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J.S. Bach biography, J.S. Bach discography
Note: The above sites by Jan Koster
will take you from jsbach.For many years, members of the Bach family throughout Thuringia had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors, and the family name enjoyed a wide reputation for musical talent.The pleasant and informative "Bach Haus" Museum in Eisenach does not claim to be the original family home).Georgenkirche, which gave Johann Sebastian an opportunity to sing in the regular services, as well as in the nearby villages.He was described as having 'an uncommonly fine treble voice'.Roads were still unpaved in the smaller towns, sewage and refuse disposal poorly organized, and the existence of germs not yet scientifically discovered.At an early age Johann Sebastian lost a sister and later a brother.When he was only nine years old his mother died.Johann Christoph, a former pupil of Pachelbel, was now well established as organist of the St.Johann Sebastian at once settled down happily in this household studying the organ and harpsichord with great interest under his brother, and he quickly mastered all the pieces he had been given.When a new organ was installed at the Ohrdruf church, Christoph allowed his young brother to watch its construction.He also encouraged him to study composition and set Sebastian to copying music by German organist composers such as Jakob Froberger, Johann Caspar Kerll and Pachelbel.He made excellent progress in Latin, Greek and theology, and had reached the top form at a very early age.This was no doubt arranged by Elias Herda who had held a scholarship there himself.Doubtless the two boys would have been given free food and accommodation in the many monasteries along the route.He was also freely permitted to study the fine library of music in the Gymnasium, which included some of the best examples of German church music.The growing lad soon lost his soprano voice, but was able to make himself useful as a violinist in the orchestra, and as an accompanist at the harpsichord during choir rehearsals.Johann Sebastian to the great organ traditions of Hamburg, to which city he made several pilgrimages on foot.When he was nearly eighteen, Johann Sebastian, considerably enriched by these musical experiences, decided he would try to find employment as an organist in his native Thuringia.He was greatly interested in an organ under construction in the new church of Arnstadt, and as members of his family had been professionally active in the district for generations, he felt he had a good chance of getting the post.Return to top of page
WEIMAR (first term): 1703.While awaiting the completion of the organ at Arnstadt, Sebastian was offered, and accepted the post of violinist in the small chamber orchestra of Duke Johann Ernst, the younger brother of the Duke of Weimar.His stay here was short, but he was to return later.In July 1703 the Arnstadt Town Council invited young Bach to try out the newly finished organ in the 'New Church', so called as it had been almost totally rebuilt having been seriously damaged by fire.Though the present organ is not "Bach's", the original manuals, stops and pedals of Bach's organ are displayed in the Palm Haus Museum of this quiet historic little town, where the house in which Bach lodged can also be seen.Buxtehude play, and to attend the famous evening concerts in the Marienkirche when Buxtehude's church cantatas were performed.Christmas until the following February.Bach did not attempt to justify himself before what must have seemed to him a group of narrow minded and conservative old gentlemen; yet the Council, knowing how skilled his playing was, decided to treat their young and impetuous organist with leniency.However, new conflicts soon arose when Bach, citing a clause in his contract, refused to work any longer with the undisciplined boys' choir which he had been required to train for the sake of Council economy.The young lady was probably his cousin, Maria Barbara, whom he was later to marry.St Blasius Church on Easter Sunday 1707, he was accepted, again on very favorable terms.Unfortunately, a quarter of the whole town had recently been devastated by fire; it was difficult for him to find suitable dwellings, and he was thus forced to pay a high rent.Nevertheless, shortly after his arrival, he brought his cousin Maria Barbara from Arnstadt, and on October 17th 1707 he married her at the small church in the picturesque little village of Dornheim.The Council agreed to carry out the renovation and improvements, and Bach was given the task of supervising the work, for not only was he now a brilliant player, he had also become an expert on the construction of organs.This he did, and some time in 1709 he came over to inaugurate its first performance.Bach's function in the orchestra was mainly as a violinist, however he also played the harpsichord and occasionally wrote or arranged some of the music.As was the custom in most 18th century Courts, the musicians also spent some of their time employed in household and domestic duties.In 1714 Bach became the leader of the orchestra, and was now second only to the old and frail Capellmeister Johann Samuel Drese, whose duties he was gradually taking over.The organ was new and not quite as large as the one at Arnstadt.Organ pupils came to him from far and wide, and he was asked to test or dedicate many organs in various towns.His tests were extremely thorough and critical.He used to say for fun 'Above all I must know whether the organ has a good lung', and, pulling out all the stops he produced the largest sound possible, often making the organ builders go pale with fright.Mizler's 'Nekrolog' states: 'His fingers were all of equal strength, all equally able to play with the finest precision.And so Bach gave an impressive solo performance before the assembled audience and referees, establishing himself as the finest organist of the day.Here the interest was in the new Italian style of music which was then becoming the rage of Europe, one of the chief exponents being the Venetian composer Vivaldi.Consequently musicians of the first household were forbidden to fraternize with those of the second.Bach did his best to ignore what was, after all, merely an extension of a private quarrel.This infuriated the Duke of Weimar, so that when Bach put in a polite request for his release, he was arrested and put in the local jail.Capellmeister, the highest rank given to a musician during the baroque age.Bach's days were completely devoted to music.During this period he wrote much of his chamber music; violin concertos, sonatas, keyboard music, etc.Twice they visited Carlsbad, the meeting place of the European aristocracy, in 1718 and in the summer of 1720.It was on returning from this second visit that Bach received a serious shock; his wife, Maria Barbara, whom he had left in perfect health three months earlier, had died and been buried in his absence, leaving four motherless children.Bach's wedding, the Prince also married.It may perhaps have been these circumstances which led Bach to revive an old invitation to produce what are now known as the Brandenburg Concertos.The merits of various candidates to succeed Kuhnau were considered, and the Council eventually nominated Georg Philipp Telemann.Prince, regretting his departure but not wishing to stand in his way, quickly consented.And so Bach left with his family and belongings for Leipzig, where he was to remain for the rest of his life.It was also one of the foremost centers of German cultural life, with magnificent private dwellings, streets well paved and illuminated at night, a recently opened municipal library, a majestic town hall, and a vibrant social life.Director of Choir and Music in Leipzig.The Bach family at that time comprised his wife and four children, of eight, nine, twelve and fourteen years of age.Pleisse and its idyllic surrounding countryside.Parents were unwilling to send their children to a school where illness amongst the pupils was so prevalent, and consequently, there were only 54 scholars out of a possible 120.He was also to instruct the more musically talented scholars in instrument playing so that they might be available for the church orchestra, and to teach the pupils Latin (which Bach quickly delegated to a junior colleague).Out of the 54 boys at Bach's disposal for use in the different choirs, he stated, '17 are competent, 20 not yet fully, and 17 incapable'.The best singers were selected to form the choir which sang the Sunday cantata; one week at the Thomaskirche, the other week at the Nikolaikirche.The 'third' choir of even less ability at the Petrikirche, the 'fourth' at the Neuekirche.The orchestra used for the cantatas consisted of up to 20 players.Gottfried Reicha among them both as wind and string player, and after 1719 their "senior", that they were players of a high standard.They were under the control of the Thomaskantor.Hoffmann (Hoffmann's instruments are still in possession of and played in the Thomaskirche today).Thus it may be assumed that Bach could count on a fairly professional orchestra.Bach's many arias featuring oboe obbligato attest to the presence of a good oboist among the town's wind players (possibly Reicha himself?His sons and pupils would also have participated, together with visiting musicians happy no doubt to have the honor of performing under the direction of the now famous Herr Bach.Singing classes were held from 9 to 12 am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.The Sunday services began at 7a.Apart from this, he had to attend and compose music for funerals and various other occasions.It was only after he had conducted eleven services up till Christmas 1725, that he discovered that the Cantor of Leipzig was no longer officially director of music in the University church, this position being given to the moderately talented organist of the Nikolaikirche.It should also be recalled that any duties enumerated as part of a titular position were to be fulfilled, but not necessarily by the incumbent personally.Bach's position for example required him to provide instruction in Latin, which he did by delegation.Delegation was an accepted means of fulfilling obligations, and was also seen as means of instructing the more gifted pupils.One particularly special performance of a work by Bach was recorded in some detail: the cantata known as the Trauerode, BWV 198.In 1697, the Elector Augustus of Saxony assumed the Polish crown, a step that obliged him to adopt the Roman Catholic faith.His wife, Christiane Eberhardine, preferred her Lutheranism to her husband, however, so she renounced the throne and lived apart from him until her death on September 6th, 1727, an event which was deeply mourned in strongly Lutheran Saxony.Von Kirchbach commissioned a sometime librettist of Bach's, Johann Christoph Gottsched, to write verses for a mourning ode, and Bach to set these verses to music.Bach's protocol senior would ordinarily have supplied the music for a University function of this sort.Kirchbach was required to pay him twelve thalers in compensation.The permission came on October 12th, but Bach must have had Gottsched's text a few days before.Kirchbach delivered his oration after the second chorus.Herr Bach in the Italian style.There is no doubt whatsoever that he was widely respected as a composer, musician, teacher, organist, and specialist in organ construction.Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.In particular, Bach had become famous, not only as an organist and improvisator, but as an expert in organ construction.Gottfried Silbermann, who was also a personal friend of the Bach family and godfather to Carl Philipp Emmanuel.Bach may well have played any number of Silbermann's instruments, almost all of which were located in Saxony.Thereafter he received the title, and signed himself as Dresden Hofcompositeur.Silbermann organ in the Frauenkirche (tragically destroyed in the Second World War and now being actively rebuilt).It is on record that the Council reprimanded Bach in August 1730 for leaving his teaching duties in the overworked hands of his junior colleague, Petzold; for not properly disciplining his choirs, and for his frequent unauthorized journeys away from Leipzig.Erdmann in Danzig, asking him to find him a 'convenient post' where he could escape the 'trouble, envy and persecution' which he had perpetually to face in Leipzig.The school buildings were reopened on June 5, 1732 with a dedicatory cantata BWV Anhang 18.Ernesti had entirely new ideas on education: Classics and Theology were out of date, and there must be more stress on subjects that would be useful in secular life.Salvation came however in the form of the Collegium Musicum; when Bach became its permanent director in 1729 he began to receive official recognition of the high regard in which he was generally held.Various such groups came and went.University who were eventually to number among the most celebrated composers of their time.One was established in 1702 by the redoubtable Georg Philipp Telemann; the other was begun six years later, by Johann Friedrich Fasch.University and a constant musical rival of Bach's.After Telemann left Leipzig the leadership of his Collegium was taken by Balthasar Schott, the Neukirche organist.The concerts were given on Zimmermann's premises, probably under his auspices.The new instrument would certainly have had two, possibly three manuals, and may have been the work of the famous Hamburg builder Hass similar to his 1740 instrument with three manuals and five choirs of strings (2', 4', 8', 8' and 16').Two types of concerts were given: ordinaire and extraordinaire.Bach adapted many of these works into church pieces; the Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, for example, is made up largely of such adaptations).About the regular concerts we know less; the Leipzig newspapers, in general, only announced the extraordinaire events.Presumably, instrumental music was heard, ranging from clavier solos through sonatas to orchestral works.It was doubtless here that Bach's concerti for one or several harpsichords received their performances, many of these having been adapted from earlier (eg violin) concertos, or from concertos by other composers (eg Vivaldi).It is also on record that works of Handel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Locatelli, Albinoni and others were performed.These concerts were serious events, given outside of the regular coffee shop hours, and were thus not merely an ornament to the usual culinary attractions.The performances of the Collegium were, in fact, hardly different from what we consider to be normal concert procedure today.Collegium during its later years.The schedule of weekly performances, the composition of new works, rehearsing them, arranging programs, etc.Collegium Musicum was no mere diversion for Bach.The fact is that this was, for much of his later life, his central artistic activity, the church becoming almost peripheral.Bach kept six claviers and many other instruments.Here he had been invited to attend at the Royal Palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia, where his son Carl Phillip Emmanuel was also employed as Court Harpsichordist.Laying down his flute, he said to his orchestra, 'Gentlemen, old Bach is here'.On the day following the musical evening, a royal procession made its way around Potsdam, as Bach was invited to play on all the city's organs.Bach's opening contribution was a set of canonic variations on the Christmas hymn, 'Vom Himmel hoch'.Bach had overworked in poor light throughout his life, and his eyesight now began to fail him.On the advice of friends, Bach put himself in the hands of a visiting celebrated English ophthalmic specialist, John Taylor (who also operated on Handel) and who happened to be passing through Leipzig.Then, on the morning of the 28th of July, 1750, he woke up to find he could bear strong light again, and see quite clearly.The bones were laid to rest in a stone sarcophagus next to the poet Gellert in the vaults of the Johanniskirche, and many people went to pay homage to this tomb until the church was destroyed by bombs in WW2.Thomaskirche where they remain to this day.BAROQUE MUSIC SAMPLER
to hear samples of his music.The
BAROQUE MUSIC HOME PAGE
www.From 1700 to 1702 he attended St.On 31 July he was buried at St.Tempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations sites.III
Honorific and Incidental Canons
Why Did Bach Write Canons?Fuga a 3 Soggetti (Contrapunctus 14).Essays
Book Review: Christoph Wolff's "Bach"
"Circulatio as Tonal Morpheme in the Liturgical Music of J."Intentionality and Meaningfulness in Bach's Cyclical Works"
"Bach's Mass in B Minor as Musical Icon"
"Was Bach a Rationalist, Pietist, Neither, or Both?"Links to Bach Resources on the WWW
Hanford and Koster J.Bach
Dean Hannotte's Fugues and Fugue Sets
Lana Krakovskiy's OrganFocus.This method for obtaining sound was intended for my students who have access to these disks, but you may listen in if you wish.There are no restrictions to the browsing of this site or the making of links to it.Permission is granted to quote prose so long as it is not changed, enclosed within quotation marks (or block quotation), and accompanied immediately thereafter by a footnote linking the quoted material to the source URL at this site.Under certain conditions permission may be granted to modify graphics; in such cases the hyperlinked words "modified by permission" must appear in place of "used by permission."
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