, organist at St. George's Church, and Elizabeth Lämmerhirt Bach. He was the culmination of the family's long line of musicians, beginning with his great-grandfather, Veit Bach, who was a professional violinist in Gotha, and the name Bach was considered a synonym for musician.
On May 3, 1694, his mother died; his father remarried 6 months later but died scarcely 2 months after that. The oldest brother, Johann Christoph, assumed the care of the 10-year-old Johann Sebastian. The boy moved to Ohrdruf to live with his brother, organist at St. Michael's Church.
Education
Bach's first music lessons were on the violin, with his father as instructor. From his oldest brother Johann Sebastian received his first instruction at the harpsichord and perhaps at the organ.
When an opening developed at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, a scholarship was awarded Bach for his fine voice and his financial need. Bach graduated from St. Michael's School in 1702.
Career
At Lüneburg, Bach met the composer Georg Böhm, organist at St. John's Church, who influenced his early organ compositions. He composed almost 150 chorale preludes; his earliest ones in print are from the Lüneburg period. The influence of Böhm, whose favorite form was the chorale partita or chorale variation, is evident in two Bach works: Christ, der du bist der helle Tag (Christ, Thou Who Art the Bright Day) and O Gott, du frommer Gott (O God, Thou Righteous God).
In 1703 he accepted the position of violinist in the chamber orchestra of Duke Johann Ernst of Weimar. As substitute organist, he had the privilege of practicing long hours on the church organ, which prepared him for future church positions. In the summer of 1703 Bach was invited to test and demonstrate the organ in the new church at Arnstad. He made such an impression that a month later he was formally installed as organist.
The first of his church cantatas, No. 15, Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen (For Thou Will Not Leave My Soul in Hell), was performed on Easter 1704. Evidently Bach's choir was less than adequate, because after the performance he immediately requested to be relieved of his choirmaster duties.
In 1705 Bach obtained a month's leave to hear the renowned Dietrich Buxtehude, organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. Bach walked the 200 miles to Lübeck and he was so impressed by the brilliant sound of choir, organ, and 40 instrumentalists performing the annual Abendmusiken, or evening music, that he remained there for 4 months without sending an explanatory message to Arnstad.
In 1707 Bach was appointed organist at the Church of St. Blaise in Mühlhausen. It was a free imperial city, larger and richer than Arnstad. He wanted to present Mühlhausen with what he called "well-ordered church music." The brilliant setting of Cantata No. 71, Gott ist mein König (God Is My King), written for the installation service of the city council on February 4, 1708, certainly must have antagonized Reverend Frohne and members of the congregation who were in the audience. Bach scored the cantata for strings, woodwinds, trumpets, tympani, and the usual chorus and soloist. The council was so impressed by the performance that the music was printed and put into the city records. In spite of the council's support, the fundamental conflict between his musical ideas and those of Pietism advocated by his pastor caused Bach to look elsewhere for a new position.
When Bach arrived in Weimar late in the summer of 1708 as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst, it marked the third time in 5 years that he had changed positions because of unfavorable circumstances. The years 1708-1710 saw an enormous output of organ music by Bach. Preludes, fugues, choral preludes, and toccatas poured from his pen. The very familiar Toccata and Fugue in D Minor dates from this early Weimar period.
In 1713 Bach was invited to succeed Friedrich Zachau, the teacher of George Frederick Handel, in the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle. The possibility of playing a 65-rank instrument was a great temptation to him. When he informed the duke of his leaving, the duke promptly raised his salary and promoted him to concertmeister. When the formal invitation from Halle came 2 weeks later, Bach refused it, much to the chagrin of the Halle authorities. They, in fact, accused Bach of simply using their invitation to get an increase in salary at Weimar.
Bach also wrote a secular cantata, No. 208, Was mir behagt (What Pleases Me), to honor Duke Wilhelm's friend the Duke of Weissenfels. In his late Weimar years, especially beginning in 1716, Bach composed some of his grandest organ music. These compositions are not based upon a chorale but upon the architectonic nature of music itself. The great Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor came from this period.
In 1716 the Kapellmeister, or court conductor, Johann Dreise died. Bach wanted this position and resented it very much when it was not offered to him. In addition, a quarrel developed between the duke and his nephew, Ernst Augustus. It appears that Bach investigated the musical opportunities at Cöthen and was offered a position. His prime responsibility was to conduct the court orchestra, in which the prince himself participated. Bach produced his greatest instrumental works during the Cöthen period. The Cöthen instrumental ensemble consisted of 16 skilled performers, and evidently the first-chair men were capable enough to cause Bach to write special music for them. He wrote unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas for Josephus Spiess, violinist, and six suites for unaccompanied cello for Ferdinand Abel, principal cellist. Bach's clavier music of the Cöthen period included English and French suites, the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier, inventions, and the two notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach. He also wrote his principal orchestral works during this period, such as the Overtures and the six Brandenburg Concertos. Interestingly, he wrote many of his keyboard works for the instruction of his own children.
Prince Leopold married his cousin, a princess of Anhalt-Bernberg, in 1721. She had no enthusiasm for music and successfully persuaded her husband to give his time and resources to more frivolous activities. The situation became so serious that Bach, who had been quite happy in Cöthen, decided to look for another position.
In 1722 Johann Kuhnau, cantor of the Leipzig St. Thomas's Church, died. The vacant post was offered to Georg Philipp Telemann from Hamburg, who declined, and then to Christoph Graupner of Darmstadt, who, in declining, recommended Bach to the council. More than a year after the death of Kuhnau, Bach was made cantor of Leipzig. His duties, rather, were primarily to provide choral music for two large churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. A cantata was performed alternately at each church every Sunday. In addition, special music was required on festive days of the church year and for other occasions such as funerals and installations. In his arrangement with the council, Bach promised to perform not only the musical duties but also other responsibilities in connection with the St. Thomas's School, such as teaching classes in music, giving private instruction in singing, and even teaching Latin.
In Leipzig he composed the bulk of his choral music. The list includes 295 church cantatas, of which 202 have survived, 6 great motets, the 5 Masses, including the B Minor Mass, and the great Passions and oratorios. Later Bach went home and completed the work, which he called a Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering).
Bach's last work was the Art of the Fugue, in which he demonstrated the complete possibilities of the fugal and canonic forms. In his final years Bach was afflicted with gradual blindness, and he was totally blind the last year of his life. A few days before his death he dictated a setting of the hymn Vor deinen Thron tret' ich allhier (Before Thy Throne I Stand) to his son-in-law. Following a stroke and a raging fever, Bach died on July 28, 1750.
Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular.
The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach annually with a feast day on 28 July, together with George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell; on the same day, the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church remembers Bach and Handel with Heinrich Schütz.
Johann received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736.
Religious music was at the centre of Bach's output for much of his life. The hundreds of sacred works he created are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but a truly devout relationship with God.
Views
Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue.
Connections
Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Of his seven children by his first wife only three survived him.
On 7 July 1720, while he was away in Carlsbad with Prince Leopold, his wife suddenly died. The following year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, highly gifted soprano sixteen years his junior, who performed at the court in Köthen; they married on 3 December 1721. Together they had thirteen more children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726-1781); Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian, who both, especially the latter, became significant musicians; Johanna Carolina (1737-1781); and Regina Susanna (1742-1809).
