Johann Sebastian Bach: biography, video, interesting facts, creativity. Bach is eternal harmony All works of Johann Sebastian Bach

All about Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685 – July 28, 1750) was a German Baroque composer and musician. He made a significant contribution to the development of significant genres of German classical music through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, as well as adaptations of foreign rhythms, forms and structures, in particular from Italy and France. Bach's musical compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, the two Passions and over 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 as a great composer he was not widely recognized until the first half of the 19th century, when interest in his music and its performance revived. He is currently considered one of the greatest composers of all time.

Biography of Bach

Bach was born in Eisenach, in the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a large family of musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the head of the city's orchestra, and all his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him the violin and harpsichord, while his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and introduced him to many contemporary composers. Obviously, on his own initiative, Bach entered St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, where he studied for two years. After graduation, he held a number of musical positions throughout Germany: he served as kalipdiner (music director) to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, and thomascantor in Leipzig, music director in famous Lutheran churches and teacher at the St. Thomas School. In 1736, August 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 A.D.). He was the son of Johann Abrosius Bach, leader of the city orchestra, and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. In the family of Johann Abrosius, he was the eighth and youngest child, and his father probably taught him the violin and the basics of music theory. All 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 older 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 the pen of his own brother, although this was forbidden, since the scores at that time were very personal and of great value, and clean office paper of the right type was expensive. He received valuable knowledge from his brother, who taught him to play the clavichord. Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to 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 grammar school, 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 a two-week journey from Ohrdruf. Most of this distance they probably covered 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 very 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 Böhm during his studies in Lüneburg, and also traveled to nearby Hamburg, where he attended performances by "the great North German organist Johann Adam Reinken." Stauffer reports that, discovered in 2005, the organ tablature that Bach wrote as a teenager to the works of Reinken and Buxtehude shows "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 the St. Michael's School and being refused an appointment as organist at Sangerhausen, Bach entered the service as court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. It is not known exactly what his duties were there, but they were probably rough and had nothing to do with music. During his seven-month stay in Weimar, Bach became so famous as a keyboardist that he was invited to inspect the new organ and perform the opening concert at the Neues Church (now the Bach Church) in Arnstadt, located about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Weimar. In August 1703, he took up a position as organist at the New Church, with simple duties, a relatively generous salary, and a fine new organ, whose temperament settings allowed him to play music written in a wider keyboard range.

Despite powerful family connections and an employer passionate about music, after a few years in the service, tension arose between Bach and the authorities. 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 in the northern city of Lübeck. In order to visit Buxtehude, it was necessary to cover a distance of 450 kilometers (280 miles) - according to available evidence, Bach made this journey on foot.

In 1706 Bach applied for a position as organist at the Blasius Church (also known as St. Blasius Church or 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 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 the 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 an expensive restoration of the organ in the Blasius Church. In 1708, Bach wrote "Gott ist mein König" ("The Lord is my King"), a festive cantata for the inauguration of a new consul, the cost of publication of which was 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, as court accompanist (musical director), where he had the opportunity to work with a large, well-funded body of professional musicians. Bach and his wife moved into a house near the ducal palace. Later that year, their first daughter, Katharina Dorothea, was born; Mary Barbara's unmarried older sister also moved in with them. She helped the Bach family with the 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 clavier and orchestral works. He honed his skills and acquired the confidence that allowed him to expand the boundaries of traditional musical structures and include foreign musical influences. He learned to write dramatic introductions, use the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes inherent in the music of such Italians as Vivaldi, Corelli and Torelli. Bach derived these stylistic aspects in part from the arrangement of Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these pieces, in his adaptations, are regularly performed to this day. In particular, Bach was attracted by 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 organ, and also performed concert music with the Duke's Ensemble. In addition, he began to write preludes and fugues, which later entered the monumental cycle called "The Well-Tempered Clavier" ("Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" - "Klavier" means clavichord or harpsichord). The cycle includes two books, compiled in 1722 and 1744, each containing 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 (church melodies). In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during the restoration of the main organ in the western gallery of the Catholic Church of St. Mary, carried out by Christoph Kuntzius. Johann Kunau and Bach played again at its opening in 1716.

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

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

Bach family and children

In 1717, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister (Music Director). As 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 worship services. As a consequence, the works written by Bach 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). An important component of Bach's musical development during the years of service with Prince Stauffer describes 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."

Despite the fact that Bach and Handel were born the same year, only about 130 kilometers (80 miles) apart, they never met. In 1719, Bach made the 35 kilometers (22 miles) 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, traveled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in Leipzig, but no visit followed.

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

Bach as an educator

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), to a somewhat 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 the honorary court positions he held in Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as in the court of Elector Friedrich August (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 to be appointed to the post of thomascantor, Bach, however, was 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's senate."

Bach's duties included teaching singing to the students of the St. Thomas School and holding 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 instead of him. The 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 performance 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 at the Nikolaikirche on May 30, 1723, the first Sunday after Whitsunday. Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Of the five such cycles mentioned in obituaries, only three have survived. Of the more than 300 cantatas written by Bach in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to later generations. Basically, these concert works are based on the texts of the Gospel, which were read in the Lutheran Church at every Sunday and holiday service throughout the year. The second yearly cycle, which Bach set about creating on the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724, consists exclusively of chorale contata, each based on a particular church hymn. These include "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" ("O eternity, word of thunder") (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 the nations") (BWV 62), and "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" ("Oh, how beautifully the light of the morning star shines") (BWV 1).

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

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, also directed concerts at the Paulinerkirche, the church attached to the University of Leipzig. However, when Bach took over this position in 1723, he had at his disposal only concerts for "ceremonial" (held on church holidays) services in the Paulinerkirche; his request for concerts and regular Sunday services in this church (with a corresponding increase in salary) reached the elector himself, but was refused. After that, in 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even on solemn divine services in Paulinerkirche and began to appear there only on "special occasions". The organ in Paulinerkirche was much better and newer (1716) than in Thomaskirche or Nikolaikirche. In 1716, when the organ was built, Bach was asked to give official advice, 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 pleasure".

In March 1729, Bach took over as head of the College of Music (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 College of Music was one of many closed groups that were founded in large German-speaking cities by musically gifted university students; such groups acquired at that time 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 Wolff, the adoption of this manual was a shrewd move that "strengthened Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's main musical institutions". Throughout the year, the Leipzig College of Music held regular concerts at venues such as the Zimmermann Café, a coffee shop on Katherine 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" ("Clavier Exercises"), as well as many of his violin and keyboard concertos.

In 1733, Bach composed a mass for the Dresden court (movements "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, and this attempt was subsequently successful. Later, he remade this work into a full mass, adding parts of "Credo", "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei", the music for which he 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 city council of Leipzig. In 1737-1739 the College of Music was headed by a former student of Bach, 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 impromptu fugue, based on the musical theme he had performed. Bach immediately played an improvisation of a three-voice 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 incorporates the same musical theme, making it more suitable for various variations thanks to a number of changes.

In the same year, Bach joined the Society for Musical Sciences (Correspondierende Societät der musikalischen Wissenschafften) by Lorenz Christoph Mitzler. On the occasion of his entry into the society, Bach composed the Canonical Variations on the Christmas carol "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her "("From heaven I will descend to earth") (BWV 769). Each member of the society was supposed to present a portrait, so in 1746 in during the preparation of Bach for the performance, the artist Elias Gottlob Hausmann painted his portrait, which later became famous. "Triple canon for six voices" (BWV 1076) was presented along with this portrait as a dedication to the Society. Perhaps other later works of Bach also had a connection with the Society based on the theory of music.Among these works is the Art of the Fugue cycle, which consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme.The Art of the 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 processed parts of cantatas that had been written over the course of thirty-five years, he allowed Bach to examine your vocal parts and select individual parts for later 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.

Illness and death of Bach

In 1749 Bach's health began to fail; 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 thomascantor and music director "in connection with the approaching ... death of Herr Bach." Bach was losing his sight, so the 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 tragic consequences of a very unsuccessful eye operation" as the cause of death. Spitta gives some details. He writes that Bach died of "apoplexy," that is, of a stroke. Confirming the reports in the newspapers, Spitta notes: "The treatment carried out in connection with the [unsuccessful eye] operation had such bad consequences that his health ... was greatly shaken," and Bach completely lost his sight. His son Carl Philipp Emmanuel, in collaboration with his student Johann Friedrich Agricola, compiled an obituary for Bach, which was published in the Mitzler Music Library in 1754.

Bach's property 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 "holy books", including works by Martin Luther and Joseph. Initially, the composer was buried in the old cemetery at the Church of St. John in Leipzig. Later, the inscription on his tombstone was erased, and the grave was lost for almost 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were discovered and moved to a crypt in the church of St. John. During World War II, this church was destroyed by Allied bombing, so that in 1950 Bach's ashes were transferred to their current burial site in the Church of St. Thomas. In later studies, doubts were expressed that the remains lying in the grave really belong to Bach.

Bach's musical style

Bach's musical style largely corresponds to the traditions of his time, which was the final stage in the era of the Baroque style. 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, the use of basso continuo, and so on. Features of his style lie in such properties as the mastery of contrapuntal invention and motivic control, as well as his talent for creating tightly woven musical compositions with a 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. Hundreds of church works created by him 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 provided the basis for many of his compositions. By reworking these hymns for his choral preludes, he created more heartfelt and integral compositions than any other, and this applies even to heavier and longer works. The large-scale structure of all of Bach's significant ecclesiastical vocal compositions shows a refined, skillful design capable of expressing all the spiritual and musical power. For example, "Passion according to Matthew", like other compositions of this kind, illustrates the Passion, conveying the biblical text in recitatives, arias, choirs and chorales; By writing this work, Bach created a comprehensive experience that is now, many centuries later, 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, including preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, showing a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques.

Bach harmonic style

Four-part harmonies were invented before Bach, but he lived at a time when modal music in Western traditions was largely supplanted by the tonal system. According to this system, the musical part moves from one chord to another according to certain rules, with each chord being 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 shaping the scheme 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 own arrangement of Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" in the 1740s, he improved the alto part (which in the original composition is in unison with the bass part) as an addition to the harmony, thereby bringing the composition into line with his four-part harmonic style.

In the course of the discussions that have arisen since the 19th century in Russia about the authenticity of the exposition of four-part court chants, the exposition of Bach's four-part chorales - for example, the final parts of his choral 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 modal system and related genres: more than his contemporaries (practically all of whom "switched" to the tonal system) Bach often returned to outdated techniques and genres. An example of this is his "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" - this work reproduces the genre of chromatic fantasy, in which such predecessor composers as Dowland and Sweelinck worked, and it is written in D-Dorian mode (which in the tonal system corresponds to D minor).

Modulations in Bach's music

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

Another significant technological breakthrough of Bach's time, in which he played an important role, is the improvement in 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 a Beloved Brother" is a very early work, but it already shows a wide use of modulation, incomparable with any of the works of the time with which this composition has been compared. But this technique is most fully disclosed only in the Well-Tempered Clavier, where all keys are used. Bach worked on its improvement from about 1720, the first mention of which is found in his "Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach" ("Klavier book of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach").

Jewelry in Bach's music

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

Even though Bach never wrote an opera, he was not opposed to the genre, nor was he opposed to his embellished vocal style. 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 a similar style in liturgical music. For example, Kunau, Bach's predecessor in Leipzig, was known to express negative opinions in his notes about opera and vocal compositions by Italian virtuosos. Bach was less categorical; according to one review of a performance of his Matthew Passion, the whole work sounded very much like an opera.

Clavier music by Bach

In the concert performance of Bach's time, the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as the organ and/or viola da gamba and harpsichord, was usually given 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 movements 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, where there are already solo parts for harpsichord, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s, and in 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 virtuosic works for specific instruments, as well as music independent of instrumentation. For example, "Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo" 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. Even though the music and the instrument seem to be inseparable, Bach transferred some parts of this collection to other instruments. Similarly with the cello suites - their virtuoso music seems to be created especially for this instrument, conveys 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 virtuoso keyboard music. Bach revealed the possibilities of the instrument in full, while preserving the independence of the core of such music from the instrument of performance.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that Bach's music is often and easily performed on those instruments for which it is not always written, that it is so often transcribed, and that his melodies are found in the most unexpected cases, for example, in jazz. In addition, in a number of compositions, Bach did not indicate the instrumentation at all: this category includes the 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 (in contrast to the 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 chords, which consist of notes sounding at a certain time, follow the rules of four-part harmony. Forkel, Bach's first biographer, gives the following description of this feature of Bach's works that distinguishes them from all other music:

If the language of music is only the pronunciation of a musical phrase, a simple sequence of musical notes, such music can rightly be accused of poverty. The addition of bass provides the music with a harmonic basis and clarifies it, but overall it defines rather than enriches it. A melody with such an accompaniment, although all of its notes did not belong to a real bass, or trimmed with simple decorations or simple chords in the parts of the upper voices, was 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 that give rise to new forms of musical expression. If more parties are intertwined in the same free and independent way, the language mechanism expands accordingly, and when a variety of forms and rhythms are added, it becomes practically inexhaustible. Consequently, harmony becomes no longer just an accompaniment to the 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 in this melodic interweaving of independent motifs, in their fusion so perfect that every detail seems to be an integral part of the true melody. In this Bach excels all the composers of the world. At least I have not met anyone equal to him in the music I know. Even in his four-voice presentation, one can often dismiss the upper and lower parts, and the middle part will not become less melodic and acceptable.

Structure of Bach compositions

Bach paid more attention to the structure of compositions than all his contemporaries. This is evident in the minor corrections he made when transposing other people's compositions, such as in his early version of "Kaiser" from the Passion of St. Mark, where he increased the transitions between scenes, and in the construction of his own compositions, for example, "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 effect of this was the expansion of the structure of such previously composed works, such as the Mass in B minor. Bach's well-known 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 hermeneutics full of symbolism.

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 in order to include them in the composition that you created. His collaboration with Picander in writing the libretto for the Matthew Passion is best known, but a similar process had taken place a few years earlier, resulting in the layered structure of the libretto for the St. John Passion.

List of compositions by Bach

In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalog of Bach's compositions under the title "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 later additions.

Passions and oratorios by Bach

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

Bach's longest work

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

Oratorio "Passion according to John"

The Passion According to John was the first Passion written by Bach; he composed them while serving as thomascantor in Leipzig.

Spiritual cantatas by Bach

According to Bach's obituary, he composed five annual cycles of sacred cantatas, as well as additional church cantatas, for example, 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 composed by him. The Bach Digital website lists 50 of the composer's famous secular cantatas, about half of which have survived or are largely in the process of being restored.

Bach cantatas

Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Among them are those written for solo performance, individual choir, 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 final chorale often acted as the cantus firmus of the opening movement.

The earliest cantatas date from the years Bach spent in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest known date of composition is "Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in 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 funerary cantata from the Mühlhausen period. About 20 church cantatas written in a later period in Weimar have also survived to this day, for example "Ich hatte Viel Bekümmernis" ("Sorrows in my heart multiplied") (BWV 21).

After assuming the office 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 ran from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1723 until Trinity Sunday the following 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, all our lives") (BWV 147), which contains 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 "choral cantata cycle", since it mainly included works in the form of a choral 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 have been 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 princely elector Saxon family (for example, "Trauer-Ode" - "Funeral Ode") or on other public or private occasions (for example, "Hunting Cantata") . The text of these cantatas was sometimes written in dialect (eg "Peasant Cantata") or in Italian (eg "Amore traditore"). Subsequently, many of the secular cantatas were lost, but the reasons for the creation and the text of some of them nevertheless survived, in particular due to Picander's publication of their librettos (eg BWV Anh. 11-12). The plots of some secular cantatas involved the 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, "Coffee Cantata").

A cappella

Bach's music for a cappella performance includes motets and choral harmonizations.

Bach motets

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 burials. Six motets composed by Bach are authentically known: they are "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" ("Sing to the Lord a new song"), "Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf" ("The Spirit strengthens us in our weaknesses"), "Jesu, Meine Freude" ("Jesus, my joy"), "Fürchte Dich Nicht" ("Don't be afraid..."), "Komm, Jesu, komm" ("Come, Jesus"), and "Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden" (" Praise the Lord, all nations." The motet "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" ("Praise and honor") (BWV 231) is part of the compound motet "Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt" ("Praise the Lord all the world") (BWV Anh. 160), the other parts of which , possibly based on Telemann's work.

Bach Chorales

Bach church music

Bach's ecclesiastical works in Latin include his "Magnificat", the 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 best-known version of this work is in D major from 1733.

Mass in B minor by Bach

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

Clavern music by Bach

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

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 rigorous forms, such as the chorale prelude and fugue. In his youth, he became famous for his great creative potential and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. The undeniable North German influence on him was Georg Böhm, whom Bach met in Lüneburg, and Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in 1704 during a long 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 violin concertos by 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 showcases compositional techniques in performance choral melodies. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for the 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, added to in later years) he composed after his departure from Weimar. In later life, Bach took an active part in consulting organ orders, testing newly built organs, and involving organ music in daytime rehearsals. The canonical variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her" ("I descend from heaven to earth") and "Schübler Chorales" are organ works that Bach published in the last years of his life.

Music by Bach for harpsichord and clavichord

Bach wrote numerous works for harpsichord; some of them may have been played on the clavichord. Larger pieces are usually intended for a double-keyboard harpsichord, as when playing them on a single-keyboard keyboard instrument (such as a piano), technical difficulties can arise with crossing hands. 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 a 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 title refers to temperament (tuning system); many temperaments of the period preceding Bach's time had little flexibility and did not allow more than two keys to be used in works.

"Inventions and Symphonies" (BWV 772-801). These short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are in the same chromatic order as the Well-Tempered Clavier movements, with the exception of a few rare keys. These parts, as conceived by Bach, 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 six suites built according to standard models (allemande-curante-sarabande-(arbitrary movement)-gigue)."English suites" strictly adhere to the traditional model with the addition of a prelude before the allemande and a single arbitrary movement between the sarabande and gigue. In the "French Suites" the preludes are omitted, but there are several movements between the sarabande and the gigue.In the Partitas, further modifications of the standard principles are traced in the form of complex opening movements and varied movements between the main elements of the model.

"Goldberg Variations" (BWV 988) is an aria with thirty variations. The collection has a complex and non-standard structure: variations are built on the bass part of the aria, and its melodies and musical canons, in accordance with the grandiose concept, have interpolations. The thirty variations contain nine canons, that is, the third variation is the new canon. These variations are arranged sequentially from the first canon to the ninth. The first eight are paired (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 the quadlibet.

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

Bach's lesser-known keyboard works include the 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 by Bach

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

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

Bach's works for violin

Surviving concerto 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 referred to as 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 presented by the author in the hope of obtaining a position from Margrave Christian Ludwig Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, although his expectations were not met. These works serve as examples of the concerto grosso genre.

Bach's Clavier Concertos

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

Orchestral suites by Bach

In addition to the concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites - each of which is represented by a series of stylized dances for the 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, such as "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 Italian masters such as Vivaldi (e.g. BWV 1065), Pergolesi (BWV 1083) and Palestrina (Missa Sine Nomine), French masters such as François Couperin (BWV Anh. 183), and also living more within the reach of German masters, including Telemann (eg 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 (eg BWV 233-236) and his music was 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 to become famous.

Sometimes it was not clear who copied whom. For example, Forkel mentions the 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, this work was subsequently considered a fake. Such works were not included in the catalog "Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis" published in 1950: if there were serious grounds for believing that a work was Bach's, such works were published in an appendix to the catalog (in German: Anhang, abbreviated "Anh."), so that the aforementioned mass for double choir, for example, received the designation "BWV Anh. 167". However, the problems of authorship 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 unambiguously confirmed or refuted: even the most famous organ composition in the BWV catalog, "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" (BWV 565), at the end of the 20th century fell into the category of these uncertain works.

Evaluation of Bach's work

In the 18th century, Bach's music was appreciated only in narrow circles of prominent connoisseurs. The 19th century began with the publication of the first biography of the composer and ended with the complete publication of all known works by Bach by the German Bach Society. Bach's renaissance began with Mendelssohn's performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Shortly after the 1829 performance, Bach began to be regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, if not the greatest, a reputation he has retained to this day. A new extensive 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 by the Swingle Singers (for example, "Air" from Orchestral Suite No. 3, or the chorale prelude from "Wachet Auf..."), as well as the Wendy Carlos album "Switched On Bach" (1968 which used a Moog electronic synthesizer.

By the end of the 20th century, more and more classical performers gradually moved away from the style of performance and instruments popular in the Romantic era: they began to play Bach's music on historical instruments of the Baroque era, studied and practiced the techniques and performance tempos characteristic of Bach's time, and reduced the size of instrumental ensembles. and choruses up to 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, online, on sites dedicated to the great composer, a complete collection of his surviving works became available.

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 August III of Poland, and the approval that Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Kaiserling showed to his work. This high appreciation of influential persons contrasted with the humiliations that he had to endure, for example, in his native Leipzig. In addition, Bach had detractors in the press of his time, such as Johann Adolf Scheibe, who encouraged him to write "less complicated" 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 compared to 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 those relatives of Bach who inherited most of his manuscripts attached equal importance to their preservation, and this led to significant losses. Carl Philip Emmanuel, his second son, most carefully guarded the legacy of his father: he was a co-author of his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales, staged some of his compositions; most of his father's previously unpublished works also survived 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 Bach collection that belonged to him. Some students of the old master, in particular, his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnicol, 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 of the admirers 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. Subsequently, Sarah Itzich-Lewy became an avid collector of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons; she also acted as the "patron" of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

Although the performance of Bach's church music in Leipzig was limited to only some of his motets and, under the direction of Cantor Dole, 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, for example, Mass in B minor, and unofficially performed it. One of these connoisseurs was Gottfried van Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who played an important role in the transfer of Bach's heritage to the 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, transcribed 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 referred to Bach as "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 him become 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 Emmanuel Bach, and donated them to the Berlin Singing Academy. The Singing Academy occasionally held public concerts in 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 to publish his choral preludes, Hoffmeister - works for harpsichord, and in 1801 "The Well-Tempered Clavier" was published simultaneously by Simrock (Germany), Negeli (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 the next generation of 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 the D major version of Bach's Magnificat, which was still unpublished in those years.

Felix Mendelssohn made a significant contribution to the renewal of interest in Bach's work with his performance of the Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, which served as a key moment in organizing the movement that later became known as the "Bach Renaissance". The St. John Passion premiered in the 19th century in 1833, followed in 1844 by the first performance of the Mass in B minor. In addition to these and other public performances and the growing 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 Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. In 1833 some organ works were first published. In 1835, inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, Chopin 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 B-A-C-H"). Bach's music was transcribed and arranged according to the tastes and performance practices of their time by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter, Robert Franz and Franz Liszt, and also combined with new music, as, for example, in the melody to Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria". Composers who contributed to the dissemination of Bach's music and spoke enthusiastically about it include Brahms, Bruckner and Wagner.

In 1850, in order to further promote Bach's music, the "Bach-Gesellschaft" (Bach Society) was formed. 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, Philipp Spitta published his book Johann Sebastian Bach, a standard description of Bach's life and music. By that time, Bach was known as the first of the "three big Bs in the history of music" (an English expression referring to the three greatest composers of all time whose last names begin 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 were founded in many cities, and his works were performed in all significant musical institutions.

In Germany, throughout the century, the work of Bach served as a symbol of national feelings; also captured the important role of the composer in the religious revival. 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 solid reputation as one of the greatest composers, recognized in both instrumental and vocal music.

The value of Bach's compositions

In the 20th century, the process of recognizing the musical and pedagogical value of Bach's compositions continued. Perhaps the most famous are the cello suites performed by Pablo Casals, the first of the outstanding musicians who recorded these suites. In the future, Bach's music was also recorded by other famous classical music performers, such as Herbert von Karajan, Arthur Grumio, Helmut Walha, Wanda Landowska, Karl Richter, I Muzichi, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Glenn Gould and many others.

In the second half of the 20th century, a significant development was the practice of historically competent performance, whose pioneers, such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, became famous for their performance of Bach's music. Bach's keyboard works were again played on instruments typical of Bach's time, instead of modern grand 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 the composition of their groups 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 gained fame in a wide variety of performances, from piano arrangements in the romantic style of Ferruccio Busoni, to jazz interpretations such as compositions of "Swindle Singers", orchestrations , for example, in the intro to Walt Disney's Fantasia, to synth performances such as Wendy Carlos' "Switched-On Bach" recording.

Bach's music has received recognition in other genres as well. For example, jazz musicians have often adapted Bach's works; Jazz versions of his compositions have been performed by Jacques Loussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Kane and the Modern Jazz Quartet, among others. Many composers of the 20th century relied on the work of Bach when creating their works, for example, Eugène Ysaïe in his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in Twenty-four 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 Batt, Christoph Wolff, as well as the first edition of the catalog Bach Werke Verzeichnis in 1950, but books such as Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter took 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 for the 250th anniversary of his death.

Recordings of Bach's works take up three times as much space as any other composer's compositions on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a vast array of images, common sounds, languages ​​and music of the Earth, which was sent into outer space with 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 after the composer. Bach festivals were held in different parts of the world; in addition, many competitions and prizes are named after him, 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 regarded as an object of non-spiritual art as a religion (Kunstreligion).

Bach Online Library

In the 21st century, Bach's compositions have become available online, for example, on the website of the International Music Score Library Project. High-resolution facsimiles of Bach's autographs have been made available on the Bach website. Websites dedicated exclusively to the composer or specific parts of his work include jsbach.org and the Bach Cantatas Website.

Bach's 21st-century biographers include Peter Williams and the conductor John Eliot Gardiner. Also, in the current century, reviews of the best pieces of classical music tend to include many of Bach's works. For example, in The Telegraph's Top 168 Classical Music Recordings, Bach's music ranks higher than any other composer's.

The attitude of the Protestant Church to the work of Bach

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

Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 is a work for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his most popular compositions.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 is included in all editions of the authoritative BWV catalog and in the (most complete) new edition of Bach's works (Neue Bach-Ausgabe, known as NBA).

The work was supposedly written by Bach during his stay in Arnstadt between 1703 and 1707. In January 1703, after finishing his studies, he received the position of court musician from the Weimar Duke Johann Ernst. It is not known exactly what his duties were, but, most likely, this position was not related to performing activities. For seven months of service in Weimar, the fame of him as a performer spread. Bach was invited to the post of superintendent of the organ in the church of St. Boniface in Arnstadt, located 180 km from Weimar. The Bach family had long-standing ties with this oldest German city.

In August, Bach took over as organist of the church. He had to work three days a week, and the salary was relatively high. In addition, the instrument was maintained in good condition and was tuned to a new system that expanded the possibilities of the composer and performer. During this period, Bach created many organ works.

A feature of this small polyphonic cycle is the continuity of the development of musical material (without a break between the toccata and fugue). The form consists of three parts: toccatas, fugues and codas. The latter, echoing the toccata, forms a thematic arc.

Title page of BWV 565 in a manuscript copy by Johannes Ringk. Due to the fact that Bach's autograph was lost, this copy, as of 2012, is the only source close in time to creation.

Toccata (in Italian toccata - touch, blow, from toccare - touch, touch) is a virtuoso piece of music for keyboard instruments (clavier, organ).

The beginning of the toccata

Fugue (Italian fuga - running, flight, fast flow) is the most developed form of polyphonic music, which has absorbed all the richness of polyphony. The content range of the fugue is practically unlimited, but the intellectual element prevails or is always felt in it. Fugue is distinguished by emotional fullness and at the same time restraint of expression.

This work begins with an alarming, but courageous strong-willed cry. It is heard three times, falling from one octave to another, and leads to a thunderous chordal rumble in the lower register. Thus, at the beginning of the toccata, a darkly shaded, grandiose sound space is outlined.

Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565 played by organist Hans-André Stamm on the Trost-Organ of the Stadtkirche in Waltershausen, Germany.

Further powerful "swirling" virtuoso passages are heard. The contrast between fast and slow movement is reminiscent of cautious respite between battles with violent elements. And after a free, improvisationally constructed toccata, a fugue sounds, in which the strong-willed principle, as it were, curbs elemental forces. And the last bars of the whole work are perceived as a harsh and majestic victory of the inexorable human will.

Johann Sebastian Bach (German Johann Sebastian Bach; March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach - July 28, 1750, Leipzig, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire) - the great German composer of the 18th century. More than two hundred and fifty years have passed since the death of Bach, and interest in his music is growing. During his lifetime, the composer did not receive the recognition he deserved.

Interest in Bach's music arose almost a hundred years after his death: in 1829, under the baton of a German composer, Bach's greatest work, The Matthew Passion, was publicly performed. For the first time - in Germany - the complete collection of Bach's works was published. And musicians all over the world play Bach's music, marveling at its beauty and inspiration, mastery and perfection. " Not a stream! - The sea must be his name", - the great said about Bach.

Bach's ancestors have long been famous for their musicality. It is known that the composer's great-great-grandfather, a baker by profession, played the zither. Flutists, trumpeters, organists, violinists came out of the Bach family. In the end, every musician in Germany began to be called Bach and every Bach a musician.

Childhood

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in the small German town of Eisenach. Johann Sebastian Bach was the youngest, eighth child in the family of musician Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. He received his first violin skills from his father, a violinist and city musician. The boy had an excellent voice (soprano) and sang in the choir of the city school. No one doubted his future profession: little Bach was to become a musician. For nine years, the child was left an orphan. His elder brother, who served as a church organist in the city of Ohrdruf, became his tutor. The brother assigned the boy to the gymnasium and continued to teach music.

But he was an insensitive musician. Classes were monotonous and boring. For an inquisitive ten-year-old boy, this was excruciating. Therefore, he strove for self-education. Having learned that his brother kept a notebook with the works of famous composers in a locked cabinet, the boy secretly took out this notebook at night and rewrote the notes in the moonlight. This tedious work lasted six months, it severely damaged the vision of the future composer. And what was the grief of the child when his brother caught him one day doing this and took away the already transcribed notes.

CONTINUED BELOW

At the age of fifteen, Johann Sebastian decided to start an independent life and moved to Lüneburg. In 1703 he graduated from the gymnasium and received the right to enter the university. But Bach did not have to use this right, since it was necessary to earn a livelihood.

During his life, Bach moved from city to city several times, changing jobs. Almost every time the reason turned out to be the same - unsatisfactory working conditions, a humiliating, dependent position. But no matter how unfavorable the situation, he never left the desire for new knowledge, for improvement. With tireless energy, he constantly studied the music of not only German, but also Italian and French composers. Bach did not miss the opportunity to personally meet outstanding musicians, to study the manner of their performance. Once, having no money for a trip, young Bach went to another city on foot to listen to the famous organist Buxtehude play.

The composer also steadily defended his attitude to creativity, his views on music. Contrary to the admiration of court society for foreign music, Bach studied and widely used German folk songs and dances in his works with special love. Having perfectly known the music of composers from other countries, he did not blindly imitate them. Extensive and deep knowledge helped him improve and polish his composing skills.

Sebastian Bach's talent was not limited to this area. He was the best organ and harpsichord player among his contemporaries. And if, as a composer, Bach did not receive recognition during his lifetime, then in improvisations behind the organ his skill was unsurpassed. This was forced to admit even his rivals.

They say that Bach was invited to Dresden to compete with the then famous French organist and harpsichordist. The day before, a preliminary acquaintance of the musicians took place, both of them played the harpsichord. That same night, Marchand hurriedly left, thus recognizing the undeniable superiority of Bach. On another occasion, in the city of Kassel, Bach amazed his listeners by performing a solo on the organ pedal. Such success did not turn Bach's head; he always remained a very modest and hardworking person. When asked how he achieved such perfection, the composer replied: " I had to study hard, who will be as diligent will achieve the same".

Arnstadt and Mühlhausen (1703-1708)

In January 1703, after finishing his studies, he received the position of court musician from the Weimar Duke Johann Ernst. It is not known exactly what his duties were, but, most likely, this position was not related to performing activities. For seven months of service in Weimar, the fame of him as a performer spread. Bach was invited to the post of superintendent of the organ in the church of St. Boniface in Arnstadt, located 180 km from Weimar. The Bach family had long-standing ties with this oldest German city. In August, Bach took over as organist of the church. He had to work three days a week, and the salary was relatively high. In addition, the instrument was maintained in good condition and was tuned to a new system that expanded the possibilities of the composer and performer.

Family ties and a music-loving employer could not prevent the tension between Johann Sebastian and the authorities that arose a few years later. Bach was dissatisfied with the level of training of the singers in the choir. In addition, in 1705-1706, Bach arbitrarily went to Lübeck for several months, where he got acquainted with the game of Buxtehude, which caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. The first biographer of Bach Forkel writes that Johann Sebastian walked more than 40 km on foot to listen to the outstanding composer, but today some researchers question this fact.

In addition, the authorities charged Bach with "strange choral accompaniment" that embarrassed the community, and inability to manage the choir; The latter accusation appears to have been justified.

In 1706, Bach decides to change jobs. He was offered a more profitable and high position as organist at St. Blaise's Church in Mühlhausen, a large city in the north of the country. The following year, Bach accepted this offer, taking the place of organist Johann Georg Ahle. His salary was increased compared to the previous one, and the level of the choristers was better. Four months later, on October 17, 1707, Johann Sebastian married his cousin Maria Barbara of Arnstadt. They subsequently had six children, three of whom died in childhood. Three of the survivors - Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emmanuel - went on to become well-known composers.

The city and church authorities of Mühlhausen were pleased with the new employee. They approved without hesitation his plan for the restoration of the church organ, which required large expenditures, and for the publication of the festive cantata "The Lord is my king", BWV 71 (it was the only cantata printed during Bach's lifetime), written for the inauguration of the new consul, he was given a large reward.

Return to Weimar (1708-1717)

After working in Mühlhausen for about a year, Bach changed jobs again, returning to Weimar, but this time getting a job as a court organist and concert organizer - a much higher position than his previous position in Weimar. Probably, the factors that forced him to change jobs were high salaries and a well-chosen composition of professional musicians. The Bach family settled in a house just a five-minute walk from the ducal palace. The following year, the first child in the family was born. At the same time, the elder unmarried sister of Maria Barbara moved to the Bahamas, who helped them run the household until her death in 1729. In Weimar, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel were born to Bach. In 1704, Bach met the violinist von Westhoff, who had a great influence on Bach's work. Von Westhof's works inspired Bach to create his sonatas and partitas for solo violin.

In Weimar, a long period of composing clavier and orchestral works began, in which Bach's talent reached its peak. During this period, Bach absorbs musical influences from other countries. The works of the Italians Vivaldi and Corelli taught Bach how to write dramatic introductions, from which Bach learned the art of using dynamic rhythms and decisive harmonic schemes. Bach studied the works of Italian composers well, creating transcriptions of Vivaldi's concertos for organ or harpsichord. He could borrow the idea of ​​writing arrangements from the son of his employer, Crown Duke Johann Ernst, a composer and musician. In 1713, the crown duke returned from a trip abroad and brought with him a large number of notes, which he showed to Johann Sebastian. In Italian music, the crown duke (and, as can be seen from some works, Bach himself) was attracted by the alternation of solo (playing one instrument) and tutti (playing the whole orchestra).

Köthen period

In 1717 Bach and his family moved to Köthen. At the court of the Prince of Köthen, where he was invited, there was no organ. The old owner did not want to let him go, and on November 6, 1717, he even arrested him for constant requests for resignation, but on December 2 he released him " with displeasure". Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister. The prince, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talent, paid him well and provided him with great freedom of action. However, the prince was a Calvinist and did not welcome the use of sophisticated music in worship, so most of Bach's works were secular.

Bach wrote mainly clavier and orchestral music. The composer's duties included directing a small orchestra, accompanying the prince's singing, and entertaining him by playing the harpsichord. Easily coping with his duties, Bach devoted all his free time to creativity. The works for the clavier created at that time represent the second pinnacle in his work after organ compositions. Two-part and three-part inventions were written in Köthen (Bach called three-part inventions " symphonies". The composer intended these pieces to study with his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann. Pedagogical goals led Bach when creating suites -" French "and" English ". In Köthen, Bach also completed 24 preludes and fugues, which made up the first volume of a great work called " Well-Tempered Clavier". The famous "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" in D minor was written in the same period.

In our time, Bach's inventions and suites have become obligatory pieces in the programs of music schools, and the preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier - in schools and conservatories. Intended by the composer for a pedagogical purpose, these works are also of interest to a mature musician. Therefore, Bach's pieces for the clavier, starting with the relatively easy inventions and ending with the most complex Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, can be heard at concerts and on the radio performed by the world's best pianists.

On July 7, 1720, while Bach was abroad with the prince, his wife Maria Barbara died suddenly, leaving four young children. The following year, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young and highly gifted soprano who sang at the ducal court. They married on December 3, 1721. Despite the difference in age - she was 17 years younger than Johann Sebastian - their marriage, apparently, was happy. They had 13 children.

Last years in Leipzig

From Köthen in 1723, Bach moved to Leipzig, where he remained until the end of his life. Here he took the position of cantor (choir leader) of the singing school at the Church of St. Thomas. Bach was obliged to serve the main churches of the city with the help of the school and be responsible for the state and quality of church music. He had to accept difficult conditions for himself. Along with the duties of a teacher, educator and composer, there were also such instructions: " Do not leave the city without the permission of the burgomaster". As before, his creative possibilities were limited. Bach had to compose music for the church that would " was not too long, and also ... opera-like, but to arouse awe in the listeners". But Bach, as always, sacrificing a lot, never gave up the main thing - his artistic convictions. Throughout his life he created works that are amazing in their deep content and inner richness.

So it was this time. In Leipzig, Bach created his best vocal and instrumental compositions: most of the cantatas (altogether Bach wrote about 250 cantatas), the Passion according to John, the Passion according to Matthew, Mass in B minor. "Passion", or "passions"; according to John and Matthew - this is a story about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ in the description of the evangelists John and Matthew. The Mass is close in content to the Passion. In the past, both the mass and the "passion" were choral chants in the Catholic Church. In Bach, these works go far beyond the scope of the church service. The Mass and Passion by Bach are monumental works of a concert character. Soloists, choir, orchestra, organ participate in their performance. In terms of their artistic significance, the cantatas, the Passion and the Mass represent the third and highest pinnacle of the composer's work.

The church authorities were clearly dissatisfied with Bach's music. As in previous years, she was found too bright, colorful, humane. Indeed, Bach's music did not answer, but rather contradicted the strict church atmosphere, the mood of detachment from everything earthly. Along with major vocal and instrumental works, Bach continued to write music for the clavier. Almost at the same time as the Mass, the famous "Italian Concerto" was written. Bach later completed the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier, which included 24 new preludes and fugues.

In 1747, Bach visited the court of the Prussian king Frederick II, where the king offered him a musical theme and asked him to compose something on it right there. Bach was a master of improvisation and immediately performed a three-voice fugue. Later, he composed a whole cycle of variations on this theme and sent it as a gift to the king. The cycle consisted of ricercars, canons and trios based on the theme dictated by Friedrich. This cycle was called "The Musical Offering".

In addition to the huge creative work and service in the church school, Bach took an active part in the activities of the "Music College" of the city. It was a society of music lovers, which arranged concerts of secular, not church music for the inhabitants of the city. With great success, Bach performed in concerts of the "Musical Collegium" as a soloist and conductor. Especially for the concerts of the society, he wrote many orchestral, clavier and vocal works of a secular nature. But the main work of Bach - the head of the school of choristers - brought him nothing but grief and trouble. The funds allocated by the church for the school were negligible, and the singing boys were starving and poorly dressed. The level of their musical abilities was also low. Singers were often recruited, regardless of the opinion of Bach. The school orchestra was more than modest: four trumpets and four violins!

All petitions for help to the school, submitted by Bach to the city authorities, were ignored. The cantor was responsible for everything.

The only consolation was still creativity and family. The grown sons - Wilhelm Friedemann, Philip Emmanuel, Johann Christian - turned out to be talented musicians. Even during the life of their father, they became famous composers. Anna Magdalena Bach, the second wife of the composer, was distinguished by great musicality. She had an excellent ear and a beautiful, strong soprano voice. The eldest daughter of Bach also sang well. For his family, Bach composed vocal and instrumental ensembles.

Over time, Bach's vision became progressively worse. However, he continued to compose music, dictating it to his son-in-law Altnikkol. In 1750, the English ophthalmologist John Taylor, whom many modern researchers consider a charlatan, arrived in Leipzig. Taylor operated on Bach twice, but both operations were unsuccessful, Bach remained blind. On July 18, he suddenly regained his sight for a short time, but in the evening he had a stroke. Bach died on 28 July; the cause of death may have been complications from surgery. His remaining fortune was estimated at more than 1000 thalers and included 5 harpsichords, 2 lute harpsichords, 3 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, viola da gamba, lute and spinet, as well as 52 sacred books.

Bach's death remained almost unnoticed by the musical community. He was soon forgotten. The fate of Bach's wife and youngest daughter was sad. Anna Magdalena died ten years later in a poor house. The youngest daughter Regina eked out a beggarly existence. In the last years of her difficult life, he helped her.

Photos of Bach by Johann Sebastian

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Such great composers as I.S. Bach, appear only once in 1000 years. My opinion is that he has no equal in music, the construction of a melody, the depth of feelings conveyed. How magnificent is his aria from the orchestral suite No. 3, counterpoint 4 (the art of the fugue). Even these two works can be considered a great composer.

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Date of birth: March 21, 1685
Place of birth: Eisenach
Country: Germany
Date of death: July 28, 1750

Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Johann Sebastian Bach) is a German composer and organist, a representative of the Baroque era. One of the greatest composers in the history of music.

During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. All significant genres of that time are represented in his work, except for opera; he summarized the achievements of the musical art of the Baroque period. Bach is a master of polyphony. After Bach's death, his music was not very popular, but it was rediscovered in the 19th century. His work had a strong influence on the music of subsequent composers, including in the 20th century. Bach's pedagogical works are still used for their intended purpose.

Johann Sebastian Bach was the sixth child of the musician Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. The Bach family has been known for its musicality since the beginning of the 16th century: many of Johann Sebastian's ancestors were professional musicians. Bach's father lived and worked in Eisenach. The work of Johann Ambrosius included organizing secular concerts and performing church music.

When Johann Sebastian was 9 years old, his mother died, and a year later, his father. The boy was taken in by his elder brother Johann Christoph, who served as an organist in the neighboring Ohrdruf. Johann Sebastian entered the gymnasium, his brother taught him to play the organ and clavier. Johann Sebastian was very fond of music and did not miss the opportunity to study it or study new works.

While studying in Ohrdruf under the guidance of his brother, Bach became acquainted with the work of contemporary South German composers - Pachelbel, Froberger and others. It is also possible that he became acquainted with the works of composers from Northern Germany and France. Johann Sebastian observed how the organ was cared for, and possibly took part in it himself.

At the age of 15, Bach moved to Lüneburg, where in 1700-1703. studied at the singing school of St. Michael. During his studies, he visited Hamburg - the largest city in Germany, as well as Celle (where French music was held in high esteem) and Lübeck, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of his time. The first works by Bach for organ and clavier belong to the same years.

In January 1703, after completing his studies, he received a position as court musician from the Duke of Weimar, Johann Ernst. For seven months of service in Weimar, the fame of him as a performer spread. Bach was invited to the post of superintendent of the organ in the church of St. Boniface in Arnstadt, located 180 km from Weimar. The Bach family had long-standing ties with this oldest German city. In August, Bach took over as organist of the church. He had to work only 3 days a week, and the salary was relatively high. In addition, the instrument was maintained in good condition and was tuned to a new system that expanded the possibilities of the composer and performer. During this period, Bach created many organ works, including the famous Toccata in D minor.

In 1706, Bach decides to change jobs. He was offered a more profitable and high position as organist in the church of St. Vlasia in Mühlhausen, a large city in the north of the country. On October 17, 1707, Johann Sebastian married his cousin Maria Barbara of Arnstadt. This marriage produced seven children, three of whom died in childhood. Two of the survivors, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel, became famous composers.

The city and church authorities of Mühlhausen were pleased with the new employee. They approved without hesitation his plan for the restoration of the church organ, which required large expenditures, and for the publication of the festive cantata "The Lord is my king" (it was the only cantata printed during Bach's lifetime), written for the inauguration of the new consul, he was given a large reward.

After working in Mühlhausen for about a year, Bach changed jobs again, this time getting a job as a court organist and organizer of concerts in Weimar. Probably, the factors that forced him to change jobs were high salaries and a well-chosen composition of professional musicians.

In Weimar, a long period of composing clavier and orchestral works began, in which Bach's talent reached its peak. During this period, Bach absorbs musical influences from other countries. The works of the Italians Vivaldi and Corelli taught Bach how to write dramatic introductions, from which Bach learned the art of using dynamic rhythms and decisive harmonic schemes. Bach studied the works of Italian composers well, creating transcriptions of Vivaldi's concertos for organ or harpsichord.

In Weimar, Bach had the opportunity to play and compose organ works, as well as use the services of the ducal orchestra. In Weimar, Bach wrote most of his fugues (the largest and most famous collection of Bach's fugues is the Well-Tempered Clavier). While serving in Weimar, Bach began work on the Organ Notebook, a collection of pieces for Wilhelm Friedemann's teaching. This collection consists of adaptations of Lutheran chants.

By the end of his service in Weimar, Bach was already a well-known organist and harpsichord maker. After some time, Bach again went in search of a more suitable job. The Duke of Anhalt-Köthen hired Bach as Kapellmeister. The duke, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talent, paid him well and provided him with great freedom of action. However, the duke was a Calvinist and did not welcome the use of sophisticated music in worship, so most of Bach's Köthen works were secular. Among other things, in Köthen, Bach composed suites for orchestra, six suites for solo cello, English and French suites for clavier, as well as three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin. The famous Brandenburg Concertos were written in the same period.

On July 7, 1720, while Bach was abroad with the duke, a tragedy struck - his wife Maria Barbara died suddenly, leaving four young children. The following year, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilke, a gifted young soprano who sang at the ducal court. They married on December 3, 1721. Despite the difference in age (she was 17 years younger than Johann Sebastian), their marriage, apparently, was happy. They had 13 children.

In 1723, the performance of his "Passion according to John" took place in the church of St.. Thomas in Leipzig, and on June 1, Bach received the position of cantor of this church while simultaneously acting as a school teacher at the church, replacing Johann Kuhnau in this post. Bach's duties included teaching singing and holding weekly concerts in Leipzig's two main churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas.

The first six years of his life in Leipzig turned out to be very productive: Bach composed up to 5 annual cycles of cantatas. Most of these works were written in gospel texts, which were read in the Lutheran church every Sunday and on holidays throughout the year; many (such as "Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme" and "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland") are based on traditional church chants.

Writing cantatas for most of the 1720s, Bach amassed an extensive repertoire for performance in Leipzig's main churches. Over time, he wanted to compose and perform more secular music. In March 1729, Johann Sebastian became the head of the College of Music (Collegium Musicum), a secular ensemble that had existed since 1701, when it was founded by Bach's old friend Georg Philipp Telemann. At that time, in many large German cities, gifted and active university students created similar ensembles. Such associations played an increasing role in the public musical life, they were often headed by well-known professional musicians. For most of the year, the College of Music held two-hour concerts twice a week at Zimmermann's coffee house, located near the market square. The owner of the coffee shop provided the musicians with a large hall and purchased several instruments. Many of Bach's secular works dating back to the 1730s, 40s, and 50s were composed specifically for performance in Zimmermann's coffee shop. Among such works are, for example, "Coffee Cantata" and a clavier collection, as well as many concertos for cello and harpsichord.

In the same period, Bach wrote the Kyrie and Gloria parts of the famous Mass in B minor, later adding the remaining parts, the melodies of which are almost entirely borrowed from the composer's best cantatas. Although the mass was never performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime, today it is considered by many to be one of the finest choral works of all time.

In 1747, Bach visited the court of the Prussian king Frederick II, where the king offered him a musical theme and asked him to compose something on it right there. Bach was a master of improvisation and immediately performed a three-voice fugue. Later, Johann Sebastian composed a whole cycle of variations on this theme and sent it as a gift to the king. The cycle consisted of ricercars, canons and trios based on the theme dictated by Friedrich. This cycle has been called "The Musical Offering".

Another major cycle, The Art of the Fugue, was not completed by Bach. During his lifetime, he never published. The cycle consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on one simple theme. In this cycle, Bach used all the tools and techniques for writing polyphonic works.

Bach's last work was a chorale prelude for organ, which he dictated to his son-in-law, almost on his deathbed. The name of the prelude is "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit" ("Here I stand before Your throne"), and this piece often ends the performance of the unfinished Art of Fugue.

Over time, Bach's vision became progressively worse. However, he continued to compose music, dictating it to his son-in-law Altnikkol. In 1750, Bach underwent two operations, both of which were unsuccessful. Bach remained blind. On July 18, he suddenly regained his sight for a short time, but in the evening he had a stroke. Bach died on July 28, possibly due to complications from operations.

The composer was buried near the church of St. Thomas, where he served for 27 years. However, the grave was soon lost, and only in 1894 the remains of Bach were accidentally found during construction work, then the reburial took place.

Bach wrote over 1000 pieces of music. Today, each of the famous works is assigned a BWV number (short for Bach Werke Verzeichnis - a catalog of Bach's works). Bach wrote music for various instruments, both spiritual and secular.
During his life, Bach was best known as a first-class organist, teacher and composer of organ music. He worked both in the "free" genres traditional for that time, such as prelude, fantasy, toccata, and in more strict forms - chorale prelude and fugue. In his works for organ, Bach skillfully combined the features of different musical styles with which he became acquainted throughout his life. The composer was influenced by both the music of North German composers (Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude) and the music of southern composers. Bach copied the works of many French and Italian composers for himself in order to understand their musical language, and later he even transcribed several of Vivaldi's violin concertos for organ. During the most fruitful period for organ music (1708-1714), Johann Sebastian not only wrote many pairs of preludes and fugues and toccata and fugues, but also composed an unfinished "Organ Book" - a collection of 46 short choral preludes, in which various techniques and approaches to composing works on choral themes. After leaving Weimar, Bach began to write less for the organ, however, after Weimar, many famous works were written (6 trio sonatas, 18 Leipzig chorales). Throughout his life, Bach not only composed music for the organ, but also consulted in the construction of instruments, checking and tuning new organs.

Bach also wrote a number of works for harpsichord. Many of these creations are encyclopedic collections, demonstrating various techniques and methods for composing polyphonic works. Most of Bach's clavier works published during his lifetime were contained in collections called Clavier Exercises.
The Well-Tempered Clavier, in two volumes, written in 1722 and 1744, is a collection containing 24 preludes and fugues in each volume, one for each key used. This cycle was very important in connection with the transition to instrument tuning systems that made it possible to equally easily play music in any key - first of all, to the modern equal temperament system.
15 two-voice and 15 three-voice inventions are small works, arranged in order of increasing number of characters in the key. They were intended (and are used to this day) for learning to play the keyboard instruments.
Three collections of suites: "English Suites", "French Suites" and "Partitas for Clavier."
"Goldberg Variations" - a melody with 30 variations. The cycle has a rather complex and unusual structure. Variations are built more on the tonal plane of the theme than on the melody itself.
Varied pieces like "French Style Overture", "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue", "Italian Concerto".

Bach wrote music both for individual instruments and for ensembles. His works for solo instruments - 6 sonatas and partitas for solo violin, 6 suites for cello, partita for solo flute - are considered by many to be among the composer's most profound creations. In addition, Bach composed several works for lute solo. He also wrote trio sonatas, sonatas for solo flute and viola da gamba, accompanied only by a general bass, as well as a large number of canons and ricercars, mostly without specifying the instruments for performance. The most significant examples of such works are the cycles "Art of the Fugue" and "Musical Offering".

Bach's most famous works for orchestra are the Brandenburg Concertos. Six concertos were written in the concerto grosso genre. Other surviving works by Bach for orchestra include two violin concertos, a concerto for 2 violins in D minor, concertos for one, two, three and even four harpsichords.

For a long period of his life every Sunday Bach in the church of St. Thomas led the performance of the cantata, the theme of which was chosen according to the Lutheran church calendar. Although Bach also performed cantatas by other composers, in Leipzig he composed at least three complete annual cycles of cantatas, one for each Sunday of the year and each church holiday. In addition, he composed a number of cantatas in Weimar and Mühlhausen. In total, Bach wrote more than 300 cantatas on spiritual themes, of which only about 195 have survived to this day. Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Some of them are written for one voice, some for a choir; some require a large orchestra to perform, and some require only a few instruments. The most famous of Bach's spiritual cantatas are "Christ lag in Todesbanden", "Ein" feste Burg", "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" and "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben". In addition, Bach also composed a number of secular cantatas, usually timed to coincide with some event, such as a wedding. Among the most famous secular cantatas of Bach are two "Wedding Cantatas" and a comic "Coffee Cantata".

"Passion according to John" (1724) and "Passion according to Matthew" (c. 1727) are works for choir and orchestra on the gospel theme of the suffering of Christ, intended to be performed at Vespers on Good Friday in the churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. Passions are one of Bach's most ambitious vocal works. It is known that Bach wrote 4 or 5 passions, but only these two have completely survived to this day.

The most famous is the "Christmas Oratorio" (1734) - a cycle of 6 cantatas to be performed during the Christmas period of the liturgical year. The Easter Oratorio (1734-1736) and the Magnificat are rather extensive and elaborate cantatas and are of a smaller scope than the Christmas Oratorio or Passions. The Magnificat exists in two versions: the original (E-flat major, 1723) and the later and well-known (D major, 1730).

Bach's most famous and significant Mass is the Mass in B minor (completed in 1749), which is a complete cycle of the ordinary. This mass, like many other works of the composer, included revised early compositions. The mass was never performed in its entirety during Bach's lifetime—the first time this happened was only in the 19th century. In addition, this music was not performed as intended due to the duration of the sound (about 2 hours). In addition to the mass in B minor, 4 short two-movement masses by Bach have come down to us, as well as individual movements, such as "Sanctus" and "Kyrie".

The rest of Bach's vocal works include several motets, about 180 chorales, songs and arias.

Bach's music is among the best creations of mankind recorded on Voyager's golden disk.

Johann Sebastian Bach is a German composer and musician of the Baroque era, who collected and combined in his work the traditions and the most significant achievements of European musical art, and also enriched all this with a virtuoso use of counterpoint and a subtle sense of perfect harmony. Bach is the greatest classic who left a huge legacy that has become the golden fund of world culture. This is a universal musician, who covered almost all known genres in his work. Creating immortal masterpieces, he turned each measure of his compositions into small works, then combining them into priceless creations of exceptional beauty and expressiveness, perfect in form, which vividly reflected the diverse spiritual world of man.

Read a brief biography of Johann Sebastian Bach and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the German town of Eisenach in the fifth generation of a family of musicians on March 21, 1685. It should be noted that musical dynasties were quite common at that time in Germany, and talented parents sought to develop appropriate talents in their children. The boy's father, Johann Ambrosius, was an organist in the Eisenach church and court accompanist. Obviously, it was he who gave the first lessons in playing the violin And harpsichord little son.

From the biography of Bach, we learn that at the age of 10 the boy lost his parents, but was not left without a roof over his head, because he was the eighth and youngest child in the family. Ohrdruf's respected organist Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Sebastian's older brother, took care of the little orphan. Among his other students, Johann Christoph also taught his brother to play the clavier, but the manuscripts of modern composers were securely hidden by a strict teacher under lock and key so as not to spoil the taste of young performers. However, the castle did not prevent little Bach from getting acquainted with forbidden works.

Lüneburg

At the age of 15, Bach entered the prestigious Lüneburg school of church choristers, which was located at the church of St. Michael, and at the same time, thanks to his beautiful voice, young Bach was able to earn some money in the church choir. In addition, in Lüneburg, the young man met Georg Böhm, a famous organist, communication with whom had an impact on the composer's early work. He also repeatedly traveled to Hamburg to listen to the play of the largest representative of the German organ school A. Reinken. The first works by Bach for clavier and organ belong to the same period. After successfully completing school, Johann Sebastian receives the right to enter the university, but due to lack of funds, he did not have the opportunity to continue his education.

Weimar and Arnstadt

Johann began his career in Weimar, where he was accepted into the court chapel of Duke Johann Ernst of Saxony as a violinist. However, this did not last long, as such work did not satisfy the creative impulses of the young musician. Bach in 1703, without hesitation, agrees to move to the city of Arnstadt, where he was in the church of St. Boniface was initially offered the post of superintendent of the organ, and later the post of organist. A decent salary, work only three days a week, a good modernized instrument tuned to the latest system, all this created the conditions for expanding the musician's creative possibilities not only as a performer, but also as a composer.

During this period, he created a large number of organ works, as well as capriccios, cantatas and suites. Here Johann becomes a true organ expert and a brilliant virtuoso, whose playing aroused unbridled delight among the listeners. It is in Arnstadt that his gift for improvisation is revealed, which the church leadership did not like very much. Bach always strived for perfection and did not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with famous musicians, for example, with the organist Dietrich Buxtehude, who served in the city of Lübeck. After receiving a four-week vacation, Bach went to listen to the great musician, whose playing impressed Johann so much that, forgetting about his duties, he stayed in Lübeck for four months. Upon returning to Arndstadt, the indignant leadership gave Bach a humiliating trial, after which he had to leave the city and look for a new job.

Mühlhausen

The next city on Bach's life path was Mühlhausen. Here in 1706 he won a competition for the position of organist in the church of St. Vlasia. He was accepted with a good salary, but also with a certain condition: the musical accompaniment of the chorales must be strict, without any kind of "decorations". The city authorities later treated the new organist with respect: they approved the plan for the reconstruction of the church organ, and also paid a good reward for the festive cantata “The Lord is my Tsar” composed by Bach, which was dedicated to the inauguration ceremony of the new consul. Staying in Mühlhausen in Bach's life was marked by a happy event: he married his beloved cousin Maria Barbara, who later gave him seven children.

Weimar

In 1708, Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar heard the magnificent game of the Mühlhausen organist. Impressed by what he heard, the noble nobleman immediately offered Bach the positions of court musician and city organist with a salary much higher than before. Johann Sebastian began the Weimar period, which is characterized as one of the most fruitful in the composer's creative life. At this time, he created a large number of compositions for clavier and organ, including a collection of choral preludes, Passacaglia in c-moll, the famous " Toccata and Fugue in d-moll ”, “Fantasy and Fugue C-dur” and many other great works. It should also be noted that the composition of more than two dozen spiritual cantatas also belongs to this period. Such effectiveness in Bach's composing work was associated with his appointment in 1714 as vice-kapellmeister, whose duties included regular monthly updating of church music.

At the same time, Johann Sebastian's contemporaries were more admired by his performing arts, and he constantly heard remarks of admiration for his game. The fame of Bach as a virtuoso musician quickly spread not only in Weimar, but also beyond. Once the Dresden royal Kapellmeister invited him to compete with the famous French musician L. Marchand. However, the musical competition did not work out, since the Frenchman, having heard Bach play at a preliminary audition, secretly, without warning, left Dresden. In 1717, the Weimar period in Bach's life came to an end. Johann Sebastian dreamed of getting the place of bandmaster, but when this place became vacant, the duke offered him to another, very young and inexperienced musician. Bach, considering this an insult, asked for his immediate resignation, and for this he was arrested for four weeks.

Köthen

According to Bach's biography, in 1717 he left Weimar to get a job in Köthen as a court bandmaster to Prince Anhalt of Köthen. In Köthen, Bach had to write secular music, because, as a result of the reforms, no music was performed in the church, except for the singing of psalms. Here Bach occupied an exceptional position: as a court conductor he was well paid, the prince treated him like a friend, and the composer repaid this with excellent compositions. In Köthen, the musician had many students, and for their education he compiled “ Well-Tempered Clavier". These are 48 preludes and fugues that made Bach famous as a master of clavier music. When the prince married, the young princess showed dislike for both Bach and his music. Johann Sebastian had to look for another job.

Leipzig

In Leipzig, where Bach moved in 1723, he reached the top of his career ladder: he was appointed cantor in the church of St. Thomas and musical director of all churches in the city. Bach was engaged in the education and preparation of church choir performers, the selection of music, the organization and holding of concerts in the main temples of the city. Since 1729, heading the College of Music, Bach began to arrange 8 two-hour concerts of secular music a month in a Zimmermann's coffee house, adapted for orchestra performances. Having received an appointment as court composer, Bach handed over the leadership of the College of Music to his former student Karl Gerlach in 1737. In recent years, Bach often reworked his early works. In 1749 he graduated from the High Mass in B minor, some parts of which were written by him 25 years ago. The composer died in 1750 while working on The Art of Fugue.

Interesting facts about Bach

• Bach was a recognized organ specialist. He was invited to check and tune instruments in various temples in Weimar, where he lived for quite some time. Each time impressing clients with the amazing improvisations he played to hear what the instrument in need of his work sounded like.
• Johann was bored during the service to perform monotonous chorales, and without restraining his creative impulse, he impromptu inserted his small embellishing variations into the established church music, which caused great displeasure of the authorities.
• Better known for his religious works, Bach also excelled in composing secular music, as evidenced by his Coffee Cantata. Bach presented this work full of humor as a small comic opera. Originally titled "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" ("Shut up, stop talking"), it describes the lyrical hero's addiction to coffee, and, not coincidentally, this cantata was first performed in the Leipzig coffee house.
• At the age of 18, Bach really wanted to get a place as an organist in Lübeck, which at that time belonged to the famous Dietrich Buxtehude. Another contender for this position was G. Handel. The main condition for taking this position was marriage to one of Buxtehude's daughters, but neither Bach nor Handel dared to sacrifice themselves like that.
• Johann Sebastian Bach really liked to dress up as a poor teacher and in this form visit small churches, where he asked the local organist to play the organ a little. Some parishioners, hearing an unusually beautiful performance for them, frightenedly left the service, thinking that the devil himself appeared in their temple in the form of a strange man.

• The Russian envoy in Saxony, Hermann von Keyserling, asked Bach to write a piece to which he could quickly fall into a sound sleep. This is how the Goldberg Variations appeared, for which the composer received a golden cube filled with a hundred louis. These variations are still one of the best "sleeping pills" to this day.
• Johann Sebastian was known to his contemporaries not only as an outstanding composer and virtuoso performer, but also as a man with a very difficult character, intolerant of the mistakes of others. There is a case when a bassoonist, publicly insulted by Bach for an imperfect performance, attacked Johann. A real duel took place, as both were armed with daggers.
• Bach, who was fond of numerology, liked to weave the numbers 14 and 41 into his musical works, because these numbers corresponded to the first letters of the composer's name. By the way, Bach also liked to play with his surname in his compositions: the musical decoding of the word “Bach” forms a drawing of a cross. It is this symbol that is the most important for Bach, who considers non-random similar coincidences.

• Thanks to Johann Sebastian Bach, not only men sing in church choirs today. The first woman who sang in the temple was the wife of the composer Anna Magdalena, who has a beautiful voice.
• In the middle of the 19th century, German musicologists founded the first Bach Society, whose main task was to publish the composer's works. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the society dissolved itself and the complete works of Bach were published only in the second half of the twentieth century at the initiative of the Bach Institute, established in 1950. In the world today there are a total of two hundred and twenty-two Bach societies, Bach orchestras and Bach choirs.
• Researchers of Bach's work suggest that the great maestro composed 11,200 works, although the legacy known to posterity includes only 1,200 compositions.
• To date, there are more than fifty-three thousand books and various publications about Bach in different languages, about seven thousand complete biographies of the composer have been published.
• In 1950, W. Schmider compiled a numbered catalog of Bach's works (BWV– Bach Werke Verzeichnis). This catalog has been updated several times as the data on the authorship of certain works has been clarified, and, unlike the traditional chronological principles for classifying the works of other famous composers, this catalog is built on the thematic principle. Works with close numbers belong to the same genre, and were not written at all in the same years.
• Bach's works: "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2", "Gavotte in the form of a rondo" and "HTK" were recorded on the Golden Record and launched from Earth in 1977, attached to the Voyager spacecraft.

• Everyone knows that Beethoven suffered from hearing loss, but few people know that Bach went blind in his later years. Actually, the unsuccessful operation on the eyes, performed by the charlatan surgeon John Taylor, caused the death of the composer in 1750.
• Johann Sebastian Bach was buried near the Church of St. Thomas. Some time later, a road was laid through the territory of the cemetery and the grave was lost. At the end of the 19th century, during the reconstruction of the church, the remains of the composer were found and reburied. After World War II, in 1949, Bach's relics were transferred to the church building. However, due to the fact that the grave changed its place several times, skeptics doubt that the ashes of Johann Sebastian are in the burial.
• To date, 150 postage stamps dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach have been issued worldwide, 90 of them published in Germany.
• Johann Sebastian Bach, the great musical genius, is treated with great reverence all over the world, monuments to him are erected in many countries, only in Germany there are 12 monuments. One of them is located in Dornheim near Arnstadt and is dedicated to the wedding of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara.

Family of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian belonged to the largest German musical dynasty, whose pedigree is usually counted from Veit Bach, a simple baker, but very fond of music and perfectly performing folk melodies on his favorite instrument - the zither. This passion from the founder of the family was passed on to his descendants, many of them became professional musicians: composers, cantors, bandmasters, as well as a variety of instrumentalists. They settled not only in Germany, some even went abroad. Within two hundred years, there were so many Bach musicians that any person whose occupation was connected with music began to be named after them. The most famous ancestors of Johann Sebastian whose works have come down to us were: Johannes, Heinrich, Johann Christoph, Johann Bernhard, Johann Michael and Johann Nikolaus. Johann Sebastian's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was also a musician and served as organist in Eisenach, the city where Bach was born.

Johann Sebastian himself was the father of a large family: from two wives he had twenty children. He first married his beloved cousin Maria Barbara, daughter of Johann Michael Bach, in 1707. Maria bore Johann Sebastian seven children, three of whom died in infancy. Maria herself also did not live a long life, she died at the age of 36, leaving Bach four young children. Bach was very upset by the loss of his wife, but a year later he again fell in love with the young girl Anna Magdalena Wilken, whom he met at the court of the Duke of Anhalt-Keten and proposed to her. Despite the big difference in age, the girl agreed and it is obvious that this marriage was very successful, since Anna Magdalena gave Bach thirteen children. The girl did an excellent job with the housework, cared for the children, sincerely rejoiced at the success of her husband and provided great assistance in the work, rewriting his scores. The family for Bach was a great joy, he devoted a lot of time to raising children, making music with them and composing special exercises. In the evenings, the family very often arranged impromptu concerts, which brought joy to everyone. Bach's children had excellent natural gifts, but four of them had exceptional musical talent - these are Johann Christoph Friedrich, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann and Johann Christian. They also became composers and left their mark on the history of music, but none of them could surpass their father either in writing or in the art of performing.

Works of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most prolific composers, his heritage in the treasury of world musical culture includes about 1200 immortal masterpieces. There was only one inspirer in Bach's work - this is the Creator. Johann Sebastian dedicated almost all his works to him and at the end of the scores he always signed letters that were an abbreviation of the words: “In the name of Jesus”, “Jesus help”, “Glory to God alone”. To create for God was the main goal in the life of the composer, and therefore his musical works absorbed all the wisdom of the "Holy Scripture". Bach was very faithful to his religious outlook and never betrayed it. According to the composer, even the smallest instrumental piece should indicate the wisdom of the Creator.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his works in virtually all musical genres known at that time, except for opera. The compiled catalog of his works includes: 247 works for organ, 526 vocal works, 271 works for harpsichord, 19 solo works for various instruments, 31 concertos and suites for orchestra, 24 duets for harpsichord with any other instrument, 7 canons and others. works.

Musicians around the world perform Bach's music and begin to get acquainted with many of his works from childhood. For example, every little pianist studying at a music school must have in his repertoire pieces from « Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach » . Then little preludes and fugues are studied, followed by inventions, and finally « Well-Tempered Clavier » but this is high school.

Notable works by Johann Sebastian also include " Matthew Passion”, “Mass in B Minor”, ​​“Christmas Oratorio”, “John Passion” and, undoubtedly, “ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor". And the cantata "The Lord is my King" is still heard at festive services in churches in different parts of the world.

Films about Bach

The great composer, being the largest figure in the world musical culture, has always attracted close attention, therefore, a lot of books have been written on Bach's biography and his work, as well as feature films and documentaries. There are quite a lot of them, but the most significant of them are:

• "The Vain Journey of Johann Sebastian Bach to Glory" (1980, East Germany) - a biographical film tells about the difficult fate of the composer, who traveled all his life in search of "his" place in the sun.
• "Bach: The Fight for Freedom" (1995, Czech Republic, Canada) is a feature film that tells about the intrigues in the palace of the old duke, which began around Bach's rivalry with the best organist of the orchestra.
• "Dinner with Four Hands" (1999, Russia) is a feature film that shows the meeting of two composers, Handel and Bach, which never took place in reality, but is so desired.
• "My name is Bach" (2003) - the film takes the audience to 1747, at the time when Johann Sebastian Bach arrived at the court of the Prussian King Frederick II.
• The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968) and Johann Bach and Anna Magdalena (2003) - the films show Bach's relationship with his second wife, an able student of her husband.
• “Anton Ivanovich is angry” is a musical comedy in which there is an episode: Bach appears to the main character in a dream and says that he was terribly bored writing countless choruses, and he always dreamed of writing a cheerful operetta.
• "Silence before Bach" (2007) is a musical film that helps to immerse yourself in the world of Bach's music, which turned the Europeans' understanding of harmony that existed before him.

Of the documentaries about the famous composer, it is necessary to note such films as: “Johann Sebastian Bach: life and work, in two parts” (1985, USSR); "Johann Sebastian Bach" (series "German Composers" 2004, Germany); "Johann Sebastian Bach" (series "Famous Composers" 2005, USA); "Johann Sebastian Bach - composer and theologian" (2016, Russia).

The music of Johann Sebastian, filled with philosophical content, and also having a great emotional impact on a person, was often used by directors in the soundtracks for their films, for example:

Despite the ups and downs, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a huge number of amazing compositions. The composer's work was continued by his famous sons, but none of them could surpass his father either in writing or in performing music. The name of the author of passionate and pure, incredibly talented and unforgettable works stands at the top of the world of music, and his recognition as a great composer continues to this day.

Video: watch a film about Johann Sebastian Bach