Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German organist, composer, and musical scholar of the Baroque period, and is almost universally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. His works, noted for their intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty, have provided inspiration to nearly every musician after him, from Mozart to Schoenberg.
J. S. Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, March 21, 1685. Bach’s uncles were all professional musicians ranging from church organists and court chamber musicians to composers. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the town piper in Eisenach, a post that entailed organizing all the secular music in town as well as participating in church music at the direction
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In June 1707 he moved to St Blasius, Mühlhausen, and four months later he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, with whom he had seven children, including Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. Bach was appointed organist and chamber musician to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1708, and in the next nine years he composed many of his finest works and became known as a leading organist (p. 315, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 2).
In 1717, Bach was appointed Kapellmeister at Köthen but was refused permission to leave Weimar. He was eventually allowed to leave but only after being held prisoner by the duke for almost a month. Bach's new employer, Prince Leopold, was a talented musician who loved and understood the art. Since the court was Calvinist, Bach had no chapel duties and instead concentrated on composition. In this period he wrote his violin concertos and the six Brandenburg Concertos, as well as numerous sonatas, suites and keyboard works (p. 164, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Vol. 1)
In 1720 Maria Barbara died while Bach was visiting Karlsbad with the prince. In December of the following year, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcke, daughter of a court trumpeter at Weissenfels. A week after Bach was married Prince Leopold also married. Unfortunately, the prince’s bride lacked interest in the arts which eventually
At first, he was an organist for the New Church. Bach would provide music for special events and the religious services held at the church. He was supposed to give music instruction, but he was arrogant and independent. This made it difficult for him to get along with the students and the church officials scolded him for not rehearsing enough and having trouble with the kids. Bach then disappeared for a few months without telling anyone where he was going. He ended up going to Lubeck to listen to a well known organist and extended his stay afterwards. He left his home in Arnstadt and got a position as an organist at the Church of St. Blaise in Muhlhausen. Bach only ended up staying in this position for a year because he liked the complex arrangements and liked to weave different melodic lines together, while the pastor thought that church music should be simple and plain. He then post the post of organist at the court of the Duke Wilhelm Ernst in Weimar where he wrote some of his best compositions and cantatas. While here, Bach tried to take a position with Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen instead but Duke Wilhelm Ernst didn’t want him to go and imprisoned him for several weeks and then he was released and and went to Cothen. At Cothen Bach spent most of his time playing music. He
In addition, Bach was a virtuoso on the organ. He also served as an organ consultant, and composer of organ works, like toccatas, chorale preludes, and fugues. He had a reputation for having great creativity, and he was able to integrate many national styles into his works. Many of his works are said to have North German influences that were taught to Bach by Georg Bröhm. Bach also copied the works of many French and Italian composers in order to decipher their compositional languages. Later on, he arranged several violin concertos by Vivaldi for organ. Most experts of musical composition believe that the years, between 1708 and 1714, were his most productive. Within this period, he composed several preludes, fugues, and toccatas. During this span, Bach wrote the Little Organ Book, Orgelbüchlein. This book remains an unfinished collection of forty-nine short chorale preludes.
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.
In 1706 Bach decided that he wanted to further his career in music and made the first change by leaving his organ playing position at the church and took upon a new position in Munhlhausen at the St. Blasius as an organist there (Johann Sebastian BACH). This change was for the best because the church was larger and located in a city that was important to the north. A few months after being an organist at the St. Blasius church he married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach. After a year of Bach being a organist for St. Blasius, he was offered a better position in Weimar. Bach took the offer with pride and became their new court organist and concertmaster at the ducal court. Johann and Maria Bach decided to start their family, after their first born child, Marias unwed sister moved into their home to help with raising their children. Maria and Johann Bach had a total of seven children. The gifted musically talented family continued as two of Bach children, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach became vital composers following the baroque period.
Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st 1685. He is the son of Johann Ambrosius. For many years, members of the Bach family had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors.
He was one of eight siblings. His father Johann Ambrosius Bach and mother Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt and the rest of his family were already well known and recognized for their connection to music. In 1692 Bach began his education enrolling at Lateinschule, Eisenach which was a Latin school. The institution offered a General rather than a musical education. It is also believed that Bach sung soprano in the choir of St. Georg. Although here is not much information on Bach’s early and initial musical education due to being born into a very musically cultured family it is thought that he was initially taught music by family members. It is probable that his father who played string and wing instrument most likely taught him to play a stringed instrument. One point that was apparent in this stage of Bach’s musical development was his inability to play a keyboard instrument. According to one of his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel, Bach never actually learned to play keyboard until after he left Eisenach. Following the death of Bach’s mother and father he moved to Ohrdruf under the care of his older brother Johann Christoph Bach and continued his education there. Bach left Ohrdruf In 1700 when he was just 15 years of age. He travelled to Lüneburg, becoming a member of the choir at St Michael’s church, this gave him a small salary and enabled him to continue free education there. When Bach voice broke and he could no
Bach face an immense amount of changes and challenges starting at an alarmingly early age. Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. Eisenach was famous for being the place where Martin Luther studied latin and later on translated the New Testament from Greek to German while hidden away in the Wartburg castle. This was
At the age of fifteen, Bach left Ohrdruff and began to provide for himself. His career began when he obtained a position in the choir of the wealthy Michaelis monastery at Lüneburg, which was known to provide a free place for boys who were poor but with musical talent, and he earned a monthly salary of twelve groschen. Bach was praised for his unique soprano voice in Lüneburg, was a member of the top choir, and had opportunities of taking part in the works of interesting eighteenth-century composers, including Heinrich Schutz, Scheidt, Pachelbel. When he lost his soprano voice, he became a violinist in the orchestra, and played accompaniment on the harpsichord. A major influence in his life was Georg Böhm, who was the organist at St. John’s Church. Böhm was taught by the famous musician John Adam Reinken, who was the organist at St. Catherine in Hamburg. This influenced Bach to take multiple trips to Hamburg, a city with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and where music flourished. He was able to listen to the great Reincken, and even wrote organ tablatures of his work. Even as a teenager, it was clear that Bach was dedicated to his craft. He also came under the
Bach returned to his hometown after attending school in 1702, and by this time he was already a capable organist. His time away at school made Bach turn away from the tradition of
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –1750)-A theorist at heart was one of the most renowned composers of the Baroque Period known for the use of his exquisite and infallible counterpoint method. Famous for his more than 300 cantatas, the Goldberg Variations and two Passions It was recently discovered that Bist du Bei Mir was actually composed by Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel (1685 –1750) even though it stills appears as Bach BWV 508. Stolzel was a prolific composer of the Baroque Period as well, and Bach had great respect for him. Sometimes, Bach would use little excerpts from Solztel’s music as exercises that were used to teach his children. The piece was found in Ana Magdalena Bach’s notebook so it was immediately attributed to her husband; but the
Bach was a baroque composer who was known to be an outstanding, virtuoso organist. As a boy he learned to play the harpsichord, clavichord, violin, viola, and organ, and spent a brief time as a vocalist in a monastery. Bach was quickly recognized as a nimble organist, displaying remarkable technical dexterity in both hands and feet. He was soon offered a position as a church organist, and over the course of his career he held this position in many churches. Upon obtaining a position in Leipzig where new music was required for services on a weekly basis, Bach began turning out sacred works and cantatas like an industrial machine. Bach greatly admired and was inspired by Dietrich Buxtehude, who was not only a composer but also one of the greatest organists of the time.
Johann Sebastian Bach lived from 1685 to 1750 and many would nominate him as the greatest musicians that has ever lived. Bach was born in Eisenach Germany on the spring of 1885 and devoted his life to God through his music. At the age of 10, Bach’s parents died and so he went to live with his brother. Ironically, his brother soon died and so Bach went to live in Luneburg where he attended school and studied musical culture. Leaving Luneburg at 18, Bach began his first business by playing Violin and Viola with the orchestra at Weimar but soon
Bach was born on March 21st, 1685 in Germany then later died in July 28th, 1750 in Leipzig and he was a composer of the Baroque era. One of the neat things about Bach that you may not know is that he was one of the most celebrated northern German musicians of his time. He was regarded in his time as one of the greatest composers of his time. Bach came from a long line of composers over at least 300 years. When he was 10 years old he lost both of his parents and was brought up by his older brother. His brother was a church organist which made Bach eventually become an amazing organist as well by learning from his brother. Throughout Bache’s life he held 3 jobs which was working for the duke then for the prince then for the became the director of music at St. Thomas Church and school in
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685, as the youngest of eight children. Bach was a product of one of the greatest musical family’s, and would become one of the most influenceial composers of all time. Bach lived in the heart of the reformation era and believe that all music should be to the glory of God and for the recreation of the mind. His father was a great trumpeter/violinist; his brothers were organists and keyboarders, to which Bach drew most of his influence and education. Bach was a member of the Lutheran faith and a great fan of the works and beliefs of Martin Luther. Bach tried to give depth and color to church music as he successfully added dimension to God’s word.