The Joy of Bach Essay

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

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.

When thinking of composers, whose works changed the world of music forever, many names may come to mind. Among those on that list, both Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel are figures whose effect on music has been felt worldwide. Born in the same year, these composers have much in common and many differences that illustrate their importance to their era and music as we see it today. Their individualism and creativity influenced much of their time and together, their works defined the Baroque Period as we know it today.

He was of significance to his pupils and contempory musical connoisseurs in a way that set the foundation for the rest of Western Art music to follow. For many Bach is like coming home, in fact, “…in old Bach there is always something astonishing, and, what is the main thing, there is always something to be learned from

The ideas and beliefs brought forth by the Camerata and many others were whole and acted as a benchmark for moving forward in music, but the ideas of past musical structures had not been forgotten. Polyphony which had seemed to be a key part of the stile antico with its many rules on line and counterpoint made a strong return through the Prelude and Fugue, particularly by Johann Sebastian Bach. J.S. Bach wrote many organ pieces with long and fluid contrapuntal passages still following the ideals set in the prima practica. Many of Bach’s works had outlines brought pieces by such composers as Palestrina who some consider the father of the first practice. Palestrina’s Missa sine nomine gave Bach a strong inspiration for his particularly famous Mass in B Minor. Through this polyphony Bach was able to inspire the Lutheran Church as well as the works of many other composers who would later use his works as basis for their own. Many of the composers who would do this would move out of the Church setting and into private parties and royal houses to entertain, which was not heard of by the earlier predecessors of Polyphony who would have stayed in the churches. These men would have only gone outside of the church if the King or a royal call was offered and would then return to the church for duties.

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 1726, after three and half years at Leipzig, Bach started to publish his own works. He was full of carefulness and cautiousness to publish his works. At this time, his ideal style was not to be as long in length as English Suites, not as delicate as French Suites, simple but meaningful and virtuoso. He also targeted the piece to amateur musicians to play for their own pleasure at home and salons, rather than large public performance venues, because in those times, keyboard had become the favorite family instrument among the growing number of middle-class amateur musicians.

Handel and Bach are considered two of the greatest composers of all time. However, when comparing the output of these two musicians, the diversity manifest in music in the era when they wrote immediately becomes apparent. Handel, although he used religious subject matter, is usually characterized as fundamentally a 'secular' composer. He composed for the concert hall, not the church, and primarily as a result of royal commissions. His music is strident, powerful, and large in scope. It is designed to entertain, rather than to spur contemplation (The pure power of Handel's 'Hallelujah Chorus', NPR, 2008). Bach, in contrast, often created music designed to be performed in sacred spaces. His music is more fluid and nuanced in style and designed more to spur contemplation and devotion rather than excite people's interest as a piece of entertainment.

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.

His desire and need to put his skills to work later gave him the opportunity to work for the “household of Duke Johann Ernst” where he “served the younger, music-loving prince, who maintained a small chamber orchestra” this job gave Bach the opportunity that he needed to start his career (Terry 56). Bach had great success in later years of his life. It is a fact that few of Sebastian Bach work was printed even in his lifetime. Geck states that among the handwritten surviving works is “Clavier-Übung” the longest and most significant work published in 1726 and 1742 (23). This is a piece of his work that was not even printed but just handwritten. In Bach’s success we have the privilege of having “six sonatas, and partitas for solo violin and six cellos suites” all written in the handwriting of his first wife Anna Magdalena Bach (Geck 23). His magical world consisted of many works that he perform for different kinds of events. There is evidence recorded stated by Wolf in the book The World of The Bach Cantatas that he worked from weddings to council elections to even funerals and more (9). In recorded history there is about “1,000 of Bach's compositions” something that is incredible for such a remarkable man (Wolff 45). From fugues that were more of private matters to for example, his famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 works. To this day are played in scary movies, ballets, dance routines, theater routines, videos and enjoyed by anyone with an exquisite music taste. Kupferberg mentions in his book, Basically Bach A 300th birthday celebration, that there was a production of about 300 church cantatas during his 27 years in Leipzig (81). To conclude, Bach's death came on July 28, 1750 being married and remarried and having a total of 20 children with two women Bach left behind a splendid legacy for not just his family to be proud of but also for the enjoyment of

Later on, Bach at the age of thirty-one was approached by the Prince of Anhalt-Colthen whom he served for five years and composed suites, concertos and Sonatas from various musical instruments. One of his compositions was dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg. At the age of thirty-eight, Bach was appointed to yet another important position in Germany. He was made a Cantor at the St. Thomas`s church in Leipzig. As a Cantor, he composed music for the daily church services, he was responsible for training the singers. Some of his major works were sacred vocal music, orchestral music, Solo Sonatas and many other organ compositions. Bach was married twice as a result of being made a widower by the death of his first wife in 1720. His two marriages were said to have produced at least nineteen children of which many died at infancy.

However, works like Bachbewegung and Bach-Gesamtausgabe were created by comparing early manuscript sources. Although its academic standards may seem not so even by now, it was a significant effort in that period when musicians paid too much attentions on subjectiveness. Heinrich Bitter and Philipp Spitta were two biographies of Bach who made efforts to show Bach`s real music. Their documents presented how Bach thought an appropriate force needed in church music. Especially Spitta, he presented how Bach set the instruments and ensembles in his pieces and also discussed the evidences of performance practice from the Bach`s original manuscripts and the forgotten printed scores from seventeenth and eighteenth