Johann Sebastian 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.

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 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

Many musical scholars believe that J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel are the two most important, influential composers of the Baroque period. Both of these men were born in Germany in 1685, and since they came into existence around the same time, they share some similarities. As an introductory statement, Bach and Handel were born into two very different families. Handel did not come from a musical family; his father wanted him to study law. By age nine, his talent was too obvious for his father to ignore and Handel began to study with a local organist and composer. On the contrary, Bach came from a long line of musicians. Bach also had four sons which became gifted composers, in their own right. Bach, like Handel, also started as an organist

Telemann was becoming equally adept both at composing and performing, teaching himself flute, oboe, violin, recorder, double bass, and other instruments. In 1701 he graduated from the Gymnasium and went to Leipzig to become a student at the Leipzig University, where he intended to study law. He ended up becoming a professional musician, regularly composing works for Nikolaikirche and even St. Thomas (Thomaskirche). In 1702 he became director of the municipal opera house Opernhaus auf dem Brühl, and later music director at the Neukirche. Prodigiously productive, Telemann supplied a wealth of new music for Leipzig, including several operas, one of which was his first major opera, Germanicus. However, he became engaged in a conflict with the cantor of the Thomaskirche, Johann Kuhnau. The conflict intensified when Telemann started employing numerous students for his projects, including those who were Kuhnau's, from the

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

In the spring of 1723, when Bach signed a contract to become the new organist and a teacher at the St. Thomas Church and Thomas School in Leipzig, he was already known more as an organist than a composer. Bach had an extraordinary ability to improvise on the organ and was able to compose various style of music. He wrote educational works for his pupil and his duties were mainly to provide the weekly worships of cantatas. And also, his publication of keyboard pieces had very little to do with his duties. However, his pride as a composer was determined to publish these partitas. He also competed with Johann Kuhnau, who was a well-known composer at Germany at this time.

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

Bach was able to convince the church and town government at Mühlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church. In 1708 Bach wrote Gott ist mein König, a festive cantata for the inauguration of the new Council, which was published at the Council 's expense.

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.

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.

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.

St. Michael’s formed a strong foundation for Bach’s music career. The school had an impressive music library which included important manuscripts and prints from a famous seventeenth century cantor, Friedrich Emanuel Praetorius, (Koster). At the school, the students were taught French music and manners, which had a great influence on Bach. In Luneburg he met Georg Bohm, an organist at Johanniskirche and one with the same Thuringia background and who also wrote keyboard music with some French influence in it. Bohm influenced Bach with the French instrumental music. Bach performed at the court of Celle (baroque music). He also had some influence from Johan Adam Reinken, a Dutch, who is also said to have been Bohm’s teacher, from Hamburg, 48 kilometers north of Luneburg. Bach made several trips from Luneburg to Hamburg to learn the organ from Reinken.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 –1750)-A theorist at heart was one of the most renowned composers of the Baroque Period known for the use of his exquisite and infallible counterpoint method. Famous for his more than 300 cantatas, the Goldberg Variations and two Passions It was recently discovered that Bist du Bei Mir was actually composed by Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel (1685 –1750) even though it stills appears as Bach BWV 508. Stolzel was a prolific composer of the Baroque Period as well, and Bach had great respect for him. Sometimes, Bach would use little excerpts from Solztel’s music as exercises that were used to teach his children. The piece was found in Ana Magdalena Bach’s notebook so it was immediately attributed to her husband; but the

Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Leipzig from 1723 until his death in 1750. In Leipzig, he was the music director of the Collegium Musicum, which presented a series of evening concerts that brought visitors and musical talent to the city. An example of the repertoire presented in these concerts would be Bach’s harpsichord concertos, which were arrangements of other concertos for different instruments. According to Pankratz, these concertos (both for the original instrument and harpsichord) were written with didactic purposes, meaning that they were supposed to help the students improve their musical skills. Following Pankratz’s idea of Bach being a music director with instructive goals, this paper suggests that the third movement of the Harpsichord Concerto No.5 in F minor, BWV 1056 by Johann Sebastian Bach is a prime example of his pedagogic influence in Leipzig, represented by the constant interaction between the soloist and the ripieno. This is symbolic of the teacher-student relation Bach had with the students, as he would often be the solo performer in the evening concerts and the students would play the ripieno parts.