Johann Christian Bach

For more information on Johann Christian Bach, visit Britannica.com.

(b Leipzig, 5 Sept 1735; d London, 1 Jan 1782). German composer [50 in Bach family genealogy], youngest son J. S. Bach. He probably studied first under his father, then on his father's death with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin. In 1754 he left for Italy, where he became Roman Catholic and took a post as organist at Milan Cathedral. He also embarked on an operatic career, with operas staged in Turin and Naples. He was then invited to compose for the King's Theatre in London, where he settled in 1762; his operatic career was patchy, but he was soon appointed royal music master and was successful as a teacher. He also promoted and played in a prominent concert series with his compatriot and friend C. F. Abel, bringing the newest and best European music to Londoners' notice. He befriended the boy Mozart on his London visit, 1764-5. Many of his works were published, including songs written for Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. In 1772 and 1774 he visited Mannheim for performances of his operas Temistocle and Lucio Silla; In1779 he wrote Amadis de Gaule for the Paris Opéra. But the success of these works, like that of his London operas, was limited. His popularity faded in the late 1770s, and after financial troubles his health declined; he died at the beginning of 1782, and was soon forgotten.

J. C. Bach's music blends sound German technique with Italian fluency and grace; hence its appeal to, and influence upon, the young Mozart. His symphonies follow the Italian three-movement pattern: the light, Italian manner of his earlier ones gave way to richer-textured and more fully developed writing by the mid-1760s. The peak of his output comes in the six symphonies of his op.18, three for double orchestra and exploiting contrasts of space and timbre. His interest in orchestral colour gave rise to several symphonies concertantes, for various soloists and orchestra, suitable material for his London concerts. At these he also played his piano concertos, attractive for their well-developed solo-tutti relationship though still modest in scale. Of his chamber music, the op.11 quintets (flute, oboe, strings and continuo) are particularly appealing for their charming conversational style and their use of colour. He also composed keyboard sonatas, with and without violin accompaniment, in a style accessible to his pupils and players of modest ability. His music is often leisurely in manner, and this must have militated against the operas success as dramatic music. He also composed a quantity of Latin sacred music during his time in Italy. Though sometimes regarded as a decadently hedonistic composer by comparison with his brother Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christian stands firmly as the chief master of the galant, who produced music elegant and apt to its social purpose, infusing it with vigour and refined sensibility.

works:
Orchestral music

• over 40 syms. and ovs., incl.6 each in op.3 (1765), op.6 (1770), op.8 (c 1775), op.18 (c 1782), 3 in op.9 (1773)
• 12 symphonies concertantes
• 25 kbd concs., incl. 6 each in op.1 (1763), op.7 (1770), op.13 (1777)
• 2 ob concs.
• 2 bn concs.

Chamber and wind music

• kbd sextet
• 2 kbd qnts
• kbd qt
• 35 acc kbd sonatas
• 6 qnts op.11 fl, ob, vn, va, bc (1774)
• qts, str, fl and str, 2 fl and str
• fl qts
• 6 str trios op.2 (1763)
• over 20 trio sonatas, duets
• wind sinfonias, wind qnts, marches

Keyboard music

• 6 sonatas op.5 (1766)
• 6 sonatas op.12 (1774)
• other sonatas arrangements, duets

Dramatic music

• Orione (1763)
• Temistocle (1772)
• Lucio Silla (1774)
• La clemenza di Scipione (1778)
• Amadis de Gaule (1779)
• 6 others
• contributions to other composers works
• Gioas, rè di Guida, oratorio (1770)

Sacred vocal music

• c 30 works, incl. Dies irae, c (1757)

Secular vocal music

• 6 cantatas and serenatas
• 19 chamber duets
• Vauxhall songs
• arias, songs, folksong settings, transcrs

---

The German composer Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) was a facile and prolific writer of vocal and instrumental works in the prevailing Italianate styles of his time. He played an important role in English musical life of the period 1760-1780.

Johann Christian Bach was the youngest surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach. On the death of his father in 1750, Johann Christian went to Berlin to continue his musical education with his brother Carl Philipp Emanuel (21 years his senior), then court keyboard performer for Frederick the Great. In 1754 Johann Christian departed for an extended period in Italy, centered in Milan. In private service with a Milanese nobleman, he continued his studies with the renowned contrapuntal teacher Padre Martini, with whom he afterward remained on good terms. Bach's conversion to Catholicism in 1760 opened the way to a secure position as organist at the Cathedral of Milan, the main significance of which, as he himself stated, was that it was not demanding and left him time to devote to composing instrumental music and, especially, Italian operas. In 1762 his opera Alessandro nell'Indie, on a familiar subject for opera seria, was performed in Naples.

Bach's active pursuit of a career as opera composer on the international circuit led to contacts with England, and in 1762 he settled there for good. He was soon appointed music master to the Queen and, together with Karl Friedrich Abel (a former pupil of his father's at Leipzig), he founded the famous Bach-Abel Concerts in London, which lasted from 1764 until 1782 and were among the most important musical events in England during this period. Bach was the leading virtuoso performer and composer of German origin in England at the time; an opera placard billed him as the "Saxon Master of Music."

In 1764 the 8-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made his famous appearance as keyboard prodigy at the English court, beginning a close and lasting personal relationship with Bach. In 1778 Mozart wrote from Mannheim to his father that he had met Bach there and that "I love him (as you know) and respect him with all my heart… " Mozart also wrote an aria (1778) based on the text Non so d'onde viene, "which has been set so beautifully by J. C. Bach; just because I know Bach's setting so well and admire it so much, and because it is always ringing in my years, I wished to try and see whether in spite of all this I could not write an aria totally unlike his. … " It is essential for an understanding of the music of Mozart and his times to realize that in the 1770s he was thoroughly familiar with the music of Johann Christian Bach and still wholly unacquainted with that of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Further Reading

The major study of the life and works of J. C. Bach is C. S. Terry, Johann Christian Bach (1929). His relationship to the other members of the Bach family is best approached through the source material assembled in Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, eds., The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents (1945; 2d ed. 1966), and is also discussed in Karl Geiringer, The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (1954). Important too are the references to J. C. Bach in Charles Burney, A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (4 vols., 1776-1789), and in the letters of Mozart in collections such as that edited and translated by Emily Anderson, The Letters of Mozart and His Family (3 vols., 1938; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1966).

Additional Sources

Géartner, Heinz, John Christian Bach: Mozart's friend and mentor, Portland, Or.: Amadeus Press, 1994.

Terry, Charles Sanford, John Christian Bach/Lando, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980, 1967.

• Period: Classical (1750-1819)
• Country: Germany/England
• Born: September 05, 1735 in Leipzig, Germany
• Died: January 01, 1782 in London, England
• Genres: Concerto, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Symphony

Biography

Johann Christian Bach had more fame in his lifetime than his father, the illustrious Johann Sebastian Bach, ever enjoyed. One of the leading composers of the Classical era, he is no longer eclipsed entirely by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He was the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, who presumably gave the boy solid musical instruction but died when Johann Christian was 15. He was sent to Berlin to live and study with his well-established half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

Johann Christian gained a desire to write opera, and at the age of 19, he disregarded his brother's advice and set off for Italy. After some time writing church music, he was commissioned to write an opera to Metastasio's libretto Artaserse in 1760. It was the first in a string of three successful operas, which resulted in a call from London to write operas for the new king's theater. His first London effort, Orione, was produced on February 19, 1763. It won considerable praise and was transformed into a sensation when King George III and Queen Sophie Charlotte returned to see it again the next night.

The 20-year-old queen was German, homesick, and happy to hire a young German as her household musician and teacher for herself and her children. He was also an on-call accompanist for whenever King George decided to play flute. He met the Mozart family when they visited in 1764 and became a strong influence on the talented young Wolfgang.

A new impresario broke the king's theater contract with Bach, who then founded (in 1765) the Bach-Abel concerts with notable composer Carl Friedrich Abel. This became the leading concert series in London, initially held at Carlisle house in Soho Square, but later moving to Almack's Assembly Rooms on King Street. The series ran through 1782 and Bach soon found his operas back in favor. In 1768, Bach made history by becoming the first person to give a solo piano performance in London.

Bach also wrote music for notable political occasions on the Continent as well as in Britain. In the late 1770s, his fortunes declined. His music lost its popularity, and his steward embezzled practically all his wealth. His health declined, and he died in 1782 in considerable debt. Queen Sophie met the immediate expenses of the estate and established a life pension for Bach's widow, Cecilia. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)