How are
you?
This week's
lecture is “Johann Sebastian Bach”, the 4th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “89.
Classical Music: 4. Johann Sebastian Bach” introduced
on May 27th, 2017.
Johann
Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period, born
March 31, 1685 and died July 28, 1750. He is known for instrumental music such
as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations, and for vocal music
such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th century
Bach Revival, he is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
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| Johann Sebastian Bach, Elias Gottlob Haussmann (1746) |
When Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a musician living in Eisenach, there were already several composers in the Bach family. After being orphaned at the age of 10, Bach lived with his elder brother Johann Christoph for five years, after which he continued his musical framework in Lüneburg.
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| Johann Ambrosius Bach, Bach's father |
Returning to Thuringia in 1703, he worked as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertoire, and in Köthen, where he mainly devoted to chamber music.
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| The Wender organ Bach played in Arnstadt |
From 1723 he worked as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig and composed music for the city's principal Lutheran churches and for its university's student ensemble, Collegium Musicum.
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| St. Thomas Church and School, Leipzig (1723) |
However, Bach, who tried to carry out his own ideals to the end, had frequently difficult relations with his employers, such as the officials of the city or the heads of the churches, and as a result, he seems to have gradually lost his enthusiasm for the composition of church music. He reworked and extended many of his earlier works during the last decades of his life, and died in 1750 at the age of 65 due to complications after eye surgery.
Bach's own
mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation and his adaptation
of rhythms and forms from abroad, especially from Italy and France, enriched
German musical style more than the established style.
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| A bust of Johann Sebastian Bach, St Nicholas Church, Leipzig |
In the 18th
century, Bach was appreciated for his keyboard music such as The Well-Tempered
Clavier with its didactic features, but primarily valued as an organist. In the
19th century, some of Bach's major biographies were published, and by the end
of that century all of his known music had been printed.
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| J.S. Bach memorial in front of the church St. Thomas, Leipzig, Germany |
From his
early age, Bach studied the works of his period and those of prior generations,
and those influences was reflected in his music. Like his contemporaries
Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da
capo arias, and four-part choral music, but his music was harmonically more
innovative than his peer composers.
Thank you.
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