Bach's Accomplishments

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 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.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers in Western musical history. More than 1,000 of his compositions survive. Some examples are the Art of Fugue, Brandenburg Concerti, the Goldberg Variations for Harpsichord, the Mass in B-Minor, the motets, the Easter and Christmas oratorios, Toccata in F Major, French Suite No 5, Fugue in G Major, Fugue in G Minor ("The Great"), St. Matthew Passion, and Jesu Der Du Meine Seele. He came from a family of musicians. There were over 53 musicians in his family over a period of 300 years.<br><br>Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a talented violinist, and taught his son the basic skills for string playing. Another

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.

J. S. Bach began his musical career play the violin and the harpsichord under the instruction of his father Johann Ambrosius. His uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him how to play the organ. Bach was a very willing student and soon became extraordinarily capable with playing these instruments. At a young age, Bach lost a brother and sister in addition to his father and mother at age 9. His eldest brother adopted him while he attended the Gymnasium of Ohrdruf, Germany. When he was 18, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara. In 1707 he became the organist at the Church of Saint Blasius, then going on to become an organist and violinst at the court of Duke Wilhelm Ernst, during which time he wrote around thrity cantatas and other works. He later

The court orchestra consisted of twenty-two players. Bach’s function was mainly a violinist, however he also played harpsichord. Bach, on occasion, wrote some of the music that was played. During this period he wrote strictly for the organ, and he was rapidly becoming known throughout the country. As time went on, people were coming to see him far and wide.

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

Most of Bach's choral compositions took the form of the Lutheran cantata, which appeared earlier in Italy, but reached its full potential in Germany. The cantata was a relatively new form that combined biblical text and contemporary poetry. Composers set the text to the chorale melodies of early Lutheran tunes.

The greatest composer of music who has ever lived. Bach did not invent any new styles of forms of music, but rather perfected every single one of them which existed in his day. He remains the all-time master of the fugue, a form which is so difficult to write that even Mozart and Beethoven, both of whom wrote fugal masterpieces, hated writing them. Bach, however, improvised fugues for 2 hours at a stretch, and then wrote them down from memory afterward. Bach wrote universal masterpieces in every genre, including the 6 finest concerti grossi ever written, nicknamed the Brandenburg Concerti (clip above). He also wrote the finest single work of sacred music in history, the Mass in b minor, which has been argued by many musicologsts and composers

Johann Sebastian Bach is now considered one of the greatest western composers of all time. Bach was born on March 31, 1685 (N.S.), in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. He had many positions as an organist during the early 18th century, creating famous compositions like "Toccata and Fugue in D minor."

Bach was a well-known German composer and musician of the Baroque Period. His skills in composition, counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization are highly respected even until present. Bach composed the cello suites sometime around 1720, the same time he wrote the equally astonishing six partitas and sonatas for solo violin.

Born in 1685 on March 31st in Eisenach Germany, Johann Sebastian Bach was raised by a family of musicians, stretching back years. Bach's father was a local musician and is believed to have taught Bach to play his first instrument, the violin. After teaching his son, Bach’s father along with Bach’s mother had been killed in an accident, leaving Bach an orphan with little family remaining. In this time of need Bach's brother stepped in and took him in. Bach gained more musical knowledge from his brother as well as a local school where he had been enrolled in and he later moved out when he was 15. Eventually he landed his first job as a musician at the court of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, often playing violin and the occasional performance on

The two Baroque compositions I sampled were the St Mathew Passion, and the St John Passion both composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The first piece composed by the legend Bach during his stay in Leipzig, Germany at around 1923 was the St John Passion. The piece was later performed in the Easters of 1724-25, 32 and 49. The piece was mainly made up of parts of the Gospel of John, hence the name St John Passion. St Matthew Passion on the other hand similarly contained content from the Gospel of Matthew and was performed in the Good Fridays of 1727 and 29 and again 1736 and 1742 but after a few revisions (Sayre, 2013).

Bach had wrote many church cantatas and some of his best compositions for the organ while still working for the duke. During Bach’s time at Weimar, he had wrote "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor," one of his most popular pieces for the organ, He also composed the cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat," or Heart and Mouth and Deed. In 1717, Bach had accepted a position with Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, But Duke Wilhelm Ernst did not let Bach go and even imprisoned him for several weeks when he had tried to leave. Bach was soon released and had been allowed to go to

As soon as he arrived, Bach had the position of court organist and was also a member of the orchestra. He mostly focused on the organ for the first few years of his post.in 1713, he had the opportunity to follow Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow’s position at the Liebfrauenkirche, Halle; but his salary was raised so that he could remain where he was. In 1714, he became the concert master which required him to compose one cantata per month. Bach befriended a relative named Johann Gottfried Walther who was a composer and music lexicographer, as well as organist of the local church. Bach participated in music activities in the town, and then began to teach Ernst August and Johann Ernst, Duke Wilhelm’s nephews. Johann had a talent for composing concerti