List of works by Johann Sebastian Bach in Russian. Bach's most famous work

Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography is of interest to many music lovers, became one of the greatest composers in its entire history. In addition, he was a performer, a virtuoso organist, and a talented teacher. In this article we will look at the life of Johann Sebastian Bach and also introduce his work. The composer's works are often performed in concert halls around the world.

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31 (21 - Old Style) 1685 - July 28, 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque era. He enriched the musical style created in Germany thanks to his mastery of counterpoint and harmony, and adapted foreign rhythms and forms, borrowed, in particular, from Italy and France. Bach's works are the Goldberg Variations, the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B Minor, more than 300 cantatas, of which 190 have survived, and many other works. His music is considered highly technically sophisticated, filled with artistic beauty and intellectual depth.

Johann Sebastian Bach. short biography

Bach was born in Eisenach into a family of hereditary musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the founder of the city's music concerts, and all of his uncles were professional performers. The composer's father taught his son to play the violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph, taught him to play the clavichord, and also introduced Johann Sebastian to modern music. Partly on his own initiative, Bach visited vocal school St. Michael's in Luneburg for 2 years. After certification, he held several musical positions in Germany, in particular, the court musician of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, caretaker of the organ in the church named after St. Boniface, located in Arnstadt.

In 1749, Bach's eyesight and overall health deteriorated, and he died in 1750, on July 28. Modern historians believe that the cause of his death was a combination of stroke and pneumonia. Johann Sebastian's fame as an excellent organist spread throughout Europe during Bach's lifetime, although he was not yet so popular as a composer. He became famous as a composer a little later, in the first half of the 19th century, when interest in his music was revived. Currently, Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography is presented in full below, is considered one of the greatest musical creators in history.

Childhood (1685 - 1703)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, in 1685, on March 21 according to the old style (new style - on the 31st of the same month). He was the son of Johann Ambrosius and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. The composer became the eighth child in the family (the eldest son was 14 years older than him at the time of Bach’s birth). The future composer's mother died in 1694, and his father eight months later. Bach was 10 years old at that time, and he went to live with Johann Christoph, his older brother (1671 - 1731). There he studied, performed and transcribed music, including his brother's compositions, despite the ban on doing so. From Johann Christoph he adopted a lot of knowledge in the field of music. At the same time, Bach studied theology, Latin, Greek, French, Italian at the local gymnasium. As Johann Sebastian Bach later admitted, the classics inspired and amazed him from the very beginning.

Arnstadt, Weimar and Mühlhausen (1703 - 1717)

In 1703, after finishing his studies at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, the composer was appointed court musician to the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. During his seven-month stay there, Bach's reputation as an excellent keyboard player was established, and he was invited to a new position as caretaker of the organ at the church of St. Boniface, located in Arnstadt, 30 km southwest of Weimar. Despite good family connections and his own musical enthusiasm, tensions with his superiors arose after several years of service. In 1706, Bach was offered the post of organist at the Church of St. Blaise (Mühlhausen), which he took the following year. The new position paid much higher, included much better working conditions, as well as a more professional choir with which Bach had to work. Four months later, Johann Sebastian's wedding to Maria Barbara took place. They had seven children, four of whom lived to adulthood, including Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel, who later became famous composers.

In 1708, Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography took a new direction, left Mühlhausen and returned to Weimar, this time as an organist, and from 1714 as a concert organizer, and had the opportunity to work with more professional musicians. In this city, the composer continues to play and compose works for the organ. He also began writing preludes and fugues, which were later included in his monumental work The Well-Tempered Clavier, consisting of two volumes. Each of them includes preludes and fugues written in all possible minor and major keys. Also in Weimar, composer Johann Sebastian Bach began working on the work “Organ Book,” containing Lutheran chorales, a collection of choral preludes for organ. In 1717 he fell out of favor in Weimar, was arrested for almost a month and subsequently removed from office.

Köthen (1717 - 1723)

Leopold (an important person - the Prince of Anhalt-Köthen) offered Bach the job of bandmaster in 1717. Prince Leopold, being a musician himself, admired Johann Sebastian's talent, paid him well and gave him considerable freedom in composition and performance. The prince was a Calvinist, and they do not use complex and refined music in worship, accordingly, the work of Johann Sebastian Bach of that period was secular and included orchestral suites, suites for solo cello, for clavier, as well as the famous “Brandenburg Concertos”. In 1720, on July 7, his wife Maria Barbara, who bore him seven children, dies. The composer meets his second wife the following year. Johann Sebastian Bach, whose works were gradually beginning to gain popularity, married a girl named Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a soprano singer, in 1721, December 3.

Leipzig (1723 - 1750)

In 1723, Bach received a new position, beginning to work as cantor of the St. Thomas Choir. This was a prestigious service in Saxony, which the composer carried out for 27 years, until his death. Bach's duties included teaching students to sing and writing church music for the main churches of Leipzig. Johann Sebastian was also supposed to give Latin lessons, but had the opportunity to hire a special person in his place. During Sunday services, as well as on holidays, cantatas were required for church services, and the composer usually performed his own compositions, most of which appeared in the first 3 years of his stay in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach, whose classics are now well known to many people, expanded his compositional and performing capabilities in March 1729 by taking over the leadership of the College of Music, a secular assembly under the direction of the composer Georg Philipp Telemann. The college was one of dozens of private societies, popular at that time in large German cities, created on the initiative of students of musical institutions. These associations played an important role in German musical life, being led for the most part by outstanding specialists. Many of Bach's works from the 1730s-1740s. were written and performed at the Music College. Johann Sebastian's last major work was “Mass in B Minor” (1748-1749), which was recognized as his most global church work. Although the entire “Mass” was never performed during the author’s lifetime, it is considered one of the composer’s most outstanding creations.

Death of Bach (1750)

In 1749, the composer's health deteriorated. Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography ends in 1750, suddenly began to lose his sight and turned for help to the English ophthalmologist John Taylor, who performed 2 operations in March-April 1750. However, both were unsuccessful. The composer's vision never returned. On July 28, at the age of 65, Johann Sebastian died. Contemporary newspapers wrote that "death occurred as a result of unsuccessful eye surgery." Currently, historians consider the cause of the composer’s death to be a stroke complicated by pneumonia.

Carl Philipp Emmanuel, son of Johann Sebastian, and his student Johann Friedrich Agricola wrote an obituary. It was published in 1754 by Lorenz Christoph Mizler in a music magazine. Johann Sebastian Bach, whose brief biography is presented above, was originally buried in Leipzig, near the Church of St. John. The grave remained untouched for 150 years. Later, in 1894, the remains were transferred to a special repository in the Church of St. John, and in 1950 - to the Church of St. Thomas, where the composer still rests.

Organ creativity

During his lifetime, Bach was best known as an organist and composer of organ music, which he wrote in all traditional German genres (preludes, fantasies). Johann Sebastian Bach's favorite genres were toccata, fugue, and chorale preludes. His organ creativity is very diverse. At a young age, Johann Sebastian Bach (we have already briefly touched upon his biography) earned a reputation as a highly creative composer, capable of adapting many foreign styles to the requirements of organ music. Big influence he was influenced by the traditions of Northern Germany, in particular Georg Böhm, whom the composer met in Lüneburg, and Dietrich Buxtehude, whom Johann Sebastian visited in 1704 during a long vacation. Around the same time, Bach rewrote the works of many Italian and French composers, and later Vivaldi's violin concertos, in order to breathe new life into them as works for organ performance. During his most productive creative period (from 1708 to 1714), Johann Sebastian Bach wrote fugues and tocattas, several dozen pairs of preludes and fugues, and the “Organ Book,” an unfinished collection of 46 chorale preludes. After leaving Weimar, the composer wrote less organ music, although he created a number of famous works.

Other works for clavier

Bach wrote a lot of music for the harpsichord, some of which can be performed on the clavichord. Many of these works are encyclopedic, incorporating theoretical methods and techniques that Johann Sebastian Bach loved to use. The works (list) are presented below:

• "The Well-Tempered Clavier" is a two-volume work. Each volume contains preludes and fugues in all common 24 major and minor keys, arranged in chromatic order.
• Inventions and overtures. These two- and three-voice works are arranged in the same order as the Well-Tempered Clavier, with the exception of some rare keys. They were created by Bach for educational purposes.
• 3 collections of dance suites, "French Suites", "English Suites" and partitas for clavier.
• "Goldberg Variations".
• Various pieces such as "Overture in French style", "Italian concerto".

Orchestral and chamber music

Johann Sebastian also wrote works for individual instruments, duets and small ensembles. Many of them, such as partitas and sonatas for solo violin, six different suites for solo cello, partita for solo flute, are considered among the most outstanding in the composer's repertoire. Bach Johann Sebastian wrote symphonies, and also created several compositions for solo lute. He also created trio sonatas, solo sonatas for flute and viola da gamba, and a large number of ricercars and canons. For example, the cycles “The Art of Fugue”, “Musical Offering”. Bach's most famous orchestral work is the Brandenburg Concertos, so named because Johann Sebastian presented it in hopes of obtaining work from Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Swedish in 1721. His attempt, however, was unsuccessful. The genre of this work is concerto grosso. Other surviving works by Bach for orchestra: 2 violin concertos, a concerto written for two violins (key "D minor"), concertos for clavier and chamber orchestra(from one to four instruments).

Vocal and choral works

• Cantatas. Beginning in 1723, Bach worked in the Church of St. Thomas, and every Sunday, as well as on holidays, he led the performance of cantatas. Although he sometimes staged cantatas by other composers, Johann Sebastian wrote at least 3 cycles of his works in Leipzig, not counting those composed in Weimar and Mühlhausen. In total, more than 300 cantatas devoted to spiritual themes were created, of which approximately 200 have survived.
• Motets. Motets, authored by Johann Sebastian Bach, are works on spiritual themes for choir and basso continuo. Some of them were composed for funeral ceremonies.
• Passions, or passions, oratorios and magnificata. Bach's major works for choir and orchestra are the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion (both written for Good Friday in the churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas) and the Christmas Oratorio (a cycle of 6 cantatas intended for the Christmas service ). Shorter works are "Easter Oratorio" and "Magnificat".
• "Mass in B Minor". Bach created his last major work, the Mass in B Minor, between 1748 and 1749. The Mass was never staged in its entirety during the composer's lifetime.

Musical style

Bach's musical style was shaped by his talent for counterpoint, his ability to lead a tune, his flair for improvisation, his interest in the music of Northern and Southern Germany, Italy and France, and his devotion to the Lutheran tradition. Thanks to the fact that Johann Sebastian had access to many instruments and works in his childhood and youth, and thanks to his ever-increasing talent for writing dense music with stunning sonority, the features of Bach's work were filled with eclecticism and energy, in which foreign influences were skillfully combined with already existing advanced German music school. During the Baroque period, many composers composed mainly only frame works, and the performers themselves supplemented them with their own melodic embellishments and developments. This practice varies considerably among European schools. However, Bach composed most or all of the melodic lines and details himself, leaving little room for interpretation. This feature reflects the density of contrapuntal textures to which the composer gravitated, limiting the freedom to spontaneously change musical lines. For some reason, some sources mention the works of other authors, which were allegedly written by Johann Sebastian Bach. " Moonlight Sonata", for example. You and I, of course, remember that this work was created by Beethoven.

Execution

Modern performers of Bach's works usually follow one of two traditions: the so-called authentic (historically oriented performance) or modern (involving modern instruments, often in large ensembles). In Bach's time, orchestras and choirs were much more modest than they are today, and even his most ambitious works - the passions and the Mass in B minor - were written for far fewer performers. In addition, today you can hear very different versions of the sound of the same music, since in some of Johann Sebastian’s chamber works there was initially no instrumentation at all. Modern "lite" versions of Bach's works have made a great contribution to the popularization of his music in the 20th century. Among them are famous tunes performed by the Swinger Singers and Wendy Carlos' 1968 recording of Switched-On-Bach, using the newly invented synthesizer. Jazz musicians, such as Jacques Loussier, also showed interest in Bach's music. Joel Spiegelman performed an adaptation of his famous “Goldberg Variations”, creating his own work in the New Age style.

All about Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685 – July 28, 1750) - German composer and baroque musician. He made a significant contribution to the development of significant genres of German classical music thanks to his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, and the adaptation of foreign rhythms, forms and structures, particularly from Italy and France. In number musical works Bach's works include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions and more than three hundred cantatas, of which about two hundred have survived. His music is renowned for its technical excellence, artistic beauty and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly regarded during his lifetime, but he was not widely recognized as a great composer until the first half of the 19th century, when there was a revival of interest in his music and its performance. Currently, he is considered one of the greatest composers of all times.

Biography of Bach

Bach was born in Eisenach, in the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in big family musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the leader of the city orchestra, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and introduced him to the work of many modern composers. Apparently, on his own initiative, Bach entered St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, where he studied for two years. After graduating, he held a number of musical positions throughout Germany: he served as a kapeldiner (musical director) for Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, and as a Thomaskantor in Leipzig, as a music director in prominent Lutheran churches, and as a teacher at the school of St. Thomas. In 1736, Augustus III awarded him the title of "court composer". In 1749, Bach's health and eyesight deteriorated. On July 28, 1750 he died.

Bach's childhood

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, located in what is now Germany, on March 21, 1685, Art. style (March 31, 1685 according to new style). He was the son of Johann Abrosius Bach, leader of the city orchestra, and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. He was the eighth and youngest child in the family of Johann Abrosius, and his father probably taught him to play the violin and the basics of music theory. All of his uncles were professional musicians, among them were church organists, court chamber musicians and composers. One of them, Johann Christoph Bach (1645-93), introduced Johann Sebastian to the organ, and his elder cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731), was a famous composer and violinist.

Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his older brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671-1721), who served as organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. There he studied, played and copied music, including that of his own brother, although this was prohibited, since scores at that time were very personal and of great value, and blank office paper of the appropriate type was expensive. He received valuable knowledge from his brother, who taught him to play the clavichord. Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the works of the great composers of his time, including South German ones such as Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph studied) and Johann Jakob Froberger; North German composers; Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand and Marin Marais; as well as the Italian pianist Girolamo Frescobaldi. At the same time, at the local gymnasium he studied theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian.

On April 3, 1700, Bach and his schoolmate Georg Erdmann, who was two years older, entered the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, which was two weeks' journey from Ohrdruf. They probably covered most of this distance on foot. The two years Bach spent at this school played a crucial role in shaping his interest in various branches of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the School's three-manual organ and harpsichords. He began to associate with the sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, who were sent to this highly demanding school to prepare for careers in other disciplines.

While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. John's Church and may have used the church's famous 1553 organ, as it was played by his organ teacher Georg Böhm. Thanks to his musical talent, Bach was in close contact with Boehm while studying in Lüneburg, and also traveled to nearby Hamburg, where he attended performances of the “great North German organist Johann Adam Reincken.” Stauffer reports the discovery in 2005 of organ tablatures that Bach wrote out for works by Reincken and Buxtehude as a teenager in 2005, revealing “a disciplined, methodical, well-prepared teenager, deeply committed to the study of his art.”

Bach's service as organist

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's School and being rejected for appointment as organist in Sangerhausen, Bach entered service as court musician at the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. It is not known exactly what his duties were there, but they were probably menial and had nothing to do with music. During his seven months in Weimar, Bach became so famous as a keyboard player that he was invited to inspect the new organ and perform the inaugural concert at the New Church (now Bach Church) in Arnstadt, located about 30 km (19 mi) southwest of Weimar. In August 1703, he took up the position of organist at the New Church, with simple duties, a relatively generous salary and a beautiful new organ, the temperament settings of which allowed it to play music written in a wider keyboard range.

Despite influential family connections and a music-loving employer, tensions arose between Bach and the authorities after several years in the service. Bach was dissatisfied with the level of training of the singers in the choir, and his employer did not approve of his unauthorized absence from Arnstadt - in 1705-06, when Bach left for several months to visit the great organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude and attend his evening concerts in the church St. Mary's in the northern city of Lübeck. To visit Buxtehude, a distance of 450 kilometers (280 miles) was required - according to available evidence, Bach made this journey on foot.

In 1706, Bach applied for the position of organist at the Church of Blasius (also known as the Church of St. Blasius, or as Divi Blasii) in Mühlhausen. As a demonstration of his skills, he performed a cantata for Easter, April 24, 1707 - this was probably an early version of his composition "Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in the chains of death"). A month later, Bach's application was accepted, and in July he took the desired position. The salary in this service was significantly higher, the conditions and choir were better. Four months after arriving in Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Bach managed to convince the church and city authorities of Mühlhausen to finance the costly restoration of the organ in the Church of Blaise. In 1708, Bach wrote "Gott ist mein König" ("My Lord the King"), a celebratory cantata for the inauguration of the new consul, the publication costs of which were paid by the consul himself.

The beginning of Bach's work

In 1708, Bach left Mühlhausen and returned to Weimar, this time as organist and, from 1714, court accompanist (musical director), where he had the opportunity to work with a large, well-funded cast of professional musicians. Bach and his wife moved to a house not far from the Ducal Palace. Later that year, their first daughter, Katharina Dorothea, was born; Maria Barbara's unmarried older sister also moved in with them. She helped the Bach family with housework and lived with them until her death in 1729. Bach also had three sons in Weimar: Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emmanuel and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children, but none of them survived a year, including twins born in 1713.

Bach's life in Weimar marked the beginning of a long period of composing keyboard and orchestral works. He honed his skills and gained the confidence that allowed him to expand the boundaries of traditional musical structures and incorporate foreign musical influences into them. He learned to write dramatic introductions, use dynamic rhythms and harmonic patterns inherent in the music of such Italians as Vivaldi, Corelli and Torelli. Bach partially derived these stylistic aspects from his transcriptions of Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these works, in his adaptations, are regularly performed to this day. Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style, in which solo parts on one or more instruments alternated with the playing of a full orchestra throughout the movement.

In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for the organ, and also performed concert music with the Duke's ensemble. In addition, he began to write preludes and fugues, which later became part of a monumental cycle called "The Well-Tempered Clavier" ("Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" - "Klavier" means clavichord or harpsichord). The cycle included two books, compiled in 1722 and 1744, each of which contains 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys.

In addition, in Weimar, Bach began work on the “Organ Book,” containing complex arrangements of traditional Lutheran chorales (melodies of church hymns). In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during Christoph Kuntzius's restoration of the main organ in the west gallery of St. Mary's Catholic Church. Johann Kuhnau and Bach played again at its opening in 1716.

In the spring of 1714, Bach was promoted to concertmaster, an honor that entailed monthly performances of church cantatas in the court church. Bach's first three cantatas composed in Weimar were: "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen" ("Heavenly King, welcome") (BWV 182), written for Palm Sunday, which coincided with the Annunciation that year, "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen , Zagen" ("Moaning, crying, worries and worries") (BWV 12) for the third Sunday after Easter, and "Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!" (“Sing, ye choirs, shout, ye strings!”) (BWV 172) for Pentecost. Bach's first Christmas cantata, "Christen, ätzet diesen Tag" ("Christians, mark this day") (BWV 63), was first performed in 1714 or 1715.

In 1717, Bach eventually fell out of favor in Weimar and, according to a translation of the court clerk's report, was detained for almost a month and then discharged with disgrace: "On November 6, the former concertmaster and organist Bach, by decision of a county judge, was taken into custody for excessive persistence in demanding his dismissal, and further, on December 2, he was released from arrest with a notice of disgrace."

Bach's family and children

In 1717, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister (musical director). Being a musician himself, Prince Leopold appreciated Bach's talents, paid him a good salary and provided him with considerable freedom in composing and performing musical works. However, the prince was a Calvinist and did not use complex music in his services. As a consequence, the works Bach wrote during this period were largely secular, including orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and scores for solo violin, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Bach also wrote secular court cantatas, notably "Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht" ("Time and days make years") (BWV 134a). Stauffer describes an important component of Bach's musical development during the years of service with the prince as "his complete acceptance of dance music, which had perhaps the most important influence on the flowering of his style, along with the music of Vivaldi, mastered by him in Weimar."

Even though Bach and Handel were born in the same year and only about 130 kilometers (80 miles) apart, they never met. In 1719, Bach made a 35-kilometer (22-mile) journey from Köthen to Halle to meet Handel, but Handel had already left the city by then. In 1730, Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, went to Halle to invite Handel to visit Bach's family in Leipzig, but the visit did not materialize.

On July 7, 1720, while Bach was with Prince Leopold in Carlsbad, Bach's wife suddenly died. A year later he met Anna Magdalena Wilke, a young and highly gifted soprano singer, who was sixteen years his junior and sang at court in Köthen; On December 3, 1721 they got married. Thirteen more children were born from this marriage, six of whom lived to adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich; Elisabeth Juliana Friederica (1726-81), who married Bach's student Johann Christoph Altnikol; Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian - both of them, especially Johann Christian, became outstanding musicians; Johanna Caroline (1737-81); and Regina Suzanne (1742-1809).

Bach as a teacher

In 1723, Bach received the position of Thomascantor - cantor at the St. Thomas School at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, which provided concerts in four churches in the city: Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), and to a slightly lesser extent Neue Kirche (New Church) and Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church). It was the "leading cantorate of Protestant Germany", located in a commercial city in the Electorate of Saxony, where he served for twenty-seven years until his death. During this period, he strengthened his authority through honorary court positions, which he held in Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as at the court of Elector Frederick Augustus (who was also king of Poland) in Dresden. Bach had many disagreements with his actual employers - the city administration of Leipzig, whose members he considered "misers". For example, despite receiving an offer of appointment as a Thomascantor, Bach was, however, invited to Leipzig only after Telemann declared that he was not interested in moving to Leipzig. Telemann went to Hamburg, where he "had his own conflicts with the city senate."

Bach's duties included teaching singing to students at St. Thomas's school and conducting concerts in the main churches of Leipzig. In addition, Bach was obliged to teach Latin, but he was allowed to hire four “prefects” (assistants) who did this in his place. Prefects also provided assistance in musical literacy. Cantatas were performed during Sunday and holiday services throughout the church year. As a rule, Bach himself directed the performances of his cantatas, most of which he composed during the first three years after moving to Leipzig. The very first was "Die Elenden sollen essen" ("Let the poor eat and be satisfied") (BWV 75), first performed in Nikolaikirch on May 30, 1723, the first Sunday after Trinity. Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Of the five such cycles mentioned in obituaries, only three have survived. Of the more than three hundred cantatas written by Bach in Leipzig, more than a hundred were lost to subsequent generations. Basically, these concert works are based on the texts of the Gospel, which in the Lutheran Church were read at every Sunday and holiday service throughout the year. The second annual cycle, which Bach began to compose on the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724, consists exclusively of chorale contatas, each of which is based on a specific church hymn. These include "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" ("O eternity, thunderous word") (BWV 20), "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" ("Wake up, a voice calls to you") (BWV 140), "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" ("Come, Savior of Nations") (BWV 62), and "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" ("Oh, how beautiful morning star the light shines") (BWV 1).

Bach recruited sopranos and altos into the choir from students of the St. Thomas School, and tenors and basses - not only from there, but also from all over Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided his groups with additional income - he probably wrote at least six motets especially for this, as well as for learning at school. As part of his regular church activities, he performed motets by other composers, and these served as exemplary models for his own.

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, also directed concerts at the Paulinerkirche, a church at the University of Leipzig. However, when Bach took this position in 1723, he was given the authority to conduct concerts only for “solemn” (held on church holidays) services in the Paulinerkirche; his petition for concerts and regular Sunday services in this church (with a corresponding increase in salary) reached the Elector himself, but was refused. After this, in 1725, Bach “lost interest” in working even on ceremonial services in the Paulinerkirche and began to appear there only on “special occasions.” The organ in the Paulinerkirche was much better and newer (1716) than in the Thomaskirche or Nikolaikirche. In 1716, when the organ was built, Bach was asked to give an official consultation, for which he arrived from Köthen and presented his report. Bach's formal duties did not include playing any organ, but it is believed that he enjoyed playing the organ at the Paulinerkirche "for his own pleasure."

In March 1729, Bach took over the post of director of the Collegium Musicum, a secular concert ensemble founded by Telemann, and this allowed him to extend his activities as a composer and performer beyond church services. The Music College was one of many closed groups founded in large German-speaking cities by musically gifted university students; at that time such groups acquired more and more important in public musical life; as a rule, they were led by the most prominent professional musicians of the city. According to Christoph Wolf, the adoption of this leadership was a shrewd step that "strengthened Bach's confident grip on the main musical institutions of Leipzig." Throughout the year, the Leipzig Music College held regular concerts in places such as the Zimmermann Café, a coffee shop on Catherine Street near the main market square. Many of Bach's compositions, written in the 1730s and 1740s, were composed for and performed by the College of Music; among them are selected works from the collection "Clavier-Übung" ("Keyboard Exercises"), as well as many of his violin and keyboard concertos.

In 1733, Bach composed a mass for the Dresden court (parts "Kyrie" and "Gloria"), which he later included in his Mass in B minor. He presented the manuscript to the Elector in the hope of persuading the Prince to appoint him court composer, an attempt that was subsequently crowned with success. He later reworked this work into a complete mass, adding parts "Credo", "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei", the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas, partly composed entirely. Bach's appointment as court composer was part of his long struggle to strengthen his authority in disputes with the Leipzig city council. In 1737-1739, the College of Music was headed by Bach's former student Karl Gotthelf Gerlach.

In 1747, Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. The king played a melody for Bach and invited him to immediately improvise a fugue based on the musical theme he had performed. Bach immediately played an improvisation of a three-part fugue on one of Friedrich's pianos, then a new composition, and later presented the king with a "Musical Offering", consisting of fugues, canons and trios, based on the motif proposed by Friedrich. His six-voice fugue includes the same musical theme, making it more suitable for different variations thanks to a number of changes.

In the same year, Bach joined the Society of Musical Sciences (Correspondierende Societät der musikalischen Wissenschafften) of Lorenz Christoph Mitzler. On the occasion of his entry into the society, Bach composed the Canonical Variations on the Christmas hymn "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her" ("From heaven will I descend to earth") (BWV 769). Each member of the society was required to present a portrait, so in 1746 in While Bach was preparing for a performance, the artist Elias Gottlob Hausmann painted his portrait, which later became famous. The Triple Canon for Six Voices (BWV 1076) was presented alongside this portrait as a dedication to the Society. Perhaps others late works Bach were also involved in the Society Based on Music Theory. Among these works is the cycle "The Art of Fugue", which consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme. The Art of Fugue was published only posthumously in 1751.

Bach's last significant work was the Mass in B minor (1748-49), which Stauffer describes as "Bach's most comprehensive ecclesiastical work. Composed largely of revised parts of cantatas that were written over a period of thirty-five years, it allowed Bach to examine your vocal parts and select individual parts for subsequent revision and improvement." Although the mass was never performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime, it is considered one of the greatest choral works of all time.

Bach's illness and death

In 1749, Bach's health began to deteriorate; On June 2, Heinrich von Brühl wrote a letter to one of the burgomasters of Leipzig asking him to appoint his music director, Johann Gottlieb Garrer, to the post of tomaskantor and music director “in connection with the approaching... death of Mr. Bach.” Bach was losing his sight, so British eye surgeon John Taylor operated on him twice during his stay in Leipzig in March and April 1750.

On July 28, 1750, Bach died at the age of 65. Local newspaper reports cited the cause of death as "the tragic consequences of a very unsuccessful eye operation." Spitta provides some details. He writes that Bach died of “apoplexy,” that is, of a stroke. Confirming the newspaper reports, Spitta notes: “The treatment carried out in connection with the [failed eye] operation had such bad consequences that his health ... was greatly deteriorated,” and Bach completely lost his sight. His son Carl Philipp Emmanuel, together with his student Johann Friedrich Agricola, compiled an obituary of Bach, which was published in the Mizler Music Library in 1754.

Bach's possessions included five harpsichords, two lute harpsichords, three violins, three violas, two cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute and a spinet, as well as 52 “sacred books,” including works by Martin Luther and Josephus. The composer was initially buried in the old cemetery at St. John's Church in Leipzig. The inscription on his tombstone was later erased and his grave was lost for almost 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were discovered and moved to a crypt in St. John's Church. During World War II, this church was destroyed by Allied bombing, so in 1950 Bach's ashes were transferred to their current burial site in the Church of St. Thomas. Later studies expressed doubts about whether the remains lying in the grave really belonged to Bach.

Bach's musical style

Bach's musical style largely corresponds to the traditions of his time, which became the final stage in the Baroque era. When his contemporaries such as Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi wrote concertos, he did the same. When they composed suites, he did the same. The same with recitatives, followed by da capo arias, four-part chorales, use of basso continuo, etc. The peculiarities of his style lie in such properties as his mastery of contrapuntal invention and motivic control, as well as his talent for creating tightly woven musical compositions with powerful sound. From an early age, he was inspired by the works of his contemporaries and previous generations, learned everything possible from the work of European composers, including French and Italian, as well as people from all over Germany, and few of them were not reflected in his own music.

Bach devoted most of his life to sacred music. The hundreds of ecclesiastical works he created are usually regarded as manifestations not only of his skill, but also of a truly reverent attitude towards God. As a Thomascantor in Leipzig, he taught the Small Catechism, and this was reflected in some of his works. Lutheran chants served as the basis for many of his compositions. By arranging these hymns for his chorale preludes, he created more soulful and integral compositions than all others, and this applies even to heavier and longer works. The large-scale structure of all of Bach's significant ecclesiastical vocal works shows a refined, skillful design capable of expressing all spiritual and musical power. For example, the St. Matthew Passion, like other compositions of its kind, illustrates the Passion by conveying the biblical text in recitatives, arias, choruses and chorales; By writing this work, Bach created a comprehensive experience that, many centuries later, is recognized as both musically exciting and spiritually profound.

Bach published and compiled from manuscripts a large number of collections of works that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities available to almost all musical genres of his time, with the exception of opera. For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier consists of two books that include preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, demonstrating a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques.

Bach's harmonic style

Four-part harmonies were invented before Bach, but he lived at a time when modal music in the Western tradition had largely been replaced by the tonal system. According to this system, a piece of music moves from one chord to another according to certain rules, with each chord characterized by four notes. The principles of four-part harmony can be found not only in Bach's four-part chorale works, but also, for example, in the general bass accompaniment he wrote. The new system underlay Bach's entire style, and his compositions are often seen as fundamental components in the formation of the pattern that prevailed in the musical expression of subsequent centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence:

When Bach staged his arrangement of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater in the 1740s, he refined the alto part (which in the original composition is played in unison with the bass line) as a complement to the harmony, thereby bringing the composition into line with his four-part harmonic style.

In the debate that arose in Russia since the 19th century about the authenticity of the presentation of four-part court chants, the presentation of Bach's four-part chorales - for example, the final movements of his chorale cantatas - compared with earlier Russian traditions served as an example of foreign influence: such influence, however, was considered inevitable.

Bach's decisive intervention in the tonal system and his contribution to its formation does not mean that he worked less freely with the old mode system and related genres: more than his contemporaries (virtually all of whom "switched" to the tonal system), Bach returned frequently to out-of-fashion techniques and genres. An example of this is his “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue” - this work reproduces the genre of chromatic fantasy, in which predecessor composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck worked, and it is written in the D-Dorian mode (which corresponds to D minor in the tonal system).

Modulations in Bach's music

Modulation - changing the key during the course of a piece - is another stylistic feature in which Bach goes beyond the generally accepted traditions of his time. Baroque musical instruments were very limited in the possibility of modulation: keyboards, whose temperament system preceded the tuning one, had registers limited in modulation, and wind instruments, especially brass instruments such as the trumpet and horn, which existed a hundred years before equipping with valves, depended on their tuning keys. Bach expanded these possibilities: he added “strange tones” to his organ performances that confused the choristers, according to the accusation he faced in Arnstadt. Louis Marchand, another early experimenter with modulation, apparently only managed to avoid confrontation with Bach because the latter went further in this endeavor than any of his predecessors. In the "Suscepit Israel" section of his work "Magnificat" (1723), the parts for trumpet in E flat include a performance of the melody in the enharmonic scale of C minor.

Another significant technological breakthrough of Bach's time, in which his participation played an important role, was the improvement of the temperament of keyboard instruments, which made it possible to use them in all keys (12 major and 12 minor), and also made it possible to apply modulation without retuning. His "Capriccio on the Departure of the Beloved Brother" is very early work, however, it already shows a widespread use of modulation, incomparable with any of those works of the time with which this composition was compared. But this technique is most fully revealed only in “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” where all keys are used. Bach worked on its improvement around 1720, the first mention of which is found in his “Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach” (“Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Keyboard Book”).

Jewelry in Bach's music

The second page of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Keyboard Book contains an explanation of the ornaments and instructions for their performance, written by Bach for his eldest son, who was then nine years old. In general, Bach attached quite a lot of importance to ornamentation in his works (although at that time ornamentation was rarely composed by composers, being rather the privilege of the performer), and his decorations were often quite detailed. For example, the "Aria" from his Goldberg Variations contains rich ornamentation in almost every bar. Bach's attention to decoration can also be seen in the keyboard arrangement he wrote for Marcello's Oboe Concerto: it was he who added notes with those decorations to this work, which oboists play several centuries later in its performance.

Despite the fact that Bach did not write a single opera, he was not an opponent of the genre, nor of its vocal style using decorations. In church music, Italian composers imitated the operatic vocal style of genres such as the Neapolitan mass. Protestant society was more reserved about the idea of ​​using such a style in liturgical music. For example, Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor in Leipzig, is known to have expressed in his recordings a negative opinion about the opera and vocal compositions of Italian virtuosos. Bach was less categorical; According to one of the reviews of the performance of his St. Matthew Passion, the whole work as a whole sounded very much like an opera.

Bach's keyboard music

In concert performances from Bach's time, the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as organ and/or viola da gamba and harpsichord, was usually assigned the role of accompaniment: providing the harmonic and rhythmic basis of the composition. In the late 1720s, Bach introduced the performance of solo parts for organ and orchestra in the instrumental parts of cantatas, ten years before Handel published his first organ concertos. In addition to the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and the Triple Concerto of the 1720s, which already included harpsichord solos, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s, and his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord one of these instruments does not participate in the continuo parts: they are used as full-fledged solo instruments, which goes far beyond the general bass. In this sense, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto.

Features of Bach's music

Bach wrote virtuoso works for specific instruments, as well as music independent of instrumentation. For example, “Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin” is considered to be the apotheosis of all works written for this instrument, accessible only to skilled musicians: the music corresponds to the instrument, fully revealing its capabilities, and requires a virtuoso, but not a bravura performer. Although music and instrument seem inseparable, Bach adapted some parts of this collection for other instruments. Likewise with the cello suites - their virtuoso music seems created specifically for this instrument, conveying the best of what it is capable of, but Bach managed to arrange one of these suites for the lute. This also applies to much of his most virtuosic keyboard music. Bach revealed the full capabilities of the instrument, while preserving the independence of the core of such music from the performance instrument.

Given this, it is not surprising that Bach's music is often performed with ease on instruments for which it was not always written, that it is so often arranged, and that his melodies appear in the most unexpected cases, such as in jazz. In addition, in a number of compositions Bach did not specify the instrumentation at all: this category includes canons BWV 1072-1078, as well as the main parts of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue.

Counterpoint in Bach's music

Another characteristic feature of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint (as opposed to homophony, used, for example, in his presentation of the four-part chorale). Bach's canons and, above all, his fugues are most characteristic of this style: and although Bach is not its inventor, his contribution to this style was so fundamental that it became decisive in many ways. Fugues are as characteristic of Bach's style as, for example, the sonata form is characteristic of composers of the classical period.

However, not only these strictly contrapuntal compositions, but most of Bach's music as a whole is characterized by special musical phrases for each of the voices, where the chords, which consist of notes sounded at a certain time, follow the rules of four-part harmony. Forkel, the first biographer of Bach, gives the following description of this feature of Bach's works, which distinguishes them from all other music:

If the language of music is only the pronunciation of a musical phrase, a simple sequence musical notes, such music can rightfully be accused of poverty. The addition of bass gives the music a harmonic basis and clarifies it, but overall it defines rather than enriches it. A melody with such an accompaniment, although all its notes did not belong to the real bass, or was decorated with simple ornaments or with simple chords in the parts of the upper voices, was usually called "homophony." However, it is a completely different case when two melodies are so closely intertwined that they carry on a conversation with each other, like two people sharing a pleasant equality. In the first case, the accompaniment is subordinate and serves only to support the first or main part. In the second case, the parties have a different connection. Their interweaving serves as a source of new melodic combinations, giving rise to new forms of musical expression. If more parts are intertwined in the same free and independent manner, the linguistic mechanism expands accordingly, and with the addition of a variety of forms and rhythms it becomes practically inexhaustible. Consequently, harmony no longer becomes simply an accompaniment to melody, but rather a powerful tool for adding richness and expressiveness to musical conversation. Mere accompaniment is not enough for this purpose. True harmony lies in the interweaving of several melodies, which occurs first in the upper, then in the middle, and finally in the lower parts.

From about 1720, when he was thirty-five years old, until his death in 1750, Bach's harmony consisted of this melodic interweaving of independent motives, so perfect in their fusion that every detail seems integral to the true melody. In this, Bach surpasses all composers in the world. At least I have not met anyone equal to him in the music I know. Even in his four-voice presentation, it is often possible to discard the upper and lower parts, and the middle one will not become less melodic and acceptable.

Structure of Bach's compositions

Bach paid more attention to the structure of his compositions than all his contemporaries. This is noticeable in the minor adjustments he made when rearranging other people's compositions, for example in his early version of the "Kaiser" from the Passion of St. Mark, where he strengthened the transitions between scenes, and in the construction of his own compositions, for example, the Magnificat, and his Passions written in Leipzig. In the last years of his life, Bach made changes to some of his earlier compositions, often the most significant consequence of which was an expansion of the structure of previously composed works, such as the Mass in B minor. Known value Bach's emphasis on structure led to various numerological studies of his compositions, which peaked around the 1970s. Subsequently, however, many of these overly detailed interpretations were rejected, especially when their meaning was lost in the full symbolism of hermeneutics.

Bach attached great importance to the libretto, that is, to the texts of his vocal works: to work on his cantatas and basic vocal compositions, he sought collaboration with various composers, and at times, when he could not rely on the talents of other authors, he wrote or adapted such texts with his own hand so that include them in the composition that he created. His collaboration with Picander in writing the libretto for the St. Matthew Passion is the most famous, but a similar process had taken place several years earlier, resulting in the multi-layered structure of the libretto for the St. John Passion.

List of works by Bach

In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalog of Bach's compositions entitled Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Catalogue of Bach's Works). Schmieder borrowed heavily from the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe, a complete edition of the composer's works published between 1850 and 1900. The first edition of the catalog contained 1,080 surviving compositions, undoubtedly composed by Bach.

BWV 1081-1126 were added to the catalog in the second half of the 20th century, and BWV 1127 and above were even more recent additions.

Bach's Passions and Oratorios

Bach wrote the Passion for Good Friday services and oratorios such as the Christmas Oratorio, which includes a set of six cantatas for performance during the liturgical season of Christmas. Shorter works in this form are his "Easter Oratorio" and "Oratorio for the Feast of the Ascension".

Bach's longest work

The St. Matthew Passion, with double choir and orchestra, is one of Bach's longest works.

Oratorio "St. John's Passion"

The St. John Passion was the first Passion Bach wrote; he composed them while serving as a Thomascantor in Leipzig.

Bach's sacred cantatas

According to Bach's obituary, he composed five annual cycles of sacred cantatas, as well as additional church cantatas, such as those for weddings and funerals. Of these sacred works, about 200 are currently known, that is, approximately two-thirds of the total number of church cantatas he composed. The Bach Digital website lists 50 of the composer's known secular cantatas, about half of which survive or are largely recoverable.

Bach cantatas

Bach's cantatas vary widely in form and instrumentation. Among them are written for solo performance, separate choirs, small ensembles and large orchestras. Many consist of a large choral introduction, followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets) and a closing chorale. The melody of the closing chorale often acted as the cantus firmus of the opening movement.

The earliest cantatas date from the years that Bach spent in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest of these whose date of composition is known is "Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in the chains of death") (BWV 4), composed for Easter 1707, which is one of his chorale cantatas. "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" ("God's time is the best time") (BWV 106), also known as Actus Tragicus, is a funeral cantata from the Mühlhausen period. About 20 church cantatas written in a later period in Weimar have also survived to the present day, for example “Ich hatte Viel Bekümmernis” (“The sorrows in my heart multiplied”) (BWV 21).

After taking up the post of Thomascantor at the end of May 1723, at every Sunday and holiday service Bach performed a cantata that corresponded to the material of each week's lectures. The first cycle of his cantatas lasted from the first Sunday after Trinity 1723 until Trinity Sunday next year. For example, the cantata for the day of the Virgin Mary's visit to Elizabeth, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" ("With our lips, our hearts, our deeds, our whole life") (BWV 147), containing a chorale known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" ("Jesus, my joy"), belongs to this first cycle. The cycle of cantatas written in the second year of his stay in Leipzig is called the "cycle of chorale cantatas", since it mainly included works in the form of a chorale cantata The third cycle of his cantatas was composed over several years, and in 1728-29 it was followed by the Picander cycle.

Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("The Lord is our stronghold") (BWV 80) (final version) and "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" ("Wake up, a voice calls to you" ) (BWV 140). Only the first three Leipzig cycles are relatively completely preserved. In addition to his own, Bach also performed cantatas by Telemann and his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach.

Secular music of Bach

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for example, for members of the Royal Polish and Prince-Elector Saxon families (e.g. "Trauer-Ode" - "Mourning Ode") or on other public or private occasions (e.g. "Hunting Cantata") . The text of these cantatas was sometimes written in dialect (eg "Peasant Cantata") or in Italian (eg "Amore traditore"). Many of the secular cantatas were subsequently lost, but the reasons for their composition and the text of some of them were nevertheless preserved, in particular thanks to the publication of their libretto by Picander (eg BWV Anh. 11-12). The plots of some secular cantatas involved mythical heroes of Greek antiquity (for example, “Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan” - “The Dispute between Phoebus and Pan”), others were practically miniature buffoonery (for example, “The Coffee Cantata”).

A cappella

Bach's a cappella music includes motets and chorale harmonizations.

Motets by Bach

Bach's motets (BWV 225-231) are works on sacred themes for choir and continuo with solo instrumental parts. Some of them were composed for funerals. Six motets composed by Bach are reliably known: “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” (“Sing a new song to the Lord”), “Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf” (“The Spirit strengthens us in our weaknesses”), “Jesu, Meine Freude” ("Jesus, my joy"), "Fürchte Dich Nicht" ("Do not be afraid..."), "Komm, Jesu, komm" ("Come, Jesus"), and "Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden" (" Praise the Lord, all you nations." The motet "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" ("Praise and Honor") (BWV 231) is part of the composite motet "Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt" ("Praise the Lord all the world") (BWV Anh. 160), the other parts of which , possibly based on the work of Telemann.

Bach chorales

Church music of Bach

Bach's ecclesiastical works in Latin include his Magnificat, four Kyrie-Gloria masses, and the Mass in B minor.

Bach's Magnificat

The first version of Bach's Magnificat dates from 1723, but the most famous version of the work in D major is from 1733.

Bach's Mass in B minor

In 1733, Bach composed the mass "Kyrie-Gloria" for the Dresden court. In the last years of his life, around 1748-49, he refined this composition into the grandiose Mass in B minor. During Bach's lifetime this work was never performed in its entirety.

Claver music of Bach

Bach wrote for the organ and other keyboard instruments of his time, mainly the harpsichord, but also the clavichord and his personal favorite: the lute-harpsichord (works presented as compositions for lute, BWV 995-1000 and 1006a, were probably written for this tool).

Organ works by Bach

During his lifetime, Bach was best known as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works, both in the free genres of the German tradition - preludes, fantasies and toccatas, and in more strict forms, such as chorale preludes and fugues. In his youth he became famous thanks to his enormous creativity and the ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. His undeniable North German influences were Georg Böhm, whom Bach met in Lüneburg, and Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in 1704 during an extended absence from his post in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach transcribed the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insight into their compositional languages, and later arranged the violin concertos of Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord. During his most productive period (1708-14), he wrote about a dozen paired preludes and fugues, five toccatas and fugues, and the Little Organ Book, an unfinished collection of forty-six short chorale preludes that demonstrates compositional techniques in performance choral melodies. After leaving Weimar, Bach began to write less for organ, although some of his most famous works(six trio sonatas, the "German Organ Mass" in the "Clavier-Übung III" of 1739 and the great Eighteen Chorales, supplemented in later years) he composed after his departure from Weimar. In later life, Bach took an active part in consulting organ projects, testing newly built organs, and incorporating organ music into daytime rehearsals. The canonical variations on the theme "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her" ("From heaven I descend to earth") and "Schübler chorales" are organ works that Bach published in the last years of his life.

Bach's music for harpsichord and clavichord

Bach wrote many works for the harpsichord; some of them may have been played on clavichords. Larger works are usually intended for a harpsichord with two keyboards, since when performed on a keyboard instrument with one keyboard (for example, a piano), technical difficulties with crossing hands may arise. Many of his keyboard works are almanacs that cover entire theoretical systems in an encyclopedic manner.

"The Well-Tempered Clavier", books 1 and 2 (BWV 846-893). Each book consists of a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys in chromatic order from C major to B minor (because of this, the collection as a whole is often referred to as "48"). The phrase "well tempered" in the name refers to the temperament (tuning system); Many temperaments of the period preceding Bach's time lacked flexibility and did not allow the use of more than two tonalities in works.

"Inventions and Symphonies" (BWV 772-801). These short two- and three-voice contrapuntal works are arranged in the same chromatic order as the parts of the Well-Tempered Clavier, with the exception of a few rare keys. These parts, according to Bach's plan, were intended for educational purposes.

Three collections of dance suites: "English Suites" (BWV 806-811), "French Suites" (BWV 812-817), and "Keyboard Scores" ("(Clavier-Übung I", BWV 825-830). Each collection consists of of six suites built on standard models (allemande-courante-sarabande-(free movement)-gigue). The "English Suites" strictly adhere to the traditional model with the addition of a prelude before the allemande and a single free movement between the sarabande and the gigue. In the "French Suites" the preludes are omitted, but there are several movements between the sarabande and the gigue.The Partitas show further modifications of the standard principles in the form of complex opening movements and varied movements between the main elements of the model.

The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) is an aria with thirty variations. The collection has a complex and non-standard structure: the variations are built on the bass line of the aria, and its melodies and musical canons are interpolated in accordance with the grandiose plan. Thirty variations contain nine canons, that is, the third variation is a new canon. These variations are arranged sequentially from the first canon to the ninth. The first eight are doubles (first and fourth, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon, due to its compositional differences, is located separately. The last variation, instead of the expected tenth canon, is quarterbet.

Various works such as the "Overture in the French Style" (French Overture, BWV 831) and the "Italian Concerto" (BWV 971) (collectively published as "Clavier-Übung II"), as well as the "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" ( BWV 903).

Bach's lesser-known keyboard works include seven toccatas (BWV 910-916), four duets (BWV 802-805), keyboard sonatas (BWV 963-967), Six Little Preludes (BWV 933-938), and Aria variata alla maniera italiana" (BWV 989).

Orchestral and chamber music of Bach

Bach wrote for individual instruments, duets and small ensembles. Many of his solo works, such as the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV 1001-1006) and six suites for cello (BWV 1007-1012), are widely regarded as among the strongest works in the repertoire. He wrote sonatas for solo performance on instruments such as viola de gamba with harpsichord or continuo accompaniment, as well as trio sonatas (two instruments and continuo).

The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue are later contrapuntal works that contain parts for unspecified instruments (or combinations thereof).

Bach's works for violin

Surviving concert works include two violin concertos (BWV 1041 in A minor and BWV 1042 in E major) and a concerto for two violins in D minor (BWV 1043), often called Bach's "double" concerto.

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Bach's most famous orchestral works are the Brandenburg Concertos. They received this name because they were introduced by the author in the hope of obtaining a position from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, although his expectations were not realized. These works serve as examples of the concerto grosso genre.

Bach keyboard concertos

Bach wrote and arranged concertos for harpsichords ranging from one to four. Many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works, but arrangements of his own concertos for other instruments are now lost. Of these, only a few concertos for violin, oboe and flute were restored.

Bach's orchestral suites

In addition to the concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites - each of them represented by a series of stylized dances for orchestra, preceded by an introduction in the form of a French overture.

Bach's self-education

In his early youth, Bach copied the works of other composers in order to learn from them. He later copied and arranged the music for performance and/or as teaching material for his students. Some of these works, for example, "Bist du bei mir" ("You are with me") (copied not even by Bach himself, but by Anna Magdalena), managed to become famous before they were no longer associated with Bach. Bach copied and arranged the works of such Italian masters as Vivaldi (eg BWV 1065), Pergolesi (BWV 1083) and Palestrina (Missa Sine Nomine), French masters such as François Couperin (BWV Anh. 183), as well as living in greater reach of German masters, including Telemann (for example, BWV 824 = TWV 32:14) and Handel (arias from the Brockes Passion), as well as the music of his own relatives. In addition, he often copied and arranged his own music (for example, BWV 233-236), and his music was also copied and arranged by other composers. Some of these arrangements, such as the "Aria on the G String", created at the end of the 19th century, helped Bach's music become famous.

Sometimes it was unclear who copied whom. For example, Forkel mentions a mass for double choir among the works created by Bach. The composition was published and performed at the beginning of the 19th century, and although there is some evidence that the handwriting in which it was written belonged to Bach, the work was subsequently considered a fake. Such works were not included in the catalog "Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis" published in 1950: if there were serious reasons to believe that the work belongs to Bach, such works were published in the appendix to the catalog (on German: Anhang, abbreviated "Anh."), so that the above-mentioned mass for double choir, for example, received the designation "BWV Anh. 167". The problems of authorship, however, did not end there; attributions, for example, “Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde” (“Strike, the desired hour”) (BWV 53) were later re-attributed to the work of Melchior Hoffmann. In the case of other works, doubts about the authenticity of Bach's authorship have never been unequivocally confirmed or refuted: even the most famous organ composition in the BWV catalogue, Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) fell into the category of these uncertain works at the end of the twentieth century.

Appreciation of Bach's work

In the 18th century, Bach's music was appreciated only in narrow circles of prominent experts. The 19th century began with the publication of the first biography of the composer and ended with the complete publication of all known works of Bach by the German Bach Society. The Bach revival began with Mendelssohn's performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Soon after the 1829 performance, Bach began to be considered one of the greatest composers of all time, if not the greatest, a reputation he continues to this day. An extensive new biography of Bach was published in the second half of the 19th century.

In the 20th century, Bach's music was widely performed and recorded; at the same time, the New Bach Society published, among other works, its study of the composer's work. Modern adaptations of Bach's music contributed greatly to the popularization of Bach in the second half of the 20th century. These include versions of Bach's works performed by the Swingle Singers (for example, "Air" from Orchestral Suite No. 3, or the chorale prelude from "Wachet Auf..."), as well as Wendy Carlos's album "Switched On Bach" (1968) g.), which used the Moog electronic synthesizer.

By the end of the 20th century, more classical performers gradually moved away from the performance style and instruments popular in the Romantic era: they began to perform Bach's music on historical Baroque instruments, studied and practiced the techniques and tempos characteristic of Bach's time, and reduced the size of instrumental ensembles and choirs before the one used by Bach. The B-A-C-H motif, used by the composer in his own compositions, was used in dozens of dedications to Bach, created from the 19th century to the 21st century. In the 21st century, a complete collection of his surviving works has become available online on websites dedicated to the great composer.

Recognition of Bach's work by contemporaries

In his time, Bach was no less famous than Telemann, Graun and Handel. During his lifetime, he received public recognition, in particular, the title of court composer from Augustus III of Poland, and the approval of Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Keyserling for his work. This high regard for influential people contrasted with the humiliations he had to endure, for example, in his native Leipzig. In addition, in the press of his time, Bach had detractors, such as Johann Adolf Scheibe, who suggested that he write “less complex” music, but also supporters, such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mitzler.

After Bach's death, his reputation first began to decline: his work began to be considered old-fashioned in comparison with the new gallant style. Initially he was more famous as a virtuoso organist and as a music teacher. Of all the music published during the composer's lifetime, the most famous were his works written for organ and harpsichord. That is, initially his fame as a composer was limited to keyboard music, and even its importance in music teaching was greatly underestimated.

Not all of Bach's relatives who inherited most of his manuscripts attached equal importance to their preservation, and this resulted in significant losses. Carl Philip Emmanuel, his second son, most carefully guarded his father's legacy: he co-authored his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales, staged some of his compositions; Most of my father’s previously unpublished works were also preserved only thanks to his efforts. Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest son, performed many of his father's cantatas in Halle, but subsequently, having lost his position, sold part of the large collection of Bach works that belonged to him. Some of the old master's students, in particular his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Kirnberger and Johann Ludwig Krebs, contributed to the spread of his legacy. Not all of his early admirers were musicians; for example, one admirer of his music in Berlin was Daniel Itzich, a high-ranking official at the court of Frederick the Great. His older daughters took lessons from Kirnberger; their sister Sarah studied music with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who lived in Berlin from 1774 to 1784. Sarah Itzich-Levi subsequently became an avid collector of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons; She also acted as the “patron” of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

Although in Leipzig the performance of Bach's church music was limited to only some of his motets and, under the direction of Cantor Dohle, a few of his Passions, a new generation of Bach's followers soon emerged: they carefully collected and copied his music, including a number of major works, e.g. The Mass is in B minor, and it was performed informally. One such connoisseur was Gottfried van Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who played an important role in transmitting Bach's legacy to composers of the Viennese school. Haydn owned handwritten copies of the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Mass in B Minor, and Bach's music influenced his work. Mozart had a copy of one of Bach's motets, arranged some of his instrumental works (K. 404a, 405), and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style. Beethoven played the entire Well-Tempered Clavier at the age of eleven, and spoke of Bach as the "Urvater der Harmonie" ("progenitor of harmony").

The first biography of J. S. Bach

In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published his book Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (On the Life, Art and Works of Johann Sebastian Bach), the first biography of the composer, which helped to make him famous among the general public. In 1805, Abraham Mendelssohn, married to one of Itzich's granddaughters, acquired an extensive collection of Bach manuscripts, preserved through the efforts of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and donated them to the Berlin Singing Academy. The Singing Academy occasionally held public concerts at which Bach's music was performed, such as his first keyboard concerto, with Sarah Itzich-Levy as pianist.

In the first few decades of the 19th century, the number of first publications of Bach's music increased: Breitkopf began publishing his chorale preludes, Hoffmeister - works for harpsichord, and in 1801 "The Well-Tempered Clavier" was published simultaneously by Simrock (Germany), Nägeli (Switzerland) and Hoffmeister (Germany and Austria). The same applies to vocal music: "Motets" were published in 1802-1803, then a version of the "Magnificat" in E flat major, the mass "Kyrie-Gloria" in A major, as well as the cantata "Ein feste Burg ist unser" Gott" ("Our God is a stronghold") (BWV 80). In 1818, Hans Georg Nägeli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition of all time. Bach's influence was felt in next generation early Romantic composers. In 1822, when Abraham Mendelssohn's son Felix composed his first arrangement of the Magnificat at the age of 13, it was obvious that he was inspired by Bach's D major version of the Magnificat, then unpublished.

Felix Mendelssohn contributed significantly to the renewed interest in Bach's work with his performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, a key moment in the organization of what would become known as the Bach Revival. The 19th-century premiere of the St. John's Passion took place in 1833, followed by the first performance of the Mass in B minor in 1844. In addition to these and other public performances and the increasing number of publications of biographies of the composer and his works, the 1830s and 40s also saw the first publications of Bach's other vocal works: six cantatas, the St. Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B minor. In 1833, some organ works were published for the first time. In 1835, Chopin, inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, began composing his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, and in 1845 Schumann published his "Sechs Fugen über den Namen B-A-C-H" ("Six Fugues on theme B-A-C-H"). Bach's music was rearranged and arranged in accordance with the tastes and performance practices of their times by composers such as Karl Friedrich Zelter, Robert Franz and Franz Liszt, and also combined with new music, as, for example, in the melody to Charles's "Ave Maria" Gounod Composers who contributed to the spread of Bach's music and who spoke enthusiastically about it include Brahms, Bruckner and Wagner.

In 1850, the Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was created to further promote Bach's music. In the second half of the 19th century, the Society published an extensive edition of the composer's works. Also in the second half of the 19th century, Philip Spitta published his book Johann Sebastian Bach, the standard account of Bach's life and music. By then, Bach was known as the first of the "three big B's in the history of music" (an English expression referring to the three greatest composers of all time whose last names began with the letter B - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms). In total, 200 books dedicated to Bach were published in the 19th century. By the end of the century, local societies dedicated to Bach had been founded in many cities, and his works were performed in all important musical institutions.

In Germany, throughout the century, Bach's work served as a symbol of national feelings; The composer's important role in the religious revival was also captured. In England, Bach was associated with the revival of church and Baroque music that already existed at that time. By the end of the century, Bach had established a strong reputation as one of the greatest composers, recognized in both instrumental and vocal music.

The value of Bach's works

In the 20th century, the process of recognition of the musical and pedagogical value of Bach's works continued. Probably the most famous are the cello suites performed by Pablo Casals, the first outstanding musician to record these suites. Others subsequently recorded Bach's music. famous performers classical music, such as Herbert von Karajan, Arthur Grumiaux, Helmut Walch, Wanda Landowska, Karl Richter, I Muzichi, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Glenn Gould and many others.

In the second half of the 20th century, the impetus for significant development came from the practice of historically competent performance, whose pioneers, such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, became famous for their performances of Bach's music. Bach's keyboard works began to be performed again on instruments characteristic of Bach's time, instead of modern pianos and romantic organs of the 19th century. The ensembles that performed Bach's instrumental and vocal compositions not only adhered to the instrumentation and performance style of Bach's time, but their composition was reduced to the size that Bach used in his concerts. But this is by no means the only reason why Bach's music came to the fore in the 20th century: his works were celebrated in a wide variety of performances, ranging from piano arrangements in the romantic style of Ferruccio Busoni, jazz interpretations such as the compositions of the Swindle Singers, orchestrations , such as the intro to Walt Disney's Fantasia, to synth-driven performances such as Wendy Carlos' recording of "Switched-On Bach."

Bach's music has received recognition in other genres. For example, jazz musicians often adapted works by Bach; jazz versions of his compositions were performed, in particular, by Jacques Lussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Kane and the Modern Jazz Quartet. Many 20th-century composers relied on Bach to create their works, such as Eugene Ysaÿe in his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in his 24 Preludes and Fugues, and Heitor Villa-Lobos in his Brazilian Bachians. Bach has been mentioned in a wide variety of publications: this applies not only to the annual almanac "Bach Jahrbuch", published by the New Bach Society and other studies and biographies, including the authorship of Albert Schweitzer, Charles Sanford Terry, John Butt, Christoph Wolff, as well as the first edition of the catalog "Bach Werke Verzeichnis" in 1950, but also books such as "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter viewed the composer's art from a broader perspective. In the 1990s, Bach's music was actively listened to, performed, broadcast on radio and television, arranged, arranged and commented on. Around 2000, three record companies released commemorative sets of the complete recordings of Bach's works to mark the 250th anniversary of his death.

Recordings of Bach's works take up three times more space than those of any other composer on the Voyager Golden Record, a gramophone record containing a vast array of images, common sounds, languages ​​and the music of Earth that was sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes. . In the 20th century, many statues were erected in honor of Bach; Many things are also dedicated to his name, including streets and space objects. In addition, such musical ensembles as "Bach Aria Group", "Deutsche Bachsolisten", "Bachchor Stuttgart" and "Bach Collegium Japan" were named in honor of the composer. Bach festivals were held in different parts of the world; In addition, many competitions and prizes are named in his honor, such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music. If at the end of the 19th century Bach’s work symbolized national and spiritual rebirth, then at the end of the 20th century Bach was seen as an object of unspiritual art as religion (Kunstreligion).

Online Bach Library

In the 21st century, Bach's compositions have become available online, for example, on the website of the International Music Score Library Project. Facsimiles of Bach's autographs have become available on a website dedicated to Bach. high resolution. Websites dedicated solely to the composer or separate parts his works include jsbach.org and the Bach Cantatas Website.

Twenty-first century biographers of Bach include Peter Williams and conductor John Eliot Gardiner. Additionally, in the current century, reviews of the best works of classical music tend to include many of Bach's works. For example, in The Telegraph's ranking of the 168 best classical music recordings, Bach's music occupies more positions than the work of any other composer.

The attitude of the Protestant Church to the work of Bach

The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church annually commemorates Bach along with George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell on the feast day of July 28; The Lutheran Church Calendar of Saints commemorates Bach, Handel and Heinrich Schütz on the same day.

From the 19th century to the present day, interest in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach has not subsided. The creativity of an unsurpassed genius amazes with its scale. known all over the world. His name is known not only to professionals and music lovers, but also to listeners who do not show much interest in “serious” art. On the one hand, Bach's work is a certain result. The composer relied on the experience of his predecessors. He knew perfectly well the choral polyphony of the Renaissance, German organ music, and the peculiarities of the Italian violin style. He carefully studied new material, developed and generalized his accumulated experience. On the other hand, Bach was an unsurpassed innovator who managed to open up new perspectives for the development of world musical culture. The work of Johann Bach had a strong influence on his followers: Brahms, Beethoven, Wagner, Glinka, Taneyev, Honegger, Shostakovich and many other great composers.

Bach's creative heritage

He created over 1000 works. The genres he addressed were very diverse. Moreover, there are works whose scale was exceptional for that time. Bach's work can be divided into four main genre groups:

• Organ music.
• Vocal-instrumental.
• Music for various instruments (violin, flute, clavier and others).
• Music for instrumental ensembles.

The works of each of the above groups belong to a specific period. The most outstanding organ compositions were composed in Weimar. The Keten period marks the appearance huge amount keyboard and orchestral works. Most of the vocal and instrumental songs were written in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach. Biography and creativity

The future composer was born in 1685 in the small town of Eisenach, into a musical family. For the whole family it was a traditional profession. Johann's first music teacher was his father. The boy had an excellent voice and sang in the choir. At the age of 9 he became an orphan. After the death of his parents, he was raised by Johann Christoph (elder brother). At the age of 15, the boy graduated from the Ohrdruf Lyceum with honors and moved to Lüneburg, where he began singing in the choir of the “chosen ones”. By the age of 17, he learned to play various harpsichords, organs, and violins. Since 1703 he has lived in different cities: Arnstadt, Weimar, Mühlhausen. Bach's life and work during this period were full of certain difficulties. He constantly changes his place of residence, which is due to his reluctance to feel dependent on certain employers. He served as a musician (as an organist or violinist). Working conditions also constantly dissatisfied him. At this time, his first compositions for clavier and organ, as well as spiritual cantatas, appeared.

Weimar period

In 1708, Bach began serving as court organist for the Duke of Weimar. At the same time, he works in the chapel as a chamber musician. Bach's life and work during this period were very fruitful. These are the years of first composer maturity. The best organ works appeared. This:

• Prelude and Fugue in C minor, A minor.
• Toccata C major.
• Passacaglia c-moll.
• Toccata and fugue in d minor.
• "Organ book".

At the same time, Johann Sebastian is working on works in the cantata genre, on transcriptions of Italian violin concertos for the clavier. For the first time he turns to the genre of solo violin suite and sonata.

Keten period

Since 1717, the musician settled in Köthen. Here he holds a high-ranking position as director of chamber music. He, in fact, is the manager of all musical life at court. But he is not happy with the town being too small. Bach is eager to move to a larger, more promising city to give his children the opportunity to go to university and get a good education. There was no high-quality organ in Köthen, and there was also no choir. Therefore, Bach’s keyboard creativity develops here. The composer also pays a lot of attention to ensemble music. Works written in Köthen:

• Volume 1 "HTK".
• English Suites.
• Sonatas for solo violin.
• "Brandenburg Concertos" (six pieces).

Leipzig period and last years of life

Since 1723, the maestro has lived in Leipzig, where he leads the choir (holds the position of cantor) at the school at the Church of St. Thomas in Thomaschul. Takes an active part in a public circle of music lovers. The city's "collegium" constantly organized secular music concerts. What masterpieces were added to Bach’s work at that time? It is worth briefly indicating the main works of the Leipzig period, which can rightfully be considered the best. This:

• "St. John's Passion".
• Mass h-minor.
• "Matthew Passion"
• About 300 cantatas.
• "Christmas Oratorio".

In the last years of his life, the composer focused on musical compositions. Writes:

• Volume 2 "HTK".
• Italian concert.
• Partitas.
• "The Art of Fugue".
• Aria with various variations.
• Organ Mass.
• "Musical Offering"

After an unsuccessful operation, Bach went blind, but did not stop composing music until his death.

Style characteristics

Bach's creative style was formed on the basis of various musical schools and genres. Johann Sebastian organically wove the best harmonies into his works. In order to understand the musical language of the Italians, he rewrote their works. His creations were rich in the texts, rhythms and forms of French and Italian music, North German contrapuntal style, as well as Lutheran liturgy. The synthesis of various styles and genres was harmoniously combined with the deep poignancy of human experiences. His musical thought stood out for its special uniqueness, universality and a certain cosmic quality. Bach's work belongs to a style that is firmly established in the art of music. This is the classicism of the high baroque era. Bach's musical style is characterized by mastery of an extraordinary melodic structure, where the main idea dominates the music. Thanks to the mastery of counterpoint techniques, several melodies can interact simultaneously. was a true master of polyphony. He had a penchant for improvisation and brilliant virtuosity.

Main genres

Bach's work includes various traditional genres. This:

• Cantatas and oratorios.
• Passions and Masses.
• Preludes and Fugues.
• Chorale arrangements.
• Dance suites and concerts.

Of course, he borrowed the listed genres from his predecessors. However, he gave them the broadest scope. The maestro skillfully updated them with new musical and expressive means and enriched them with features of other genres. The clearest example is the "Chromatic Fantasia in D Minor". The work was created for the clavier, but contains dramatic recitation of theatrical origins and the expressive properties of large organ improvisations. It is easy to notice that Bach’s work “bypassed” opera, which, by the way, was one of the leading genres of its time. However, it is worth noting that many of the composer’s secular cantatas are difficult to distinguish from comedic interludes (at this time in Italy they were degenerating into opera buffa). Some of Bach's cantatas, created in the spirit of witty genre scenes, anticipated the German Singspiel.

The ideological content and range of images of Johann Sebastian Bach

The composer's work is rich in its figurative content. From the pen of a true master come both extremely simple and extremely majestic creations. Bach's art contains simple-minded humor, deep sorrow, philosophical reflection, and acute drama. The genius Johann Sebastian reflected such significant parties of his era, as religious and philosophical problems. With the help of the amazing world of sounds, he reflects on the eternal and very important questions of human life:

• About the moral duty of man.
• About his role in this world and purpose.
• About life and death.

These reflections are directly related to religious topics. And this is not surprising. The composer served the church almost all his life, so he wrote most of the music for it. At the same time, he was a believer and knew the Holy Scriptures. His reference book was the Bible, written in two languages ​​(Latin and German). He kept fasts, went to confession, and observed church holidays. A few days before his death he took communion. The composer's main character is Jesus Christ. In that perfect image Bach saw the embodiment of the best qualities inherent in man: purity of thoughts, strength of spirit, loyalty to the chosen path. The sacrificial feat of Jesus Christ for the salvation of humanity was the most sacred for Bach. This theme was the most important in the composer’s work.

Symbolism of Bach's works

In the Baroque era, musical symbolism appeared. It is through her that the complex and amazing world of the composer is revealed. Bach's music was perceived by his contemporaries as transparent and understandable speech. This happened due to the presence in it of stable melodic turns expressing certain emotions and ideas. Such sound formulas are called musical-rhetorical figures. Some conveyed affect, others imitated the intonations of human speech, and others were of a figurative nature. Here are some of them:

• anabasis - ascent;
• circulatio - rotation;
• catabasis - descent;
• exclamatio - exclamation, ascending sixth;
• fuga - running;
• passus duriusculus - a chromatic move used to express suffering or sorrow;
• suspiratio - sigh;
• tirata - arrow.

Gradually, musical and rhetorical figures become a kind of “signs” of certain concepts and feelings. For example, the descending figure catabasis was often used to convey sadness, melancholy, mourning, death, and the position in the coffin. A gradual upward movement (anabasis) was used to express ascension, high spirits and other moments. Symbolic motifs are observed in all the composer’s works. Bach's work was dominated by Protestant chorale, to which the maestro turned throughout his life. It also has a symbolic meaning. Work with the chorale was carried out in a wide variety of genres - cantatas, passions, preludes. Therefore, it is quite logical that the Protestant chorale is an integral part of Bach’s musical language. Among the important symbols found in the music of this artist, we should note stable combinations of sounds that have constant meanings. The symbol of the cross predominated in Bach's work. It consists of four multi-directional notes. It is noteworthy that if you decipher the composer’s surname (BACH) with notes, the same graphic pattern is formed. B - B flat, A - A, C - C, H - B. Researchers such as F. Busoni, A. Schweitzer, M. Yudina, B. Yavorsky and others made a great contribution to the development of Bach’s musical symbols.

"Second birth"

During his lifetime, the work of Sebastian Bach was not appreciated. Contemporaries knew him more as an organist than a composer. Not a single serious book has been written about him. Of the huge number of his works, only a few were published. After his death, the composer's name was soon forgotten, and the surviving manuscripts gathered dust in the archives. Perhaps we would never have known anything about this brilliant man. But, fortunately, this did not happen. True interest in Bach arose in the 19th century. One day F. Mendelssohn discovered the notes of the St. Matthew Passion in the library, which interested him very much. Under his direction, this work was successfully performed in Leipzig. Many listeners were delighted with the music of the still little-known author. We can say that this was the second birth of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1850 (on the 100th anniversary of the composer's death), the Bach Society was created in Leipzig. The purpose of this organization was to publish all the found manuscripts of Bach in the form of a complete collection of works. As a result, 46 volumes were collected.

Bach's organ works. Summary

The composer created excellent works for the organ. This instrument is a real force of nature for Bach. Here he was able to liberate his thoughts, feelings and emotions and convey all this to the listener. Hence the enlargement of lines, concertity, virtuosity, and dramatic images. The compositions created for the organ resemble frescoes in painting. Everything in them is presented mainly in close-up. In preludes, toccatas and fantasies, the pathos of musical images in free, improvisational forms is observed. Fugues are characterized by special virtuosity and unusually powerful development. Bach's organ work conveys high poetry his lyrics and the grandiose scope of magnificent improvisations.

Unlike keyboard works, organ fugues are much larger in volume and content. The movement of the musical image and its development proceed with increasing activity. The unfolding of the material is presented in the form of layering of large layers of music, but there is no particular discreteness or breaks. On the contrary, continuity (continuity of movement) prevails. Each phrase follows from the previous one with increasing tension. The climactic moments are constructed in the same way. The emotional upsurge eventually intensifies to its highest point. Bach is the first composer to demonstrate the patterns of symphonic development in large forms of instrumental polyphonic music. Bach's organ work seems to split into two poles. The first is preludes, toccatas, fugues, fantasies (large musical cycles). The second is one-part. They are written mainly in chamber style. They reveal predominantly lyrical images: intimate, mournful and sublimely contemplative. Best works for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach - and fugue in D minor, prelude and fugue in A minor and many other works.

Works for clavier

When writing compositions, Bach relied on the experience of his predecessors. However, here too he proved himself to be an innovator. Keyboard creativity Bach is characterized by scale, exceptional versatility, and a search for expressive means. He was the first composer to appreciate the versatility of this instrument. When composing his works, he was not afraid to experiment and implement the most daring ideas and projects. When writing, I was guided by the entire world musical culture. Thanks to him, the clavier expanded significantly. He enriches the instrument with new virtuoso techniques and changes the essence of musical images.

Among his works for organ, the following stand out:

• Two-voice and three-voice inventions.
• "English" and "French" suites.
• "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue".
• "The Well-Tempered Clavier."

Thus, Bach's work is striking in its scope. The composer is widely known throughout the world. His works make you think and reflect. Listening to his compositions, you involuntarily become immersed in them, thinking about deep meaning underlying them. The genres that the maestro addressed throughout his life were very diverse. This organ music, vocal-instrumental, music for various instruments (violin, flute, clavier and others) and for instrumental ensembles.

It remains to report on Anna Magdalena. She knew the bitterness of early old age. At first, the magistrate undoubtedly provided some assistance to Bach’s widow; receipts for her receipt of sums of money have been preserved. There is no reliable information about the relationship with the stepmother and mother of Bach’s sons after his death. Anna Magdalena, fifty-nine years old, died on Wednesday February 27, 1760 in Leipzig, on Heinenstrasse, apparently in a shelter for the poor.

For many years, the cantor's loving and caring wife so often hurriedly prepared the notes for her Sebastian's next Sunday cantata! In a handwriting similar to that of her husband, having completed the last line, she wrote in large letters on the page the words that meant “the end” in Italian.

Let this sign complete our story of life and a brief outline of the works of the great Bach:

Vocal and instrumental works: about 300 sacred cantatas (199 preserved); 24 secular cantatas (including “Hunting”, “Coffee”, “Peasant”); motets, chorales; Christmas Oratorio; “John Passion”, “Matthew Passion”, “Magnificat”, Mass in B minor (“High Mass”), 4 short masses.

Arias and songs - from the second Music book Anna Magdalena Bach.

For orchestra and orchestra with solo instruments:

6 Brandenburg Concertos; 4 suites (“overtures”); 7 concertos for harpsichord (clavier) and orchestra; 3 concertos for two harpsichords and orchestra; 2 concertos for three harpsichords and orchestra; 1 concert for four harpsichords and orchestra; 3 concertos for violin and orchestra; concert for flute, violin and harpsichord.

Works for violin, cello, flute with clavier (harpsichord) and solo: 6 sonatas for violin and harpsichord; 6 sonatas for flute and harpsichord; 3 sonatas for viola da gamba (cello) and harpsichord; trio sonatas; 6 sonatas and partitas for solo violin; 6 suites (sonatas) for solo cello.

For clavier (harpsichord): 6 “English” suites; 6 “French” suites; 6 parts; Chromatic fantasy and fugue; Italian concert; Well-Tempered Clavier (2 volumes, 48 ​​preludes and fugues); Goldberg Variations; Inventions for two and three voices; fantasies, fugues, toccatas, overtures, capriccios, etc.

For organ: 18 preludes and fugues; 5 toccatas and fugues; 3 fantasies and fugues; fugues; 6 concerts; Passacaglia; pastoral; fantasies, sonatas, canzones, trios; 46 chorale preludes (from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Organ Book); "Schubler chorales"; 18 chorales (“Leipzig”); several cycles of chorale variations.

Musical offering. The art of fugue.

1685, March 21 (Gregorian calendar March 31) Johann Sebastian Bach, the son of the city musician Johann Ambrose Bach, was born in the Thuringian city of Eisenach.

1693-1695 - Studying at school.

1694 - Death of mother, Elisabeth, née Lemmerhirt. Father's remarriage.

1695 - Death of father; moving to his elder brother Johann Christoph in Ohrdruf.

1696 - early 1700- Studying at the Ordruf Lyceum; singing and music lessons.

1700, March 15- Moving to Lüneburg, enrollment as a scholarship student (chanter) at the school of St. Michael.

1703, April- Moving to Weimar, service in the chapel of the Red Castle. August- Moving to Arnstadt; Bach is an organist and singing teacher.

1705-1706, October - February- Trip to Lubeck, studying the organ art of Dietrich Buxtehude. Conflict with the consistory of Arnstadt.

1707, June 15- Confirmation as organist in Mühlhausen. 17 October- Marriage to Maria Barbara Bach.

1708, spring- Publication of the first work, “Elective Cantata”. July- Moving to Weimar to serve as court organist of the Ducal Chapel.

1710, November 22- Birth of the first son, Wilhelm Friedemann (the future “Gallic Bach”).

1714, March 8- Birth of the second son, Carl Philipp Emmanuel (the future “Hamburg Bach”). Trip to Kassel.

1717, July- Bach accepts the offer of Prince Leopold of Köthen to become conductor of the court chapel.

September- A trip to Dresden, his success as a virtuoso.

October- Return to Weimar; resignation letter, by order of the Duke, arrest from November 6 to December 2. Transfer to Keteya. Trip to Leipzig.

1720, May- A trip with Prince Leopold to Carlsbad. Early July- Death of wife Maria Barbara.

1723, February 7- Performance of cantata No. 22 in Leipzig as a test for the position of cantor of the Thomaskirche. 26 March- First performance of the St. John Passion. May- Taking office as cantor of St. Thomas and the school teacher.

1729, February- Performing the “Hunting Cantata” in Weissenfels, receiving the title of court Kapellmeister of Saxe-Weissenfels. April 15- First performance of the St. Matthew Passion in the Thomaskirche. Disagreements with the Thomasshule council and then with the magistrate over school practices. Bach leads the Telemann student circle, Collegium musicum.

1730, October 28- A letter to a former school friend G. Erdmann describing the unbearable circumstances of life in Leipzig.

1732 - Performance of “Coffee Cantata”. 21st of June- Birth of the son Johann Christoph Friedrich (the future “Bückeburg Bach”).

1734, end of December- Performance of the “Christmas Oratorio”.

1735, June- Bach with his son Gottfried Bernhard in Mühlhausen. The son passes the test for the position of organist. September 5 was born last son Johann Christian (future "London Bach").

1736 - Beginning of a two-year “struggle for the prefect” with the rector Tomashule I. Ernesti. November 19 A decree was signed in Dresden conferring the title of royal court composer on Bach. Friendship with the Russian ambassador G. Keyserling. December 1- A two-hour concert in Dresden on the Silbermann organ.

1738, April 28- “Night music” in Leipzig. Bach completes the composition of the High Mass.

1740 - Bach ceases to direct the “Music Collegium”.

1741 - In the summer, Bach visited his son Emmanuel in Berlin. Trip to Dresden.

1742 - Publication of the last, fourth volume of “Exercises for the Clavier”. August 30- Performance of “Peasant Cantata”.

1745 - Testing of a new organ in Dresden.

1746 - Son Wilhelm Friedemann becomes director of urban music in Halle. Bach's trip to Zshortau and Naumberg.

1749, January 20- Engagement of daughter Elisabeth to Bach's student Altnikol. The beginning of the essay "The Art of Fugue". In summer- Illness, blindness. Johann Friedirch enters the Bückeburg Chapel.

1750, January- Unsuccessful eye surgeries, complete blindness. Composing counterpoints of “The Art of Fugue” and fugue on theme B-A-S-N. Completion of processing of chorales.

They are divided into instrumental and vocal. The first include: for organ - sonatas, preludes, fugues, fantasies and toccatas, chorale preludes; for piano – 15 inventions, 15 symphonies, French and English suites, “Klavierübung” in four movements (partitas, etc.), a number of toccatas and other works, as well as “The Well-Tempered Clavier” (48 preludes and fugues in all keys); “Musical Offering” (a collection of fugues on themes of Frederick the Great) and the cycle “The Art of Fugue”. In addition, Bach has sonatas and partitas for violin (among them the famous Chaconne), for flute, cello (gamba) with piano accompaniment, concertos for piano and orchestra, as well as for two or more pianos, etc., concerts and suites for strings and wind instruments, as well as a suite for the five-string viola pomposa (a middle instrument between viola and cello) invented by Bach.

Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach. Artist E. G. Haussmann, 1748

All these works are characterized by a highly skillful polyphony, not found in a similar form either before or after Bach. With amazing skill and perfection, Bach solves the most complex problems of contrapuntal technique, both in large and small forms. But it would be a mistake to deny his melodic ingenuity and expressiveness at the same time. Counterpoint was not something memorized and difficult to apply for Bach, but was his natural language and form of expression, the comprehension and understanding of which must first be acquired in order for the manifestations of deep and versatile spiritual life expressed in this form to be fully understood and so that the gigantic the mood of his organ works, as well as the melodic charm and richness of changing moods in the fugues and suites for piano, were fully appreciated. Therefore, in most of the works related here, especially in individual numbers from the “Well-Tempered Clavier,” we have, along with completeness of form, characteristic plays of extremely varied content. It is this connection that determines their special and unique position in musical literature.

Despite all this, Bach's works for a long time after his death they were known and appreciated only by some experts, but the public almost forgot them. Per share Mendelssohn It fell, thanks to the performance in 1829 under his baton of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, to once again arouse general interest in the late composer and to win his great vocal works their rightful place of honor in musical life - and not only in Germany.

Johann Sebastian Bach. Best works

This includes, first of all, those intended for worship. spiritual cantatas, written by Bach (for all Sundays and holidays) in the amount of five complete annual cycles. Only about 226 cantatas have survived to us, quite reliable. The Gospel texts served as their text. The cantatas consist of recitatives, arias, polyphonic choruses and a chorale that concludes the entire work.

Next comes “music of passions” ( Passions), of which Bach wrote five. Of these, unfortunately, only two have reached us: Passion by John and Passion by Matthew; of these, the first was first performed in 1724, the second in 1729. The reliability of the third - the Passion according to Luke - is subject to great doubt. Musically dramatic portrayal of a story of suffering Christ in these works he achieves the highest completeness of form, the greatest musical beauty and power of expression. In a form mixed from epic, dramatic and lyrical elements, the story of the suffering of Christ passes before our eyes plastically and convincingly. The epic element appears in the person of the reciting evangelist, the dramatic element appears in the words of biblical figures, especially Jesus himself, interrupting the speech, as well as in the lively choirs of the people, the lyrical element appears in arias and choruses of a contemplative nature, and the chorale, contrasted with the whole presentation, indicates the direct relationship of the work to the divine service and hints at the community's participation in it.

Bach. St. Matthew Passion

A similar work, but of a lighter mood, is “ Christmas Oratorio"(Weihnachtsoratorium), written in 1734. It has also reached us" Easter Oratorio" Along with these large works associated with Protestant worship, adaptations of ancient Latin church texts are at the same height and just as perfect: Masses and five-voice Magnificat. Among them, the first place is taken by large Mass in B minor(1703). Just as Bach delved with faith into the words of the Bible, here he took up with faith the ancient words of the text of the Mass and depicted them in sounds with such richness and variety of feeling, with such power of expression that even now, clothed in a strict polyphonic fabric, they deeply captivating and deeply moving. The choirs in this work are among the greatest that has ever been created in the field of church music. The demands placed on the choir here are extremely high.

(Biographies of other great musicians - see the block “More on the topic...” below the text of the article.)