Summary Of Changing Issues Of Performance Practice

During the later years of his life Bach gradually withdrew inwards, producing some of the most profound statements of the baroque musical form. Bach’s creative energy was conserved for the highest flights of musical expression: the Mass in b

The Baroque Music Era is one of the most influential eras of music in music history. One of the most famous and well-known composers from that era is Johann Sebastian Bach (McKay, Hill, et al., 2012). In this discussion we will be analyzing who Bach was and his place in history and critiquing his influences in both today’s musical society and the musical society in the Baroque Era.

     Among the influential composers of baroque music, there have been few who have contributed so much in talent, creativity, and style as Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was a German organist and composer of the baroque era. Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia and died July 28,1750. Bach revealed his feelings and his insights in his pieces. Bach’s mastery of all the major forms of baroque music (except opera) resulted not only from his genius talent, but also from his life long quest for knowledge. In some parts of Germany, the name, “Bach” became a synonym with the word, “musician.” Extremely talented in the art of baroque composition, Bach placed his heart, soul, and

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.

If we are to evaluate Bach’s significance as a tutor, should we then assess the success of his students? Bach had taught numerous pupils during his life, particularly since c. 1706/7, where most primary sources are dated from. Johann Casper Vogler was one of Bach’s ‘successful’ students who became a nationally known organist and won an exclusive examination performance in the Markt-Kirche at Hanover. In 1721 he moved to take Bach’s former post as Organist for the Weimar Court. Vogler, previously known as “Anonymous 18”, is of significance today through his hand copies of Bach’s works. His copy of Bach’s Prelude and Fughetta in C Major, BWV 870a, is of particular influence, being highly regarded within performance study practices for having the fingerings written out. It is seen that Bach’s teaching methods went beyond the scope of influencing his direct pupils. Johann Tobias Krebs was another of Bach’s ‘acclaimed’ students who in 1721 accepted the post as Organist at Buttelstedt. Here he was expected to play the organ of Michaeliskirche and instruct at the school. Although J. T. Krebs remained at Buttelstedt for the rest of his life, he is mostly acknowledged as being the father of Johann Ludwig Krebs, also a student of Bach. Johann Ludwig Krebs became to be considered comparable to Bach; continuing the genius particularly through his keyboard technique and counterpoint. The names of some other notable pupils of Bach include Johann Martin Schubart, who in 1717 succeeded Bach at his organist post in Weimar. Another student was Johann Schneider who became organist of St.

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.

Bach’s complex compositional style incorporates religious and numerological symbols that fit perfectly together in a puzzle of musical code. Demanding unfaltering facility in dexterity, precise pitch, particularly in the multiple stoppings, as well as sensitivity to implied polyphonic and harmonic textures. These exceptional works may be the closest thing we have to a “perfect” composition, so why is it that musicians have drastically different alterations and interpretations of his works? It is as if quality, intensity, duration, and even pitch are subject to the performer’s adaptation. By mapping out these alterations performers make to Bach’s music, it becomes possible to map out their respective musical personalities.

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.

There have been countless musicians throughout the years that have made a massive impact on the way we sing, play, and even write music today. Composers like Beethoven, Handel, Frescobaldi, and Gabrieli are just a few that come to mind that have made an impact. There is one, however, that stands out like a dissonant chord in a piece of music, and that composer is Johann Sebastian Bach. He was so influential to music, in fact, that his death marked the death of the Baroque Period. Let’s take a deeper look at the life of this amazing composer.

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

Bach was a prolific composer during the later parts of the baroque period, he was also a prolific concerto composer also, He himself composing many pieces in concerto form. Most of these works were composed around 1720. Bach was the Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen during this period; this was also the period in which his wife died suddenly, perhaps striking inspiration. Many of Bach’s concertos used additional and varied instrumentation to those of Corelli and the concerto grosso form. They often had woodwind and brass instruments such as the oboe, recorder, trumpet and piccolo. There was no standard instrumentation for Bach’s concertos, the instruments he used varied from piece to piece. To contrast this, Bach’s concerto No. 1 used two horns, three oboes, a violino piccolo accompanied by the bassoon, a strings section (similar to a

The Renaissance and Baroque era entailed very different characteristics, due to the Renaissance composers writing more freely and being more individual then those of the Baroque era where they followed more ‘rules’ and experimented less. This essay will show the difference in two pieces by different composers, even though they were written less than a century apart.

When approaching a performance, accomplished musicians often consider the historical context from which a piece originates. They most often think of such considerations in the application of that context as it pertains to early music that is, the Baroque era or earlier. For any era, such historical considerations are called performance practice, and may include the use of vibrato, ornamentation, dynamic levels, tempi, instrumental timbres, performance setting, and balance. Vibrato and ornamentation are two important areas of consideration that vocalists must explore when aiming to give an authentically Baroque performance.

The Baroque musical period occurred throughout Europe from 1600 to 1750. The compositions during this period had certain characteristics. Some of these characteristics included unity of mood, continuity of rhythm and melody, and most compositions, in the middle to late Baroque period, included polyphonic textures (Kamien, 2011). Many musicians, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Arcangelo Corelli, thrived during this period. They composed hundreds to thousands of compositions in various different musical forms and each piece holds the characteristics of the Baroque period uniquely. This paper will review the

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.