Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 17 2018

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Bach, Johann Sebastian, the most revered member of the family, whose stature as a composer has led him to be acclaimed as the supreme arbiter and lawgiver of music, a master comparable in greatness of stature with Aristotle in philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci in art; b. Eisenach, March 21 (baptized, March 23), 1685; d. Leipzig, July 28, 1750. He was a member of an illustrious family of musicians who were active in various capacities as performing artists, composers, and teachers. That so many Bachs were musicians lends support to the notion that music is a hereditary faculty, that some subliminal cellular unit may be the nucleus of musicality. The word “Bach” itself means “stream” in the German language; the rhetorical phrase that Johann Sebastian Bach was not a mere stream but a whole ocean of music (“Nicht Bach aber Meer haben wir hier”) epitomizes Bach’s encompassing magnitude. Yet despite the grandeur of the phenomenon of Bach, he was not an isolated figure dwelling in the splendor of his genius apart from the Zeitgeist, the spirit of his time. Just as Aristotle was not only an abstract philosopher but also an educator (Alexander the Great was his pupil), just as Leonardo da Vinci was not only a painter of portraits but also a practical man of useful inventions, so Bach was a mentor to young students, a master organist and instructor who spent his life within the confines of his native Thuringia as a teacher and composer of works designed for immediate performance in church and in the schoolroom. Indeed, the text of the dedication of his epoch-making work Das wohltemperi-erte Clavier oder Praeludia und Fugen emphasizes its pedagogical aspect: “The Well-tempered Clavier, or Preludes and Fugues in all tones and semitones, both with the major third of Ut Re Mi, and the minor third of Re Mi Fa, composed and notated for the benefit and exercise of musical young people eager to learn, as well as for a special practice for those who have already achieved proficiency and skill in this study.” The MS is dated 1722. Bach’s system of “equal temperament” (which is the meaning of “well-tempered” in the title Well-tempered Clavier) postulated the division of the octave into 12 equal semitones, making it possible to transpose and to effect a modulation into any key, a process unworkable in the chaotic tuning of keyboard instruments before Bach’s time. Bach was not the first to attempt the tempered division, however. J.C.F Fischer anticipated him in his collection Ariadne musica (with the allusion to the thread of Ariadne that allowed Theseus to find his way out of the Cretan labyrinth); publ. in 1700, it contained 20 preludes and fugues in 19 different keys. Undoubtedly Bach was aware of this ed.; actually, the subjects of several of Bach’s preludes and fugues are similar to the point of identity to the themes of Fischer’s work. These coincidences do not detract from the significance of Bach’s accomplishment, for it is the beauty and totality of development that makes Bach’s work vastly superior to those of any of his putative predecessors.

The advent of Bach marked the greatest flowering of Baroque music. Although he wrote most of his contrapuntal works as a didactic exercise, there are in his music extraordinary visions into the remote future; consider, for instance, the A-minor Fugue of the first book of the Well-tempered Clavier, in which the inversion of the subject seems to violate all the rules of proper voice- leading in its bold leap from the tonic upward to the seventh of the scale and then up a third. The answer to the subject of the F minor Fugue of the first book suggests the chromatic usages of later centuries. In the art of variations, Bach was supreme. A superb example is his set of keyboard pieces known as the Goldberg Variations, so named because it was commissioned by the Russian diplomat Kayserling through the mediation of Bach’s pupil Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was in Kayserling’s service as a harpsichord player. These variations are listed by Bach as the fourth part of the Clavier- Übung; the didactic title of this division is characteristic of Bach’s intention to write music for utilitarian purposes, be it for keyboard exercises, for church services, or for chamber music. A different type of Bach’s great musical projections is exemplified by his Concerts à plusieurs instruments, known popularly as the Brandenburg Concertos, for they were dedicated to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg. They represent the crowning achievement of the Baroque. Numbers 2, 4, and 5 of the Brandenburg Concertos are essentially concerti grossi, in which a group of solo instruments—the concertino—is contrasted with the accompanying string orch. Finally, Die Kunst der Fuge, Bach’s last composition, which he wrote in 1749, represents an encyclopedia of fugues, canons, and various counterpoints based on the same theme. Here Bach’s art of purely technical devices, such as inversion, canon, augmentation, diminution, double fugue, triple fugue, at times appearing in fantastic optical symmetry so that the written music itself forms a balanced design, is calculated to instruct the musical mind as well as delight the aural sense. Of these constructions, the most extraordinary is represented by Das musikalische Opfer, composed by Bach for Frederick the Great of Prussia. Bach’s second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, who served as chamber musician to the court of Prussia, arranged for Bach to visit Frederick’s palace in Potsdam; Bach arrived there, accompanied by his son Wilhelm Friede-mann, on May 7, 1747. The ostensible purpose of Bach’s visit was to test the Silbermann pianos installed in the palace. The King, who liked to flaunt his love for the arts and sciences, gave Bach a musical theme of his own invention and asked him to compose a fugue upon it. Bach also presented an organ recital at the Heiliggeist-kirche in Potsdam and attended a chamber music concert held by the King; on that occasion he improvised a fugue in six parts on a theme of his own. Upon his return to Leipzig, Bach set to work on the King’s theme. Gallantly, elegantly, he inscribed the work, in scholastic Latin, “Regis Iussu Cantio et Reliqua Canonica Arte Resoluta” (“At the King’s command, the cantus and supplements are in a canonic manner resolved”). The initials of the Latin words form the acronym RICERCAR, a technical term etymologically related to the word “research” and applied to any study that is instructive in nature. The work is subdivided into 13 sections; it includes a puzzle canon in two parts, marked “quaerendo invenietis” (“you will find it by seeking”). Bach had the score engraved, and sent it to the King on July 7, 1747. Intellectually independent as Bach was, he never questioned the immanent rights of established authority. He was proud of the title Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer to the King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, bestowed upon him in 1736 while he was in the service of Duke Christian of Weissenfels, and he even regarded the position of cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig as inferior to it. In his dedications to royal personages he adhered to the customary humble style, which was extended even to the typography of his dedicatory prefaces. In such dedications the name of the exalted commissioner was usually printed in large letters, with conspicuous indentation, while Bach’s own signature, preceded by elaborate verbal genuflection, appeared in the smallest type of the typographer’s box.

Bach’s biography is singularly lacking in dramatic events. He attended the Latin school in Eisenach, and apparently was a good student, as demonstrated by his skill in the Latin language. His mother died in 1694; his father remarried and died soon afterward. Bach’s school years were passed at the Lyceum in the town of Ohrdruf; his older brother Johann Christoph lived there; he helped Bach in his musical studies; stories that he treated Bach cruelly must be dismissed as melodramatic inventions. Through the good offices of Elias Herda, cantor of the Ohrdruf school, Bach received an opportunity to move, for further education, to Lüne-burg; there he was admitted to the Mettenchor of the Michaeliskirche. In March of 1703 he obtained employment as an attendant to Johann Ernst, Duke of Weimar; he was commissioned to make tests on the new organ of the Neukirche in Arnstadt; on Aug. 9, 1703, he was appointed organist there. In Oct. 1705 he obtained a leave of absence to travel to Lübeck to hear the famous organist Dietrich Buxtehude. The impetus of Bach’s trip was presumably the hope of obtaining Buxtehude’s position as organist upon his retirement, but there was a peculiar clause attached to the contract for such a candidate: Buxtehude had five unmarried daughters; his successor was expected to marry the eldest of them. Buxtehude himself obtained his post through such an expedient, but Bach apparently was not prepared for matrimony under such circumstances.

On June 15, 1707, Bach became organist at the Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen. On Oct. 17, 1707, he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, who was the daughter of Johann Michael Bach. On Feb. 4, 1708, Bach composed his cantata Gott ist mein König for the occasion of the installation of a new Mühlhausen town council. This was the first work of Bach’s that was publ. Although the circumstances of his employment in Mühlhausen were seemingly favorable, Bach resigned his position on June 25, 1708, and accepted the post of court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. In Dec. 1713 Bach visited Halle, the birthplace of Handel; despite its proximity to Bach’s own place of birth in Eisenach, the two great composers never met. On March 2, 1714, Duke Wilhelm Ernst offered Bach the position of Konzertmeister. In Sept. 1717 Bach went to Dresden to hear the famous French organist Louis Marchand, who resided there at the time. It was arranged that Bach and Marchand would hold a contest as virtuosos, but Marchand left Dresden before the scheduled event. This anecdote should not be interpreted frivolously as Marc-hand’s fear of competing; other factors may have intervened to prevent the meeting. Johann Samuel Drese, the Weimar music director, died on Dec. 1, 1716; Bach expected to succeed him in that prestigious position, but the Duke gave the post to Drese’s son. Again, this episode should not be interpreted as the Duke’s lack of appreciation for Bach’s superior abilities; the appointment may have merely followed the custom of letting such administrative posts remain in the family. In 1717 Bach accepted the position of Kapellmeister and music director to Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, but a curious contretemps developed when the Duke of Weimar refused to release Bach from his obligation, and even had him held under arrest from Nov. 6 to Dec. 2, 1717, before Bach was finally allowed to proceed to Cöthen. The Cöthen period was one of the most productive in Bach’s life; there he wrote his great set of Brandenburg Concertos, the Clavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and the first book of Das Wohltemperierte Clavier. In Oct. 1719 Bach was in Halle once more, but again missed meeting Handel, who had already gone to England. In 1720 Bach accompanied Prince Leopold to Karlsbad. A tragedy supervened when Bach’s devoted wife was taken ill and died before Bach could be called to her side; she was buried on July 7, 1720, leaving Bach to take care of their seven children. In 1720 Bach made a long journey to Hamburg, where he met the aged Reinken, who was then 97 years old. It is a part of the Bach legend that Reinken was greatly impressed with Bach’s virtuosity and exclaimed, “I believed that the art of organ playing was dead, but it lives in you!” Bach remained a widower for nearly a year and a half before he married his second wife, Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a daughter of a court trumpeter at Weissenfels, on Dec. 3, 1721. They had 13 children during their happy marital life. New avenues were opened to Bach when Johann Kuhnau, the cantor of Leipzig, died, on June 5, 1722. Although Bach applied for his post, the Leipzig authorities offered it first to Telemann of Hamburg, and when he declined, to Christoph Graupner of Darmstadt; only when Graupner was unable to obtain a release from his current position was Bach given the post. He traveled to Leipzig on Feb. 7, 1723, for a trial performance, earning a favorable reception. On April 22, 1723, Bach was elected to the post of cantor of the city of Leipzig and was officially installed on May 31, 1723. As director of church music, Bach’s duties included the care of musicians for the Tho-maskirche, Nicolaikirche, Matthaeikirche, and Pet-rikirche, and he was also responsible for the provision of the music to be performed at the Thomaskirche and Nicolaikirche. There were more mundane obligations that Bach was expected to discharge, such as gathering firewood for the Thomasschule, about which Bach had recurrent disputes with the rector; eventually he sought the intervention of the Elector of Saxony in the affair. It was in Leipzig that Bach created his greatest sacred works: the St. John Passion, the Mass in B minor, and the Christmas Oratorio. In 1729 he organized at the Thomasschule the famous Collegium Musicum, composed of professional musicians and univ. students with whom he gave regular weekly concerts; he led this group until 1737, and again from 1739 to 1741. He made several visits to Dresden, where his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, served as organist at the Sophienkirche. In June 1747 Bach joined the Societät der Musikalischen Wissen-schaften, a scholarly organization founded by a former member of the Collegium Musicum, Lorenz C. Mizler, a learned musician, Latinist, and mathematician who spent his life confounding his contemporaries and denouncing them as charlatans and ignorant pretenders to knowledge. The rules of the society required an applicant to submit a sample of his works; Bach contributed a triple canon in 6 parts and presented it, along with the canonic variations Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her. This was one of Bach’s last works. He suffered from a cataract that was gradually darkening his vision. A British optician named John Taylor, who plied his trade in Saxony, operated on Bach’s eyes in the spring of 1749; the operation, performed with the crude instruments of the time, left Bach almost totally blind. The same specialist operated also on Handel, with no better results. The etiology of Bach’s last illness is unclear. It is said that on July 18, 1750, his vision suddenly returned (possibly when the cataract receded spontaneously), but a cerebral hemorrhage supervened, and a few days later Bach was dead. Bach’s great contrapuntal work, Die Kunst der Fuge, remained unfinished. The final page bears this inscription by C.P.E. Bach: “Upon this Fugue, in which the name B-A-C-H is applied as a countersub-ject, the author died.” Bach’s widow, Anna Magdalena, survived him by nearly 10 years; she died on Feb. 27, 1760. In 1895 Wilhelm His, an anatomy prof. at the Univ. of Leipzig, performed an exhumation of Bach’s body, made necessary because of the deterioration of the wooden coffin, and took remarkable photographs of Bach’s skeleton, which he publ. under the title J.S. Bach, Forschungen über dessen Grabstätte, Gebeine und Antlitz (Leipzig, 1895). On July 28, 1949, on the 199th anniversary of Bach’s death, his coffin was transferred to the choir room of the Thomaskirche.

Of Bach’s 20 children, ten reached maturity. His sons Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann (John) Christian (the “London” Bach) made their mark as independent composers. Among Bach’s notable pupils were Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Christoph Altnikol, Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, Gottfried August Homilius, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, Johann Christian Kittel, Johann Tobias Krebs, and Johann Lud-wig Krebs. It is historically incorrect to maintain that Bach was not appreciated by his contemporaries; Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and the “London” Bach kept his legacy alive for a generation after Bach’s death. True, they parted from Bach’s art of contrapuntal writing; Carl Philipp Emanuel turned to the fashionable style galant, and wrote keyboard works of purely harmonic content. The first important biography of Bach was publ. in 1802, by J.N. Forkel.

Dramatic accounts of music history are often inflated. It is conventional to say that Bach’s music was rescued from oblivion by Mendelssohn, who conducted the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, but Mozart and Beethoven had practiced Bach’s preludes and fugues. Bach’s genius was never dimmed; he was never a prophet without a world. In 1850 the centennial of Bach’s death was observed by the inception of the Leipzig Bach- Gesellschaft, a society founded by Carl Becker, Moritz Hauptmann, Otto Jahn, and Robert Schumann. Concurrently, the publishing firm of Breit-kopf & Härtel inaugurated the publication of the complete ed. of Bach’s works. A Neue Bach-Gesellschaft was founded in 1900; it supervised the publication of the important Bach-Jahrbuch, a scholarly journal begun in 1904. The bicentennial of Bach’s death, in 1950, brought about a new series of memorials and celebrations. With the development of recordings, Bach’s works were made available to large masses of the public. Modern composers, even those who champion the total abandonment of all conventional methods of composition and the abolition of musical notation, are irresistibly drawn to Bach as a precursor; suffice it to mention Alban Berg’s use of Bach’s chorale Es ist genug in the concluding section of his Violin Concerto dedicated to the memory of Alma Mahler’s young daughter. It is interesting to note also that Bach’s famous acronym B-A-C-H consists of four different notes in a chromatic alternation, thus making it possible to use it as an element of a 12-tone row. The slogan “Back to Bach,” adopted by composers of the early 20th century, seems to hold true for every musical era. The 250th anniversary of Bach’s death was commemorated in 2000 with special observances and concerts around the world.

In the list of Bach’s works given below, each composition is identified by the BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) number established by W. Schmieder in his Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von J.S. B. Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Leipzig, 1950; 2nd ed., rev., 1990).

Works

CHURCH CANTATAS: About 200 are extant. The following list gives the BWV number, title, and date of first perf.: 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (March 25, 1725); 2, Ach Gott, vom Rimmel sieh darein (June 18, 1724); 3, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (Jan. 14, 1725); 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (c. 1707–8); 5, Wo soil ichfliehen hin (Oct. 15, 1724); 6, Bláb bei uns, denn es will Abend werden (April 2, 1725); 7, Christ unser Hen zum Jordan kam (June 24, 1724); 8, Liebster Gott, wann werd idi sterben? (Sept. 24, 1724); 9, Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (c. 1732–35); 10, Meine Seel erhebt den Herrén (July 2, 1724); 11, Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen (Ascension oratorio; May 19, 1735); 12, Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (April 22, 1714); 13, Meine Seufzer, meine Tränen (Jan. 20, 1726); 14, Wär’ Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit Qan. 30, 1735); 16, Herr Gott, dich Loben wir (Jan. 1, 1726); 17, Wer Dank opfert, der preiset midi (Sept. 22, 1726); 18, Gleidiwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel falli (c. 1714); 19, Es erhub sich ein Streit (Sept. 29, 1726); 20, O Ewigkeü, du Donnerwort (June 11, 1724); 21, Ich hatte viel Bekummernis (c. 1714); 22, Jesus nahm zu sich die Zwòlfe (Feb. 7, 1723); 23, Du wahrer Gott und Davids Sohn (Feb. 7, 1723); 24, Ein ungefarbt Gemute (June 20, 1723); 25, Es ist nicht Gesundes an meinem Leibe (Aug. 29, 1723); 26, Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig (Nov. 19, 1724); 27, Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende! (Oct. 6, 1726); 28, Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende (Dec. 30, 1725); 29, Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (Aug. 27, 1731); 30, Freue dich, erlöste Schar (c. 1738); 31, Der Himmel lacht! die Erde jubilieret (April 21, 1715); 32, Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Jan. 13, 1726); 33, Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (Sept. 3, 1724); 34, O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe (based upon 34a; early 1740s); 34a, O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung der Liebe (part of score not extant; 1726); 35, Geist und Seek wird verwirret (Sept. 8, 1726); 36, Schwingt freudig euch empor (based upon secular cantata 36c; Dec. 2, 1731); 37, Wer da gläubet und getauft wird (May 18, 1724); 38, Aus tiefer Not sdirei ich zu dir (Oct. 29, 1724); 39, Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot (June 23, 1726); 40, Dazu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes (Dec. 26, 1723); 41, Jesu, nun sei gepreiset (Jan. 1, 1725); 42, Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats (April 8, 1725); 43, Gottfa’hret aufmit Jauchzen (May 30, 1726); 44, Sie werden euch in den Bonn tun (May 21, 1724); 45, Es ist dir gesagt, Mensch, was gut ist (Aug. 11, 1726); 46, Schauet doch und sehet (Aug. 1, 1723); 47, Wer sich selbst erhöhet (Oct. 13, 1726); 48, Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen (Oct. 3, 1723); 49, Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen (Nov. 3, 1726); 50, Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft (date unknown); 51, Jauchzet Gott in alien Landen! (Sept. 17, 1730); 52, Falsche Welt, dir trau’ ich nicht (Nov. 24, 1726); 54, Widerstehe doch der Sünde (July 15, 1714); 55, Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht (Nov. 17, 1726); 56, Ich will den Kreuzstab geme tragen (Oct. 27, 1726); 57, Selig ist der Mann (Dec. 26, 1725); 58, Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid (Jan. 5, 1727); 59, Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (c. 1723–24); 60, O Ewigkeü, du Donnerwort (Nov. 7, 1723); 61, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (1714); 62, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Dec. 3, 1724); 63, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag (c. 1716); 64, Sehet, welch eine Liebe (Dec. 27, 1723); 65, Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen (Jan. 6, 1724); 66, Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (based upon lost secular cantata 66a; April 10, 1724); 67, Halt’ im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ (April 16, 1724); 68, Also hat Gott die Welt geliebt (May 21, 1725); 69, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele (based upon 69a; 1740s); 69a, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele (Aug. 15, 1723); 70, Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (based upon 70a; Nov. 21, 1723); 70a, Wachet! betet! betet! wachet! (music not extant; Dec. 6, 1716); 71, Gott ist mein Kônig (Feb. 4, 1708); 72, Alies nur nach Gottes Willen (Jan. 27, 1726); 73, Herr, wie du willst, so schick’s mit mir (Jan. 23, 1724); 74, Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten (based partly upon 59; May 20, 1725); 75, Die Elenden sollen essen (May 30, 1723); 76, Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes (June 6, 1723); 77, Du solisi Gott, deinen Herrén, lieben (Aug. 22, 1723); 78, Jesu, der du meine Seele (Sept. 10, 1724); 79, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild (Oct. 31, 1725); 80, Ein’feste Burg ist unser Gott (based upon 80a; Oct. 31, 1724); 80a, Alies, was von Gott geboren (music not extant; 1715); 80b, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (Oct. 31, 1723); 81, Jesus schlaft, was soil ich hoffen? Qan. 30, 1724); 82, Ich habe genug (Feb. 2, 1727); 83, Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde (Feb. 2, 1724); 84, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (Feb. 9, 1727); 85, Ich bin ein guter Hirt (April 15, 1725); 86, Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage euch (May 14, 1724); 87, Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten (May 6, 1725); 88, Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden (July 21, 1726); 89, Was soil ich aus dir machen, Ephraim? (Oct. 24, 1723); 90, Es reisset euch ein schrecklich Ende (Nov. 14, 1723); 91, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Dec. 25, 1724); 92, Ich hab in Gottes Herz und Sinn (Jan. 28, 1725); 93, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (July 9, 1724); 94, Was frag ich nach der Welt (Aug. 6, 1724); 95, Christus, der ist mein Leben (Sept. 12, 1723); 96, Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottessohn (Oct. 8, 1724); 97, In alien meinen Taten (1734); 98, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (Nov. 10, 1726); 99, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (Sept. 17, 1724); 100, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan (c. 1732–35); 101, Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott (Aug. 13, 1724); 102, Herr, deine Augen sehen nach dem Glauben (Aug. 25, 1726); 103, Ihr zverdet weinen und heulen (April 22, 1725); 104, Du Hirte Israel (April 23, 1724); 105, Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht (July 25, 1723); 106, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (c. 1707); 107, Was willst du dich betrüben (July 23, 1724); 108, Es ist euch gut, dass ich hingehe (April 29, 1725); 109, Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Un-glauben! (Oct. 17, 1723); 110, Unser Mund sei voli Lachens (Dec. 25, 1725); 111, Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit (Jan. 21, 1725); 112, Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt (April 8, 1731); 113, Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut (Aug. 20, 1724); 114, Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost (Oct. 1, 1724); 115, Mache dich, mein Geist, bereit (Nov. 5, 1724); 116, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ (Nov. 26, 1724); 117, Sei Lob und Ehr dem höchsten Gut (c. 1728–31); 119, Preise, Jerusalem, den Herrn (Aug. 30, 1723); 120, Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille (c. 1728–29); 120a, Herr Gott, Beherrscher aller Dinge (based upon 120; part of score not extant; c. 1729); 120b, Gott, man lobet dich in der Stille (based upon 120; music not extant; 1730); 121, Christum wir sollen loben schon (Dec. 26, 1724); 122, Das neugebor’ne Kindelein (Dec. 31, 1724); 123, Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen (Jan. 6, 1725); 124, Meinen Jesum lass ich nicht (Jan. 7, 1725); 125, Mit Fried’ und Freud’ ich fahr dahin (Feb. 2, 1725); 126, Erhalt’ uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort (Feb. 4, 1725); 127, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’r Mensch und Gott (Feb. 11, 1725); 128, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt alleiti (May 10, 1725); 129, Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott (c. 1726–27); 130, Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir (Sept. 29, 1724); 131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (1707); 132, Bereitet die Wege, bereitet die Bahnl (1715); 133, Ichfreue mich in dir (Dec. 27, 1724); 134, Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiss (based upon secular cantata 134a; April 11, 1724); 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Sunder (June 25, 1724); 136, Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz (July 18, 1723); 137, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren (Aug. 19, 1725); 138, Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz? (Sept. 5, 1723); 139, Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott (Nov. 12, 1724); 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Nov. 25, 1731); 144, Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin (Feb. 6, 1724); 145, Ich lebe, mein Herze, zu deinem Ergôtzen (c. 1729); 146, Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal (c. 1726–28); 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (based upon 147a; July 2, 1723); 147a, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (not extant; Dec. 20, 1716); 148, Bringet dem Herrn Ehre seines Namens (Sept. 19, 1723); 149, Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg (c. 1728–29); 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (c. 1708–9); 151, Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kommt (Dec. 27, 1725); 152, Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn (Dec. 30, 1714); 153, Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind’ (Jan. 2, 1724); 154, Mein liebster Jesus ist verloren (Jan. 9, 1724); 155, Mein Gott, wie lang, ach lange (Jan. 19, 1716); 156, Ich steh’ mit einem Fuss im Grabe (Jan. 23, 1729); 157, Ich lasse dich nicht, du segnest mich denn (Feb. 6, 1727); 158, Der Friede sei mit dir (date unknown); 159, Sehet, wir geh’n hinauf gen Jerusalem (Feb. 27, 1729); 161, Komm, du süsse Todesstunde (Oct. 6, 1715); 162, Ach! ich sehe, jetzt, da ich zur Hochzeit gehe (Nov. 3, 1715); 163, Nurjedem das Seine (Nov. 24, 1715); 164, Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet (Aug. 26, 1725); 165, O heil’ges Geist- und Wasser-bad (June 16, 1715); 166, Wo gehest du hin? (May 7, 1724); 167, Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe (June 24, 1723); 168, Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort (July 29, 1725); 169, Gott soil allein mein Herze haben (Oct. 20, 1726); 170, Vergnügte Ruh’, beliebte Seelenlust (July 28, 1726); 171, Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm (c. 1729); 172, Erschallet, ihr Lieder (May 20, 1714); 173, Erhöhtes Fleisch und Blut (based upon secular cantata 173a; May 29, 1724); 174, Ich liebe den Höchsten von ganzem Gemüte (June 6, 1729); 175, Er rufet seinen Schafen mit Ñamen (May 22, 1725); 176, Es ist ein trotzig, und versagt Ding (May 27, 1725); 177, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (July 6, 1732); 178, Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns halt (July 30, 1724); 179, Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht (Aug. 8, 1723); 180, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seek (Oct. 22, 1724); 181, Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister (Feb. 13, 1724); 182, Himmelskönig, sei willkommen (1714); 183, Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (May 13, 1725); 184, Erwünschtes Freudenlicht (based upon lost secular cantata 184a; May 30, 1724); 185, Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe (July 14, 1715); 186, Ärg’re dich, o Seek, nicht (based upon 186a; July 11, 1723); 186a, Ärg’re dich o Seek, nicht (not extant; Dec. 13, 1716); 187, Es wartet alies auf dich (Aug. 4, 1726); 188, Ich habe meine Zuversicht (c. 1728); 190, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! (part of score not extant; Jan. 1, 1724); 190a, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied! (based upon 190; not extant; 1730); 191, Gloria in excelsis Deo (based upon 232, Mass in B minor; c. 1740); 192, Nun danket alle Gott (part of score not extant; 1730); 193, Ihr Tore zu Zion (c. 1727); 194, Höchsterwünschtes Freudenfest (based upon lost secular cantata 194a; Nov. 2, 1723); 195, Dem Gerechten muss das Licht (c. 1737); 196, Der Herr denket an uns (c. 1708); 197, Gott ist uns’re Zuversicht (c. 1742); 197a, Ehre sie Gott in der Höne (part of score not extant, c. 1728); 199, Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (Aug. 12, 1714); 200, Bekennen will ich seinen Namen (fragment only extant; c. 1742). BWV numbers have been assigned to the following lost or incomplete cantatas: 223, Meine Seek soil Gott loben (not extant; date unknown); 224a, Klagt, Kinder, klagt es aller Welt (music not extant; March 24, 1729); Anh. 1, Gesegnet ist die Zuversicht (not extant; date unknown); Anh. 2, fragment only; Anh. 3, Gott, gib dein Gerichte dem Kònige (music not extant; 1730); Anh. 4, Wünschet Jerusalem Glück (music not extant; c. 1727); Anh. 4a, Wünschet Jerusalem Glück (music not extant; 1730); Anh. 5, Lobet den Herrn, alle seine Heerscharen (music not extant; Dec. 10, 1718); Anh. 14, Sein Segen fliesst daher wie ein Strom (music not extant; Feb. 12, 1725); Anh. 15, Siehe, der Hüter Israel (not extant; April 27, 1724); Anh. 17, Mein Gott, nimm die gerechte Seek (not extant; date unknown); 1, 045, title unknown (autograph fragment only extant; c. 1742); also the following without BWV numbers: Herrscher des Himmels, Kônig der Ehren (final chorus only, based upon secular cantata 208, extant; Aug. 29, 1740); Ich bin ein Pilgrim auf der Welt (fragment of 4th movement only extant; April 18, 1729); Ihr wallenden Wolken (not extant; date unknown); Leb’ ich oder kb’ ich nicht (music not extant; May 19, 1715); Sie werden euch in den Bann tun (6-bar sketch only); etc. BWV numbers have been assigned to the following doubtful and spurious cantatas: 15, Denn du wirst meine Seek (by J.L. Bach); 53, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde (by G.M. Hoffmann); 141, Das ist je gewisslich wahr (by Telemann); 142, Uns ist ein Kind geboren (doubtful); 143, Lobe den Herrn, meine Seek (doubtful); 160, Ich weiss, dass mein Erlböser lebt (by Telemann); 189, Meine Seek rühmt und preist (doubtful); 217, Gedenke, Herr, wie es uns gehet (spurious); 218, Gott der Hoffnung erfülk euch (by Telemann); 219, Siehe, es hat überwunden der Löwe (by Telemann); 220, Lobt ihn mit Herz und Munde (spurious); 221, Wer sucht die Pracht, wer wünscht den Glanz (spurious); 222, Mein Odem ist schwach (by J.E. Bach); Anh. 16, Schliesset die Gruft! ihr Trauerglocken (not extant; doubtful); also without BWV number, Siehe, eine Jungfrau ist schwanger (doubtful). secular cantatas: 22 are extant in full: 30a, Angenehtnes Wiederau, freue dich (Sept. 28, 1737); 36b, Die Freude reget sich (c. 1735); 36c, Schwingt freudig euch empor (1725); 134a, Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht (Jan. 1, 1719); 173a, Durchlaucht’ster Leopold (c. 1722); 198, Trauer Ode: Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl (Oct. 17, 1727); 201, Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan: Geschwinde, ihr wirbeln den Winde (c. 1729); 202, Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (c. 1718–23); 203, Amore traditore (date unknown); 204, Ich bin in mir vergnügt (c. 1726–27); 205, Der zufriedengestellte Äolus: Zerreisset, zerspringet, zertrümmert die Gruft (Aug. 3, 1725); 206, Schleicht, spielende Wellen (Oct. 7, 1736); 207, Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten (Dec. 11, 1726); 207a, Auf, schmetternde Töne (Aug. 3, 1735); 208, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (c. 1713); 209, Non sa che sia dolore (e. 1734); 210, O holder Tag, erwünschte Zeit (c. 1740); 211, Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (Coffee Cantata; c. 1734–35); 212, Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet (Peasant Cantata; Aug. 30, 1742); 213, Hercules auf dem Scheidewege: Lasst uns sorgen, lasst uns wachen (Sept. 5, 1733); 214, T’ónet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten! (Dec. 8, 1733); 215, Preise dein Glucke, gesegnetes Sachsen (Oct. 5, 1734). BWV numbers have been assigned to the following lost or incomplete cantatas: 36a, Steigt freudig in die Luft (music not extant; Nov. 30, 1726); 66a, Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück (music not extant; Dec. 10, 1718); 184a, title unknown (not extant); 193a, Ihr Hauser des Himmels, ihr scheinenden Lichter (music not extant; Aug. 3, 1727); 194a, title unknown (not extant); 205a, Blast Larmen, ihr Feinde! (based upon 205; music not extant; Feb. 19, 1734); 208a, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd! (music not extant; c. 1740^2); 210a, O angenehme Melodei! (music not extant; c. 1738–40); 216, Vergnügte Pleissenstadt (only partially extant; Feb. 5, 1728); 216a, Erwählte Pleissenstadt (music not extant; c. 1728); 249a, Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen (music not extant; Feb. 23, 1725); 249b, Die Feier des Genius: Verjaget, zerstreuet, zerrüttet, ihr Sterne (music not extant; Aug. 25, 1726); Anh. 6, Dich loben die lieblichen Strahlen (music not extant; Jan. 1, 1720); Anh. 7, Heut ist gewiss ein guter Tag (music not extant; Dec. 10, 1720); Anh. 8, title unknown (not extant); Anh. 9, Entfernet euch, ihr heitern Sterne (music not extant; May 12, 1727); Anh. 10, So kampfet nur, ihr muntern Töne (music not extant; Aug. 25, 1731); Anh. 11, Es lebe der König, der Vater im Lande (music not extant; Aug. 3, 1732); Anh. 12, Frohes Volk, vergnügte Sachsen (based upon Anh. 18; music not extant; Aug. 3, 1733); Anh. 13, Willkommen! Ihr herrschenden Götter (music not extant; April 28, 1738); Anh. 18, Froher Tag, verlangte Stunden (music not extant; June 5, 1732); Anh. 19, Thomana sass annoch betrübt (music not extant; Nov. 21, 1734); Anh. 20, title unknown (not extant); also, without BWV number, Auf! süss entzückende Gewalt (music not extant; Nov. 27, 1725). OTHER CHURCH MUSIC: 232, Mass in B minor (assembled c. 1747–49 from music previously composed by Bach); 233, 233a, 234–36, 4 missae breves: F major (Kyrie in F major), A major, G minor, G major (late 1730s); 237–41, 5 settings of the Sanctus: C major, D major, D minor, G major, D major (although preserved in Bach’s own hand, these appear to be arrangements of works by other composers, 238 excepted); 243a, Magnificat in E-flat major (including 4 Christmas texts: Vom Himmel hoch, Freut euch und jubiliert, Gloria in excelsis, Virga Jesse floruit; Dec. 25, 1723); 243, a revision of the preceding, without Christmas texts, as Magnificat in D major (c. 1728–31); 244, Matthäuspassion (St. Matthew Passion; first perf. April 11, 1727, or April 15, 1729); 245, Johannespassion (St. John Passion; April 7, 1724; later rev.); 248, Weihnachtsoratorium (Christmas Oratorio), 6 cantatas for Christmas to Epiphany: Jauchzet, frohlocket, aufpreiset die Tage (Dec. 25, 1734), Und es waren Hirten in derselben Gegend (Dec. 26, 1734), Herrscher des Himmels, erhöre das Lallen (Dec. 27, 1734), Fallt mit Danken, fallt mit Loben (Jan. 1, 1735), Ehre sei dir, Goti, gesungen (Jan. 2, 1735), Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde schnauben (Jan. 6, 1735); 249, Easter Oratorio (first perf. as a cantata, April 1, 1725; rev. as an oratorio 1732–35); motets, including 225, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (May 12, 1727), 226, Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf (Oct. 24, 1729), 227, Jesu, meine Freude (July 18, 1723), 228, Fürchte dich nicht (Feb. 4, 1726), 229, Komm, Jesu, komm! (March 26, 1730), 230, Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden (date unknown). Also 247, St. Mark Passion (score and parts not extant; March 23, 1731; partial reconstruction from other works made by D. Hellmann, Stuttgart, 1964); 246, St. Luke Passion (spurious). CHORALES: 3 wedding chorales for 4 Voices: 250, Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan; 251, Sei Lob und Ehr’ dem hböchsten Gut; 252, Nun danket alle Gott. Also, 186 arrangements for 4 Voices: 253, Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ; 254, Ach Gott, erhbör’ mein Seufzen; 255, Ach Gott und Herr; 256, Ach lieben Christen, seid getrost; 259, Ach, was soil ich Sünder machen; 260, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr’; 261, Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ; 262, Alle Menschen müssen sterben; 263, Alies ist an Gottes Segen; 264, Ais der gütige Gott; 265, Als Jesus Christus in der Nacht; 266, Als vierzig Tag nach Ostern; 267, An Wasserflüssen Babylon; 268, Auf, auf, mein Herz, und du mein ganzer Sinn; 269, Aus meines Herzens Grunde; 270, Befiehl du deine Wege; 271, Befiehl du deine Wege; 272, Befiehl du deine Wege; 273, Christ, der du bist der helle Tag; 274, Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht; 275, Christe, du Beistand deiner Kreuzgemeinde; 276, Christ ist erstanden; 277, Christ lag in Todesbanden; 278, Christ lag in Todesbanden; 279, Christ lag in Todesbanden; 280, Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam; 281, Christus, der ist mein Leben; 282, Christus, der ist mein Leben; 283, Christus, der uns selig macht; 284, Christus ist erstanden, hat überwunden; 285, Da der Herr Christ zu Tische sass; 286, Danket dem Herrén; 287, Dank sei Gott in der Höne; 288, Das alte Jahr vergangen ist; 289, Das alte Jahr vergangen ist; 290, Das wait’ Gott Vater und Gott Sohn; 291, Das wait’ mein Gott, Vater, Sohn und heiliger Geist; 292, Den Vater dort oben; 293, Der du bist drei in Einigkeit; 294, Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich; 295, Des heü’gen Geistes reiche Gnad’; 296, Die Nacht ist kommen; 297, Die Sonn hat sich mit ihrem Glanz; 298, Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’; 299, Dir, dir, Jehova, will ich singen; 300, Du grosser Schmerzensmann; 301, Du, o schönes Weltgebaude; 302, Ein’feste Burg ist unser Gott; 303, Ein’feste Burg ist unser Gott; 304, Eins ist Not! ach Herr, dies Eine; 305, Erbarm’ dich mein, o, Herré Gott; 306, Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ; 307, Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit; 308, Es spricht der Unweisen Mund wohl; 309, Es stehn vor Gottes Throne; 310, Es wird schier der letzte Tag herkommen; 311, Es wolV uns Gott genädig sein; 312, Es woll’ uns Gott genädig sein; 327, F¨r deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit; 313, Fur Freuden lasst uns springen; 314, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ; 315, Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille; 316, Gott, der du selber bist das Licht; 317, Gott, der Vater, wohn’ uns bei; 318, Gottes Sohn ist kommen; 319, Gott hat das Evangelium; 320, Gott lebet noch; 321, Gottlob, es geht nunmehr zu Ende; 322, Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet; 323, Gott sei uns gnädig; 325, Heilig, heilig; 326, Herr Gott, dich loben aile wir; 328, Herr, Gott, dich loben wir; 329, Herr, ich denk’ an jene Zeit; 330, Herr, ich habe missgehandelt; 331, Herr, ich habe missgehandelt; 332, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend’; 333, Herr Jesu Christ, du hast bereit’t; 334, Herr Jesu Christ, du hôchstes Gut; 335, Herr Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht; 336, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’r Mensch und Gott; 337, Herr, nun lass in Frieden; 338, Herr, straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn; 339, Herr, wie du willst, so schick’s mit mir; 340, Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr; 341, Heut’ ist, o Mensch, ein grosser Trauertag; 342, Heut’ trium-phieret Gottes Sohn; 343, Hilf, Gott, dass mir’s gelinge; 344, Hilf,Herr Jesu, lass gelingen; 345, Ich bin ja, Herr, in deiner Macht; 346, Ich dank’ dir, Goti, für all’ Wohltat; 347, Ich dank’ dir, lieber Herre; 348, Ich dank’ dir, lieber Herre; 349, Ich dank’ dir schon durch deinen Sohn; 350, Ich danke dir, o Goti, in deinem Throne; 351, Ich hab’ mein’ Sach’ Gott heimgestellt; 352, Jesu, der du meine Seek; 353, Jesu, der du meine Seek; 354, Jesu, der du meine Seek; 355, Jesu, der du selbsten wohl; 356, Jesu, du mein liebstes Leben; 357, Jesu, Jesu, du bist mein; 358, Jesu, meine Freude; 359, Jesu meiner Seelen Wonne; 360, Jesu meiner Seelen Wonne; 361, Jesu, meines Herzens Freud’; 362, Jesu, nun sei gepreiset; 363, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; 364, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; 365, Jesus, meine Zuversicht; 366, Ihr Gestirn’, ihr hohlen Lüfte; 367, In alien meinen Taten; 368, In dulci jubilo; 369, Keinen hat Gott verlassen; 370, Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist; 371, Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit; 372, Lass, o Herr, dein Ohr sich neigen; 373, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier; 374, Lobet den Herrén, denn er ist freundlich; 375, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugk-ich; 376, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich; 377, Mach’s mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Gut’; 378, Meine Augen schliess’ ich jetzt; 379, Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht, Jesus; 380, Meinen Jesum lass’ ich nicht, weil; 322, Meine Seek erhebet den Herrn; 381, Meines Lebens letzte Zeit; 382, Mit Fried’ und Freud’ ichfahr’ dahin; 383, Mitten wir im Leben sind; 384, Nicht so traurig, nicht so sehr; 385, Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist; 386, Nun danket alle Gott; 387, Nun freut euch, Gottes Kinder all’; 388, Nunfreut euch, lieben Christen, g’mein; 389, Nun lob’, mein’ Seel’, den Herrén; 390, Nun lob’, mein Seel’, den Herrén; 391, Nun preiset alle Gottes Barmherzigkeit; 392, Nun ruhen alle Wälder; 393, O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben; 394, O Welt, sieh dein Leben; 395, O Welt, sieh hier dein Leben; 396, Nun sich der Tag geendet hat; 397, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort; 398, O Gott, du frommer Gott; 399, O Gott, du frommer Gott; 400, O Herzensangst, o Bangigkeit; 401, O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig; 402, O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross; 403, O Mensch, schau Jesum Christum an; 404, O Traurigkeit, o Herzekid; 405, O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen; 406, O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen; 407, O wir armen Sunder; 408, Schaut, ihr Sunder; 409, Seelen-Bräutigam; 410, Sei gegmsset, Jesu gütig; 411, Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied; 412, So gibst du nun, mein Jesu, gute Nacht; 413, Sollt’ ich meinem Gott nicht singen; 414, Uns ist ein Kindkin heut’ gebor’n; 415, Valet will ich dir geben; 416, Vater unser im Himmel-reich; 417, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen; 418, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen; 419, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen; 257, Wär’ Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit; 420, Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz; 421, Warum betrübst du dich, mein Herz; 422, Warum sollt’ ich mich denn grämen; 423, Was betrübst du dich, mein Herze; 424, Was bist du doch, o Seek, so betrübet; 425, Was willst du dich, o meine Seek; 426, Weltlich Ehr’ und zeitlich Gut; 427, Wenn ich in Angst und Not; 428, Wenn mein StUndkin vorhanden ist; 429, Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist; 430, Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist; 431, Wenn wir in höchsten Noten sein; 432, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein; 433, Wer Gott vertraut, hat wohl gebaut; 434, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten; 435, Wie bist du, Seek, in mir so gar betrübt; 436, Wie schön kuchtet der Morgenstern; 437, Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott; 258, Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält; 438, Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein’ Gunst. SACRED SONGS: 69 for Voice with Basso Continuo only: 439, Ach, dass nicht die letzte Stunde; 440, Auf, auf! die rechte Zeit ist hier; 441, Auf, auf! mein Herz, mit Freuden; 422, Beglückter Stand getreuer Seelen; 443, Beschrankt, ihr Weisen dieser Welt; 444, Brich entzwei, mein armes Herze; 445, Brunnauell aller Güter; 446, Der lieben Sonnen Licht und Pracht; 447, Der Tag ist hin, die Sonne gehet nieder; 448, Der Tag mit seinem Lichte; 449, Dich bet’ ich an, mein höchster Gott; 450, Die bittre Leidenszeit beginnet abermal; 451, Die goldne Sonne, voli Freud’ und Wonne; 452, Dir, dir Jehovah, will ich singen (melody by Bach); 453, Eins ist Not! ach Herr, dies Eine; 454, Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist; 455, Erwürgtes Lamm, das die verwahrten Siegel; 456, Es glänzet der Christen; 457, Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben; 458, Es ist vollbracht! vergiss ja nicht; 459, Es kostet viel, ein Christ zu sein; 460, Gieb dich zufrieden und sei stille; 461, Gott lebet nodi; Seek, was verzagst du doch?; 462, Gott, wie gross ist deine Gilte; 463, Herr, nicht schicke deine Rache; 464, Ich bin ja, Herr, in deiner Macht; 465, Ichfreue mich in dir; 466, Ich halte treulich still und Hebe; 467, Ich lass’ dich nicht; 468, Ich Hebe Jesum alle Stund’; 469, Ich steh’ an deiner Krippen hier; 476, Ihr Gestirn’, ihr hohen Lüfte; 471, Jesu, deine Liebeswunden; 470, Jesu, Jesu, du bist mein; 472, Jesu, meines Glaubens Zier; 473, Jesu, meines Herzens Freud’; 474, Jesus ist das schönste Licht; 475, Jesus, unser Trost und Leben; 477, Kein Stündkin geht dahin; 478, Komm, süsser Tod, komm, sel’ge Ruh’l (melody by Bach); 479, Kommt, Seelen, dieser Tag; 480, Kommt wieder aus der finstern Gruft; 481, Lasset uns mit Jesu ziehen; 482, Liebes Herz, bedenke doch; 483, Liebster Gott, wann werd’ ich sterben?; 484, Liebster Herr Jesu! wo bleibest du so lange?; 485, Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen; 488, Meines Lebens letzte Zeit; 486, Mein Jesu, dem die Seraphinen; 487, Mein Jesu! was für Seelenweh; 489, Nicht so traurig, nicht so sehr; 490, Nur mein Jesus ist mein Leben; 491, O du Liebe meine Liebe; 492, O finstre Nacht; 493, O Jesulein süss, o Jesukin mild; 494, O liebe Seek, zieh’ die Sinnen; 495, O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen; 496, Seelen-Bräutigam, Jesu, Gottes Lamm!; 497, Seelenweide, meine Freude; 499, Sei gegmsset, Jesu gütig; 498, Selig, wer an Jesum denkt; 500, So gehst du nun, mein Jesu, hin; 501, So giebst du nun, mein Jesu, gute Nacht; 502, So wünsch’ ich mir zu guter Letzt; 503, Steh’ ich bei meinem Gott; 504, Vergiss mein nicht, dass ich dein nicht; 505, Vergiss mein nicht, vergiss mein nicht (melody by Bach); 506, Was bist du doch, o Seek, so betrübet; 507, Wo ist mein Schäflein, das ich liebe. BWV numbers have been assigned to the following sacred songs, which are most likely spurious: 519, Hier lieg’ ich nun; 520, Das wait’ mein Gott; 521, Gott mein Herz dir Dank; 522, Meine Seek, lass es gehen; 523, Ich gnüge mich an meinem Stande. Organ: 525–30, 6 trio sonatas: E-flat major, C minor, D minor, E minor, C major, G major; 531, Prelude and Fugue in C major; 532, Prelude and Fugue in D major; 533, Prelude and Fugue in E minor; 534, Prelude and Fugue in F minor; 535, Prelude and Fugue in G minor; 536, Prelude and Fugue in A major; 537, Fantasia and Fugue in C minor; 538, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, “Dorian”; 539, Prelude and Fugue in D minor; 540, Toccata and Fugue in F major; 541, Prelude and Fugue in G major; 542, Fantasia and Fugue in G minor; 543, Prelude and Fugue in A minor; 544, Prelude and Fugue in B minor; 545, Prelude and Fugue in C major; 546, Prelude and Fugue in C minor; 547, Prelude and Fugue in C major; 548, Prelude and Fugue in E minor; 549, Prelude and Fugue in C minor; 550, Prelude and Fugue in G major; 551, Prelude and Fugue in A minor; 552, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major, “St. Anne”; 562, Fantasia and Fugue in C minor; 563, Fantasia in B minor; 564, Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C major; 565, Toccata and Fugue in D minor; 566, Prelude and Fugue in E major; 568, Prelude in G major; 569, Prelude in A minor; 570, Fantasia in C major; 572, Fantasia in G major; 573, Fantasia in C major; 574, Fugue in C minor (on a theme by Legrenzi); 575, Fugue in C minor; 578, Fugue in G minor; 579, Fugue in B minor (on a theme by Corelli); 582, Passacaglia in C minor; 583, Trio in D minor; 586, Trio in G major (Bach’s organ transcription of a work by Telemann); 587, Aria in F major (transcription from Couperin); 588, Canzona in D minor; 590, Pastorale in F major; 592–97, 6 concertos: G major (arrangement of a concerto by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar), A minor (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 8), C major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.7, no. 5), C major (arrangement of a concerto by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar), D minor (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 11), E-flat major (arrangement of a concerto by an unknown composer); 598, Pedal-Exercitium; 802–5, 4 duettos: E minor, F major, G major, A minor; 1, 027a, Trio in G major (transcription from final movement of sonata 1, 027). Also the following organ chorales that were discovered in the Neumeister Collection at Yale Univ.: 1090, Wir Christenleut; 1091; Das alte Jahr vergangen ist; 1092, Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel aufi 1093, Herzlieb-ster Jesu, was hast du verbrochen; 1094, O }esu, wie ist dein Gestalt; 1095, O Lamm Gottes unschuldig; 1096, Christe, der du bist Tag und Licht, oder: Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ; 1097, Ehre sei dir, Christe, der du leidest Not; 1098, Wir glauben all an einen Gott; 1099, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir; 1100, Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ; 1101, Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt; 1102, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ; 1103, Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort; 1104, Wenn dich Unglück tut greifen an; 1105, Jesu, meine Freude; 1106, Gott ist mein Heil, mein Hilf und Trost; 1107, Jesu, meines Lebens Leben; 1108, Als Jesus Christus in der Nacht; 1109, Ach Gott, tu dich erbarmen; 1110, O Herre Gott, dein göttlich Wort; 1111, Nun lasset uns den Leib begrab’n; 1112, Christus, der ist mein Leben; 1113, Ich hab mein Sach Gott heimgestellt; 1114, Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut; 1115, Herzlich lieb hab ich dich, o Herr; 1116, Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan; 1117, Alle Menschen muüssen sterben; 1118, Werde munter, mein Gemute; 1119, Wie nach einer Wasserquelle; 1120, Christ, der du bist der helle Tag. BWV numbers have been assigned to the following doubtful and spurious works: 131a, Fugue in G minor (spurious); 561, Fantasia and Fugue in A minor (spurious); 567, Prelude in C major (spurious); 571, Fantasia in G major (spurious); 576, Fugue in G major (spurious); 577, Fugue in G major (spurious); 580, Fugue in D major (spurious); 581, Fugue in G major (spurious); 584, Trio in G minor (doubtful); 585, Trio in C minor (by J.F. Fasch); 589, Allabreve in D major (doubtful); 591, Kleines harmonisches Labyrinth (doubtful); also 8 brief preludes and fugues: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, G minor, A minor, B-flat major (doubtful). Other Organ Music: 45 Chorales in Das Orgel-Büchlein: 599, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; 600, Gott, durch deine Güte; 601, Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn; 602, Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott; 603, Puer natus in Bethlehem; 604, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ; 605, Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich; 606, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her; 607, Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar; 608, In dulci jubilo; 609, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich; 610, Jesu, meine Freude; 611, Christum wir sollen loben schon; 612, Wir Christenleut’; 613, Helft mir Gottes Güte preisen; 614, Das alte Jahr vergangen ist; 615, In dir ist Freude; 616, Mit Fried’ und Freud’ ichfahr dahin; 617, Herr Gott, nun schleuss den Himmel auf; 618, O Lamm Gottes unschuldig; 619, Christe, du Lamm Gottes; 620, Christus, der uns selig macht; 621, Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund’; 622, O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde gross; 623, Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ; 624, Hilf Gott, dass mir’s gelinge; 625, Christ lag in Todesbanden; 626, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; 627, Christ ist erstanden; 628, Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ; 629, Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag; 630, Heut’ triumphieret Gottes Sohn; 631, Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist; 632, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend’; 633, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier; 635, Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’; 636, Vater unser im Himmelreich; 637, Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt; 638, Es ist das Heil uns Kommen her; 639, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ; 640, In dich hab’ ich gehoffet, Herr; 641, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein; 642, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten; 643, Alle Menschen müssen sterben; 644, Ach wie nichtig, ach wieflüchtig; 6 chorales publ. by J.G. Schübler, hence the name Schübler-Chorales: 645, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (based upon Cantata 140, 4th movement), 646, Wo soil ichfliehen hin (source unknown), 647, Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten (based upon Cantata 93, 4th movement), 648, Meine Seele erhebet den Herrén (based upon Cantata 10, 5th movement), 649, Ach bleib’ bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ (based upon Cantata 6, 3rd movement), 650, Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter (based upon Cantata 137, 2nd movement); 651, Fantasia super Komm, Heiliger Geist; 652, Komm, Heiliger Geist; 653, An Wasserflüssen Babylon; 654, Schmücke dich, o Hebe Seele; 655, Trio super Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend; 656, O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig; 657, Nun danket alle Gott; 658, Von Gott will ich nicht lassen; 659, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; 660, Trio super Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; 661, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; 662, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 663, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 664, Trio super Allein Gott in der Hoh’ sei Ehr; 665, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; 666, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland; 667, Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist; 668, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein (Vor deinen Thron tret ich). Chorale preludes in the 3rd part of the Clavier-Übung: 669, Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit; 670, Christe, aller Welt Trost; 671, Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist; 672, Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit; 673, Christe, aller Welt Trost; 674, Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist; 675, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 676, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 677, Fughetta super Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 678, Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’; 679, Fughetta super Dies sind die heil’gen zehn Gebot’; 680, Wir glauben all an einen Gott; 681, Fughetta super Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott; 682, Vater unser im Himmelreich; 683, Vater unser im Himmelreich; 684, Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam; 685, Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam; 686, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir; 687, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir; 688, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Zorn Gottes wandt; 689, Fuga super Jesus Christus unser Heiland. Further chorales: 690, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten; 691, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten; 694, Wo soil ich fliehen hin; 695, Fantasia super Christ lag in Todesbanden; 696, Christum wir sollen loben schon; 697, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ; 698, Herr Christ, der ein’ge Gottes-Sohn; 699, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland; 700, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her; 701, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her; 703, Gottes Sohn ist kommen; 704, Lob sei dem allmächtigen Gott; 706, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier; 709, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend; 710, Wir Christenleut’ haben jetzt Freud; 711, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 712, In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr; 713, Fantasia super Jesu, meine Freude; 714, Ach Gott und Herr; 715, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 717, Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr; 718, Christ lag in Todesbanden; 720, Ein’feste Burg ist unser Gott; 721, Erbarm’ dich mein, o Herré Gott; 722, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ; 724, Gott, durch deine Güte (Gottes Sohn ist kommen); 725, Herr Gott, dich loben wir; 726, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend; 727, Herzlich tut mich verlangen; 728, Jesus, meine Zuversicht; 729, In dulci jubilo; 730, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier; 731, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier; 732, Lobt Gott, ihr Christen, allzugleich; 733, Meine Seele erhebet den Herrén (Fuge über das Magnificat); 734a, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein; O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig; 735, Fantasia super Valet will ich dir geben; 736, Valet will ich dir geben; 737, Vater unser im Himmelreich; 738, Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her; 739, Wie schon leucht’t uns der Morgenstern; 741, Ach Gott vom Himmel sieh darein; 753, Jesu, meine Freude; 764, Wie schön leuchtet uns der Morgenstern; 766, Christ, der du bist der helle Tag; 767, O Gott, dufrommer Gott; 768, Sei gegrüsset, Jesu gütig. BWV numbers have been assigned to the following doubtful and spurious works: 691a, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten (doubtful); 692, Ach Gott und Herr (by J.G. Walther); 693, Ach Gott und Herr (by J.G. Walther); 695a, Fantasia super Christ lag in Todesbanden (doubtful); 702, Das Jesulein soil doch mein Trost (doubtful); 705, Durch Adam’s Fall ist ganz verderbt (doubtful); 707, Ich hab’ mein’ Sach’ Gott heimgestellt (doubtful); Ich hab’ mein’ Sach’ Gott heimgestellt (doubtful); 713a, Fantasia super Jesu, meine Freude (doubtful); 716, Fuga super Alleiti Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr (doubtful); 719, Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich (doubtful); 723, Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (doubtful); 734, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein (doubtful); 740, Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, Vater (doubtful); 742, Ach Herr, midi armen Sunder (spurious); 743, Ach, was ist dodi unser Leben (spurious); 744, Auf meinen lieben Gott (doubtful); 745, Aus der Tiefe rufe idi (doubtful); 746, Christ ist erstanden (doubtful); 747, Christus, der uns selig macht (spurious); 748, Gott der Vater wohn’ uns bei (doubtful); 749, Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend’ (spurious); 750, Herr Jesu Christ, mein’s Lebens Licht (spurious); 751, In dulci jubilo (spurious); 752, Jesu, der du meine Seele (spurious); 754, Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (spurious); 755, Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (spurious); 756, Nun ruhen alle Walder (spurious); 757, O Herré Gott, dein göttlich’s Wort (spurious); 758, O Vater, allmächtiger Gott (doubtful); 759, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (by G.A. Homilius); 760, Vater unser im Himmelreich (doubtful); 761, Vater unser im Himmelreich (doubtful); 762, Vater unser im Himmelreich (spurious); 763, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (spurious); 765, Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott (spurious); 770, Ach, was soil ich Sünder machen? (doubtful); 771, Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr’ (nos. 3 and 8 by A.N. Vetter). Other Keyboard Music: 772–86, 15 2–part inventions in the Clavier- Büchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: C major, C minor, D major, D minor, E-flat major, E major, E minor, F major, F minor, G major, G minor, A major, A minor, B-flat major, B minor; 787–801, 15 3-part inventions, called sinfonias, in the Clavier-Büchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: C major, C minor, D major, D minor, E-flat major, E major, E minor, F major, F minor, G major, G minor, A major, A minor, B-flat major, B minor; 806–11, 6 English suites: A major, A minor, G minor, F major, E minor, D minor; 812–17, 6 French suites: D minor, C minor, B minor, E-flat major, G major, E major; 825–30, 6 partitas in part 1 of the Clavier-Übung: B-flat major, C minor, A minor, D major, G major, E minor; 831, Ouvertüre nach französischer Art, a partita in B minor in part 2 of the Clavier-Übung) 846–93, Das wohltemperierte Clavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier), in 2 parts: 24 preludes and fugues in each part in all the major and minor keys; 971, Concerto nach italianischem Gusto (Concerto in the Italian Style) in part 2 of the Clavier-Übung; 988, Aria mit verschiedenen Veranderungen (the so-called Goldberg Variations), part 4 of the Clavier-Übung. Further keyboard works: 818, Suite in A minor; 819, Suite in E-flat major; 820, Ouverture in F major; 821, Suite in B-flat major; 822, Suite in G minor; 823, Suite in F minor; 832, Partie in A major; 833, Prelude and Partita in F major; 836 and 837, 2 allemandes in G minor (1 unfinished); 841–43, 3 minuets: G major, G minor, G major; 894, Prelude and Fugue in A minor; 896, Prelude and Fugue in A major; 900, Prelude and Fughetta in E minor; 901, Prelude and Fughetta in F major; 902, Prelude and Fughetta in G major; 903, Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor; 904, Fantasia and Fugue in A minor; 906, Fantasia and Fugue in C minor; 910, Toccata in F- sharp minor; 911, Toccata in C minor; 912, Toccata in D major; 913, Toccata in D minor; 914, Toccata in E minor; 915, Toccata in G minor; 916, Toccata in G major; 944, Fugue in A minor; 946, Fugue in C major; 950, Fugue in A major (on a theme by Albinoni); 951, Fugue in B minor (on a theme by Albinoni); 953, Fugue in C major; 954, Fugue in B-flat major; 955, Fugue in B-flat major; 958, Fugue in A minor; 959, Fugue in A minor; 963, Sonata in D major; 965, Sonata in A minor (based upon a sonata by J.A. Reinken); 966, Sonata in C major (based upon part of a sonata by J.A. Reinken); 967, Sonata in A minor (based upon the 1st movement of a sonata by an unknown source); 989, Aria variata in A minor; 991, Air with variations in C minor (fragment); 992, Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo (Capriccio on the Departure of His Most Beloved Brother), in B-flat major; 993, Capriccio in E major; also 924–29, 6 works from the Clavier-Büchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Praeambulum in C major, Prelude in D minor, Praeambulum in F major, Prelude in F major, Trio in G minor, Praeambulum in G minor; 933–38, 6 preludes: C major, C minor, D minor, D major, E major, E minor; 939–43, 5 preludes: C major, D minor, E minor, A minor, C major; 994, Applicatio in C major, the first piece in the Clavier-Büchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach; several pieces in the 2 parts of the Clavier- Büchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach) and 972–87, 16 concertos: D major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 9), G major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.8/II, no. 2), D minor (arrangement of Oboe Concerto by A. Marcello), G minor (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.4, no. 6), C major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 12), C major (source unknown), F major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 3), B minor (source unknown), G major (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.4, no. 1), C minor (source unknown), B-flat major (arrangement of a concerto by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar), G minor (source unknown), C major (arrangement of a concerto by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar), G minor (arrangement of Violin Concerto by Telemann), G major (source unknown), D minor (arrangement of a concerto by Duke Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar). BWV numbers have been assigned to the following doubtful and spurious works: 824, Suite in A major (fragment; by Telemann); Allemande in C minor (spurious); 835, Allemande in A minor (by Kirnberger); 838, Allemande and Courante in A major (by C. Graupner); 839, Sarabande in G minor (spurious); 840, Courante in G major (by Telemann); 844, Scherzo in D minor (by WF. Bach); 845, Gigue in F minor (spurious); 895, Prelude and Fugue in A minor (doubtful); 897, Prelude and Fugue in A minor (partly doubtful; prelude by C.H. Dretzel); 898, Prelude and Fugue in B-flat major (doubtful); 899, Prelude and Fughetta in D minor (doubtful); 905, Fantasia and Fugue in D minor (doubtful); 907, Fantasia and Fughetta in B-flat major (doubtful); 908, Fantasia and Fughetta in D major (doubtful); 909, Concerto and Fugue in C minor (doubtful); 917, Fantasia in G minor (doubtful); 918, Fantasia on a rondo in C minor (doubtful); 919, Fantasia in C minor (doubtful); 920, Fantasia in G minor (doubtful); 921, Prelude in C minor (doubtful); 922, Prelude in A minor (doubtful); 923, Prelude in B minor (doubtful); 945, Fugue in E minor (spurious); 947, Fugue in A minor (doubtful); 948, Fugue in D minor (doubtful); 949, Fugue in A major (doubtful); 952, Fugue in C major (doubtful); 956, Fugue in E minor (doubtful); 957, Fugue in G major (doubtful); 960, Fugue in E minor (unfinished; spurious); 961, Fughetta in C minor (doubtful); 962, Fugato in E minor (by Albrechtsberger); 964, Sonata in D minor (doubtful; arrangement of Violin Sonata 1, 003); 968, Adagio in G major (doubtful; arrangement of 1st movement of Violin Sonata 1, 005); 969, Andante in G minor (spurious); 970, Presto in D minor (by WE Bach); 990, Sarabande con partite in C major (spurious); etc. Lute: 995, Suite in G minor; 996, Suite in E minor; 997, Partita in C minor; 998, Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro in E-flat major; 999, Prelude in C minor; 1, 000, Fugue in G minor; 1, 006a, Partita in E major (arrangement of 1, 006). CHAMBER: 1, 001–6, sonatas and partitas for Solo Violin: Sonata No. 1 in G minor, Partita No. 1 in B minor, Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Partita No. 2 in D minor, Sonata No. 3 in C major, Partita No. 3 in E major; 1, 007–12, 6 suites for Solo Cello: G major, D minor, C major, E-flat major, C minor, D major; 1, 013, Partita in A minor for Flute; 1, 014–19, 6 sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord: No. 1 in B minor, No. 2 in A major, No. 3 in E major, No. 4 in C minor, No. 5 in F minor, No. 6 in G major; 1, 021, Sonata in G major for Violin and Basso Continuo; 1, 023, Sonata in E minor for Violin and Basso Continuo; 1, 027–29, 3 sonatas for Harpsichord and Viola da Gamba: G major, D major, G minor; 1, 030, Sonata in B minor for Flute and Harpsichord; 1, 032, Sonata in A major for Flute and Harpsichord; 1, 034, Sonata in E minor for Flute and Basso Continuo; 1, 035, Sonata in E major for Flute and Basso Continuo; 1, 039, Sonata in G major for 2 Flutes and Basso Continuo; 1, 040, Trio in F major for Violin, Oboe, and Basso Continuo. BWV numbers have been assigned to the following doubtful and spurious works: 1, 020, Sonata in G minor for Violin and Harpsichord (doubtful); 1, 022, Sonata in F major for Violin and Harpsichord (most likely spurious); 1, 024, Sonata in C minor for Violin and Basso Continuo (doubtful); 1, 025, Suite in A major for Violin and Harpsichord (doubtful); 1, 026, Fugue in G minor for Violin and Harpsichord (doubtful); 1, 037, Sonata in C major for 2 Violins and Harpsichord (most likely spurious); 1, 031, Sonata in E-flat major for Flute and Harpsichord (doubtful); 1, 033, Sonata in C major for Flute and Basso Continuo (doubtful); 1, 036, Sonata in D minor for 2 Violins and Harpsichord (most likely spurious); 1, 038, Sonata in G major for Flute, Violin, and Basso Continuo (most likely spurious). ORCH.: 1, 041, Concerto in A minor for Violin; 1, 042, Concerto in E major for Violin; 1, 043, Concerto in D minor for 2 Violins; 1, 044, Concerto in A minor for Flute, Violin, and Harpsichord; 1, 046–51, 6 Brandenburg Concertos: No. 1 in F major, No. 2 in F major, No. 3 in G major, No. 4 in G major, No. 5 in D major, No. 6 in B-flat major; 1, 052, Concerto in D minor for Harpsichord; 1053, Concerto in E major for Harpsichord; 1, 054, Concerto in D major for Harpsichord; 1, 055, Concerto in A major for Harpsichord; 1, 056, Concerto in F minor for Harpsichord; 1, 057, Concerto in F major for Harpsichord; 1, 058, Concerto in G minor for Harpsichord; 1, 059, Concerto in D minor for Harpsichord; 1, 060, Concerto in C minor for 2 Harpsichords; 1, 061, Concerto in C major for 2 Harpsichords; 1, 062, Concerto in C minor for 2 Harpsichords; 1, 063, Concerto in D minor for 3 Harpsichords; 1, 064, Concerto in C major for 3 Harpsichords; 1, 065, Concerto in A minor for 4 Harpsichords (arrangement of Vivaldi’s op.3, no. 10); 1, 066–69, 4 suites or ouvertures: No. 1 in C major, No. 2 in B minor, No. 3 in D major, No. 4 in D major. Also 1, 045, concerto movement in D major for Violin (fragment); 1, 046a, Sinfonia in F major (early version of 1, 046); 1, 070, Overture in G minor (most likely spurious). OTHER WORKS: 769, Einige canonische Veränderungen über das Weynacht Lied, Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her for Organ (composed for his membership in the Societàt der Musikalischen Wissenschaften); 1, 079, Musikalis-ches Opfer (Musical Offering); 1, 080, Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue).

Bibliography

COLLECTED EDITIONS, SOURCE MATERIAL: J.S. B.’s Werke, the first major edition of his collected works, was publ. by the Bach-Gesellschaft (46 vols., Leipzig, 1851–99; vol. 47, suppl., 1932). The Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Inst. of Göttingen and the Bach-Archiv of Leipzig are now preparing a completely new edition, the Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (the Neue B.-Ausgabe, or NBA). It began publication in 1954; a Kritischer Bericht accompanies each vol.; in addition, facsimile reproductions of Bach’s original MSS and documents may be found in the Faksimile-Reihe B.scher Werke und Schriftstücke. There are also innumerable reprints of many of Bach’s compositions. The standard thematic catalogue of Bach’s works is to be found in W. Schmieder, Thetnatisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von J.S. B. Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Leipzig, 1950; 2nd ed., rev., 1990); it includes bibliographical information on each composition. See also M. McAll, ed., Melodic Index to the Works of J.S. B. (N.Y., 1962); U. Balestrini, ed., Catalogo Tematico (Incipit) delle Opere di J.S. B. (BWV 1–1080) (Milan, 1988); A. Dürr and Y. Kobayashi, eds., Kleine Ausgabe (Wiesbaden, 1998). Other important sources are as follows: J. Schreyer, Beiträge zur B.-Kritik (vol. 1, Dresden, 1910; vol. 2, Leipzig, 1912); E. Millier von Asow, ed., J.S. B.: Gesammelte Briefe (Regensburg, 1938; 2nd ed., with H. Muller von Asow, as J.S. B.: Briefe, Gesamtausgabe (Regensburg, 1950); H. David and A. Mendel, eds., The B. Reader (N.Y., 1945; 2nd ed., rev, 1966; rev. and enl. ed., 1998, by C. Wolff as The New B. Reader, 1998); K. Matthaei, ed., B.-Gedenkschrift (Zurich, 1950); P. Kast, Die B.-Handschriften der Berliner Staatsbibliothek, Tübinger B-Studien, II-III (Trossingen, 1958); W. Neumann and H.-J. Schulze, eds., Schriftstücke von der Hand J.S. B.s., Bach-Dokumente, I (Leipzig, 1963); P. Krause, ed., Handschriften der Werke J.S. B.s. in der Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig (Leipzig, 1964); M. Geek, ed., B.-Interpretationen (Göttingen, 1969); H.-J. Schulze, ed., Fremd-schriftliche und gedruckte Dokumente zur Lebensgeschichte J.S. B.s. 1685–1750, Bach-Dokumente, II (Leipzig, 1969); P. Krause, ed., Originalausgaben und altere Drucke der Werke J.S. B.s in der Musikbibliothek der Stadt Leipzig (Leipzig, 1970); H.-J. Schulze, ed., Dokumente zum Nachwirken J.S. B.s 1750–1800, Bach-Dokumente, III (Leipzig, 1972); W. Neumann, ed., Bilddoku-mente zur Lebensgeschichte J.S. B.s, Bach-Dokumente, IV (Leipzig, 1978); R. Leaver, B.s theologische Bibliothek: Eine kritische BibliographieB.’s Theological Library: A Critical Bibliography (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1983); H. Raupach, Das wahre Bildnis des J.S. B.: Bericht und Dokumente (Munich, 1983); G. Herz, ed., B.-Quellen in Amerika—B. Sources in America (Kassel, 1984); D. Franklin, ed., B. Studies (Cambridge, 1989); H.-J. Schulze and C. Wolff, eds., B. Compendium: Analytisch-bibliographisches Repertorium des Werke J.S. B.s (7 vols., Leipzig and Dresden, 1986–89); H. Kock and R. Siegel, Genealogisches Lexikon der Familie B. (Wechmar, 1995); J. Butt, ed., Cambridge Companion to B. (Cambridge, 1997); D. Melamed and M. Marissen, An Introduction to B. Studies (N.Y., 1998); M. Boyd, ed., The Oxford Companion to B. (Oxford, 1999). biographical: C.P.E. Bach and J. Agri-cola publ. an obituary (Nekrolog) in L. Mizler’s Neu eröffnete musikalische Bibliothek (Leipzig, 1754; reprint ed. by B. Richter in the B.-Jahrbuch, 1920; Eng. tr. in H. David and A. Mendel, eds., The B. Reader (N.Y., 1945; 2nd ed., rev, 1966; rev. and enl. ed., 1998, by C. Wolff as The New B. Reader); Bach’s first biographer was J. Forkel, Über J.S. B.s Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (Leipzig, 1802; Eng. tr., London, 1820; new Eng. tr. with notes by C. Terry, London, 1920); C. Hilgenfeldt, J.S. B.’s Leben, Wirken und Werke: Ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1850); C. Bitter, J.S. B. (2 vols., Berlin, 1865; 2nd ed., 4 vols., Dresden, 1880); P. Spitta, J.S. B. (2 vols., Leipzig, 1873–80; Eng. tr. by C. Bell and J. Fuller Maitland, with many additions, 3 vols., London, 1884–85; 2nd ed., 1899; reprint, 2 vols., N.Y., 1951); A. Schweitzer, J.S. B.: Le Musicien-poète (Paris, 1905; aug. German eds., 1908, 1915; Eng. tr. by E. Newman, 2 vols., London, 1911); C. Abdy Williams, B. (London, 1900; rev. ed., 1934); A. Pirro, J.–S. B. (Paris, 1906; Eng. tr., N.Y., 1957); P. Wolfrum, J.S. B. (vol. 1, Berlin, 1906; 2nd ed., 1910; vol. 2, Leipzig, 1910); C. Parry, J.S. B.: The Story of the Development of a Great Personality (N.Y. and London, 1909; rev. ed., 1934); J. Tiersot, J.-S. B. (Paris, 1912; 2nd ed., 1934); T. Gérold, J.-S. B. (Paris, 1925); C. Terry, B.: A Biography (London, 1928; rev. ed., 1933); R. Boughton, B., the Master: A New Interpretation of His Genius (N.Y. and London, 1930); H. Besseler, J.S. B. (Berlin, 1935; new ed., 1956); T. Scott Buhrmann, B.’s Life Chronologically as He Lived It (N.Y. 1935); H. Moser, J.S. B. (Berlin, 1935; 2nd ed., 1943); J. Müller-Blattau, J.S. B. (Leipzig, 1935; 2nd ed., Stuttgart, 1950); H. Preuss, B., àer Lutheraner (Erlangen, 1935); R. Steglich, J.S. B. (Potsdam, 1935); P. Collaer, J.S. B. (Brussels, 1936); W. Gurlitt, J.S. B.: Der Meister unà sein Werk (Berlin, 1936; 3rd ed., 1949; Eng. tr., St. Louis, 1957); W. Vetter, J.S. B. (Leipzig, 1938; 2nd ed., 1943); K. Hasse, J.S. B. (Cologne and Krefeld, 1941; 2nd ed., 1948); R. Pitrou, J.-S. B. (Paris, 1941; 2nd ed., 1949); A.-E. Cherbuliez, J.S. B.: Sein Leben unà sein Werk (Olten, 1946; 2nd ed., 1947); H. Gadamer, B. unà Weimar (Weimar, 1946); H. Keller, J.S. B. (Lorch, 1947); E. Fischer, J.S. B. (Bern, 1948); H. Engel, J.S. B. (Berlin, 1950); G. Fock, Der junge B. in Lüneburg (Hamburg, 1950); B. Paumgartner, J.S. B.: Leben una Werk (vol. I, Zurich, 1950); R. Petzoldt, J.S. B.iSein Leben in Bildern (Leipzig, 1950); F. Wiegand, J.S. B. unà seine Verwanàten in Arnstaàt (Arnstadt, 1950); F. Smend, B. in Köthen (Berlin, 1951); W. Neumann, Auf den Lebenswegen J.S. B.s (Berlin, 1953; 4th ed., 1962); K. Geiringer, The B. Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (N.Y., 1954); H. Franck, J.S. B.: Die Geschichte seines Lebens (Berlin, 1960); W. Neumann, B.: Line Bilàbiographie (Munich, 1960; Eng. tr. as B.: A Pictorial Biography, N.Y., 1961; rev. éd. as B. anà His World, N.Y., 1970); R. Miles, J.S. B. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1962); E. Buchet, ed., J.-S. B.: L’OEuvre et la vie (Paris, 1963); I. Hoist, B. (London, 1965); K. Geiringer, J.S. B.: The Culmination of an Era (N.Y., 1966); F. Blume, Der junge B. (Wolfenbüttel, 1967; Eng. tr. as “J.S. B.’s Youth,” Musical Quarterly [Jan. 1968]); E. Buchet, J.-S. B.: Après àeux siècles d’études et de témoignages (Paris, 1968); B. Schwendowius and W. Dömling, eds., J.S. B.: Zeit, Leben, Wirken (Kassel, 1976; tr. as J.S. B.: Life, Times, Influence, London, 1978); M. Boyd, B. (London, 1983); D. Arnold, B. (Oxford, 1984); R. de Candé, J.-S. B. (Paris, 1984); G. Stiller, J.S. B. and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (St. Louis, 1984); H. Wohlfarth, J.S. B. (Freiburg im Briegau, 1984; Eng. tr., Philadelphia and Cambridge, 1985); P. Buscaroli, B. (Milan, 1985); W. Felix, J.S. B. (London, 1985); W. Kolneder, J.S. B. (1685–1750): Leben, Werk, unà Nachwirken in zeitgenössis-chen Dokumenten (Wilhelmshaven, 1991); M. Geck, J.S. B.: Mit Selbstzeugnissen unà Bilààokumenten (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1993); O. Bettmann, J.S. B. as His Worlà Knew Him (Secaucus, N.J., 1995); K. Eidam, Das wahre Leben àes J.S. B. (Munich, 1999). CRITICAL, ANALYTICAL: In addition to the following writings, numerous articles of importance may be found in the B.-Jahrbuch (1904 et seq.). F. Rochlitz, Wege zu B. (extracted from Fur Freunâe der Tonkunst, Leipzig, 1824–37, by J. Müller-Blattau, Augsburg, 1926); M. Hauptmann, Erläuterungen zu J.S. B.s Kunst der Fuge (Leipzig, 1841; 2nd ed., 1861); H. Riemann, Handbuch der Fugenkomposition (vols. I and II [analysis of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier; Berlin 1890–91; 3rd ed., 1914; Eng. tr. by J. Shedlock, 2 vols., London, 1893]; vol. Ill [analysis of the Kunst der Fuge; Berlin, 1894; 3rd ed., 1921]); A. Pirro, L’Orgue de J.-S. B. (Paris, 1895; Eng. tr., London, 1902); F. Iliff, The 48 Preludes anà Fugues of J.S. B. (London, 1897); A. Pirro, L’Esthétique de J.-S. B. (Paris, 1907); A. Heuss, J.S. B.s Matthauspässion (Leipzig, 1909); R. Wustmann, J.S. B.s Kantatentexte (Leipzig, 1913; 2nd ed., 1967); C. Terry, B.’s Chorals (3 vols., Cambridge, 1915, 1917, 1921); idem, B.’s Mass in B Minor: A Study (Glasgow, 1915); E. Kurth, Grundlagen des linearen Kontrapunkts: Einführung in Stil una Technik von B.s meloàischer Polyphonie (Bern, 1917; 5th ed., 1956); H. Grace, The Organ Works of B. (London, 1922); C. Terry, J.S. B.’s Original Hymn-Tunes for Congregational Use (London, 1922); W. Werker, Stuien über die Symmetric im Bau der Fugen unà die motivische Zusammengehörigkeit der Präludien una Fugen des Wohltemperierten Klaviers von J.S. B. (Leipzig, 1922); W. Werker, Die Matthaus- Passion (Leipzig, 1923); C. Terry, B.: The Mass in B Minor (London, 1924; rev. ed., 1931); W. Whittaker, Fugitive Notes on Certain Cantatas and the Motets of J.S. B. (London, 1924); E Franke, B.s Kirchen-Kantaten (Leipzig, 1925); J. Fuller Mait-land, The “48”: B.’s Wohltemperiertes Clavier (London, 1925); idem, The Keyboarà Suites of J.S. B. (London, 1925); C. Terry, B.: The Cantatas ana Oratorios (2 vols., London, 1925); idem, J.S. B.: Cantata Texts, Sacreà and Secular, with a Reconstruction of the Leipzig Liturgy of His Perioà (London, 1926); M. Zulauf, Die Harmonik J.S. B.s (Bern, 1927; 2nd ed., 1937); C. Terry, B.: The Passions (London, 1926; 2nd ed., 1935); P. Wackernagel, B.s Brandenburgische Konzerte (Berlin, 1928); H. Abert, B.s Matthauspassion (Halle, 1929); E Atkins, B.’s Passions (London, 1929); J. Fuller Maitland, B.’s “Brandenburg” Concertos (London, 1929; 2nd ed., 1945); A. Hull, B.’s Organ Works (London, 1929); C. Terry, The Four-Part Chorales of J.S. B. (5 vols., London, 1929); idem, The Magnificat, Lutheran Masses and Motets (London, 1929); idem, B.: The Historical Approach (London, 1930); K. Ziebler, Das Symbol in der KirchenmusikJ.S. B.s (Kassel, 1930); E. Schwebsch, J.S. B. una die Kunst der Fuge (Stuttgart, 1931; 2nd ed., 1955); D. Tovey, A Companion to the Art of Fugue (London, 1931); C. Terry, B.’s Orchestra (London, 1932; 2nd ed., 1958); C. Freyse, Eisenacher Dokumente um J.S. B. (Leipzig, 1933); L. Landshoff, Revisionsbericht zur Urtextausgabe von J.S. B.s Inventionen una Sinfonien (Leipzig, 1933); C. Terry, The Music of B.: An Introàuction (London, 1933); H. Huggler, J.S. B.s Orgelbüchlein (Bern, 1935); A. Dickinson, The Art of J.S. B. (London, 1936; rev. ed., 1950); G. Herz, J.S. B. im Zeitalter des Rationalismus und der Frühromantik (Bern, 1936); L. Landshoff, Musikalisches Opfer (Leipzig, 1936); A. Schering, J.S. B.s Leipziger Kirchenmusik (Leipzig, 1936; 2nd ed., 1954); E. Thiele, Die Chorfugen J.S. B.s (Bern and Leipzig, 1936); H. Besch, J.S. B.: Frömmigkeit und Glaube (Gütersloh, 1938; 2nd ed., Kassel, 1950); C. Gray, The 48 Preludes and Fugues of J.S. B. (London, 1938); W. Neumann, J.S. B.’s Chorfuge (Leipzig, 1938); G. Frotscher, J.S. B. una die Musik des 17. Jahrhunderts (Wadenswil, 1939); A. Schering, Das Zeitalter J.S. B.s una Johann Aàam Hillers (Leipzig, 1940); B. Martin, Untersuchungen zur Struktur der Kunst der Fuge (Regensburg, 1941); H. Drinker, Texts of the Choral Works of J.S. B. in English Translation (4 vols., N.Y., 1942–43); A. Schering, Über Kantaten J.S. B.s (Leipzig, 1942; 3rd ed., 1950); S. Taylor, The Chorale Preludes of J.S. B. (London, 1942); H. David, J.S. B.’s Musical Offering: History, Interpretation and Analysis (N.Y., 1945); E Blume, J.S. B. im Wandel der Geschichte (Kassel, 1947; Eng. tr., 1950); F. Florand, J.S. B.: L’OEuvre à’orgue (Paris, 1947); W. Neumann, Handbuch der Kantaten J.S. B.s (Leipzig, 1947; 4th ed., 1971); F. Smend, J.S. B.: Kirchen-Kantaten (6 vols., Berlin, 1947–49; 3rd ed., 1966); idem, Luther und B. (Berlin, 1947); M. Dehnert, Das Weltbilà J.S. B.s (Leipzig, 1948; 2nd ed., 1949); N. Dufourcq, J.S. B.: Le Maître de l’orgue (Paris, 1948); H. Keller, Die Orgelwerke B.s: Ein Beitrag zu ihrer Geschichte, Form, Deutung und Wieâergabe (Leipzig, 1948; Eng. tr., 1967); R. Steglich, Wege zu B. (Regensburg, 1949); H. Besseler and G. Kraft, J.S. B. in Thüringen (Weimar, 1950); W. Blankenburg, Einführung in B.s h- moli Messe (Kassel and Basel, 1950; 3rd ed., 1973); H. Dràger and K. Laux, eds., B.-Probleme (Leipzig, 1950); H. Keller, Die Klavierwerke B.s (Leipzig, 1950); C. Mahrenholz, J.S. B. und der Gottesdienst seiner Zeit (Kassel and Basel, 1950); R. Petzoldt and L. Weinhold, eds., J.S. B.: Das Schaffen des Meisters im Spiegel einer Staàt (Leipzig, 1950); A. Schmitz, Die Bilàlichkeit der wortgebundenen Musik J.S. B.s (Mainz, 1950); W Vetter, Der Kapellmeister B.: Versuch einer Deutung (Potsdam, 1950); P. Aldrich, Ornamentation in J.S. B.’s Organ Works (N.Y., 1951); W. David, J.S. B.s Orgeln (Berlin, 1951); A. Davison, B. and HandehThe Consummation of the Baroque in Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1951); A. Dürr, Studien über diefrù’hen Kantaten J.S. B.s (Leipzig, 1951; rev. ed., Wiesbaden, 1977); R. Gerber, B.s Brandenburgische Konzerte (Kassel and Basel, 1951); F. Hamel, J.S. B.: Geistige Welt (Göttingen, 1951); W. Scheide, J.S. B. as a Biblical Interpreter (Princeton, 1952); W. Emery, B.’s Ornaments (London, 1953; 2nd ed., 1961); idem, Notes on B.’s Organ Works: A Companion to the Revised Edition (London, 1953–57); K. Geiringer, Symbolism in the Music of B. (Washington, D.C., 1955); L. Czaczkes, Analyse des Wohltemperierten Klaviers (Vienna, 1956–65); A. Dickinson, B.’s Fugai Works (London, 1956); H. Engel, J.S. B.s Violinkonzerte (Leipzig, 1956); W. Neumann, ed., J.S. B.: Samtliche Kantatentexte (Leipzig, 1956; 2nd ed., 1967); L. Tagliavini, Studi sui testi delle cantate sacre di J.S. B. (Padua, 1956); G. von Dadelsen, Bemerkungen zur Handschrift J.S. B.s, seiner Familie und seines Kreises (Trossingen, 1957); J. David, Die zweistimmigen Inventionen von J.S. B. (Göttingen, 1957); W. Reich, ed., J.S. B., Leben und Schaffen (Zörich, 1957); G. von Dadelsen, Beitrage zur Chronologie der Werke J.S. B.s, Tübinger B.-Studien, IV-V (Trossingen, 1958); J. David, Die dreistimmigen Inventionen von J.S. B. (Göttingen, 1959); W. Whittaker, The Cantatas of J.S. B., Sacred and Secular (2 vols., London, 1959; 2nd ed., 1964); E. Bodky, The Interpretation of B.’s Keyboard Works (Cambridge, Mass., 1960); R. Donington, Tempo and Rhythm in B.’s Organ Music (London, 1960); J. Day, The Literary Background to B.’s Cantatas (London, 1961); J. David, Das wohltemperierte Klavier (Göttingen, 1962); R. Steglich, Tanzrhythmen in derMusikJ.S. B.s (Wolfenbüttel, 1962); N. Carrell, B.’s Brandenburg Concertos (London, 1963); J. Chailley, Les Passions de J.-S. B. (Paris, 1963; 2nd ed., rev, 1984); H. Keller, Das Wohltemperierte Klavier von J.S. B.: Werk und Wiedergabe (Kassel, 1965); J. Westrup, B. Cantatas (London, 1966); N. Carrell, B. the Borrower (London, 1967); M. Geek, Die Wiederentdeckung der Matthauspassion im 19. Jahrhun-dert (Regensburg, 1967); G. Kraft, B. in Eisenach (Jena, 1967); C. Wolff, Der stile antico in der Musik J.S. B.s (Wiesbaden, 1968); A. Dürr, Die Kantaten von J.S. B. (Kassel and Munich, 1971; 5th ed., rev, 1985); J. Chailley, L’Art de la fugue de J.-S. B. (Paris, 1971–72); R. Marshall, The Compositional Process of J.S. B.: A Study of the Autograph Scores of the Vocal Works (Princeton, 1972); A. Robertson, The Church Cantatas of J.S. B. (London, 1972); W. Kolneder, Die Kunst der Fuge: Mythen des 20. Jahrhunderts (Wilhelmshaven, 1977); P. Williams, The Organ Music of J.S. B. (3 vols., Cambridge, 1980–84); S. Daw, The Music of J.S. B.: The Choral Works (East Brunswick, N.J., 1981); H. Klotz, Streifzüge durch die Bachsche Orgelwelt (Wiesbaden, 1981); R. Azekus, J.S. B. und die Aufklarung (Leipzig, 1982); A. Heinich, B.’s Die Kunst der Fuge: A Living Compendium of Fugai Procedures (Washington, D.C., 1983); P. Williams, ed., B., Handel and Scarlatti–.Tercentenary Essays (Cambridge, 1985); G. Stauffer and E. May, eds., J.S. B. as Organist: His Instruments, Music and Performance Practices (Bloomington, Ind., 1986); H. Vogt, J.S. B.’s Chamber Music (1988); R. Marshall, The Music of J.S. B.: The Sources, the Style, the Significance (N.Y., 1989); W. Young, The Cantatas of J.S. B.: An Analytical Guide (Jefferson, N.C., 1989); J. Butt, B. Interpretation: Articulation Marks in Primary Sources of J.S. B. (Cambridge, 1990); R. Tatlow, B. and the Riddle of the Number Alphabet (Cambridge, 1990); J. Butt, B.: Mass in B Minor (Cambridge, 1991); E. Chafe, Tonal Allegory in the Vocal Music of J.S. B. (Berkeley, 1991); C. Wolff, B.:Essays on His Life and Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1991); D. Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J.S. B. (N.Y., 1992); M. Boyd, B.: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge, 1993); G. and J. Csiba, Die Blechblasinstrumente in J.S. B.s Werken (Kassel, 1994); P. Dirksen, Studien zur Kunst der Fuge von J.S. B.: Untersuchungen zur Entstehungsgeschichte, Struk-tur und Auffuhrungspraxis (Wilhelmshaven, 1994); L. Burns, B.’s Modal Chorales (Stuyvesant, N.Y., 1995); E. Kooiman, G. Weinberger, and H. Busch, Zur Interpretation der Orgelmusik J.S. B.s (Kassel, 1995); M. Marissen, The Social and Religious Designs of J.S. B.’s Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton, 1995); D. Melamed, J.S. B. and the German Motet (Cambridge, 1995); L. Dreyfus, B. and the Patterns of Invention (Cambridge, 1996); G. Hartmann, Die Tonfolge B-A-C-H: Zur Emblematik des Kreuzes im Werk J.S. B.s (Bonn, 1996); R. Stinson, B.:The Orgelbüchlein (N.Y., 1996); J. Butt, ed., The Sacred Choral Music of J.S. B.: A Handbook (Brewster, Mass., 1997); M. Geck, ed., B.s Orchesterwerke: Bericht über das 1. Dortmunder B.-Symposion 1996 (Witten, 1997); M. Heinemann and H.-J. Hinrichsen, eds., B. und die Nachwelt (Laaber, 1997 et seq.); C. Wolff, ed., Wereld van de B.- cantates/The World of the B. Cantatas (N.Y., 1997 et seq.); M. Marissen, Lutheranism, Anti-Judaism, and B.’s St. John Passion (N.Y., 1998). ICONOGRAPHY: W. His., J.S. B.: Forschungen über dessen Grabstatte, Gebeine und Antlitz (Leipzig, 1895); K. Geiringer, The Lost Portrait of J.S. B. (N.Y., 1950); H. Raupach, Das wahre Bildnis J.S. B.s (Wolfenbüttel, 1950); F. Smend, J.S. B. bei seinem Namen gerufen (Kassel, 1950); H. Besseler, Fünf echte Bildnisse J.S. B.s (Kassel, 1956); H. van Tuyll van Serooskerken, Probleme des Bachporträts (Bilthoven, 1956); C. Freyse, B.s Antlitz: Betrachtungen und Erkenntnisse zur B.-Ikonographie (Eisenach, 1964).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 14 2018

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).

Johann Sebastian Bach

views updated May 21 2018

Johann Sebastian Bach

The works of the German composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) are the ultimate expression of polyphony. He is probably the only composer ever able to make full use of the possibilities of art available in his time.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, organist at St. George's Church, and Elizabeth Lämmerhirt Bach. He was the culmination of the family's long line of musicians, beginning with his great-grandfather, Veit Bach, who was a professional violinist in Gotha, and the name Bach was considered a synonym for musician. The Bach family was extremely loyal to the Lutheran faith. Throughout the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) the religious turmoil affected four generations of Bachs, who remained unwaveringly faithful to their Lutheran persuasion.

Bach's first music lessons were on the violin, with his father as instructor. Having a beautiful soprano voice, he also sang in the choir at St. George's Church. On May 3, 1694, his mother died; his father remarried 6 months later but died scarcely 2 months after that. The oldest brother, Johann Christoph, assumed the care of the 10-year-old Johann Sebastian. The boy moved to Ohrdruf to live with his brother, organist at St. Michael's Church. From him Johann Sebastian received his first instruction at the harpsichord and perhaps at the organ.

Lüneburg (1700-1703)

In 1700 Bach was nearing his fifteenth birthday, an age when Bachs usually began to earn their own living. When an opening developed at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, a scholarship was awarded Bach for his fine voice and his financial need. After his voice changed, he was transferred to the orchestra and played violin. At Lüneburg, Bach met the composer Georg Böhm, organist at St. John's Church, who influenced his early organ compositions. In 1701 Bach walked 30 miles to Hamburg to hear the renowned Jan Reinken, organist at St. Catherine's Church. At neighboring Celle, Bach heard the orchestra of Georg Wilhelm, which specialized in French instrumental music. On subsequent visits to Hamburg, Bach made the acquaintance of Vincent Lübeck, organ virtuoso, and heard German opera under the baton of Reinhard Keiser, the leading operatic conductor in Germany.

The artistic weapon of the Lutheran Church was the chorale, a hymn in the vernacular sung by the people during worship. It was preceded by a chorale prelude, an organ composition based upon a chorale melody. Bach composed almost 150 chorale preludes; his earliest ones in print are from the Lüneburg period. The influence of Böhm, whose favorite form was the chorale partita or chorale variation, is evident in two Bach works: Christ, der du bist der helle Tag (Christ, Thou Who Art the Bright Day) and O Gott, du frommer Gott (O God, Thou Righteous God).

Bach graduated from St. Michael's School in 1702, and the following year he accepted the position of violinist in the chamber orchestra of Duke Johann Ernst of Weimar. As substitute organist, he had the privilege of practicing long hours on the church organ, which prepared him for future church positions.

Arnstad (1704-1707)

In the summer of 1703 Bach was invited to test and demonstrate the organ in the new church at Arnstad. He made such an impression that a month later he was formally installed as organist. Bach had much time to practice on his favorite instrument and to develop his creative talent. His dramatic flair could already be seen in his Prelude and Fugue in C Minor and Toccata and Fugue in C Major. The first of his church cantatas, No. 15, Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen (For Thou Will Not Leave My Soul in Hell), was performed on Easter 1704. Evidently Bach's choir was less than adequate, because after the performance he immediately requested to be relieved of his choirmaster duties. His request was answered with a reprimand suggesting that his poor relationship with the choir was the source of the problem. A second reprimand, resulting from a street fight with his bassoonist, further deteriorated his relationships at Arnstad. He did find some comfort in his companionship with his cousin Maria Barbara Bach, who was referred to as the "stranger maiden" seen in the balcony while Bach was practicing the organ.

In 1705 Bach obtained a month's leave to hear the renowned Dietrich Buxtehude, organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. Bach walked the 200 miles to Lübeck and he was so impressed by the brilliant sound of choir, organ, and 40 instrumentalists performing the annual Abendmusiken, or evening music, that he remained there for 4 months without sending an explanatory message to Arnstad. Bach, too, must have made an impression because he was offered Buxtehude's position on his retirement, but the offer contained the traditional stipulation that he marry one of Buxtehude's daughters. Since she was considerably older than Bach and Maria Barbara was back in Arnstad, Bach turned down the offer. when he returned to Arnstad, he imitated Buxtehude and composed long organ preludes. Soon Bach was admonished, and he countered by making the preludes extremely short. In addition, he began improvising and accompanying the hymns with what were called curious variations and irrelevant ornaments. Needless to say, the congregation felt no regret when Bach accepted a post at Mühlhausen.

Mühlhausen (1707-1708)

In 1707 Bach was appointed organist at the Church of St. Blaise in Mühlhausen. It was a free imperial city, larger and richer than Arnstad, and a rich musical tradition had been developed during the previous 50 years by Johann Rudolf Ahle and his son Johann Georg. Every year, for example, they composed a cantata for the installation of the newly elected city council. Later that year Bach married Maria Barbara.

No doubt under the influence of Buxtehude, Bach wanted to present Mühlhausen with what he called "well-ordered church music." He soon discovered that his pastor, Johann Frohne, was an advocate of Lutheran Pietism. Frohne preferred simplicity in both the liturgy and the music, and the former organist, Johann Georg Ahle, had followed his wishes to a large extent. The very simple musical scores in the choir library reflected this approach. Bach soon became friendly with Reverend George Eilmar, an out-spoken enemy of Pietism, who is thought to be the librettist of at least three cantatas which Bach wrote during the Mühlhausen tenure. The brilliant setting of Cantata No. 71, Gott ist mein König (God Is My King), written for the installation service of the city council on Feb. 4, 1708, certainly must have antagonized Reverend Frohne and members of the congregation who were in the audience. Bach scored the cantata for strings, woodwinds, trumpets, tympani, and the usual chorus and soloist. The council was so impressed by the performance that the music was printed and put into the city records. In spite of the council's support, the fundamental conflict between his musical ideas and those of Pietism advocated by his pastor caused Bach to look elsewhere for a new position. In his letter requesting an honorable dismissal, he states very clearly that his goal in life is "with all goodwill to conduct well-ordered church music to the honor of God."

Weimar (1708-1717)

When Bach arrived in Weimar late in the summer of 1708 as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst, it marked the third time in 5 years that he had changed positions because of unfavorable circumstances. Hopefully, all would now be well, since his new position doubled his salary and he could work in an orthodox Lutheran environment. The years 1708-1710 saw an enormous output of organ music by Bach. Preludes, fugues, choral preludes, and toccatas poured from his pen. The very familiar Toccata and Fugue in D Minor dates from this early Weimar period.

Bach's primary reputation came from his organ playing, not his compositions. He was in constant demand as a recitalist and organ consultant. Typical is the reaction of Crown Prince Frederick of Sweden, who heard Bach play in Cassel in 1714. Frederick was so astonished at his virtuosity that he took a diamond ring from his finger and gave it to Bach. The musical historian Johann Mattheson, writing in 1716, refers to him as "the famous organist" of Weimar. In 1713 Bach was invited to succeed Friedrich Zachau, the teacher of George Frederick Handel, in the Liebfrauenkirche at Halle. The possibility of playing a 65-rank instrument was a great temptation to him. When he informed the duke of his leaving, the duke promptly raised his salary and promoted him to concertmeister. When the formal invitation from Halle came 2 weeks later, Bach refused it, much to the chagrin of the Halle authorities. They, in fact, accused Bach of simply using their invitation to get an increase in salary at Weimar.

For his cantata compositions Bach was blessed with two fine librettists, Erdmann Neumeister, a Lutheran pastor at St. Jacob's Church in Hamburg, who was especially interested in elaborate church music, and Salamo Franck, the custodian of the library of Duke Wilhelm Ernst. Some of the cantatas from the Weimar period are No. 142, Uns ist ein Kind geborn (Unto Us a Child Is Born), and No. 21, Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (My Spirit Was in Heaviness). Bach also wrote a secular cantata, No. 208, Was mir behagt (What Pleases Me), to honor Duke Wilhelm's friend the Duke of Weissenfels. Bach did not hesitate to incorporate music from his secular cantatas into his sacred cantatas; for example, the very familiar "Sheep May Safely Graze" was taken from Cantata No. 208.

In his late Weimar years, especially beginning in 1716, Bach composed some of his grandest organ music. These compositions are not based upon a chorale but upon the architectonic nature of music itself. The brilliant preludes and fugues, with all their complexities, are miracles of tonal design. The great Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor came from this period.

In 1716 the Kapellmeister, or court conductor, Johann Dreise died. Bach wanted this position and resented it very much when it was not offered to him. In addition, a quarrel developed between the duke and his nephew, Ernst Augustus. The duke actually forbade all his employees to have anything to do with his nephew. Bach would not tolerate such an infringement on his personal liberty and composed a birthday cantata for Ernst Augustus. At the same time Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, a brother-in-law of Ernst Augustus, had heard of Bach through his sister's marriage. It appears that Bach investigated the musical opportunities at Cöthen and was offered a position.

If Prince Leopold had any doubts of Bach's capabilities, the proposed musical competition at Dresden between Bach and the great French organist Louis Marchand should have dispelled them. The contest was to include sight reading and improvisation. Bach welcomed the opportunity and agreed to read anything Marchand would put in front of him, provided the Frenchman would do likewise. Marchand agreed, but on the appointed day, evidently anticipating defeat, he left Dresden secretly by special coach.

When Bach requested his release to go to Cöthen, Duke Wilhelm refused on such short notice. Bach had already accepted money for the moving expenses and an advance in salary. When the duke would not release him, Bach became so angry that in punishment he was placed under arrest and confined to the country judge's place of detention from Nov. 6 to Dec. 2, 1717. Eight days later Bach began his duties at Cöthen.

Cöthen (1717-1723)

Bach's prime responsibility was to conduct the court orchestra, in which the prince himself participated. Leopold played both string instruments and the clavier. In the fall of 1719 Bach tried to meet Handel, who was visiting his family in Halle, but Handel had already left for London. An effort made 10 years later was also unsuccessful.

Tragedy struck Bach when he returned with the prince from Carlsbad in July 1720. He was informed that his wife had died and had been buried on July 4. Bach lost a great source of inspiration and encouragement in Maria Barbara. He again visited his old friend Reinken in Hamburg, from whom he had received instruction 20 years earlier. At this meeting Bach improvised on the melody An WasserflüssenBabylon (By the Waters of Babylon). Reinken paid Bach the highest compliment by saying, "I thought this art was dead; but I see that it survived in you." Since Reinken was considered the foremost extempore player of his time, this was high praise indeed.

Late in 1721 Bach married Anna Magdalena Wülken. Only 20 years old, she had to take over the momentous role of wife to a man of genius and also that of mother to his children, the oldest of whom was 12 years old. But she seems to have been equal to both tasks. In addition, during the next 20 years she presented Bach with 13 children.

Bach produced his greatest instrumental works during the Cöthen period. The Cöthen instrumental ensemble consisted of 16 skilled performers, and evidently the first-chair men were capable enough to cause Bach to write special music for them. He wrote unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas for Josephus Spiess, violinist, and six suites for unaccompanied cello for Ferdinand Abel, principal cellist. Bach's clavier music of the Cöthen period included English and French suites, the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier, inventions, and the two notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach. Bach also wrote his principal orchestral works during this period, such as the Overtures and the six Brandenburg Concertos. Interestingly, he wrote many of his keyboard works for the instruction of his own children.

Prince Leopold married his cousin, a princess of An-halt-Bernberg, in 1721. She had no enthusiasm for music and successfully persuaded her husband to give his time and resources to more frivolous activities. The situation became so serious that Bach, who had been quite happy in Cöthen, decided to look for another position. In addition, the education of Bach's children became more and more a concern to him, and he wanted to provide a strong orthodox Lutheran climate for his family.

In 1722 Johann Kuhnau, cantor of the Leipzig St. Thomas's Church, died. The vacant post was offered to Georg Philipp Telemann from Hamburg, who declined, and then to Christoph Graupner of Darmstadt, who, in declining, recommended Bach to the council. After Graupner's refusal a member of the council remarked that since the best musicians were unavailable an average one would have to be selected. In February 1723 Bach played a trial service and presented Cantata No. 22, Jesu nahm zu sich die Zwölfe (Jesus Called to Him the Twelve). At a second appearance he presented his setting of the Passion of Our Lord according to St. John. More than a year after the death of Kuhnau, Bach was made cantor of Leipzig.

Leipzig (1723-1750)

One can appreciate the reluctance of the Leipzig committee to appoint Bach. He did not have a university degree, and his reputation was primarily as an organist, not as a composer. The other candidates were recognized composers, and Bach's ability as an organist was not needed since the cantor was not required to play at the services. His duties, rather, were primarily to provide choral music for two large churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. A cantata was performed alternately at each church every Sunday. In addition, special music was required on festive days of the church year and for other occasions such as funerals and installations.

In his arrangement with the council, Bach promised to perform not only the musical duties but also other responsibilities in connection with the St. Thomas's School, such as teaching classes in music, giving private instruction in singing, and even teaching Latin.

In Leipzig he composed the bulk of his choral music. The list includes 295 church cantatas, of which 202 have survived, 6 great motets, the 5 Masses, including the B Minor Mass, and the great Passions and oratorios.

In 1747 Bach visited his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was in the service of Frederick the Great at Potsdam. Frederick had expressed the desire to meet the great Bach, and for the occasion Bach improvised a six-part fugue on a theme submitted by the King. Later Bach went home and completed the work, which he called a Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering). He dedicated it to Frederick with the words, "A sovereign admired in music as in all other sciences of war and peace." Bach's last work was the Art of the Fugue, in which he demonstrated the complete possibilities of the fugal and canonic forms.

In his final years Bach was afflicted with gradual blindness, and he was totally blind the last year of his life. A few days before his death he dictated a setting of the hymn Vor deinen Thron tret' ich allhier (Before Thy Throne I Stand) to his son-in-law. The composition was prophetic. Following a stroke and a raging fever, Bach died on July 28, 1750. Four of his sons carried on the musical tradition of the Bach family: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel by his first marriage, and Johann Christoph and Johann Christian by his second.

For Bach, writing music was an expression of faith. His musical symbolism, his dramatic flair, even his insistence on no unnecessary notes—all served to profoundly interpret the text. Every composition, sacred and secular, was "in the name of Jesus" and "to the glory of God alone." His influence on music is well stated in the words of Johannes Brahms: "Study Bach: there you will find everything."

Further Reading

The principal source for the life and works of Bach is Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685-1750 (2 vols., 1873-1880; trans., 3 vols., 1951). Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach (1905; trans., 2 vols., 1911), enumerates the principal sources of Bach's tonal language and his chief uses of it. Excellent short biographies of Bach are Wilibald Gurlitt, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Master and His Work (1936; trans. 1957), and Russell Hancock Miles, Johann Sebastian Bach: An Introduction to His Life and Works (1962). Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, eds., The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents (1945), treats Bach from the human-interest viewpoint. See also Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of an Era (1966). Bach's work in the context of the times is discussed in Manfred F. Bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era: From Monteverdi to Bach (1947), and in Paul Henry Lang, Music in Western Civilization (1941). □

Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 21 2018

BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN

Preeminent composer who brought the baroque style in music to a close; b. Eisenach, Germany, March 21, 1685; d. Leipzig, July 28, 1750.

Life. Bach was the most illustrious member of a family of successful musicians, all of whom, until Sebastian's youngest son Johann Christian bach became a Catholic, were Lutheran. Sebastian was only ten when his father, a musician in the Eisenach town band, died; thereafter he received most of his musical training from his elder brother, Johann Christof, in Ohrdruf. In 1703 he entered his first post as organist of the New Church at Arnstadt, transferring in 1707 to a similar post at St. Blasius, Mühlhausen, where he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. A year later he became court organist to the Duke of Weimar and was later (1714) promoted to the post of concertmaster (i.e., director of the orchestra). In 1717 he became Kapell meister (director of music) to Prince Leopold of Cöthen. His wife died in 1720, and a year later he married Anna Magdalena Wülcken. In 1723 he was appointed to one of the chief musical posts in Germany, music director in Leipzig at two principal churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, as well as the Pauliner-Kirche of the university, and cantor (choir director) at the Thomasschüle. He retained this post until his death. Nine of his 20 children survived him, four sons possessing outstanding musical talent: Wilhelm Friedmann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel (children of Maria Barbara), and Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian (children of Anna Magdalena). Philipp Emmanuel and Johann Christian became more famous than their father during their lifetimes.

Religious Music. Sebastian's fame was chiefly that of a virtuoso organist and a learned but old-fashioned contrapuntist; his music never had the success of G. F. handel's because it was not addressed to the public audiences of the opera houses and choral concerts. If, like Handel, he had depended on popular approval for his livelihood, he might have adopted more of the newer compositional techniques; but since he remained all his life a paid employee of either prince or town council, he was under no urgent compulsion to please the public ear. Whereas Handel's music looks outward, every note designed to make an immediate impression on its audience, Bach's is introspective, full of detail that can be perceived only through careful listening and sympathetic understanding. Though he wrote much instrumental music, he designed the bulk of his work for use in the Lutheran church. In notes on thorough-bass playing dictated to his student Niedt, he said: "The aim and final reason of all music should be none else but the glory of God and the recreation of the mind. Where this is not observed, there will be no music but only a devilish hubbub."

Bach wrote 295 church cantatas (five yearly cycles of 59 each) during the first six years of his Leipzig cantorate, of which some 200 are extant. To study them profitably it is important to remember their intimate connection with the liturgy of the Lutheran Sunday morning or festal service: their texts frequently contain quotations from, or reference to, the Epistle and Gospel of the day, and the concluding chorale is always that of the particular Sunday or feast day. The music is full of symbolism, allusion, and word painting that become clear only when the works are viewed in their liturgical context. Most of the cantatas commence with a large-scale movement, frequently blended with the Italian concerto style; but where Handel would have a largely homophonic texture, Bach develops the chorus in elaborate counterpoint, e.g., in the Ascension cantata (No. 11). Sometimes this is combined with a chorale cantus firmus in the top chorus voice (Wachet auf, No. 140). The first movement may also be built on a French overture (No. 61) or preceded by it (No. 119). Several cantatas use a chorale melody as a thematic basis for all movements, but treated very freely. Only one of these preserves the melody intact throughoutChrist lag in Todesbanden (No. 4). Cantatas having two or more chorales are generally narrative cantatas, e.g., the six constituting the Christmas Oratorio. Similar variety of style and form is found in the solo arias, duets, and trios that form the middle section of cantatas.

The Mass in B minor is a composite work: the first two movements were heard as a Lutheran missa when the Elector of Saxony visited Leipzig in 1733. The Gloria uses material from an earlier cantata (No. 191). The other movements, from the Credo onward, are now known to

date from the very last years of Bach's life as far as their present form is concerned: most of them are built on materials, sections, and movements from other works. As court composer to the elector (who was a Catholic), Bach compiled the Mass, but it was never intended for Catholic or for any liturgy in its complete form. Each of the sections has something of the plan of a cantata but also follows the shape of contemporary Masses by Austrian and Italian composers.

The Passions according to St. John (1724) and St. Matthew (1729) represent a compromise between the earlier "dramatic" and the newer "opera" forms of Passion composition. Bach retained the complete relevant Gospel portions in both works, adding chorales of his own selection. For the solo arias and accompanied recitatives of St. John he drew on a text by Heinrich Brockes, and for St. Matthew his libretto was prepared by a Leipzig poet, Picander. St. John is more obviously dramatic by reason of the fewer lyrical interruptions to the narrative and the extended "crowd" sections; St. Matthew, though it has dramatic moments, is more meditative and leisurely in its progress. Bach's treatment of the Gospel narrative is peculiarly his own: he abandoned every trace of the old chant intonations, substituting a vocal line ostensibly based on the secco recitativo but with a lyrical turn of phrase not to be found there, an effect that conformed entirely to the requirements of the German language and to the expressiveness required by the subject. In the Passions, as in all his religious music, Bach's devotion and deep feeling for religion are manifest.

Bibliography: Werke, ed. bach-gesellschaft, 61 v. in 47 (Leipzig 18511926; repr. Ann Arbor 1947); Briefe, ed. e. h. mÜller von asow (2d ed. Regensburg 1950). p. spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach, tr. c. bell and j. a. fuller-maitland, 3 v. (London 1884; 2d ed. New York 1951). c. s. terry, Bach (2d ed. London 1933). a. schweitzer, J. S. Bach, tr. e. newman, 2 v. (New York 1911; reissue London 1923), new Ger. ed. (Wiesbaden 1955). a. pirro, Johann Sebastian Bach, tr. m. savill (London 1959). h. t. david and a. mendels, eds., A Bach Reader (New York 1954). k. and i. geiringer, The Bach Family (New York 1954). n. dufourcq, Jean-Sébastian Bach: Le Maître de l'orgue (Paris 1948). j. b. connor, Gregorian Chant and Medieval Hymn Tunes in the Works of J. S. Bach (Washington 1957). f. blume, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949 ) 1:9621047. h. c. colles, Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. e. blom, 9 v. (5th ed. London 1954) 1:293321. m. f. bukofzer, Music in the Baroque Era (New York 1947). p. h. lÁng, Music in Western Civilization (New York 1941). w. breig, "Zu den Turba-Chören von Bachs Johannes-Passion, " Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, 8 (1985) 6596. m. dirst, "Bach's French Overtures and the Politics of Overdotting," Early Music, 27 (1997) 3545. u. konrad, "Aspekte musikalischtheologischen Verstehens in Mariane von Zieglers und Johann Sebastian Bachs Kantate Bisher habt ihr nichts gebeten in meinem Namen BWV 87," Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 3 (2000) 199221. w. landowska, "On the Interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Keyboard Works: The Goldberg Variations, " in Landowska on Music, ed. and tr. d. restout (New York 1964) 209220. r. loucks, "Was the Well-Tempered Clavier Performable on a Fretted Clavichord?," Performance Practice Review, 5(1992) 4489. m. marissen, The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (Princeton, N.J. 1995). d. r. melamed, J. S. Bach and the German Motet (Cambridge, Eng.1995). u. meyer, Biblical Quotation and Allusion in the Cantata Libretti of Johann Sebastian Bach (Lanham, Md. 1997). l. robinson, "Notes on Editing the Bach Gamba Sonatas (BWV 10271029)," Chelys, 14 (1985) 2539. yo tomita, "Bach Reception in Pre-Classical Vienna: Baron van Swieten's Circle Edits the Well-Tempered Clavier II," Music and Letters, 81 (2000) 364391. c. wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Oxford 2000).

[a. milner]

Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 18 2018

Johann Sebastian Bach

Born: March 21, 1685
Eisenach, Germany
Died: July 28, 1750
Leipzig, Germany

German composer, organist, and musician

The works of the German composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach are the utmost expression of polyphony (a style of musical composition in which two independent melodies are played side by side in harmony). He is probably the only composer ever to make full use of the possibilities of art available in his time.

Early life

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany, the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a church organist, and Elizabeth Lämmerhirt Bach. There were musicians in the Bach family going back seven generations. The family was also devoutly Lutheran (a religion based on the faith of its believers that God has forgiven their sins). Bach received violin lessons from his father. He also had a beautiful voice and sang in the church choir. In 1694 his mother and father died within two months of each other. At age ten, Johann Sebastian moved to Ohrdruf, Germany, to live with his brother, Johann Christoph, who was the organist at St. Michael's Church. From him Johann Sebastian received his first instruction on keyboard instruments.

When an opening developed at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg in 1700, Bach was awarded a scholarship for his fine voice. After his voice changed, he was transferred to the orchestra and played violin. Bach often traveled to Hamburg, Germany, to hear other musicians. During this time he also began composing chorale preludes (organ compositions that were played before hymns sung in the Lutheran worship service). Bach graduated from St. Michael's School in 1702.

Develops organ skill

In 1703 Bach was hired as an organist in a church in Arnstad, Germany, which gave him time to practice on his favorite instrument and to develop his talent. He got into trouble on several occasions, once for fighting with a fellow musician and once for being caught entertaining a "strange maiden" in the balcony while he was practicing the organ. In 1705 Bach obtained a month's leave to visit a church in Lübeck, Germany, to hear the organist there. Bach was so impressed that he remained there for four months without sending word back to Arnstad about what he was doing. After returning to Arnstad, he began composing long organ preludes. After people complained, he made the preludes extremely short. He also began changing and adding parts to the hymns that confused the churchgoers.

In 1707 Bach was appointed organist at a church in Mühlhausen, Germany, a larger and richer city than Arnstad. Later that year Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his cousin. Bach wanted to present Mühlhausen with what he called "well-ordered church music." His pastor, Johann Frohne, liked both the mass and the music to be simple. The brilliant Cantata No. 71, Gott ist mein König (God Is My King), was written for the service at which new members were placed into the city council in February 1708. It so impressed the council that the music was printed and put into the city records. Still, the conflict between Bach's musical ideas and those of his pastor caused Bach to look elsewhere for a new position.

Working for royalty

Bach arrived in Weimar, Germany, in 1708 as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst. His new position doubled his salary and allowed him to work in a stricter Lutheran environment. The years 1708 to 1710 saw an enormous output of original organ music by Bach. His reputation at the time, however, came mainly from his organ playing, not his compositions. Crown Prince Frederick of Sweden, who heard Bach play in 1714, was so astonished that he took a diamond ring from his finger and gave it to the organist.

In 1716 Bach became upset when he was not offered the opportunity to replace the duke's court conductor, who had died. At the same time Prince Leopold of Cöthen, Germany, heard of Bach and offered him a position. When Bach requested his release to go to Cöthen, Duke Wilhelm refused to accept such short notice. Bach, who had already accepted an advance in salary, became so angry that he was placed under arrest and jailed for almost a month. Bach began his duties at Cöthen after his release.

Prime of his life

In Cöthen Bach's prime responsibility was to conduct the court orchestra, in which the prince himself participated. In 1720 Bach's wife died, leaving him a widower with seven children. Late in 1721 he married Anna Magdalena Wülken, a twenty-year-old singer. She had to take over the difficult role of wife to a man of genius and also that of mother to his children, the oldest of whom was twelve years old. But she seems to have been equal to both tasks. In addition, during the next twenty years she presented Bach with thirteen more children.

Bach produced his greatest instrumental works during the Cöthen period. The other Cöthen musicians were all skilled performers, and their talent inspired Bach to write special music for them. Bach also wrote his major orchestral works during this period. He wrote many of his keyboard works for the instruction of his own children. However, after Prince Leopold married, he had less time for music, and the court orchestra had less to do. This decrease in importance, plus Bach's concern over his children's education, led him to look for another position in a strong Lutheran area. In 1723 he was named cantor (choir leader) of Leipzig, Germany, to replace the deceased Johann Kuhnau.

The Leipzig committee was reluctant to hire Bach. His reputation was mainly as an organist, not as a composer, and his ability as an organist was not needed since the cantor was not required to play at the services. His duties were primarily to provide choral music (designed for a choir) for two large churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. In addition, special music was required on certain days of the church year and for other occasions such as funerals. Bach promised to perform not only the musical duties but also other responsibilities in connection with the St. Thomas School, such as teaching classes in music, giving private singing lessons, and even teaching Latin. While in Leipzig Bach composed the bulk of his choral music.

Later years

Bach gradually lost his eyesight during his final years, and he was totally blind the last year of his life. A few days before his death he read parts of the hymn Vor deinen Thron tret' ich allhier (Before Thy Throne I Stand) for his son-in-law to write down. Following a stroke and a high fever, Bach died on July 28, 1750. Four of his sons carried on the musical tradition of the Bach family. For Bach writing music was an expression of faith. Every composition was "in the name of Jesus" and "to the glory of God alone." His influence on music is well stated in the words of Johannes Brahms (18331897): "Study Bach: there you will find everything."

For More Information

Boyd, Malcolm. J. S. Bach. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Eidam, Klaus. The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

Wolff, Christoph. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.

Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 23 2018

Johann Sebastian Bach

1685–1750

Composer
Organist

Early Years.

Johann Sebastian Bach, the greatest master of counterpoint and polyphony, was undoubtedly one of the greatest musical minds of the Western tradition. Unlike many composers who traveled extensively through Europe, Bach remained in the central and northern regions of the Holy Roman Empire for his whole life. He was born in Eisenach in central Germany, the eighth child of a family of musicians; both his parents died when he was nine, so he was sent to live for a few years with an older brother, an organist. Later he served as a choirboy. He excelled as an organist, and also played the violin. In 1703, he moved to the city of Arnstadt where he accepted his first professional post as an organist. His time there was not entirely happy. He did not get along well with the local musicians and criticized their lack of skill; he received four weeks of leave to travel to Lübeck so that he could listen to the great Baroque organist Dietrich Buxtehude, but he ended up staying away from his post for four months. Back in Arnstadt, locals complained that his music was too complicated for them to sing. It seems likely that Bach was developing musical ideas too complex for the abilities of the local performers. Bach was happy to accept another position as organist in Mühlhausen three years later; an early cantata, Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Lay in the Bonds of Death), as well as a guest performance as organist, helped him win this new post. He began to write more choral church music as well as organ compositions, including a number of cantatas. He also married his first wife, Maria Barbara. Soon Bach moved again, to a much more prominent position as organist for the duke of Weimar, and a few years later he was named the duke's concertmaster. At Weimar he had the first six of his twenty children, including the future composer Carl Philip Emanuel Bach. His friend, the composer Georg Philipp Telemann, who was even more famous in his lifetime than Bach, was the boy's godfather. Many of Bach's organ compositions date from this period, though he seems to have written few cantatas while at Weimar.

From CÖthen to Leipzig.

In 1717, Bach was offered a position as Kapellmeister (chapel master) at the court of Prince Leopold at Cöthen. Out of personal animosity against the prince, the duke of Weimar refused to allow Bach to leave and even imprisoned him for a month, but Bach finally managed to move. Leopold loved music and played several instruments. Here Bach wrote mainly chamber and orchestral music, including his famous set of Brandenburg concertos. While traveling with the prince in 1720, Bach received the news that his wife had died. He considered leaving Cöthen, though the next year he married a singer at the court, Anna Magdalena Wilcke. Bach continued to consider positions elsewhere, and found one at the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, as cantor at its school and as music director for the city. Bach moved there in 1723 and remained there the rest of his life. The school supplied singers for four churches, and Bach was kept busy rehearsing them, conducting at least some of their performances, teaching students, and especially writing music for these groups to perform. During some of this time he wrote as much as one cantata every week, in addition to composing music for special occasions such as weddings, plus works for particular religious holidays. One major achievement of the first years in Leipzig was his composition of the famous St Matthew Passion in 1727 for performance during Holy Week. Bach was never happy with the non-musical tasks that the local schoolmasters often expected him to perform, which led to a number of disputes and a good deal of friction. A new director and some renovations helped improve matters, though only temporarily. Bach continued to keep his eyes open for new positions, or for secondary appointments to offer professional respite as well as financial support for his large family. He taught private students, tested organs in Leipzig and the surrounding area, and worked to make the best deals possible on the publication of his compositions.

New Interests.

In 1729 Bach took over another group, the city's Collegium Musicum. This was a voluntary society composed of university students and professionals. The group gave weekly concerts in Leipzig, particularly at a local coffeehouse, which provided the subject for his "Coffee Cantata." The collegium gave Bach another venue and skilled musicians with whom to work, a place to perform secular compositions, and a forum for guest performances by visiting friends and colleagues. Bach ran the group for about ten years. During these years he also began work on a Mass (known as the Mass in B Minor), which he completed over ten years later. In 1733 he sent two sections, the Kyrie and Gloria, to the court of the elector of Saxony in Dresden. He was hoping to win the title of court composer; he was finally successful in 1736. His connections with Dresden became more important over time, especially since later directors of the Thomasschule had less interest in music.

Later Years.

As Bach's older sons developed their own careers and accepted important appointments, his ties outside of Leipzig expanded still further. Carl Philip Emanuel Bach moved to the court of Prince Frederick, soon to become Frederick II (Frederick the Great), king of Prussia, at Berlin in 1738, and his father made several visits there. Frederick was an avid amateur musician and excelled as a performer on the flute. In 1747 Frederick invited Bach to court to examine some of its new fortepianos and to perform. He also gave Bach a musical theme and asked him to improvise counterpoint upon it. Bach obliged, then promised to write a more substantial and effective composition when he returned home. The work he sent back to Frederick is now known as the Musical Offering, a set of thirteen pieces based on the theme and including an important part for the flute, the king's own instrument. During his later years, Bach joined a scholarly music society, the Society of Musical Sciences, and worked on revising a compendium called the Art of Fugue which remained unfinished at his death. His health began to fail, and cataracts affected his vision. An operation to repair his sight was unsuccessful, and he died shortly thereafter. His unpublished works were scattered among family members, and many of them were lost. Although his interest in the older "first practice" of contrapuntal Baroque music was no longer in fashion by the time of his death, his work remained highly regarded, and composers such as Mozart continued to study his works. The interest in the music of earlier times that had established itself in England eventually spread to Germany, and by the early nineteenth century interest in Bach was beginning to revive. Scholars and publishers did their best to collect, edit, and publish his works, and musical societies sponsored concerts and festivals in his honor and marking the centennials of many of his important works.

sources

John Butt, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Barbara Schwendowius and Wolfgang Dömling, eds., Johann Sebastian Bach: Life, Times, Influence (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1984).

Peter Williams, The Life of Bach (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Christoff Wolff, ed., The New Grove Bach Family (London: Macmillan, 1983).

Bach, Johann Sebastian

views updated May 17 2018

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

About this article

Johann Sebastian Bach

All Sources -
Updated Aug 13 2018 About encyclopedia.com content Print Topic