Music At The Blasius Church

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)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on March 21st, 1865. He was the son of a musician, Johann Abrosias Bach, who was a director of church musicians, and most likely taught Bach the violin. Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died less than a year later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who most

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

Born on March 21st 1685, Bach was the son of Johann Ambrosious, who was the court musician for the Duke of Eisenach. Alongside being a musician for the duke Ambrosious was the director of musicians for the town of Eisenach. The Bach family

Lutheran church music in its first two and a half centuries can be characterized by the incorporation of a staggering variety of styles and musical genres. Plainchant, imitative polyphony, and chorale hymnody existed alongside one another, and composers such as Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) and Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) were among the first to synthesize elements of Monteverdi’s seconda pratica with a fully German practice. Fruits of this multi-style crosspollination, whether a continuo based melodic-harmonic framework, polychoral textures, use of the solo voice or obligato instruments, all paved the way for the apex of this tradition, the concerted vocal works of J.S. Bach.

S. Bach, G. F. Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti. Antonio Vivaldi, Claudio Monteverdi, Couperin, Jean-Phillippe Rameau and Jean-Baptiste Lully are other popular names in the Baroque era. Each composer specialises in different instrument compositions and techniques. Out of all the names mentioned, J. S. Bach remains to this day, one the greatest composers of both the Baroque era and all-time. Each of these composers specialise in different areas or compositions and instruments. Working extensively with keyboard instruments such as the organ and harpsichord, a few of J. S. Bach’s well-known compositions include his Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, and St. Matthew’s Passion. G. F. Handel himself composed Italian operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. His most popular work of all-time is the “Hallelujah” chorus from the oratorio Messiah, which went on to become the most popular Baroque work and considered as a choice of piece often performed in Christmas time. Domenico Scarlatti on the other hand composed in a number of musical forms, but is best known for composing 555 keyboard sonatas.

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

Bach used all of these skills in his concertos, cantatas, and fugues. A concerto is a musical composition for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra. Of all of Bach’s concertos, the “Brandenburg Concertos” are the most famous. These concertos were written for the Margrave of Brandenburg, they were written to be performed with a chamber orchestra. When writing these, Bach was the music director in Cothen under Prince Leopold, and he called the pieces “Six Concerts Avec plusieurs Instruments ("Six Concertos With several Instruments")”, but the biographer Philipp Spitta renamed it to “Brandenburg Concertos.” There are six different concertos in the collection; they showed off the musical talent in the province of Cothen as a result because each concerto required a talented soloist. The “Brandenburg Concertos” were also similar to the concertos of Vivaldi, with the three structures of fast, slow, fast, and a returning theme. Cantatas are pieces of music for vocal parts with instrumental accompaniment of an orchestra, and the cantatas of Bach are some of the best known ones in the world. Bach wrote cantatas throughout his life, but it was not until he moved to Leipzig and worked in the St. Thomas Church, did he meet his challenge of producing cantatas for the church throughout the year. Bach had to create a cantata for every Sunday and feast day in the religious calendar, which was five annually. All of these cantatas were the principal music piece used during service to highlight the passage from the sermon and to help people further comprehend the lesson being taught. There are over 200 different cantatas written by Bach, but his most famous cantata is BWV 147, “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben.” In addition to cantatas, the fugues of Bach are by far his most famous works. A fugue is a

had created could have very well helped in encouraging Bach to write his music. When the

Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685, to a family of musicians. In 1965, Bach became an orphan at nine years old when his parents died one after another. Along with his older brother Jacob, Bach went to

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.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st 1685. He is the son of Johann Ambrosius. For many years, members of the Bach family had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors.

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