How Did Bach Become A Composer

The ideas and beliefs brought forth by the Camerata and many others were whole and acted as a benchmark for moving forward in music, but the ideas of past musical structures had not been forgotten. Polyphony which had seemed to be a key part of the stile antico with its many rules on line and counterpoint made a strong return through the Prelude and Fugue, particularly by Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S. Bach wrote many organ pieces with long and fluid contrapuntal passages still following the ideals set in the prima practica. Many of Bach’s works had outlines brought pieces by such composers as Palestrina who some consider the father of the first practice. Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine gave Bach a strong inspiration for his particularly famous Mass in B Minor. Through this polyphony Bach was able to inspire the Lutheran Church as well as the works of many other composers who would later use his works as basis for their own. Many of the composers who would do this would move out of the Church setting and into private parties and royal houses to entertain, which was not heard of by the earlier predecessors of Polyphony who would have stayed in the churches. These men would have only gone outside of the church if the King or a royal call was offered and would then return to the church for duties.

The baroque era was full of influential composers, who would travel all over Europe, hear each-others music, and be influenced from all over the globe. Though music was suddenly more global, differences in nations where still audible in the music (most obviously between France and Italy). One of the era’s most famous composers was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist and violinist (far left picture below). Born into one of the greatest musical families of the times, and hailed as a “natural genius”, Bach composed over 1,000 compositions in nearly every type of musical form. Though, in his later years, he faced harsh criticism that his work was outdated (due to a new Italian style invading Germany as he wrote and prepared some of his most important pieces), his legacy still lives on strong. Some of his most popular works include “Air on a G String”, “Double Violin Concerto” and the “Brandenburg concerto No. 3”. Another famous composer was the German British composer George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)- middle picture below. Handel composed for every type of musical genre, though he is most famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. He is also credited for creating the English oratorio. Handel turned blind at old age, but continued to compose. Beethoven thought Handel to be the greatest of all his predecessors, and once said that “I would bare my head and kneel at his grave”. Some of Handles popular music

This was the perfect situation for young Sebastian and his skill level quickly increased and he then mastered all of the pieces that he had been given with the construction of a new organ in the church, Sebastian was given the task of copying music by German organist composers such as Jakob Froberger, Johann Kerll and Pachelbel. All the while learning organ from his uncle, he also attended the grammar school of Ohrdruf, which was one of the most progressive schools in Germany. Here he quickly reached the top of his class at an early age. A large portion of the scholars from Ohrdruf were employed as members of the choir, where their Cantor Elias Herda, thought highly of Johann Sebastian’s voice and musical abilities. Being that Elias supported Johann’s endeavors, he helped him receive a scholarship to be a choir member at the Michaelis monastery in

Handel and Bach are considered two of the greatest composers of all time. However, when comparing the output of these two musicians, the diversity manifest in music in the era when they wrote immediately becomes apparent. Handel, although he used religious subject matter, is usually characterized as fundamentally a 'secular' composer. He composed for the concert hall, not the church, and primarily as a result of royal commissions. His music is strident, powerful, and large in scope. It is designed to entertain, rather than to spur contemplation (The pure power of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', NPR, 2008). Bach, in contrast, often created music designed to be performed in sacred spaces. His music is more fluid and nuanced in style and designed more to spur contemplation and devotion rather than excite people's interest as a piece of entertainment.

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.

Handel and Bach composed music for similar types of instruments and composed musical pieces and vocal works. They both wrote compositions for some of the same type of works such as Fugues, Preludes, and Suites. Although, Handel wrote some operas, Bach wrote a large variety of church music. Majority of Bach’s compositions were Cantatas and Passions. What made Handel’s music rather different then Bach was the fact that he used simple harmonic progression. Bach’s music was written with sudden surprising harmonic shifts and he also focused on adding extra ordinary chords throughout his works. Handel preferred using simple textures, by creating music with three different melodies that were to be played at once, while several other instruments were being played at the same time. Bach on the other hand creatively composed his music

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's and being turned down for the post of organist at Sangerhausen, Bach was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties, which is not something that was easy to swallow for a musician of Bach's caliber. There were rumors that he would speak very negatively about the choir, especially the vocalists who were singing. Saying that they were not good in the

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

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)

The next two years were ones of sufficient production of original pieces for organ by Bach. His talent definitely did not go unnoticed. He was even given a diamond ring by the Crown Prince Fredrick of Sweden when he heard Bach perform. His fame came from his amazing ability to play the organ and not his compositions, yet. A few years later the Prince Leopold of Cothen Germany offered him a position to conduct the court orchestra. Although Bach had to spend a month in jail before starting his job, this opportunity led to the prime years of not only his musical career but also his

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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.

Bach’s polyphonic music is full of counterpoint, the combining of two or more melodic lines into a meaningful whole. He perfected the art of the fugue, a complex composition usually written for four musical lines. “Bach’s fugues involved incredibly complex melodies that, even though they started at different times, wound up sounding good together.” The one I chose to describe is the first prelude and fugue from Bach’s second book, in the key of C major.

Before looking more closely at the composers’ works, they must be placed in their proper historical contexts. Bach was a great composer of the

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