Johann Sebastian Bach Research Paper

Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer born on March 21, 1685 in Germany during the Baroque period. The Baroque period was a time during history when a certain style of European architecture, music, and art flourished there. Music during that specific time were often focused on lower and higher tones. Bach was able to play the organ, violin, viola, and harpsichord. As a result, he is considered one of the greatest composers of Western history, especially back in his day. Bach was influenced by his family of many musicians. For example, his father Johann Ambrosius Bach taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord, while his uncle had taught him to play the organ.

Born in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. He had a respected musical extraction and took on various organist positions during the early 18th century, producing famous compositions like Fugue in D major. Currently, he is well-none as one of the greatest Western composers of all time. His started his music career at the age eighteen after his parent had passed away. His father had taught him to play the violin and the harpsichord. “The Fugue has its subject announced in the alto, answered in the tenor, followed by the bass in the pedals and finally the soprano and continuing on an impressive scale to conclude with a sustained upper note, followed by a final tonic pedal below.” (Johann Sebastian Bach Preludes and Fugues ,

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

When given the task of writing a biography on Johann Sebastian Bach, there are roughly nine periods in his life that can be discussed in detail. Beginning in Eisenach with his birth, moving to Ohrdruf after his parent’s death, deciding to pursue choral studies in Luneburg, his first stay in Weimar while awaiting the organ to be built in Arnstadt, moving to Arnstadt and beginning services for the town at age 18, auditioning for the organist position in Muhlhausen, returning to Weimar to continue working as a member of the chamber orchestra and as Organist of the Court in Weimar, leaving Weimar to become the Chapel master in Cothen, and finally residing in Leipzig where he eventually passed away at age 65.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s timeless work has continued to have an influential impact throughout the centuries. Being an accomplished musician and composer of his time he has had many important roles in his life. One namely, are the roles that he revolutionised, Kantor of St. Thomas church and Music Director of Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig is a city located in the state of Saxony, Germany. During the Renaissance it rose to prominence and in the Baroque period, stood as a wealthy city amongst Hamburg and Frankfurt. Throughout the 16th century Leipzig endured, barely, the Thirty Year War and plague (Stauffer). The city managed to develop and thrive afterwards and the influx of skilled refugees from foreign countries assisted in this development. Leipzig’s

Born and raised in Eisenach, Germany John Sebastian Bach has become known as one of the great composers in Western musical history. At the young age of only nine Johns parents tragically died and he was sent to live with his brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist. Being around music because of his brother, John learned how to play the keyboard and studied composition all by himself. He worked as a court composer at Cothen, an organist, and then he worked as a musical director at St. Thomas church located in Leipzig. Where he attended and was very religious. J.S Bach produced hundreds of instrumental works, and he hand wrote hundreds of thousands of pages of sheet music.

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.

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

Johann Sebastian Bach was born March 21, 1685 in the town of Eisenach Germany. Bach was born into a musical family. His father, Joann Ambrosius, was a court trumpeter as well as the director of the musicians of the town of Eisenach. Growing up, Bach learned how to play the violin and harpsichord from his father. He learned to play the organ from his famous uncle, Johann Christoph, who was the organist at the Georgenkirche in Eisenach. He was a willing pupil and soon became skilled in these instruments and many more. Although, instruments weren’t the only thing Bach was skilled in. When Bach was young, he sang in an all boys choir. His voice was once described as “an uncommonly fine treble voice”.

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.

When Bach was eight years old he went to the old Latin Grammar School. He was taught reading and writing, Latin grammar, and a great deal of scripture, both in Latin and German. The boys in the school formed the choir of the St. Georgenkirche. This also gave Bach an opportunity to sing in the regular services, as well as in the nearby villages. He has an uncommonly fine treble voice.

A perfect example of this can be seen in Arnstadt. Previous accounts of history claim that Bach was upset with the performance of the church choir for which he played for. He claimed that “the voices could never make the music soar to the sky as it should” (loosely translated). Here Bach realized the high level of music and perfectionism that he wanted. In 1707, at the age of 22, Bach moved on from Arnstadt to another organist job, this time at the St. Blasius Church in Muhlhausen. Once again he did not remain there too long, only a little over a year, when he moved again to Weimar where he accepted the position of head concertmaster and organist in the Ducal Chapel. It was here that Bach settled himself and began to compose the first collection of his finest early works which, included organ pieces and cantatas.

     By this stage in his life, Bach had developed a reputation as a brilliant musical talent. His profiency on the organ was unequalled in Europe and he toured regularly as a solo virtuoso. In 1717, Bach left Weimar to take a job as a court conductor in Anhalt-Cothen (1717-1723). There is where he started concentrating on instrumental music. The Cothen period produced, among other masterpieces, the Brandenburg Concerti.

In modern day America, most know what a piano is, regardless of whether or not they can play one. Many people with little interest in music know piano musicians by the names of Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and even Frederic Chopin. Many people also believe Johann Sebastian Bach played piano, but that simply isn’t true. Bach, a composer of the Baroque/Renaissance period, played the father instrument of the piano, the Harpsichord. Harpsichords are just as important as pianos because without Harpsichords, we wouldn’t have music’s signature instrument to enjoy.

Thomas church in Leipzig. This was a demanding job in which Bach composed canatas for the St. Thomas and St. Nicholas churches, conduct the choirs, oversee the musical activities of numerous municipal churches, and teach Latin in the St. Thomas choir school. Bach remained at his post in Leipzig until his death in 1750. Although he excelled his forbears and contemporaries, he did not receive the respect he deserved until after his death. Bach is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all composers and is a source of inspiration for musicians.