A Great Contributor Of Music
Throughout the history of music, many great composers, theorists, and instrumentalists have left indelible marks and influences that people today look back on to admire and aspire to. No exception to this idiom is Johann Sebastian Bach, whose impact on music was unforgettable to say the least. People today look back to his writings and works to both learn and admire. He truly can be considered a music history great.
Bach, who came from a family of over 53 musicians, was nothing short of a virtuosic instrumentalist as well as a masterful composer. Born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685, he was the son of a masterful violinist, Johann Ambrosius Bach, who taught his son
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A perfect example of this can be seen in Arnstadt. Previous accounts of history claim that Bach was upset with the performance of the church choir for which he played for. He claimed that “the voices could never make the music soar to the sky as it should” (loosely translated). Here Bach realized the high level of music and perfectionism that he wanted. In 1707, at the age of 22, Bach moved on from Arnstadt to another organist job, this time at the St. Blasius Church in Muhlhausen. Once again he did not remain there too long, only a little over a year, when he moved again to Weimar where he accepted the position of head concertmaster and organist in the Ducal Chapel. It was here that Bach settled himself and began to compose the first collection of his finest early works which, included organ pieces and cantatas.
By this time Bach had been married for several years. He actually became married to his cousin Maria Barbara. They, for the most part, had a happy marriage. He was happy. By this stage of his life he had “composed” for himself a wonderful reputation of being a brilliant musical talent. Along with that his proficiency on the organ was unequaled in Europe by this time. In fact, he toured regularly as a solo virtuoso, and his growing mastery of compositional forms, like the fugue and the canon, were already attracting interest from the musical establishment, which, in his day, was the Lutheran church. The church began to
In Weimar, he assumed the post of organist and concertmaster in the chapel. He remained in Weimar for nine years, and there he composed his first wave of major works, including organ showpieces and cantatas.<br><br>By this stage in his life, Bach had developed a reputation as a brilliant, yet inflexible, musical talent. His qualities on the organ was unequaled in Europe, in fact, he toured regularly as a solo virtuoso. His growing mastery of compositional forms, like the fugue and the canon, was already attracting interest from the musical establishment - which, in his day, was the Lutheran church. But, like many people of great talent, he was never very good at playing the political game, and consequently suffered drawbacks in his career. He was passed over for a major position, which was Kapellmeister (Chorus Master) of Weimar, in 1716. Partly in reaction to this situation, he left Weimar the following year to take a job as court conductor in Anhalt-Cothen. There, he slowed his writings of church cantatas, and instead concentrated on instrumental music. His time Anhalt-Cothen in period produced, along with other masterpieces, the Brandenburg Concerti.<br><br>While at Cothen, Bach's wife, Maria Barbara, died. Bach remarried soon after to Anna Magdalena and went ahead with his work. He also went ahead in the baby making department, producing 13 children with his new wife - six of which survived
Johann S. Bach was a classical composer and a very good performer. He was one of the best composers during the Baroque era and took the position of organist for many different places during his career. Bach was and is a very important person in the classical music genre.
Johann Sebastian Bach, born in the year 1685, was a German born composer, virtuoso organist and keyboard player, a
In 1700, his brother couldn’t house him anymore, and that was when Bach decided to move far away to attend the Latin School in Lüneburg. Because of his talent in singing, he was recommended for a Freistelle at the school, meaning free tuition, room and board. At this point, Bach was a competent instrumentalist. He learnt how to play the violin from his father, choral singing from school, and keyboard instruments from his older brother. He was hungry to improve and gain knowledge. Hence, even though forbidden, he would secretly copy music under the moonlight for months so that he could have a copy of his own for studying and practicing. By this age, other musical prodigies had already composed their own works. For example, Beethoven composed his rondo when he was fifteen years old. From just this incident, we can tell how dedicated and music hungry he was even as a young child. Bach was more famous as an organist than a composer during his lifetime. He had been interested in the organ for a long time, especially during his stay with his older brother in Ohrdruf. He was only allowed to listen and observe. But he always knew
Most people think that Johann Sebastian Bach was ahead of his time, but a lot of people don’t know that much about the history of his life, so I would like to start from the beginning. Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, on March 31, 1685. Bach comes from a long history of musicians. Most of his family were musicians, for instance, his father, Johann Ambrosius, worked as a musician in their home town. So his father influenced Sebastian; it’s also believed that his father taught him to play the violin as well. When Sebastian Bach turned 9 his mother passed away in 1964, later His father remarried Barbara Margaretha. Sadly, three months into the second marriage, Bach’s father passed away from a serious illness.
“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.” - Johann Sebastian Bach. Born on March 21, 1685, Bach was a young instrumental prodigy, which whom took on his parents' occupation by playing the organ, violin and many other well known instruments. One of Bach's most mellifluous composed works was "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" which stunned the Duke of Weimar and his people. As like Handel, Bach started to have trouble with his sight and died of a stroke before he could see his legacy. Despite the fact of his failing eyesight, he loved God and found the best way of praising him was through song. Still to this day, Bach has been known to be one of the greatest musicians of classical
Moving on into his early adulthood, Bach was hired to play in special services at a church
Bach’s composition of music while he was in the church was the genres that were most used in a Lutheran church service, “…Bach focused on the genres used in the Lutheran services: chorale settings…toccatas, fantasias, preludes, and fugues…”( Burkholder 438). As seems to be the usual, Bach has known stuff from a very young age, and that’s still the case when it comes to the organ. Bach, from a young age, had a grasp on a pretty large variety of styles of organ music. From Northern Germany to Southern Germany and even Italian and French styles of organ playing. He was well aware of and admired composers such as Böhm, Pachelbel, and Frescobaldi. In fact, during his stay at Arnstadt, he actually walked to and tagged along on postal coaches for roughly 225 miles just to see Buxtehude, a Northern German composer,
He began to write preludes for organs but did not cover large- scale organization, when two melodies interact at the same time. A few years after playing for the church, Bach made a visit to Dieterich Buxtehude in Lubeck. This visit reinforced Bach’s style in music with the works he has made.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer during the Baroque Period of music. He was born on March 31st, 1685 in the town of Eisenach, Germany. He was the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elizabeth Lammerhirt. He had one brother and no other siblings that I could find when doing my research. His parents died when he was very young, and as a result, he went to live with his older brother until he was old enough to live on his own. He was educated at St. Michael's School in Germany, and received most of his upbringing during this time in his life when he lived with his brother and his brotherś wife.
By now Bach had high ideals for the church music of Germany. He began organizing the rather poor facilities of Muhlhausen; he started by making a large collection of the best German music available, including some of his own. The first result of these efforts was his cantata ‘Gott ist mein Konig’. This, incidentally, was the only one of Bach’s cantatas to be published during his lifetime. This success gave Bach the hope to put in a long and detailed report, proposing a complete renovation and improvement of the organ. The council agreed to carry the proposals out, and Bach was given the job as supervising the work, for not only now was he a brilliant player, but he became an expert on constructing organs.
Before looking more closely at the composers’ works, they must be placed in their proper historical contexts. Bach was a great composer of the
His desire and need to put his skills to work later gave him the opportunity to work for the “household of Duke Johann Ernst” where he “served the younger, music-loving prince, who maintained a small chamber orchestra” this job gave Bach the opportunity that he needed to start his career (Terry 56). Bach had great success in later years of his life. It is a fact that few of Sebastian Bach work was printed even in his lifetime. Geck states that among the handwritten surviving works is “Clavier-Übung” the longest and most significant work published in 1726 and 1742 (23). This is a piece of his work that was not even printed but just handwritten. In Bach’s success we have the privilege of having “six sonatas, and partitas for solo violin and six cellos suites” all written in the handwriting of his first wife Anna Magdalena Bach (Geck 23). His magical world consisted of many works that he perform for different kinds of events. There is evidence recorded stated by Wolf in the book The World of The Bach Cantatas that he worked from weddings to council elections to even funerals and more (9). In recorded history there is about “1,000 of Bach's compositions” something that is incredible for such a remarkable man (Wolff 45). From fugues that were more of private matters to for example, his famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 works. To this day are played in scary movies, ballets, dance routines, theater routines, videos and enjoyed by anyone with an exquisite music taste. Kupferberg mentions in his book, Basically Bach A 300th birthday celebration, that there was a production of about 300 church cantatas during his 27 years in Leipzig (81). To conclude, Bach's death came on July 28, 1750 being married and remarried and having a total of 20 children with two women Bach left behind a splendid legacy for not just his family to be proud of but also for the enjoyment of
Bach is considered one of the greatest musicians of all time, especially during his time period. His music was intriguing because he went into greater detail surrounding harmony than many other composers of his time. Additionally, he is considered to be one of the most extraordinary composers of Baroque music, which is music that was composed during the years of 1700 to 1750.
Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, an influential figure in the history of classical music. Perhaps no other composer in history wrote music of such inspiring power and expressiveness. His influence on the last 150 years of music is unequalled.