Johann Pachelbel 's Influence On The Baroque Era

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.

The Baroque period began around the 1600’s until around the 1750’s. The Baroque era of music was one of the most revolutionary periods in music history. This era saw the development of functional tonality, brought new instrumental playing techniques and more elaborate and complex compositions. Baroque music was complex, tonal, and had clear common patterns of chords. This era also featured many well-known composers, such as Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. This era also brought about developments in musical terms and concepts which are still used in today’s music.

When Bach was in Arnstadt when he was younger, the organ ordinarily lacked a 16-foot register on the keyboard; consequently, it sounds an octave lower than the normal 8-foot register. Accordingly, in order to create the effect, Bach used octave doubling; consequently, he continued the resounding effect of the opening bars; conversely, there is no octave doubling in any of Bach’s later organ works; moreover, the fugue sounds furious with its uninterrupted series of fast notes. Also, Bach felt embarrassed about his crude style, and he put the work aside; consequently, Bach lost a lot of his other early organ work completely. Conversely, the Tocca and the Fugue has an unstructured form, and that means that keyboard players can let their imagination run wild; as a result, Johann Gottfried Walther described the Toccata as a long piece in which both hands alternate, sometimes accompanied by long pedal notes. For this reason, Bach connected the Toccata’s freedom to the stylus phantasticus; moreover, stylus phantasticus was popular in North Germany from the seventeenth century; in addition, people described this style of composition as “freed from all constraint”. Moreover, it’s remarkable that Bach paired the toccata with the prelude and the fugue because it’s subject to strict compositional rules; nevertheless, the fugue derives its thematic material from the preceding part.

Composers wrote for their employers. The Catholic Church supported and employer quite a few of the baroque composers. Music has always been an important part in services. Baroque music tends to be religious in nature due to this fact. Before the baroque period, church and celebrations in the home of wealthy music patrons were the only places to hear music. During the baroque period, composers would perform publically. This led to the middle class actually hearing music for entertainment for the first time. Music became a form of entertainment all people wanted to be at. The music changed from only sacred and in church to a normality in the secular life of the people. After this period, composers wrote music for the common people to play and instruments are seen in homes. The baroque period set all of this off.

This proposal is for the composition of a piece for organ solo to be premiered at the Ronald G. Pogorzelski-Lester D. Yankee Memorial Organ. The proposed title of the piece is “Flowing Streams”. The title is a word game with the name of the composer and organ master J. S. Bach (which translation means creek). The mainstream of the proposed piece is to give a contemporary voice to the immortal work of the baroque composer through quotation of elements of his own music. Bach’s original elements will not be used in their own traditional baroque-tonal approach, but they will be a vehicle to tell a story under a contemporary polystylistic approach. These elements will be combined, compared, and opposed sometimes in a very converging way, another

Johann Sebastian Bach is known as the most influential organists of all time. More so, he is considered one of the greatest composers in music history. Born into a family of musicians, he was instructed by his father, Johann Ambrosius, who worked as a musician in Eisenach. Bach already had the thriving urge to take on various musical positions. His family of musicians stretches back as far as seven generations. Johann was born on March 31, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. Some of his best known compositions are “Mass in B minor” and “The Well-Tempered Clavier”.

The Baroque period is seen as the birth of “classical” music. It was fairly similar to music of previous years and added to the conformity of the time. When I was toddler, I had no choice in my life, just like every other child. We accept what is given to us, and learn not to misbehave if we want to be rewarded. One common trait of Baroque music is the continuity and repetition of both rhythm and melody.

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 one of the most important figures in the Baroque era of music. His music was a large part of the Baroque era and contains many musical principles of the time. The question is, what specific ideas did Bach use in his music? Did he use different Baroque techniques based on what he was writing for? And how were these techniques used in his music? In this paper, I will discover what Baroque era techniques Bach used in some of his music, what kind of compositional models Bach used, and how Bach’s Great Eighteen organ chorales were received.

He was in charge of the musical outputs of the four leading churches as well as the education of music practise and theory (Anhalt). “Bach began, from the moment of his arrival in Leipzig, to take charge of the cantorate in true capellmeisterly fashion.” (Geck and Mann 559). It is clear that when Bach stepped foot in Leipzig, his impact on music would not just benefit the Lutheran church but the society too. The unofficial activities that he undertook in the Collegium Musicum and the service of public performances would forever modify and shape the traditional role of Kantor in the German Lutheran context of the Baroque

Franz Joseph Haydn and Beethoven were two important musicians influenced by Bach’s music. While unaware of his vocal pieces, they were aware of some keyboards compositions. Haydn owned manuscripts of the Well-tempered Clavier and the B-,imor Mass((Ludwig Fischuer, “Bach’s Posthumous Role in Music History” in Bach Perspectives 3, Ed. Michea lMarlssen, (Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 13) and Beethoven called Bach the “Progenitor of Harmony”( Wolff, Bach: Essays on his Life and Music372) planning to write an overture on Bach’s at the end of his life(Schweltzer, J.S Bach 240)). Still, Bach was not seen as a composer, mainly just a teacher( Denis Arnold, Bach, (Ox University {ress, 1984)

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.

According to the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, “the baroque period was thus one of stylistic duality.” It was an era that displayed emotional extremes through art and architecture. One of the ways art was expressed was through music. During the early baroque era, music became more appealing to the people of Italy. It was a way of how people can voice their emotions and feelings in different forms through other senses besides their eyes. Unlike the other kinds of arts such as paintings and sculptures that have a visual, emotional effect, the baroque music affected the people through their sense of hearing. Music became more popular with the middle class, and amateur musicians started to appear. Because of the conflict between the Catholics

The Baroque Period (1600-1750) was mainly a period of newly discovered ideas. From major new innovations in science, to vivid changes in geography, people were exploring more of the world around them. The music of the baroque period was just as extreme as the new changes. Newly recognized composers such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi were writing entirely new musical ideas and giving a chance for new voices to be heard that were normally not thought of sounds. Their musical legacy is still recognized today, and is a treasured discovery of outstanding compositions being reiterated with every performance of them.

The baroque period of music commenced in the year 1600 and ended around 1750 (Fuller – “Baroque”). Its texture was mainly polyphonic (Fuller – “Classical”). Polyphonic means that two or more different melodies are played simultaneously (McComb). This provides an energetic rhythm, long melodies, and many ornaments. The most famous composers of this time period were Vivaldi, Corelli, Monteverdi, Purcell, Handel, J.S. Bach, and Couperin. Many new styles of music were introduced, such as operas, sonatas, oratorios, suites, fugues, and concertos. Orchestras began to develop, but it was not until the classical period when orchestral music was perfected (Fuller – “Baroque”).