Johann Sebastian Bach

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(b Eisenach, 21 March 1685; d Leipzig, 28 July 1750). German composer and organist [24 in Bach family genealogy]. He was the youngest son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a town musician, from whom he probably learnt the violin and the rudiments of musical theory. When he was ten he was orphaned and went to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph, organist at St Michael's Church, Ohrdruf, who gave him lessons in keyboard playing. From 1700 to 1702 he attended St Michael's School in Lüneburg, where he sang in the church choir and probably came into contact with the organist and composer Georg Böhm. He also visited Hamburg to hear J. A. Reincken at the organ of St Catherine's Church.

After competing unsuccessfully for an organist's post in Sangerhausen in 1702, Bach spent the spring and summer of 1703 as ‘lackey’ and violinist at the court of Weimar and then took up the post of organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt. In June 1707 he moved to St Blasius, Mühlhausen, and four months later married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach in nearby Domheim. Bach was appointed organist and chamber musician to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1708, and in the next nine years he became known as a leading organist and composed many of his finest works for the instrument. During this time he fathered seven children, including Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. When, in 1717, Bach was appointed Kapellmeister at Cöthen he was at first refused permission to leave Weimar and was allowed to do so only after being held prisoner by the duke for almost a month.

Bach's new employer, Prince Leopold, was a talented musician who loved and understood the art. Since the court was Calvinist, Bach had no chapel duties and instead concentrated on instrumental composition. From this period date his violin concertos and the six Brandenburg Concertos, as well as numerous sonatas, suites and keyboard works, including several (e.g. the Inventions and Book I of the ‘48’) intended for instruction. In 1720 Maria Barbara died while Bach was visiting Karlsbad with the prince; in December of the following year Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcke, daughter of a court trumpeter at Weissenfels. A week later Prince Leopold also married, and his bride's lack of interest in the arts led to a decline in the support given to music at the Cöthen court. In 1722 Bach entered his candidature for the prestigious post of Director musices at Leipzig and Kantor of the Thomasschule there. In April 1723 after the preferred candidates, Telemann and Graupner, had withdrawn, he was offered the post and accepted it.

Bach remained as Thomaskantor in Leipzig for the rest of his life, often in conflict with the authorities, but a happy family man and a proud and caring parent. His duties centred on the Sunday and feastday services at the city's two main churches, and during his early years in Leipzig he composed prodigious quantities of church music, including four or five cantata cycles, the Magnificat and the St John and St Matthew Passions. He was by this time renowned as a virtuoso organist and in constant demand as a teacher and an expert in organ construction and design. His fame as a composer gradually spread more widely when, from 1726 onwards, he began to bring out published editions of some of his keyboard and organ music.

From about 1729 Bach's interest in composing church music sharply declined, and most of his sacred works after that date including the B minor Mass and the Christmas Oratorio consist mainly of ‘parodies’ or arrangements of earlier music. At the same time he took over the direction of the collegium musicum that Telemann had founded in Leipzig in 1702 - a mainly amateur society which gave regular public concerts. For these Bach arranged harpsichord concertos and composed several large-scale cantatas, or serenatas, to impress the Elector of Saxony, by whom he was granted the courtesy title of Hofcompositeur in 1736.

Among the 13 children born to Anna Magdalena at Leipzig was Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian, in 1735. In 1744 Bach's second son, Emanuel, was married and three years later Bach visited the couple and their son (his first grandchild) at Potsdam, where Emanuel was employed as harpsichordist by Frederick the Great. At Potsdam Bach improvised on a theme given to him by the king, and this led to the composition of the Musical Offering, a compendium of fugue, canon and sonata based on the royal theme. Contrapuntal artifice predominates in the work of Bach's last decade, during which his membership (from 1747) of Lorenz Mizler's learned Society of Musical Sciences profoundly affected his musical thinking. The Canonic Variations for organ was one of the works Bach presented to the society, and the unfinished Art of Fugue may also have been intended for distribution among its members.

Bach's eyesight began to deteriorate during his last year, and in March and April 1750 he was twice operated on by the itinerant English oculist John Taylor. The operations and the treatment that followed them may have hastened Bach's death. He took final communion on 22 July and died six days later. On 31 July he was buried at St John's cemetery. His widow survived him for ten years, dying in poverty in 1760.

Bach's output embraces practically every musical genre of his time except for the dramatic ones of opera and oratorio (his three ‘oratorios’ being oratorios only in a special sense). He opened up new dimensions in virtually every department of creative work to which he turned, in format, musical quality and technical demands. As was normal at the time, his creative production was mostly bound up with the external factors of his places of work and his employers, but the density and complexity of his music are such that analysts and commentators have uncovered in it layers of religious and numerological significance rarely to be found in the music of other composers. Many of his contemporaries, notably the critic J. A. Scheibe, found his music too involved and lacking in immediate melodic appeal, but his chorale harmonizations and fugal works were soon adopted as models for new generations of musicians. The course of Bach's musical development was undeflected (though not entirely uninfluenced) by the changes in musical style taking place around him. Together with his great contemporary Handel (whom chance prevented his ever meeting), Bach was the last great representative of the Baroque era in an age which was already rejecting the Baroque aesthetic in favour of a new, ‘enlightened’ one.

works:
Sacred choral music

• St John Passion (1724)
• St Matthew Passion (1727)
• Christmas Oratorio (1734)
• Mass, b (1749)
• Magnificat (1723)
• over 200 church cantatas, incl. no.80, Ein feste Burg (c 1744), no.140, Wachet auf (1731)
• 7 motets, incl. Singet dem Herm (c 1727), Jesu meine Freude (?1723)
• chorales, sacred songs

Secular vocal music

• over 20 cantatas, incl. no.211, ‘Coffee cantata’ (c 1735), no.212, ‘Peasant Cantata’ (1742)

Orchestral music

• Brandenburg Conc.s nos.1-6 (1721)
• 2 vn concs., a, E (1717-23), 2- vn conc., d (1723), hpd concs. (c 1738-9): 8 for 1 hpd (d, E, D, A, f, F, g, d), 3 for 2 hpd (c, C, c), 2 for 3 hpd (d, C), 1 for 4 hpd (a)
• 4 orch. suites, C, b (with fl), D, D

Chamber music

• 6 sonatas and partitas, vn (1720)
• 6 sonatas, vn, hpd (1717-23)
• 6 suites, vc (c 1720)
• Musical Offering (1747)
• 7 fl sonatas (2 unacc.)
• 3 sonatas, viola da gamba, hpd
• trio sonatas

Keyboard music

• 7 toccatas (c 1708-10)
• Chromatic fantasia and fugue, d (c 1720)
• Das wohltemperirte Clavier, ‘48’ (1722, 1742)
• 6 English Suites (c 1722)
• 6 French Suites (c 1722)
• 15 Inventions, 15 Sinfonias (1723)
• 6 Partitas (1731)
• Italian Conc. (1735)
• French Ov. (1735)
• Goldberg Variations (c 1741)
• The Art of Fugue (c 1745-50)
• suites, fugues, capriccios, 16 concertos

Organ music

• over 150 chorale preludes
• preludes, fugues, toccatas, fantasias, sonatas. passacaglia

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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 (b Eisenach, 21 Mar. 1685, d. Leipzig, 28 July 1750). German composer. Although he wrote no ballet music, his work has frequently been used by choreographers from Nijinska to Neumeier. Major Bach ballets include Nijinska's Étude (Paris, 1931), Balanchine's Concerto Barocco (Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, New York, 1941), Petit's Le Jeune Homme et la mort (Passacaglia in C minor, Paris, 1946), Macdonald's Aimezvous Bach? (various, Alberta, 1962), Cranko's Brandenburgs 2 & 4 (London, 1966), Robbins's The Goldberg Variations (New York, 1971), Paul Taylor's Esplanade (various, New York, 1975), Béjart's Notre Faust (B minor Mass, Brussels, 1975), and Neumeier's St Matthew Passion (Hamburg, 1981).

Bach, Johann Sebastian (Eisenach, 1685-1750, Leipzig), the most famous member of a family that produced six generations of musicians. Johann Sebastian's father Ambrosius was Stadtmusikus of Eisenach, and his two uncles, his paternal grandfather, and his great-uncle were all organists, and, in addition, one of his great-grandfathers was also a musician. Orphaned at 10, he was brought up at Ohrdruf and then at Lüneburg. He occupied various musical posts in Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlstadt between 1703 and 1717. From then until 1723 he was court musical director (Hofkapellmeister) at Köthen (or Cöthen) in Anhalt. He was appointed choirmaster at St Thomas's Church, Leipzig, and city music director in 1723, a post he occupied until his death.

J. S. Bach wrote numerous orchestral works, suites, and concertos, including the six Brandenburg Concertos, as well as violin and keyboard concertos. He composed Das wohltemperierte Klavier, generally known as ‘The Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues’, the Goldberg Variations, and much organ music. His vocal works include more than 200 cantatas for ecclesiastical use, two secular works (Kaffeekantate and Bauernkantate), and the great choral masterpieces, the B minor Mass (Hohe Messe in Hmoll), the Christmas and Easter Oratorios, and the St Matthew and St John Passions. For many of the choral works a great part of the text was biblical and the cantatas, passions, and oratorios use hymns current in Bach's time. The texts for the recitatives and arias in some of these works were written by Picander, i.e. C. F. Henrici (Weihnachtsoratorium and Matthäus-Passion), though Bach also made use of poetry by Brockes (Johannis-Passion). The poet of the Oster-Oratorium is not known. Picander was responsible for the words of the Coffee and Peasant Cantatas.

Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-84), primarily an instrumental composer, was chiefly active in Dresden and Halle, but also in Leipzig, Brunswick, and Berlin. He is the subject of the novel Friedemann Bach (1858) by A. E. Brachvogel.

The second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-88), who wrote vocal as well as instrumental music, setting works by Klopstock and Gellert, was in the service of Friedrich II of Prussia, and from his later residence in Hamburg 1767-88 is known as ‘der Hamburger Bach’.

Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-95) worked chiefly in Bückeburg. His songs include settings of poems by Herder.

‘The London Bach’, Johann Christian (1734-82), after two years as cathedral organist at Milan, settled in London in 1762 as master of music to Queen Charlotte, consort of George III.

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

Life

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

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

Compositions

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

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

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

Accomplishments and Influence

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

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

Bibliography

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

(bahkh, bahk)

An eighteenth-century German composer, organist, and choirmaster, commonly considered the greatest composer of the baroque era. His output was enormous and includes cantatas, concertos, oratorios, organ pieces, sonatas for solo instruments, and suites for both solo instruments and orchestra; all of it is marked by elaborate counterpoint. Some of Bach's best-known works are the six Brandenburg Concertos; the Toccata and Fugue in D-minor for organ; and an arrangement of a hymn, “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring,” for chorus and orchestra.

Quotes:

"There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself."

Biography

Approximately 207 feature films have quoted from the works of this innovative genius of the Baroque era who refined previous musical forms and techniques, synthesized contemporary styles from other European countries, and created many advanced concepts.

The famous opening of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, with its clarion call opening followed by a descent into a spine-chilling low pedal point from which a massive diminished ninth dissonance builds like some Gothic monster rising from the depths only to scurry away in mysterious, quick figurations, has appeared in at least 12 films where it heightened enigmatic moments: from the classic horror of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Raven (1935), Rancho del miedo (1971) (aka The Fearmaker), Tales From the Crypt (1972), and A Refutation of Time (1998); to the sci-fi films 2+5: Missione Hydra (aka Star Pilot) (1965) and Rollerball (1975); to the psychological horror of Sunset Boulevard (1950); to the abstractions of Fantasia (1940) and Escape (1937) (aka Synchromy No. 4); to the surreal serio-comedy of Monty Python's the Meaning of Life (1983).

In The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bach's Italian Concerto is mixed (simultaneously) with the choral piece Mache Dich, Mein Herze, Rein (Purify Thee My Heart) from the St. Matthew Passion to metaphorically represent the two identities under which Ripley is living in Rome: his own and that of Dickie Greenleaf, the man he recently murdered and dumped into the ocean.

Excerpts from Bach's Goldberg Variations enhance such films as Wim Wenders' subtle study of bizarre behavior in postwar Germany entitled Falsche Bewegung (False Movement, 1974), the Portuguese drama O Ultimo Mergulho (The Last Dive, 1992), The English Patient (1996), and the terrifying The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its follow-up, Hannibal (2001). Many of the variations are presented in their pure form in Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) and the short Blacktop: A Story of the Washing of a School Play Yard (1952).

The deeply soul-stirring, peripatetically disturbed motion of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion describes a similar emotion in such films as THX 1138 (1970) with its vision of a claustrophobic future; Offret (The Sacrifice, 1986); Zerkalo (The Looking-Glass, 1975); Pasolini's moving Marxist vision of the New Testament Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964); Des Christs par milliers (1969); and Martin Scorese's gambling family crime film Casino (1995). The entire work was filmed as Passione secondo San Matteo (1949).

Bach's music complements and elevates such films as the touching and mysterious Schlafes Bruder (Brother of Sleep, 1995), about a wholly self-taught and cosmically inspired organist from an Alpine village; the award-winning Schindler's List (1993) which quotes the English Suite No. 2; Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); Barry Lyndon (1975); Bergman's Hour of the Wolf (1968); Les Enfants Terribles (1950); Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975); The Godfather (1972); and Solyaris (1972) which ethereally integrates the Chorale Prelude in F Minor.

Aspects of the composer's life are revealed in Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) and Friedemann Bach (1941). ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi

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• Genres: Chamber Music, Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Miscellaneous Music, Orchestral Music, Vocal Music

Biography

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer of the Baroque period. He was a virtuoso organist who worked most of his life as a Lutheran church musician, and many of his finest works were written for church performances. Bach's music is notable for its intellectual rigor and emotional expressiveness, a combination that makes him one of the most respected and popular composers of all time. He wrote thousands of compositions in many genres, the most famous of which include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Art of the Fugue, the Goldberg Variations, the St. Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B minor. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi

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