Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach , 1685-1750, German composer and organist, b. Eisenach; one of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world. He brought polyphonic baroque music to its culmination, creating masterful and vigorous works in almost every musical form known in his period.

Life

Born into a gifted family (see Bach , family), J. S. Bach was devoted to music from childhood. He was taught by his father and later by his brother Johann Christoph, and was a boy soprano in Lüneberg. His education was acquired largely through independent studies. He had an insatiable curiosity about music and sometimes walked great distances to hear the organists Johann Adam Reinken (at Hamburg) and Buxtehude (at Lübeck). In 1703 he became violinist in the private orchestra of the prince at Weimar but left within a year to become organist at Arnstadt.

Bach went to Mühlhausen as organist in 1707. There he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, who was to bear him seven children. In 1708 he was made court organist and chamber musician at Weimar, and in 1714 he became concert master. Prince Leopold of Anhalt engaged him as musical director at Köthen in 1717. Three years later his wife died, and in 1721 he married Anna Magdalena Wülken, a woman of considerable musical cultivation who eventually bore him 13 children. In 1723 he took the important post of music director of the church of St. Thomas, Leipzig, and of its choir school; he remained in Leipzig until his death.

Compositions

Since few of Bach's many works were published in his lifetime, exact dates cannot be fixed for all of them, but most can be placed with some certainty in the periods of his life. At Arnstadt and Mühlhausen he began a series of organ compositions that culminated in the great works of the Weimar period: the Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, most of the great preludes and fugues, and the 45 chorale-preludes gathered in Das Orgelbüchlein [the little organ book].

At Köthen he concentrated on instrumental compositions, especially keyboard works: the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue; the English Suites; the French Suites; the Two-Part and Three-Part Inventions, written for the education of his son Wilhelm Friedemann; and Book I of the celebrated Well-Tempered Clavier. He also wrote several unaccompanied violin sonatas and cello suites, and the Brandenburg Concertos, recognized as the best concerti grossi ever composed.

The St. John Passion was performed (1723) at Leipzig when Bach was a candidate for the position of musical director at St. Thomas. His Magnificat was presented shortly after he assumed that post. Many more of his superb religious compositions followed: the St. Matthew Passion (1729), the Christmas Oratorio, the sonorous Mass in B Minor, and the six motets. The principal keyboard works of this period were Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier and the four books of clavier pieces in the Clavierübung, which includes: six partitas (1726-31); the Italian Concerto and the Partita in B Minor (1735); the Catechism Preludes, the Prelude and Fugue (St. Anne) in E Flat (1739), and four duets; and the Goldberg Variations (more formally Aria with Thirty Variations, 1742). His last notable compositions were the Musical Offering composed (1747) for Frederick the Great and The Art of the Fugue (1749).

Accomplishments and Influence

In all his positions as choir director, Bach composed sacred cantatas—a total of some 300, of which nearly 200 are extant. There are also over 30 secular cantatas, composed at Leipzig, among them Phoebus and Pan (1731). The bulk of his work is religious—he made four-part settings of 371 Lutheran chorales, also using many of them as the bases of organ preludes and choral works. In addition, he composed an astonishing number of instrumental works, many of them designed for the instruction of his numerous pupils. In his instrumental and choral works he perfected the art of polyphony, displaying an unmatched combination of inventiveness and control in his great, striding fugues.

During his lifetime, Bach was better known as an organist than as a composer. For decades after his death his works were neglected, but in the 19th cent. his genius came to be recognized, particularly by romantic composers such as Mendelssohn and Schumann . Since that time his reputation has grown steadily.

Bibliography

The classic study of his life and music is by P. Spitta (tr. 1884-85, repr. 1972), and A. Schweitzer's study (tr. 1911, repr. 1962) attracted much attention. See also biographies by K. and I. Geiringer (1966), C. S. Terry (1928, repr. 1988), C. Wolff (2000), and M. Geck (2006); studies by J. N. Forkel (tr. 1920, repr. 1970), R. L. Marshall (2 vol., 1972), and B. Schwendowius and W. Domling, ed. (1984); H. T. David and A. Mendel, The Bach Reader (1945, rev. ed. 1966); O. L. Bettmann, Johann Sebastian Bach as His World Knew Him (1995).

Bach, Johann Sebastian Prolific German baroque composer. He held a series of successive court positions as organist and music director and had 20 children, four of whom were also composers. Bach brought contrapuntal forms to their highest expression and is unrivaled in his ability to interweave melodies within the exacting rules of baroque harmony and counterpoint. While at the court in Weimar (1708–17), he wrote many of his great organ works (preludes, fugues, toccatas), such as the Fugue in C minor. At Köthen (1717–23), he wrote instrumental works for keyboard, such as Book I of the The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the six Brandenburg Concertos for chamber orchestra. As musical director of St Thomas, Leipzig (1723–50), Bach wrote his celebrated church music, including St Matthew Passion (1729) and Mass in B Minor. Other works included the Goldberg Variations (1742). The Art of Fugue remained incomplete at his death.

http://www.jsbach.org

Bach, Johann Sebastian (b Eisenach, 1685; d Leipzig, 1750). Ger. composer and organist. Son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, organist and town musician, J. S. Bach was orphaned at the age of 10 and went to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph at Ohrdruf where he had klavier and org. lessons. In 1700 was a chorister at St Michael's Church, Lüneburg, staying for 3 years, learning much from the organist-composer Georg Böhm. Organist at Arnstadt, 1703, and then Mühlhausen, 1707, when he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. In 1708 became organist in the Kapelle of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, where he remained for 9 years, leaving in disappointment at not being appointed Kapellmeister in 1717. By this time he had comp. some of his finest org. works and church cantatas.

In 1717 appointed Kapellmeister at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen where the prince's interest was not in religious works but in instr. comps. From this period date his vn. concs., sonatas, suites, and Brandenburg concs. Also comp. many of his best klavier works at Cöthen, probably for his children's instruction. In 1720 his wife died and in Dec. 1721 he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, 20-year-old daughter of the court trumpeter. Now dissatisfied with life at Cöthen, where the ruler's new wife showed little interest in mus., Bach applied for the cantorship at St Thomas's, Leipzig, in Dec. 1722. He was not selected, but the chosen candidate, Graupner, withdrew and Bach was appointed in May 1723, having in the meantime cond. his St John Passion in St Thomas's as evidence of his fitness for the post. Remained at St Thomas's for the rest of his life, not without several disputes with the authorities. During time there, comp. more than 250 church cantatas, the St Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, Christmas Oratorio, Goldberg Variations, and many other works incl. his last, the unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge (Art of Fugue). In 1740 began to have trouble with his eyesight and in the last year of his life was almost totally blind.

Bach was famous as an org. virtuoso. As a composer his reputation in his lifetime was restricted to a fairly narrow circle and his mus. was regarded by many as old-fashioned. His fame in no way approached that of, e.g., Telemann. His pubd. works today fill many vols., but in his lifetime fewer than a dozen of his comps. were printed, and for half a century after his death this position was only slightly improved until in 1801 the Well-Tempered Klavier was issued. The revival of interest in Bach's mus. may be dated from the Berlin perf. of the St Matthew Passion on 11 Mar. 1829, cond. Mendelssohn. Systematic publication of his works by the Bach Gesellschaft began in 1850 to mark the centenary of his death. (See Bach Revival.)

Bach's supreme achievement was as a polyphonist. His N. Ger. Protestant religion was the root of all his art, allied to a tireless industry in the pursuit of every kind of refinement of his skill and technique. Sonata form was not yet developed enough for him to be interested in it, and he had no leaning towards the (to him) frivolities of opera. Although some of the forms in which he wrote—the church cantata, for example—were outdated before he died, he poured into them all the resources of his genius so that they have outlived most other examples. The dramatic and emotional force of his mus., as evidenced in the Passions, was remarkable in its day and has spoken to succeeding generations with increasing power. Suffice it to say that for many composers and for countless listeners, Bach's mus. is supreme—to quote Wagner: ‘the most stupendous miracle in all music’. Prin. works:ORCH.: Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1–6 (BWV1046–51); 7 Concertos for hpd. and str. (BWV1052–8), No.1 in D minor, No.2 in E, No.3 in D, No.4 in A, No.5 in F minor, No.6 in F, No.7 in G minor; 3 concs. for 2 hpd. and str. (BWV1060–2), No.1 in C minor, No.2 in C, No.3 in C minor; 2 concs. for 3 hpd. and str. (BWV1063–4), No.1 in D minor, No.2 in C (No.1 arr. for vn., fl., ob., No.2 for 3 vn. or fl., ob., vn.); conc. for 4 hpd. and str. in A minor (BWV1065, transcr. of Vivaldi conc. Op.3 No.10); conc. for fl., vn., hpd., str. (BWV1044), hpd., ob., str. (BWV1059), vn., str. in A minor (BWV1041, same work as BWV1058), vn., str. in E (BWV1042, same work as BWV1054), 2 vn., str. in D minor (BWV1043, same work as BWV1062), vn., ob., str., in D minor (BWV1060, reconstr. of hpd. conc.); 4 Suites (BWV1066–9), No.1 in C, No.2 in B minor, No.3 in D, No.4 in D.CHAMBER MUSIC: Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue) (BWV1080); Das Musikalische Opfer (The Musical Offering) (BWV1079); 3 Partitas, solo vn. (BWV1002, 1004, 1006), No.1 in B minor, No.2 in D minor, No.3 in E; 3 Sonatas, solo vn. (BWV1001, 1003, 1005), No.1 in G minor, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in C; 6 Sonatas, vn., klavier (BWV1014–9), No.1 in B minor, No.2 in A, No.3 in E, No.4 in C minor, No.5 in F minor, No.6 in G; 6 Sonatas, vn./fl., klavier (BWV1020–5), No.1 in G minor, No.2 in G, No.3 in F, No.4 in E minor, No.5 in C minor, No.6 in A; 4 Sonatas, 2 vn./2 fl./2 ob., hpd. (BWV1036–9), No.1 in D minor, No.2 in C, Nos.3 and 4 in G; 6 Sonatas, fl., hpd. (BWV1030–5), No.1 in B minor, No.2 in E♭, No.3 in A, No.4 in C, No.5 in E minor, No.6 in E; 3 Sonatas, viola da gamba (vc.), klavier (BWV1027–9), No.1 in G (same as BWV1039), No.2 in D, No.3 in G minor; sonata, fl. in A minor (BWV1013); 6 Suites, vc. (BWV1007–12), No.1 in G, No.2 in D minor, No.3 in C, No.4 in E♭, No.5 in C minor, No.6 in D.KEYBOARD: Capriccio in B♭ (on the departure of a beloved brother) (BWV992); Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor (BWV903); 16 concs., solo hpd. (BWV972–87), Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9 transcr. of Vivaldi, No.3 of Marcello, Nos. 14 and 15 of Telemann; 6 English Suites (BWV806–11), No.1 in A, No.2 in A minor, No.3 in G minor, No.4 in F, No.5 in E minor, No.6 in D minor; Fantasia in A minor (BWV922); Fantasia and Fugue in A minor (BWV904); 6 French Suites (BWV812–17), No.1 in D minor, No.2 in C minor, No.3 in B minor, No.4 in E♭, No.5 in G, No.6 in E; Fugue in C (BWV952); ‘Goldberg’ Variations (BWV988); 15 Inventions (2-part) (BWV772–86); 15 Inventions (3-part) (BWV787–801); Italian Concerto (BWV971); 6 Partitas (BWV825–30); 9 Preludes for W. F. Bach (BWV924–32); 6 Preludes (BWV933–8); 7 Toccatas (BWV910–16), No.1 in F♯ minor, No.2 in C minor, No.3 in D, No.4 in D minor, No.5 in E minor, No.6 in G minor, No.7 in G; Variations in the Italian Style (BWV989); Das Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Klavier), 48 preludes and fugues (BWV846–93).LUTE: Suites: in A (BWV1007), in E minor (BWV996), in E (BWV1006a, transcr. from BWV1006, vn. Partita No.3), in C minor (BWV997), in G minor (BWV995).ORGAN: 6 concs. (BWV592–7), all transcr. from other composers, incl. Vivaldi); 4 Duets (BWV802–5); Fantasia and Fugue in C minor (BWV537), in G minor (BWV542); Fantasias, in C (BWV573), in C minor (BWV562), in G (BWV572); Fugues, in C minor (BWV574), in C minor (BWV575), in G (BWV577), in G minor (BWV578); Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV582); Prelude and Fugue: in A (BWV536), in A minor (BWV543), in A minor (BWV551), in B minor (BWV544), in C (BWV531), in C (BWV545), in C (BWV547), in C minor (BWV546), in C minor (BWV549), in D (BWV532), in D minor (BWV538), in D minor (BWV539), in E minor (BWV533), in E minor (‘Wedge’) (BWV548), in E♭ (BWV552), in F minor (BWV534), in G (BWV541), in G (BWV550), in G minor (BWV535), in G minor (BWV542); 8 Preludes and Fugues (BWV553–60), No.1 in C, No.2 in D minor, No.3 in E minor, No.4 in F, No, 5 in G, No.6 in G minor, No.7 in A minor, No.8 in B♭; 6 Sonatas (BWV525–30), No.1 in E♭, No.2 in C minor, No.3 in D minor, No.4 in E minor, No.5 in C, No.6 in G; Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C (BWV564); Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Dorian) (BWV538), in D minor (BWV565), in E (BWV566), in F (BWV540); Trio in D minor (BWV583), in G (BWV586).CHORALE PRELUDES: Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) (BWV599–644), containing 46 items; also many others of which only a brief selection is given here: Ach, bleib bei uns (BWV649), Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr (BWV711), An Wasserflüssen Babylon (BWV653b), Christum wir sollen Loben schon (BWV696), Ein’ feste Burg (BWV720), Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend (BWV709), In dulci jubilo (BWV729), Jesu, meine Freude (BWV713), Jesus Christus, unser Heiland (BWV688), Komm, Gott Schöpfer (BWV667), Komm, heiliger Geist (BWV652), Kommst du nun, Jesu (BWV650), Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (BWV706), Meine Seele erhebet den Herren (BWV648), Nun danket alle Gott (BWV657), Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (BWV659), O Gott, du frommer Gott (BWV767), O Lamm Gottes unschuldig (BWV656), Schmücke dich, O liebe Seele (BWV654), Vater unser in Himmelreich (BWV682/3, 737), Vom Himmel hoch (BWV700, 701 fughetta, 738, 769 canonic variations), Wachet auf (BWV645), Wer nur den lieben Gott (BWV647, 690, 691), Wo soll ich fliehen hin (BWV646).CANTATAS: Merely a selection of these is given here, with dates of comp. where known: No.4 Christ lag in Todesbanden (c.1707), No.6 Bleib bei uns (1725), No.10 Meine Seele’ erhebt den Herren (1724, rev. 1744–50), No.11 Lobet Gott (c.1735), No.12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (1714), No.20 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (1724), No.23 Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (1723), No.28 Gottlob Nun geht das Jahr zu Ende (1725), No.29 Wir danken dir, Gott (1731), No.34 O ewiger Feuer (? after 1742), No.40 Dazu ist erschiene der Sohn Gottes (1723), No.45 Est ist dir gesagt (1726), No.51 Jauchzet Gott (1730), No.60 O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (1723), No.61 Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (1714), No.68 Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (1725), No.78 Jesu, der du meine Seele (1724), No.80 Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott (1724), No.82 Ich habe genug (1727), No.93 Wer nur den lieben Gott (1724), No.95 Christus der ist mein Leben (1723), No.106 Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (c.1707), No.140 Wachet auf (1731), No.143 Lobe den herrn (1735), No.147 Herz und Mund (10th movement is Jesu, bleibet meine Freude, Jesu, joy of man's desiring) (1723), No.197 Gott ist unser Zuversicht (c.1728), No.201 Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan (?1729), No.202 Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (?1718–23), No.208 Was mir behagt (?1713), No.209 Non sa che sia dolore (after 1740), No.211 Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Coffee cantata, 1732), No.212 Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (Peasant cantata, 1742). Canons for 2, 3, 4, and 7 voices (BWV1075, 1077, 1073, and 1078 respectively).ORATORIOS, etc: Christmas Oratorio in 6 parts (Weihnachtsoratorium) (BWV248, 1734); Easter Oratorio (BWV249, 1736); Magnificat in E♭ (BWV 243a, perf. Christmas Day 1723 incl. 4 Christmas texts), Magnificat in D (BWV243, rev. of Magnificat in E♭, c.1728–31, omitting Christmas texts); Mass in B minor (BWV232, 1724–49); Mass in G (BWV236, c.1738); Mass in G minor (BWV235, c.1737); 6 Motets (BWV225–230) 1. Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, 2. Der Geist hilft, 3. Jesu meine Freude, 4. Fürchte dich nicht, 5. Komm, Jesu, komm, 6. Lobet den Herrn; St John Passion (Johannespassion) (BWV245, 1723); St Matthew Passion (Matthäus-passion) (BWV244, 1727).SONGS AND ARIAS: Notebook (No.2) of Anna Magdalena Bach (BWV508–18), contains 11 songs, the first being Bist du bei mir (but not by Bach); Aria, Gott lebet noch (BWV461); Jesus ist das schönste Licht (BWV474); Aria, Komm, süsser Tod (BWV478); O Jesulein süss (BWV493); Song, Vergiss mein nicht, mein allerliebster Gott (BWV505).