John Bach Essay

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)

2. Bach's music had different forms and styles that came together and were brought to perfection. He brought baroque music to the peak of its development. He left 48 Preludes and Fugues. This meant the keyboard would adopt a new equal temperament which made enabled all keys to be played equally.

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.

Johann grew up in a large German home with five brothers and two sisters. However his family was different than other families, his family was known as a musical family, “For over two centuries, the Bach’s were a family of successful musicians, constituting an example that was exceptional even among their contemporaries and has seemed increasingly spectacular to each succeeding age.” Not only did his immediate family play an instrument, but all of the generations of his family played a musical instrument. Musical talent in this family has been traced back to Bach’s great grandfather. Johann Ambrosius Bach, Bach’s father, taught him and his siblings to learn and love two traditional instruments for the Baroque period: the violin and the harpsichord. Bach had a natural talent for instruments, which had probably been passed on to him through his father’s genes. While he was still a child, Johann Ambrosius Bach died eight days after his belovéd wife, so now, “both his parents were dead, and he was looked after by his eldest brother, also named Johann Christoph”. Bach’s brother followed a busy schedule, was in charge of his six brothers and sisters and he, “was appointed town organist in Eisenach in 1665. He or his assistant was expected to be present for all services on all Sundays, feasts, and celebratory days as well as weekdays and to play organ during the choraliter.” During Bach’s schooling years, his brother Johann Christoph Bach inspired him to play, repair and tune the organ as a willing

The cantata was typically sung in a church service, and could be a single movement or multiple movements. Cantatas were sung by a soloist orchestra, like the Italian opera: “Cantatas were used to denote small and large scale works, ranging from a solo singer with basso continuo to a large ensemble of soloists, chorus, and instruments.”2 Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was a composer who published a group of sacred cantatas, one titled Judith: “Judith is performed largely by one singer with basso continuo. A violin joins in for instrumental sections called symphonies and as part of an accompanied recitative.”2 The cantatas of the Lutheran church were much more sacred than Italian cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote most cantatas for the Lutheran church. The texts of Bach’s cantatas included biblical passages, a chorale text, and poetic interpretation. Bach explored a variety of instrumental and vocal elements in his cantatas: “Bach’s cantatas embody many different forms and traditions, including motet-like movements for chorus, chorale harmonization, virtuosic solos and duets, with additional solo

Bach’s attention was the music in the text. There was singing, the playing of cymbals, harps,

Cantatas became famous, and those were spread from Italy many other countries of Europe. Cantatas became as famous as they were imitated by England, France and German composers. In Germany, the impact of the Italian cantata was limited at the beginning in those places where Italian musicians were employed, and where the Italian opera succeeded. Unlike Reinhard Keiser, a composer in Hamburg who wrote solo cantatas to both Italian and German texts, Bach just wrote two Italian solo cantatas. One of these two Italian solo cantatas is Non sa che sia dolore (BWV209) which has a stronger claim of authenticity due on stylistic grounds. Amore traditore (BWV203), unlike the other one is more doubtful in authenticity. Furtheremore, there are three solo cantatas which contain German words, being wedding cantatas two of them (BWV202 and BWV210), the other one (BWV204) shows that is better to be happy than to be

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 ,

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

The hundreds of sacred works he created are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but a truly devout relationship with God. He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and some of his pieces represent it. The Lutheran chorale was the basis of much of his work. In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes, he wrote tightly integrated works than most, even when they were massive and lengthy. The large-scale structure of every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning to create a religiously and musically powerful expression. For example, the St Matthew Passion, like other works of its kind, illustrated the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales; but in crafting this work, Bach created an overall experience that has been found over the centuries since to be both musically thrilling and spiritually

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 's time in Weimar was the start of a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works. He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and to include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic motor rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and Torelli. Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects in part by transcribing Vivaldi 's string and

At age seven, Bach attended school where he gained religious instruction and studied various subjects, such as Latin. However, Bach’s Lutheran faith subjective his work as a musician. By

Gardiner suggests instead that the absences may have resulted from a negative atmosphere in a school and town filled with “rowdy, subversive, thuggish” boys”. After going under the care of his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, Bach started achieving good grades and high class standing. This period was viewed as a period of academic accomplishment by many. Bach had a beautiful soprano singing voice, which helped him join at a school in Lüneburg. Sometime after his arrival, his voice changed and Bach switched to playing the violin and the harpsichord. He was also greatly influenced by a local organist named George Böhm.  In 1703, he eventually landed his first job as a musician at the court of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. No one realized that Bach would later become such an influential musician, not only in the Baroque Era but still influential to this day of

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.