Johann sebastian bach biography completas

Today, he is considered one of the greatest Western composers of all time. His father, Johann Ambrosius, worked as the town musician in Eisenach, and it is believed that he taught young Johann to play the violin. At the age of seven, Bach went to school where he received religious instruction and studied Latin and other subjects. His Lutheran faith would influence his later musical works.

By the time he turned 10, Bach found himself an orphan after the death of both of his parents. His older brother Johann Christoph, a church organist in Ohrdruf, took him in. Johann Christoph provided some further musical instruction for his younger brother and enrolled him in a local school. Bach stayed with his brother's family until he was Sometime after his arrival, his voice changed and Bach switched to playing the violin and the harpsichord.

Inhe landed his first job as a musician at the court of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. There he was a jack-of-all-trades, serving as a violinist and at times, filling in for the official organist. Bach had a growing reputation as a great performer, and it was his great technical skill that landed him the position of organist at the New Church in Arnstadt.

He was responsible for providing music for religious services and special events as well as giving music instruction. An independent and sometimes arrogant young man, Bach did not get along well with his students and was scolded by church officials for not rehearsing them frequently enough. Bach did not help his situation when he disappeared for several months in InBach was glad to leave Arnstadt for an organist position at the Church of St.

This move, however, did not turn out as well as he had planned. Bach's musical style clashed with the church's pastor. Bach created complex arrangements and had a fondness for weaving together different melodic lines. His pastor believed that church music needed to be simple. One of Bach's most famous works from this time is the cantata "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit," also known as "Actus Tragicus.

He wrote many church cantatas and some of his best compositions for the organ while working for the duke.

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He moved on to a new job at St. A tremendous job opportunity awaited him at St. While money may not have been the main motivating factor behind writing the composition, he earned a great deal from it. Great critical acclaim also accompanied this work. There are several amazing works and compositions that were created by Bach. A great catalog entitled Bach Works Catalogue was first published in and it is the seminal work listing all of his compositions.

His organ works such as the Great Eighteen chorales and the six trio sonatas were well-received and still are today. The music in these works is very similar to the traditional German folk arrangements. There were many other keyboard works that are designed to play on the harpsichord and the clavichord. The 15 Inventions and 15 Sinfoniasthe Goldberg Variationsand the Well-Tempered Clavier are three of these most well known works he crafted in the keyboard genre.

This is not to suggest Bach was the only composer to use the keyboard, but he certainly helped the instrument gain a far greater level of success. 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 Bach obtained a month's leave to hear the renowned Dietrich Buxtehudeorganist at St.

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 johann sebastian bach biography completas in Arnstad, Bach turned down the offer.

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. In Bach was appointed organist at the Church of St. 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. 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.

The brilliant setting of Cantata No. 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. When Bach arrived in Weimar late in the summer of 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 saw an enormous output of organ music by Bach. Preludes, fugues, choral preludes, and toccatas poured from his pen. Bach's primary reputation came from his organ playing, not his compositions. He was in constant demand as a recitalist and organ consultant.

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 inrefers to him as "the famous organist" of Weimar. The possibility of playing a 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.

Johann sebastian bach biography completas: This engaging new biography portrays Bach

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. Bach also wrote a secular cantata, No. Bach did not hesitate to incorporate johann sebastian bach biography completas from his secular cantatas into his sacred cantatas; for example, the very familiar "Sheep May Safely Graze" was taken from Cantata No. In his late Weimar years, especially beginning inBach 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 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. 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. 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. 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 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 He was informed that his wife had died and had been buried on July 4. Bach lost a johann sebastian bach biography completas 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.

Reinken paid Bach the highest compliment by saying, "I thought this art was dead; but I see that it survived in you. 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.

He wrote unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas for Josephus Spiess, violinist, and six suites for unaccompanied cello for Ferdinand Abel, principal cellist. 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 She had no enthusiasm for music and successfully persuaded her husband to give his time and resources to more frivolous activities. 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 Johann Kuhnaucantor 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 Bach played a trial service and presented Cantata No. At a second appearance he presented his setting of the Passion of Our Lord according to St. More than a year after the death of Kuhnau, Bach was made cantor of Leipzig. 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. 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 church cantatas, of which have survived, 6 great motets, the 5 Masses, including the B Minor Mass, and the great Passions and oratorios.

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. He dedicated it to Frederick with the words, "A sovereign admired in music as in all other sciences of war and peace. 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, 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. Albert SchweitzerJ. Bach ; trans. Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, eds.

Bach's work in the context of the times is discussed in Manfred F. Preeminent composer who brought the baroque style in music to a close; b. Eisenach, Germany, March 21, ; d. 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 he entered his first post as organist of the New Church at Arnstadt, transferring in to a similar post at St. A year later he became court organist to the Duke of Weimar and was later promoted to the post of concertmaster i.

In he was appointed to one of the chief musical posts in Germany, music director in Leipzig at two principal churches, St. He retained this post until his death. 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.

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.

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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 church cantatas five yearly cycles of 59 each during the first six years of his Leipzig cantorate, of which some 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.

Sometimes this is combined with a chorale cantus firmus in the top chorus voice Wachet auf, No. The first movement may also be built on a French overture No. 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 throughout — Christ lag in Todesbanden No.

Cantatas having two or more chorales are generally narrative cantatas, e. 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 The Gloria uses material from an earlier cantata No.

The other movements, from the Credo onward, are now known to. As court composer to the elector who was a CatholicBach 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 and St. Matthew represent a compromise between the earlier "dramatic" and the newer "opera" forms of Passion composition. Bach retained the complete relevant Gospel johann sebastians bach biography completas 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. 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. Ann Arbor ; Briefe, ed. Regensburg London ; 2d ed. New York London Bach, tr. New York ; reissue Londonnew Ger. Wiesbaden Bach Washington London — Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Princeton, N. Bach and the German Motet Cambridge, Eng.

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. 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 his mother and father died within two months of each other. From him Johann Sebastian received his first instruction on keyboard instruments.

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. Michael's School in In 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. 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. Later that year Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his cousin. The brilliant Cantata No. 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 johann sebastian bach biography completas caused Bach to look elsewhere for a new position.

His new position doubled his salary and allowed him to work in a stricter Lutheran environment. The years to 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 Swedenwho heard Bach play inwas so astonished that he took a diamond ring from his finger and gave it to the organist.

In Bach became upset when he was not offered the opportunity to replace the duke's court conductor, who had died. Bach, who had already accepted an advance in salary, became so angry that he was placed under arrest and jailed for almost a month. Subsequently, Bach settled in Arnstadt, where he worked as a church organist from to Blasius Church.

There, he composed cantatas and supplemented his income by repairing organs. The same year, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara, who bore him seven children. Bach's career took a significant turn in when he became the court organist and composer in Weimar. This period marked the beginning of his compositional prowess, with numerous organ and harpsichord pieces emerging.

His duties included accompanying the prince's singing and playing the harpsichord and viol da gamba, as well as directing a chapel of 18 musicians. Bach and Marchand met and played together, but Marchand abruptly left Dresden, recognizing Bach's superior musicianship. InMaria Barbara passed away, leaving Bach a widower. The following year, he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a singer and daughter of a court musician.

Anna Magdalena proved to be a supportive partner, aiding her husband in copying his works.