Benjamin Bach Research Paper

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was unlike most other composers of his time. “He wrote music for the glory of God, and to satisfy his own burning curiosity, not for future fame.” During the 1700s, people knew him as a talented musician, not as a composer, as we do today. He never left his country to pursue bigger and better things. Bach was content as long as he could play music. Traditions were very important to him. He wanted to carry on the musical tradition of his family, and never opted to change the traditional ways of composing, as did most composers. Bach’s work is vast and unique.

Johann Sebastian Bach, born in the year 1685, was a German born composer, virtuoso organist and keyboard player, a

Bach was born into a musical family whose legacy traced back a few generations. Johann Ambrosius, Bach’s father, had a lot to do with his success in the music industry. He was also a musician and therefor took it upon himself to teach Bach how to play the violin and the harpsichord. Needless to say that from an early age, Bach had music imbedded within. Bach was the youngest son of Lutheran parents. His music career began early on his life when he joined the church’s choir and sang. However, Bach had to move to Ohrdruf, Germany when he was left an orphan. It is said that this was when his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him to play the organ and who introduced him to the keyboard instruments. He continued to be part of the church’s choir which ultimately led to him receiving a scholarship for his amazing voice. In this time, fine voices were crucial. Since it’s hard to keep a man’s voice the same forever, Bach had to transfer over to playing the violin; his voice

Johann Sebastian Bach was born the 31st of March, 1685 and died the 28 July 1750. He was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and over three hundred cantatas of which around two hundred survive. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

This thesis aims to explore the life of Johann Sebastien Bach (1685-1750), and his contribution to European classical music. Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. To this day, he is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest composers and musicians of all time. Bach is known for his talent in playing the organ, and the extreme complexity of his works using counterpoint, motifs and harmony. His catalogue boasts over a thousand pieces, from cantatas, motets, lute pieces, four part chorales, to chamber music, orchestral works and canons.

By 1695, Johann had lost both his parents, which is the reason he was living and learning with his brother, Johann Christoph. Even back then Johann was so good at music he landed a spot in the poor boys choir at his school. He later stayed at Lüneburg and studied the in the library with their then up-to-date music selections. It was while he was there that he met the organist Georg Böhm, and that is when he was first introduced to the French repertoire, and by 1702 he was already a fairly good organist. There were a few months lost when it comes to what Bach had done, but in March 4, 1703, he was hired by Johann Ernst to be in the orchestra. There he stayed until August 1703, when he was given the job of organist. If that wasn’t impressive enough, all of this was done before he was eighteen years old. (Johann Sebastian

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 is known as one of the greatest German composers of all time. He contributed a lot to the Enlightenment era (1685-1815). His music was used much for religious worship. His work is iconic because he was the “supreme master of counterpoint, allowing him to write music as the musical equivalent of textual ideas” (Bach, Johann Sebastian). He was orphaned at the age of ten and taken in by his brother, Johann Christoph. He took after his brother, and by 15, he was singing in the choir at St. Michaels Church. By 18, he was a violinist in the chamber orchestra of Duke Johann Ernst. He then left that church to be the church organist at Arnstadt instead. There, the church let Bach leave to study with Dietrich Buxtehude, a composer

During the later years of his life Bach gradually withdrew inwards, producing some of the most profound statements of the baroque musical form. Bach’s creative energy was conserved for the highest flights of musical expression: the Mass in b

The early piano sonatas of Beethoven deserve special mention. Although his first published examples of concertos and trios and the first two symphonies are beneath the masterpieces of Mozart and Haydn, the piano sonatas bear an unmistakably Beethovian stamp: grandiose in scope and length, and innovative in their range of expression. The sonatas were able to move expression from terrible rage to peals of laughter to deep depression so suddenly. Capturing this unpredictable style in his music, a new freedom of expression which broke the bounds of Classical ideals, was to position Beethoven as a disturbed man in the minds of some of his contemporaries. Furthermore, he was to be seen as the father of Romanticism and the single most important innovator of music in the minds of those after him. (Bookspan 27).

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.

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.

As a court musician he would have the opportunity to perform a much larger repertoire and he would be able to engage in musical theatre and other secular musical settings. He would also be required to compose a great deal more music as well as employ his skills as a violinist. While in service to the court Bach formed relationships with many more skilled musicians and composers than he had been exposed to in his church positions. Bach spent ten years as the court and chamber organist at Weimar where he matured and grew as both a composer and musician (Williams

Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach is listed in many history books as an important transitional composer between the baroque style and the classical style without giving specific reasons why. This essay focuses on the significant contributions C.P.E Bach made to music theory and the way music was performed. This essay will also cover his influence on the emerging empfindsam style and the inspiration he gave his musical successors, such as Haydn and Mozart.

By April 3, 1700, Sebastian Bach enrolled in St. Michaels School in Luneburg. Bach had a soprano singing voice and was a part of the school’s choir. During his time at the school however, his voice changed and eventually he switched to playing the violin and harpsichord. He was greatly influenced by his organ teacher George Bohm and from watching performances by German organist Johann Adam Reincken. Bach graduated from St. Michael’s School in January 1703. He was later appointed to be the musician for the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. There he served as a violinist and occasionally filled in as the official organist. His seven months