fbpx
Wikipedia

Johann Sebastian Bach

January 26, 2023

This article is about the composer. For the painter, see Johann Sebastian Bach (painter). For the TV series, see Johann Sebastian Bach (TV series).
"Bach" redirects here. For other uses, see Bach (disambiguation).

Johann Sebastian Bach[n 2] (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.[2][3]

Johann Sebastian Bach
Portrait of Bach by E. G. Haussmann, 1748[n 1]
Born21 March 1685 (O.S.)
31 March 1685 (1685-03-31) (N.S.)
Eisenach
Died28 July 1750(1750-07-28) (aged 65)
Leipzig
WorksList of compositions
Signature

The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St Thomas's) in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer, a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland, in 1736. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65.

Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic, and motivic organisation,[4] and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue.

Throughout the 18th century, Bach was primarily valued as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him, and other publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including the Air on the G String and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and of recordings, such as three different box sets with complete performances of the composer's oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.

Life

Childhood (1685–1703)

 
Johann Ambrosius Bach, 1685, Bach's father. Painting attributed to Johann David Herlicius [de]
Further information: Bach family

Johann Sebastian Bach[n 2] was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on 21 March 1685 O.S. (31 March 1685 N.S.). He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt.[7][8][9] His father likely taught him violin and basic music theory. His uncles were all professional musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers.[10] One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ,[11] and an older second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach, was a well-known composer and violinist.[10][n 3]

Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later.[12] The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.[13] There he studied, performed, and copied music, including his own brother's, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private, and blank ledger paper of that type was costly.[14][15] He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord. Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied); North Germans;[16] Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand and Marin Marais;[17] and even the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi.[18] During this time, he was also taught theology, Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium.[19]

By 3 April 1700, Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann – who was two years Bach's elder – were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, some two weeks' travel north of Ohrdruf.[20][21] Their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot.[21] His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a wider range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichords.[22] He also came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter-Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines.[23]

Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen (1703–1708)

 
The Wender organ Bach played in Arnstadt

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's and being turned down for the post of organist at Sangerhausen,[24] Bach was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar.[25] His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboardist spread so much that he was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church (now Bach Church) in Arnstadt, located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Weimar.[26] On 14 August 1703, he became the organist at the New Church,[11] with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a new organ tuned in a temperament that allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be played.[27]

Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir. He called one of them a "Zippel Fagottist" (weenie bassoon player). Late one evening this student, named Geyersbach, went after Bach with a stick. Bach filed a complaint against Geyersbach with the authorities. They acquitted Geyersbach with a minor reprimand and ordered Bach to be more moderate regarding the musical qualities he expected from his students. Some months later Bach upset his employer by a prolonged absence from Arnstadt: after obtaining leave for four weeks, he was absent for around four months in 1705–1706 to visit the organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude in the northern city of Lübeck. The visit to Buxtehude involved a 450-kilometre (280 mi) journey each way, reportedly on foot.[28][29]

In 1706, Bach applied for a post as organist at the Blasius Church in Mühlhausen.[30][31] As part of his application, he had a cantata performed on Easter, 24 April 1707, likely an early version of his Christ lag in Todes Banden.[32] A month later Bach's application was accepted and he took up the post in July.[30] The position included significantly higher remuneration, improved conditions, and a better choir. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Bach was able to convince the church and town government at Mühlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church. In 1708 Bach wrote Gott ist mein König, a festive cantata for the inauguration of the new council, which was published at the council's expense.[22]

Return to Weimar (1708–1717)

 
Organ of the St. Paul's Church in Leipzig, tested by Bach in 1717.
Further information: Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 § Background

Bach left Mühlhausen in 1708, returning to Weimar this time as organist and from 1714 Konzertmeister (director of music) at the ducal court, where he had an opportunity to work with a large, well-funded contingent of professional musicians.[22] Bach and his wife moved into a house close to the ducal palace.[33] Later the same year, their first child, Catharina Dorothea, was born, and Maria Barbara's elder, unmarried sister joined them. She remained to help run the household until her death in 1729. Three sons were also born in Weimar: Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children, who however did not live to their first birthday, including twins born in 1713.[34]

Bach's time in Weimar was the start of a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works. He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and Torelli. Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects in part by transcribing Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these transcribed works are still regularly performed. Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style, in which one or more solo instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement.[35]

In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for the organ and perform concert music with the duke's ensemble.[22] He also began to write the preludes and fugues which were later assembled into his monumental work The Well-Tempered Clavier ("clavier" meaning clavichord or harpsichord),[36] consisting of two books,[37] each containing 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key. Bach also started work on the Little Organ Book in Weimar, containing traditional Lutheran chorale tunes set in complex textures. In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady.[38][39]

In the spring of 1714, Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister, an honour that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the castle church.[40] The first three cantatas in the new series Bach composed in Weimar were Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182, for Palm Sunday, which coincided with the Annunciation that year; Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, for Jubilate Sunday; and Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!  BWV 172 for Pentecost.[41] Bach's first Christmas cantata, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, was premiered in 1714 or 1715.[42][43]

In 1717, Bach eventually fell out of favour in Weimar and, according to a translation of the court secretary's report, was jailed for almost a month before being unfavourably dismissed: "On November 6, [1717], the quondam [former] concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge."[44]

Köthen (1717–1723)

 
Bach's autograph of the first movement of the first sonata for solo violin, BWV 1001

Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music) in 1717. Prince Leopold, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. The prince was a Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period was secular,[45] including the orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and Brandenburg Concertos.[46] Bach also composed secular cantatas for the court, such as Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a.

Despite being born in the same year and only about 130 kilometres (80 mi) apart, Bach and Handel never met. In 1719, Bach made the 35-kilometre (22 mi) journey from Köthen to Halle with the intention of meeting Handel; however, Handel had left the town.[47][48] In 1730, Bach's oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, travelled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in Leipzig, but the visit did not take place.[49]

On 7 July 1720, while Bach was away in Carlsbad with Prince Leopold, Bach's wife suddenly died.[50] The following year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, highly gifted soprano 16 years his junior, who performed at the court in Köthen; they married on 3 December 1721.[51] Together they had 13 children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781); Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian, who both, especially Johann Christian, became significant musicians; Johanna Carolina (1737–1781); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).[52]

Leipzig (1723–1750)

In 1723, Bach was appointed Thomaskantor, Cantor of the St. Thomas School at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, which provided music for four churches in the city: the St. Thomas Church and St. Nicholas Church and to a lesser extent the New Church and St. Peter's Church.[53] This was "the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany",[54] located in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony, which he held for 27 years until his death. During that time he gained further prestige through honorary appointments at the courts of Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as that of the Elector Frederick Augustus (who was also King of Poland) in Dresden.[54] Bach frequently disagreed with his employer, Leipzig's city council, which he regarded as "penny-pinching".[55]

Appointment in Leipzig

Johann Kuhnau had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1701 until his death on 5 June 1722. Bach had visited Leipzig during Kuhnau's tenure: in 1714 he attended the service at the St. Thomas Church on the first Sunday of Advent,[56] and in 1717 he had tested the organ of the St. Paul's Church.[57] In 1716 Bach and Kuhnau had met on the occasion of the testing and inauguration of an organ in Halle.[39]

After being offered the position, Bach was invited to Leipzig only after Georg Philipp Telemann indicated that he would not be interested in relocating to Leipzig.[58] Telemann went to Hamburg, where he "had his own struggles with the city's senate".[59]

Bach was required to instruct the students of the Thomasschule in singing and provide church music for the main churches in Leipzig. He was also assigned to teach Latin but was allowed to employ four "prefects" (deputies) to do this instead. The prefects also aided with musical instruction.[60] A cantata was required for the church services on Sundays and additional church holidays during the liturgical year.

Cantata cycle years (1723–1729)

Bach usually led performances of his cantatas, most of which were composed within three years of his relocation to Leipzig. The first was Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, performed in the St. Nicholas Church on 30 May 1723, the first Sunday after Trinity. Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Five are mentioned in obituaries, three are extant.[41] Of the more than 300 cantatas which Bach composed in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to posterity.[61] Most of these works expound on the Gospel readings prescribed for every Sunday and feast day in the Lutheran year. Bach started a second annual cycle the first Sunday after Trinity of 1724 and composed only chorale cantatas, each based on a single church hymn. These include O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1.

Bach drew the soprano and alto choristers from the school and the tenors and basses from the school and elsewhere in Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income for these groups; it was probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, that he wrote at least six motets.[62] As part of his regular church work, he performed other composers' motets, which served as formal models for his own.[63]

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, had also been music director for the St. Paul's Church, the church of Leipzig University. But when Bach was installed as cantor in 1723, he was put in charge only of music for festal (church holiday) services at the St. Paul's Church; his petition to also provide music for regular Sunday services there (for a corresponding salary increase) went all the way to the Elector but was denied. After this, in 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even for festal services at the St. Paul's Church and appeared there only on "special occasions".[64] The St. Paul's Church had a much better and newer (1716) organ than did the St. Thomas Church or the St. Nicholas Church.[65] Bach was not required to play any organ in his official duties, but it is believed he liked to play on the St. Paul's Church organ "for his own pleasure".[66]

 
Café Zimmermann, c. 1720

Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over, in March 1729, the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble started by Telemann. This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities that were established by musically active university students; these societies had become increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city. In the words of Christoph Wolff, assuming the directorship was a shrewd move that "consolidated Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's principal musical institutions".[67] Every week the Collegium Musicum would give two-hour performances in winter at the Café Zimmermann, a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main market square; and during the summer months in the proprietor's outdoor coffee garden just outside the town walls, near the East Gate. The concerts, all free of charge, ended with Gottfried Zimmermann's death in 1741. Apart from showcasing his earlier orchestral repertoire such as the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites, many of Bach's newly composed or reworked pieces were performed for these venues, including parts of his Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice), his violin and keyboard concertos and of course the eponymous Coffee Cantata.[22][68]

Middle years of the Leipzig period (1730–1739)

 
Bach's seal (centre), used throughout his Leipzig years. It contains the superimposed letters J S B in mirror image topped with a crown. The flanking letters illustrate the arrangement on the seal.

In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor which he later incorporated in his Mass in B minor. He presented the manuscript to the Elector in an eventually successful bid to persuade the prince to give him the title of Court Composer.[69] He later extended this work into a full mass by adding a Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas and partly original. Bach's appointment as Court Composer was an element of his long-term struggle to achieve greater bargaining power with the Leipzig council. Between 1737 and 1739, Bach's former pupil Carl Gotthelf Gerlach held the directorship of the Collegium Musicum.

In 1735 Bach started to prepare his first publication of organ music, which was printed as the third Clavier-Übung in 1739.[70] From around that year he started to compile and compose the set of preludes and fugues for harpsichord that would become his second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier.[71] He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736.[69][12]

Final years and death (1740–1750)

From 1740 to 1748 Bach copied, transcribed, expanded or programmed music in an older polyphonic style (stile antico) by, among others, Palestrina (BNB I/P/2),[72] Kerll (BWV 241),[73] Torri (BWV Anh. 30),[74] Bassani (BWV 1081),[75] Gasparini (Missa Canonica)[76] and Caldara (BWV 1082).[77] Bach's own style shifted in the last decade of his life, showing an increased integration of polyphonic structures and canons and other elements of the stile antico.[78] His fourth and last Clavier-Übung volume, the Goldberg Variations, for two-manual harpsichord, contained nine canons and was published in 1741.[79] Throughout this period, Bach also continued to adopt music of contemporaries such as Handel (BNB I/K/2)[80] and Stölzel (BWV 200),[81] and gave many of his own earlier compositions, such as the St Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes,[82] their final revisions. He also programmed and adapted music by composers of a younger generation, including Pergolesi (BWV 1083)[83] and his own students such as Goldberg (BNB I/G/2).[84]

In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Society of Musical Sciences [de].[85] In order to be admitted Bach had to submit a composition, for which he chose his Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", and a portrait, which was painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann and featured Bach's Canon triplex á 6 Voc.[86] In May 1747, Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. The king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme. Bach obliged, playing a three-part fugue on one of Frederick's fortepianos by Gottfried Silbermann,[87] which was a new type of instrument at the time. Upon his return to Leipzig he composed a set of fugues and canons, and a trio sonata, based on the Thema Regium (theme of the king). Within a few weeks this music was published as The Musical Offering and dedicated to Frederick. The Schübler Chorales, a set of six chorale preludes transcribed from cantata movements Bach had composed some two decades earlier, were published within a year.[88][89] Around the same time, the set of five canonic variations which Bach had submitted when entering Mizler's society in 1747 were also printed.[90]

Two large-scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach's last years. From around 1742 he wrote and revised the various canons and fugues of The Art of Fugue, which he continued to prepare for publication until shortly before his death.[91][92] After extracting a cantata, BWV 191 from his 1733 Kyrie-Gloria Mass for the Dresden court in the mid-1740s, Bach expanded that setting into his Mass in B minor in the last years of his life. Although the complete mass was never performed during the composer's lifetime, it is considered to be among the greatest choral works in history.[93]

In January 1749, Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann Christoph Altnickol. Bach's health was, however, declining. On 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director, Johann Gottlob Harrer, fill the Thomaskantor and Director musices posts "upon the eventual ... decease of Mr. Bach".[94] Becoming blind, Bach underwent eye surgery, in March 1750 and again in April, by the British eye surgeon John Taylor, a man widely understood today as a charlatan and believed to have blinded hundreds of people.[95] Bach died on 28 July 1750 from complications due to the unsuccessful treatment.[96][97][98]

An inventory drawn up a few months after Bach's death shows that his estate included five harpsichords, two lute-harpsichords, three violins, three violas, two cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute and a spinet, along with 52 "sacred books", including works by Martin Luther and Josephus.[99] The composer's son Carl Philipp Emanuel saw to it that The Art of Fugue, although still unfinished, was published in 1751.[100] Together with one of the composer's former students, Johann Friedrich Agricola, the son also wrote the obituary ("Nekrolog"), which was published in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek [de], a periodical journal produced by the Society of Musical Sciences, in 1754.[90]

Musical style

 
A handwritten note by Bach in his copy of the Calov Bible. The note next to 2 Chronicles 5:13 reads: "NB Bey einer andächtigen Musiq ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart" (N(ota) B(ene) In a music of worship God is always present with his grace).
See also: List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

From an early age, Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period and those of prior generations, and those influences were reflected in his music.[101] Like his contemporaries Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da capo arias, and four-part choral music and employed basso continuo. Bach's music was harmonically more innovative than his peer composers, employing surprisingly dissonant chords and progressions, often with extensive exploration of harmonic possibilities within one piece.[102]

The hundreds of sacred works Bach created are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but also a truly devout relationship with God.[103][104] He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and some of his pieces represent it.[105] The Lutheran chorale was the basis of much of his work. In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes, he wrote more cogent and tightly integrated works than most, even when they were massive and lengthy.[citation needed] The large-scale structure of every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning to create a religiously and musically powerful expression. For example, the St Matthew Passion, like other works of its kind, illustrated the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales, but in crafting this work, Bach created an overall experience that has been found over the intervening centuries to be both musically thrilling and spiritually profound.[106]

Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many collections of pieces that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except opera. For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two books, each of which presents a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key, displaying a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques.[107]

Four-part harmony

 
"O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden": the four-part chorale setting as included in the St. Matthew Passion

Four-part harmonies predate Bach, but he lived during a time when modal music in Western tradition was largely supplanted in favour of the tonal system. In this system a piece of music progresses from one chord to the next according to certain rules, each chord being characterised by four notes. The principles of four-part harmony are found not only in Bach's four-part choral music: he also prescribes it for instance for the figured bass accompaniment.[108] The new system was at the core of Bach's style, and his compositions are to a large extent considered as laying down the rules for the evolving scheme that would dominate musical expression in the next centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence:

  • When in the 1740s Bach staged his arrangement of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, he upgraded the viola part (which in the original composition plays in unison with the bass part) to fill out the harmony, thus adapting the composition to his four-part harmony style.[109]
  • When, starting in the 19th century in Russia, there was a discussion about the authenticity of four-part court chant settings compared to earlier Russian traditions, Bach's four-part chorale settings, such as those ending his Chorale cantatas, were considered as foreign-influenced models. Such influence was deemed unavoidable, however.[110]
 
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 performed by Kevin MacLeod
1. Fantasia
2. Fugue
Bach re-interpreting older genres tied to the modal system

Bach's insistence on the tonal system and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at ease with the older modal system and the genres associated with it: more than his contemporaries (who had "moved on" to the tonal system without much exception), Bach often returned to the then-antiquated modi and genres. His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, emulating the chromatic fantasia genre as used by earlier composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck in D dorian mode (comparable to D minor in the tonal system), is an example of this.

Modulation

Modulation, or changing key in the course of a piece, is another style characteristic where Bach goes beyond what was usual in his time. Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation possibilities: keyboard instruments, prior to a workable system of temperament, limited the keys that could be modulated to, and wind instruments, especially brass instruments such as trumpets and horns, about a century before they were fitted with valves, were tied to the key of their tuning. Bach pushed the limits: he added "strange tones" in his organ playing, confusing the singing, according to an indictment he had to face in Arnstadt,[111] and Louis Marchand, another early experimenter with modulation, seems to have avoided confrontation with Bach because the latter went further than anyone had done before.[112] In the "Suscepit Israel" of his 1723 Magnificat, he had the trumpets in E-flat play a melody in the enharmonic scale of C minor.[113]

The major development taking place in Bach's time, and to which he contributed in no small way, was a temperament for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in all available keys (12 major and 12 minor) and also modulation without retuning. His Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, a very early work, showed a gusto for modulation unlike any contemporary work this composition has been compared to,[114] but the full expansion came with the Well-Tempered Clavier, using all keys, which Bach apparently had been developing since around 1720, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach being one of its earliest examples.[115]

Ornamentation

 
Bach's guide on ornaments as contained in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
 
"Aria" of the Goldberg Variations, showing Bach's use of ornaments

The second page of the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and performance guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son, who was nine years old at the time. Bach was generally quite specific on ornamentation in his compositions (where in his time much of the ornamentation was not written out by composers but rather considered a liberty of the performer),[116] and his ornamentation was often quite elaborate. For instance, the "Aria" of the Goldberg Variations has rich ornamentation in nearly every measure. Bach's dealing with ornamentation can also be seen in a keyboard arrangement he made of Marcello's Oboe Concerto: he added explicit ornamentation, which some centuries later is played by oboists when performing the concerto.

Although Bach did not write any operas, he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal style. In church music, Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as the Neapolitan mass. In Protestant surroundings, there was more reluctance to adopt such a style for liturgical music. For instance, Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor in Leipzig, had notoriously shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music.[117] Bach was less moved. One of the comments after a performance of his St Matthew Passion was that it all sounded much like opera.[118]

Continuo instruments solos

In concerted playing in Bach's time the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as organ, viola da gamba or harpsichord, usually had the role of accompaniment, providing the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of a piece. From the late 1720s, Bach had the organ play concertante (i.e. as a soloist) with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements,[119] a decade before Handel published his first organ concertos.[120] Apart from the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and the Triple Concerto, which already had harpsichord soloists in the 1720s, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s,[121] and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord neither instrument plays a continuo part: they are treated as equal soloists, far beyond the figured bass. In this sense, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto.[122]

Instrumentation

Bach wrote virtuoso music for specific instruments as well as music independent of instrumentation. For instance, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin are considered the pinnacle of what has been written for this instrument, only within reach of accomplished players. The music fits the instrument, pushing it to the full scale of its possibilities and requiring virtuosity of the player but without bravura.[123] Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem inseparable, Bach made transcriptions for other instruments of some pieces of this collection. Similarly, for the cello suites, the virtuoso music seems tailored for the instrument, the best of what is offered for it, yet Bach made an arrangement for lute of one of these suites. The same applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach exploited the capabilities of an instrument to the fullest while keeping the core of such music independent of the instrument on which it is performed.

In this sense, it is no surprise that Bach's music is easily and often performed on instruments it was not necessarily written for, that it is transcribed so often, and that his melodies turn up in unexpected places such as jazz music. Apart from this, Bach left a number of compositions without specified instrumentation: the canons BWV 1072–1078 fall in that category, as well as the bulk of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue.[124]

Counterpoint

 
Analysis of the counterpoint of the chorale prelude Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', BWV 632 (Orgelbüchlein)
BWV 632 (extract) (0:48)
This video shows the intertwining of melodies and motives, including the melody of the chorale "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend"
 
Sonata No. 3 in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1029 performed by John Michel
1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
Continuo instruments moving to the front (here performed on cello and piano)
 
Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Schindler with Johannes Volker Schmidt (piano)
1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
Keyboard concerto
 
Double Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1043 performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra with David Perry and Roxana Pavel Goldstein (violins)
1. Vivace
2. Largo ma non tanto
3. Allegro
A strictly contrapuntal composition (the two violins playing in canon throughout) in the guise of an Italian type of concerto
See also: List of fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach

Another characteristic of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint, as opposed to the homophony used in his four-part Chorale settings, for example. Bach's canons, and especially his fugues, are most characteristic of this style, which Bach did not invent but contributed to so fundamentally that he defined it to a large extent. Fugues are as characteristic to Bach's style as, for instance, the Sonata form is characteristic to the composers of the Classical period.[125]

These strictly contrapuntal compositions, and most of Bach's music in general, are characterised by distinct melodic lines for each of the voices, where the chords formed by the notes sounding at a given point follow the rules of four-part harmony. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer, gives this description of this feature of Bach's music, which sets it apart from most other music:

If the language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line, a simple sequence of musical notes, it can justly be accused of poverty. The addition of a Bass puts it upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it, but defines rather than gives it added richness. A melody so accompanied—even though all the notes are not those of the true Bass—or treated with simple embellishments in the upper parts, or with simple chords, used to be called "homophony". But it is a very different thing when two melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a footing of pleasant equality. In the first case the accompaniment is subordinate, and serves merely to support the first or principal part. In the second case the two parts are not similarly related. New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving, out of which new forms of musical expression emerge. If more parts are interwoven in the same free and independent manner, the apparatus of language is correspondingly enlarged, and becomes practically inexhaustible if, in addition, varieties of form and rhythm are introduced. Hence harmony becomes no longer a mere accompaniment of melody, but rather a potent agency for augmenting the richness and expressiveness of musical conversation. To serve that end a simple accompaniment will not suffice. True harmony is the interweaving of several melodies, which emerge now in the upper, now in the middle, and now in the lower parts.

From about the year 1720, when he was thirty-five, until his death in 1750, Bach's harmony consists in this melodic interweaving of independent melodies, so perfect in their union that each part seems to constitute the true melody. Herein Bach excels all the composers in the world. At least, I have found no one to equal him in music known to me. Even in his four-part writing we can, not infrequently, leave out the upper and lower parts and still find the middle parts melodious and agreeable.[126]

Structure and lyrics

Bach devoted more attention than his contemporaries to the structure of compositions. This can be seen in minor adjustments he made when adapting someone else's composition, such as his earliest version of the "Keiser" St Mark Passion, where he enhances scene transitions,[127] and in the architecture of his own compositions such as his Magnificat[113] and Leipzig Passions. In the last years of his life, Bach revised several of his prior compositions. Often the recasting of such previously composed music in an enhanced structure was the most visible change, as in the Mass in B minor. Bach's known preoccupation with structure led (peaking around the 1970s) to various numerological analyses of his compositions, although many such over-interpretations were later rejected, especially when wandering off into symbolism-ridden hermeneutics.[128][129]

The librettos, or lyrics, of his vocal compositions played an important role for Bach. He sought collaboration with various text authors for his cantatas and major vocal compositions, possibly writing or adapting such texts himself to make them fit the structure of the composition he was designing when he could not rely on the talents of other text authors. His collaboration with Picander for the St Matthew Passion libretto is best known, but there was a similar process in achieving a multi-layered structure for his St John Passion libretto a few years earlier.[130]

Compositions

See also: List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalogue of Bach's compositions called the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue).[131] Schmieder largely followed the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe, a comprehensive edition of the composer's works that was produced between 1850 and 1900. The first edition of the catalogue listed 1,080 surviving compositions indisputably composed by Bach.[132]

BWV Range Compositions
BWV 1–224 Cantatas
BWV 225–231 Motets
BWV 232–243 Liturgical compositions in Latin
BWV 244–249 Passions and oratorios
BWV 250–438 Four-part chorales
BWV 439–524 Small vocal works
BWV 525–771 Organ compositions
BWV 772–994 Other keyboard works
BWV 995–1000 Lute compositions
BWV 1001–1040 Other chamber music
BWV 1041–1071 Orchestral music
BWV 1072–1078 Canons
BWV 1079–1080 Late contrapuntal works

BWV 1081–1126 were added to the catalogue in the second half of the 20th century, and BWV 1127 and higher are 21st-century additions.[133][134][135]

Passions and oratorios

 
Bach's autograph of the recitative with the gospel text of Christ's death from St Matthew Passion (Matthew 27:45–47a)
See also: List of masses, passions and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach § Passions and oratorios

Bach composed Passions for Good Friday services and oratorios such as the Christmas Oratorio, which is a set of six cantatas for use in the liturgical season of Christmas.[136][137][138] Shorter oratorios include the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. With its double choir and orchestra, the St Matthew Passion is one of Bach's most extended works. The St John Passion was the first passion Bach composed during his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

Cantatas

 
Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 performed by the MIT Concert Choir conducted by W. Cutter
1. Chorus "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"
2. Recitative "Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräut'gam kommt"
3. Duet "Wenn kömmst du, mein Heil?"
4. Chorale "Zion hört die Wächter singen"
5. Recitative "So geh herein zu mir"
6. Duet "Mein Freund ist mein!"
7. Chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen"
Cantata text
See also: Bach cantata and List of Bach cantatas

According to his obituary, Bach would have composed five year-cycles of sacred cantatas, and additional church cantatas for weddings and funerals, for example.[90] Approximately 200 of these sacred works are extant, an estimated two thirds of the total number of church cantatas he composed.[61][139] The Bach Digital website lists 50 known secular cantatas by the composer,[140] about half of which are extant or largely reconstructable.[141]

Church cantatas

See also: Church cantata (Bach)

Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Many consist of a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets) and a concluding chorale. The melody of the concluding chorale often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement.[citation needed]

Bach's earliest cantatas date from his years in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest surviving work in the genre is Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. As a whole, the extant early works all show remarkable mastery and skill. Many feature an instrumental opening which display effective use of the limited instrumental forces available to Bach, whether it be in the subdued combination of two recorders and two viola de gamba for BWV 106, or the independent bassoon in BWV 196. Bach's compositional skills are also manifested through his daring harmonies and advanced, unprecedented chord progressions. According to Christoph Wolff, Bach's early cantatas are impressive evidence of how the modest means at his disposal did not restrain the composer in the slightest, and they compare favourably with compositions by the most talented composers from the beginning of the 18th century, such as Krieger, Kuhnau or Zachow.[142]

After taking up his office as Thomaskantor in late May 1723, Bach performed a cantata each Sunday and feast day, corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week.[22] His first cantata cycle ran from the first Sunday after Trinity of 1723 to Trinity Sunday the next year. For instance, the Visitation cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, containing the chorale that is known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", belongs to this first cycle. The cantata cycle of his second year in Leipzig is called the chorale cantata cycle as it consists mainly of works in the chorale cantata format. His third cantata cycle was developed over a period of several years, followed by the Picander cycle of 1728–29.

Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80 (final version)[143] and Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140.[144] Only the first three Leipzig cycles are more or less completely extant. Apart from his own work, Bach also performed cantatas by Telemann and by his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach.[22]

Secular cantatas

See also: List of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for instance for members of the royal Polish and prince-electoral Saxonian families (e.g. Trauer-Ode),[145] or other public or private occasions (e.g. Hunting Cantata).[146] The text of these cantatas was occasionally in dialect (e.g. Peasant Cantata)[147] or Italian (e.g. Amore traditore).[148] Many of the secular cantatas were lost, but for some of them the text and occasion are known, for instance when Picander later published their librettos (e.g. BWV Anh. 11–12).[149]

Some of the surviving secular cantatas have a plot involving mythological figures of Greek antiquity (e.g. Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan),[150] and others were almost miniature buffo operas (e.g. Coffee Cantata).[151] Although Bach never expressed any interest in opera,[152] his secular cantatas, or drammi per musica, would have allowed Leipzig audiences, deprived of opera since 1720, to experience musical performances comparable to the royal opera in Dresden. These were not at all "poor or makeshift substitutes for real opera" but spectacles displaying "full mastery of the dramatic genre and the proper pacing of the dialogues."[153]

A cappella music

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

Motets

Main article: Motets (Bach)

Bach's motets (BWV 225–231) are pieces on sacred themes for choir and continuo, with instruments playing colla parte. Several of them were composed for funerals.[154] The six motets definitely composed by Bach are Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, Jesu, meine Freude, Fürchte dich nicht, Komm, Jesu, komm, and Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden. The motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren (BWV 231) is part of the composite motet Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt (BWV Anh. 160), other parts of which may be based on work by Telemann.[155]

Chorale harmonisations

See also: List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach wrote hundreds of four-part harmonisations of Lutheran chorales.

Church music in Latin

See also: Bach's church music in Latin

Bach's church music in Latin includes the Magnificat, four Kyrie–Gloria Masses, and the Mass in B minor.

Magnificat

See also: Magnificat (Bach)

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

Mass in B minor

 
from Mass in B minor
Agnus Dei
performed by Solomija Drozd (voice), Petro Titiajev (violin) and Ivan Ostapovych (organ)
See also: Mass in B minor

In 1733 Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for the Dresden court. Near the end of his life, around 1748–1749, he expanded this composition into the large-scale Mass in B minor. The work was never performed in full during Bach's lifetime.[156][157]

Keyboard music

Bach wrote for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichord, clavichord and lute-harpsichord.

Organ works

 
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 performed by Robert Köbler on the Silbermann organ in the village church of Großhartmannsdorf, Saxony
Prelude
Fugue
See also: List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works in both the traditional German free genres (such as preludes, fantasias, and toccatas) and stricter forms (such as chorale preludes and fugues).[22] At a young age, he established a reputation for creativity and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Böhm, with whom Bach came into contact in Lüneburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in 1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach copied the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insights into their compositional languages, and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord. During his most productive period (1708–1714) he composed about a dozen pairs of preludes and fugues, five toccatas and fugues, and the Orgelbüchlein or "Little Organ Book", an unfinished collection of 46 short chorale preludes that demonstrate compositional techniques in the setting of chorale tunes. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for organ, although some of his best-known works (the six Organ Sonatas, the German Organ Mass in Clavier-Übung III from 1739, and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, revised late in his life) were composed after leaving Weimar. Bach was extensively engaged later in his life in consulting on organ projects, testing new organs and dedicating organs in afternoon recitals.[158][159] The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" and the Schübler Chorales are organ works Bach published in the last years of his life.

Harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments

 
The Art of Fugue (title page) – Performed by Mehmet Okonsar on organ and harpsichord
Nos. 1–12
Nos. 13–20
 
Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846 performed on harpsichord by Robert Schröter
Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846
 
Italian Concerto BWV 971 performed by Martha Goldstein
1st movement
2nd movement
3rd movement
See also: List of solo keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach wrote many works for harpsichord, some of which may also have been played on the clavichord or lute-harpsichord. Some of his larger works, such as Clavier-Übung II and IV, are intended for a harpsichord with two manuals: performing them on a keyboard instrument with a single manual (like a piano) may present technical difficulties for the crossing of hands.

  • The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846–893). Each book consists of a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, in chromatic order from C major to B minor (thus, the whole collection is often referred to as "the 48"). "Well-tempered" in the title refers to the temperament (system of tuning); many temperaments before Bach's time were not flexible enough to allow compositions to utilise more than just a few keys.[160][161]
  • The Inventions and Sinfonias (BWV 772–801). These short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are arranged in the same chromatic order as The Well-Tempered Clavier, omitting some of the rarer keys. These pieces were intended by Bach for instructional purposes.[162]
  • Three collections of dance suites: the English Suites (BWV 806–811), French Suites (BWV 812–817), and Partitas for keyboard (Clavier-Übung I, BWV 825–830). Each collection contains six suites built on the standard model (allemande–courante–sarabande–(optional movement)–gigue). The English Suites closely follow the traditional model, adding a prelude before the allemande and including a single movement between the sarabande and gigue.[163] The French Suites omit preludes but have multiple movements between the sarabande and gigue.[164] The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.[165]
  • The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), an aria with 30 variations. The collection has a complex and unconventional structure: the variations build on the bass line of the aria rather than its melody, and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan. There are 9 canons within the 30 variations; every third variation is a canon.[166] These variations move in order from canon at unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs (unison and octave, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon stands on its own due to compositional dissimilarities. The final variation, instead of being the expected canon at the tenth, is a quodlibet.
  • Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style (French Overture, BWV 831) and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971) (published together as Clavier-Übung II), and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903).

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

Orchestral and chamber music

See also: List of chamber music works by Johann Sebastian Bach and List of orchestral works by Johann Sebastian 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 cello suites (BWV 1007–1012), are widely considered to be among the most profound in the repertoire.[167][123] He wrote sonatas for a solo instrument such as the viola de gamba accompanied by harpsichord or continuo, as well as trio sonatas (two instruments and continuo).

The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue are late contrapuntal works containing pieces for unspecified instruments or combinations of instruments.[168][169]

Violin concertos

Surviving works in the concerto form 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".

Brandenburg Concertos

 
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049
1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Presto
Further information: Brandenburg Concertos

Bach's best-known orchestral works are the Brandenburg Concertos, so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721; his application was unsuccessful.[22] These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre.

Keyboard concertos

Further information: Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach composed and transcribed concertos for one to four harpsichords. Many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments, now lost.[170] A number of violin, oboe, and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these.

Orchestral suites

Main article: Orchestral suites (Bach)

In addition to concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites, each suite being a series of stylised dances for orchestra, preceded by a French overture.[171]

Copies, arrangements and uncertain attributions

 
Some of Bach's most popular melodies are, more often than not, heard in various arrangements:
Air on the G String (excerpt)
"Air", 2nd movement from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, performed in an Air on the G String adaptation by Capella Istropolitana conducted by Oliver von Dohnányi (courtesy of Naxos)
"Sheep May Safely Graze" (instrumental version)
The aria "Schafe können sicher weiden" (Sheep May Safely Graze), No. 9 from the Hunting Cantata, BWV 208: composed for soprano, recorders, and continuo, the music of this movement exists in a variety of instrumental arrangements.
See also: BWV Anh. and List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

In his early youth, Bach copied pieces by other composers to learn from them.[172] Later, he copied and arranged music for performance or as study material for his pupils. Some of these pieces, like "Bist du bei mir" (copied not by Bach but by Anna Magdalena), became famous before being dissociated with Bach. Bach copied and arranged 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, closer to home, various German masters including Telemann (e.g. BWV 824=TWV 32:14) and Handel (arias from Brockes Passion), and music from members of his own family. He also often copied and arranged his own music (e.g. movements from cantatas for his short masses BWV 233–236), as his music was likewise copied and arranged by others. Some of these arrangements, like the late 19th-century "Air on the G String", helped to popularise Bach's music.

Sometimes "who copied whom" is not clear. For instance, Forkel mentions a Mass for double chorus among the works composed by Bach. The work was published and performed in the early 19th century, and although a score partially in Bach's handwriting exists, the work was later considered spurious.[173] In 1950, the design of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was to keep such works out of the main catalogue: if there was a strong association with Bach they could be listed in its appendix (German: Anhang, abbreviated as Anh.). Thus, for instance, the aforementioned Mass for double chorus became BWV Anh. 167. But this was far from the end of the attribution issues. For instance, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, BWV 53, was later attributed to Melchior Hoffmann. For other works, Bach's authorship was put in doubt without a generally accepted answer to the question of whether or not he composed it: the best known organ composition in the BWV catalogue, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, was indicated as one of these uncertain works in the late 20th century.[174]

Reception

Main article: Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's music
 
The church in Arnstadt where Bach had been the organist from 1703 to 1707. In 1935 the church was renamed "Bachkirche".

Throughout the 18th century, the appreciation of Bach's music was mostly limited to distinguished connoisseurs. The 19th century started with publication of the first biography of the composer and ended with the completion of the publication of all of Bach's known works by the Bach Gesellschaft. A Bach Revival had started from Mendelssohn's performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Soon after that performance, Bach started to become regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, if not the greatest, a reputation he has retained ever since. A new extensive Bach biography was published in the second half of the 19th century.

In the 20th century Bach's music was widely performed and recorded, while the Neue Bachgesellschaft, among others, published research on the composer. Modern adaptations of Bach's music contributed greatly to his popularisation in the second half of the 20th century. Among these were the Swingle Singers' versions of Bach pieces (for instance, the Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3, and the Wachet auf... chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 Switched-On Bach, which used the Moog electronic synthesiser.

By the end of the 20th century, more classical performers were gradually moving away from the performance style and instrumentation that were established in the romantic era: they started to perform Bach's music on period instruments of the baroque era, studied and practised playing techniques and tempi as established in his time, and reduced the size of instrumental ensembles and choirs to what he would have employed. The BACH motif, used by the composer in his own compositions, was used in dozens of tributes to the composer from the 19th century to the 21st. In the 21st century the complete extant output of the composer became available online, with several websites exclusively dedicated to him.[citation needed]

The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach annually with a feast day on 28 July[175] on the same day, the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches, such as the ELCA, remembers Bach and Handel with Heinrich Schütz.[176]

18th century

 
Painting of Johann Sebastian Bach by 'Gebel', before 1798.

In his own time, Bach was highly regarded amongst his colleagues,[177] although his reputation outside of this small circle of connoisseurs was due not to his compositions (which had an extremely narrow circulation),[11] but due to his virtuosic abilities. Nevertheless, during his life, Bach received public recognition, such as the title of court composer by Augustus III of Poland and the appreciation he was shown by Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Keyserling. Such highly placed appreciation contrasted with the humiliations he had to cope with, for instance in Leipzig.[178] Also in the contemporary press, Bach had his detractors, such as Johann Adolf Scheibe, suggesting he write less complex music, and his supporters, such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mizler.[179][180][181]

After his death, Bach's reputation as a composer at first declined: his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared to the emerging galant style.[182] Initially, he was remembered more as a virtuoso player of the organ and as a teacher. The bulk of the music that had been printed during the composer's lifetime, at least the part that was remembered, was for the organ and the harpsichord. Thus, his reputation as a composer was initially mostly limited to his keyboard music, and that even fairly limited to its value in music education.

Bach's surviving family members, who inherited a large part of his manuscripts, were not all equally concerned with preserving them, leading to considerable losses.[183] Carl Philipp Emanuel, his second eldest son, was most active in safeguarding his father's legacy: he co-authored his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales,[184] staged some of his works, and the bulk of previously unpublished works of his father were preserved with his help.[185] Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest son, performed several of his father's cantatas in Halle but after becoming unemployed sold part of the large collection of his father's works he owned.[186][187][188] Several students of the old master, such as his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Kirnberger, and Johann Ludwig Krebs, contributed to the dissemination of his legacy. The early devotees were not all musicians; for example, in Berlin, Daniel Itzig, a high official of Frederick the Great's court, venerated Bach.[189] His eldest daughters took lessons from Kirnberger and their sister Sara from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who was in Berlin from 1774 to 1784.[189][190] Sara Itzig Levy became an avid collector of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons and was a "patron" of CPE Bach.[190]

While in Leipzig, performances of Bach's church music were limited to some of his motets, and under cantor Doles some of his Passions.[191] A new generation of Bach aficionados emerged: they studiously collected and copied his music, including some of his large-scale works such as the Mass in B minor and performed it privately. One such connoisseur was Gottfried van Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who was instrumental in passing Bach's legacy on to the composers of the Viennese school. Haydn owned manuscript copies of the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Mass in B minor and was influenced by Bach's music. Mozart owned a copy of one of Bach's motets,[192] transcribed some of his instrumental works (K. 404a, 405),[193][194] and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style.[195][196] Beethoven played the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by the time he was 11 and described Bach as Urvater der Harmonie (progenitor of harmony).[197][198][199][200][201]

19th century

 
Image of the Bach memorial [de] erected by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1843
See also: Bach Revival and St Matthew Passion § 19th century

In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke, the first biography of the composer, which contributed to his becoming known to a wider public.[202] In 1805, Abraham Mendelssohn, who had married one of Itzig's granddaughters, bought a substantial collection of Bach manuscripts that had come down from C. P. E. Bach, and donated it to the Berlin Sing-Akademie.[189] The Sing-Akademie occasionally performed Bach's works in public concerts, for instance his first keyboard concerto, with Sara Itzig Levy at the piano.[189]

The first decades of the 19th century saw an increasing number of first publications of Bach's music: Breitkopf started publishing chorale preludes,[203] Hoffmeister harpsichord music,[204] and the Well-Tempered Clavier was printed concurrently by Simrock (Germany), Nägeli (Switzerland) and Hoffmeister (Germany and Austria) in 1801.[205] Vocal music was also published: motets in 1802 and 1803, followed by the E♭ major version of the Magnificat, the Kyrie-Gloria Mass in A major, and the cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 80).[206] In 1818, Hans Georg Nägeli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition ever.[197] Bach's influence was felt in the next generation of early Romantic composers.[198] When Felix Mendelssohn, Abraham's son, aged 13, produced his first Magnificat setting in 1822, it is clear that he had been inspired by the then unpublished D major version of Bach's Magnificat.[207]

Felix Mendelssohn significantly contributed to the renewed interest in Bach's work with his 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion, which was instrumental in setting off what has been called the Bach Revival. The St John Passion saw its 19th-century premiere in 1833, and the first performance of the Mass in B minor followed in 1844. Besides these and other public performances and an increased coverage on the composer and his compositions in printed media, the 1830s and 1840s also saw the first publication of more vocal works by Bach: six cantatas, the St Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B minor. A series of organ compositions saw their first publication in 1833.[208] Chopin started composing his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, in 1835, and Schumann published his Sechs Fugen über den Namen B-A-C-H in 1845. Bach's music was transcribed and arranged to suit contemporary tastes and performance practice by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter, Robert Franz, and Franz Liszt, or combined with new music such as the melody line of Charles Gounod's Ave Maria.[197][209] Brahms, Bruckner, and Wagner were among the composers who promoted Bach's music or wrote glowingly about it.

In 1850, the Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded to promote Bach's music. In the second half of the 19th century, the Society published a comprehensive edition of the composer's works. Also in the second half of the 19th century, Philipp Spitta published Johann Sebastian Bach, the standard work on Bach's life and music.[210] By that time, Bach was known as the first of the three Bs in music. Throughout the 19th century, 200 books were published on Bach. By the end of the century, local Bach societies were established in several cities, and his music had been performed in all major musical centres.[197]

In Germany all throughout the century, Bach was coupled to nationalist feelings, and the composer was inscribed in a religious revival. In England, Bach was coupled to an existing revival of religious and baroque music. By the end of the century, Bach was firmly established as one of the greatest composers, recognised for both his instrumental and his vocal music.[197]

20th century

 
1908 Statue of Bach in front of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig
 
28 July 1950: memorial service for Bach in Leipzig's Thomaskirche, on the 200th anniversary of the composer's death

During the 20th century, the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works continued, as in the promotion of the cello suites by Pablo Casals, the first major performer to record these suites.[211] Leading performers of classical music such as Willem Mengelberg, Edwin Fischer, Georges Enescu, Leopold Stokowski, Herbert von Karajan, Arthur Grumiaux, Helmut Walcha, Wanda Landowska, Karl Richter, I Musici, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Glenn Gould recorded his music.[n 4]

A significant development in the later part of the 20th century was the momentum gained by the historically informed performance practice, with forerunners such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt acquiring prominence by their performances of Bach's music. His keyboard music was again performed more on the instruments Bach was familiar with, rather than on modern pianos and 19th-century romantic organs. Ensembles playing and singing Bach's music not only kept to the instruments and the performance style of his day but were also reduced to the size of the groups Bach used for his performances.[212] But that was far from the only way Bach's music came to the forefront in the 20th century: his music was heard in versions ranging from Ferruccio Busoni's late romantic piano transcriptions to jazzy interpretations such as those by The Swingle Singers, orchestrations like the one opening Walt Disney's Fantasia movie, and synthesiser performances such as Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Bach recordings.

Bach's music has influenced other genres. For instance, jazz musicians have adopted Bach's music, with Jacques Loussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Caine, and the Modern Jazz Quartet among those creating jazz versions of his works.[213] Several 20th-century composers referred to Bach or his music, for example Eugène Ysaÿe in Six Sonatas for solo violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in 24 Preludes and Fugues and Heitor Villa-Lobos in Bachianas Brasileiras. All kinds of publications involved Bach: not only were there the Bach Jahrbuch publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft, various other biographies and studies by among others Albert Schweitzer, Charles Sanford Terry, Alfred Dürr, Christoph Wolff. Peter Williams, John Butt,[n 5] and the 1950 first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis; but also books such as Gödel, Escher, Bach put the composer's art in a wider perspective. Bach's music was extensively listened to, performed, broadcast, arranged, adapted, and commented upon in the 1990s.[214] Around 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, three record companies issued box sets with complete recordings of Bach's music.[215][216][217]

Bach's music features three times—more than that of any other composer—on the Voyager Golden Record, a gramophone record containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes.[218] Tributes to Bach in the 20th century include statues erected in his honour and a variety of things such as streets and space objects being named after him.[219][220] Also, a multitude of musical ensembles such as the Bach Aria Group, Deutsche Bachsolisten, Bachchor Stuttgart, and Bach Collegium Japan adopted the composer's name. Bach festivals were held on several continents, and competitions and prizes such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize were named after the composer. While by the end of the 19th century Bach had been inscribed in nationalism and religious revival, the late 20th century saw Bach as the subject of a secularised art-as-religion (Kunstreligion).[197][214]

21st century

In the 21st century, Bach's compositions have become available online, for instance at the International Music Score Library Project.[221] High-resolution facsimiles of Bach's autographs became available at the Bach Digital website.[222] 21st-century biographers include Christoph Wolff, Peter Williams and John Eliot Gardiner.[n 6]

In 2015, Bach's handwritten personal copy of his Mass in B minor, held by the Berlin State Library, was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register,[223] a program intended to protect culturally significant manuscripts.

In 2019, Bach was named the greatest composer of all time in a poll conducted among 174 living composers.[224]

Burial site

Bach was originally buried at Old St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig. His grave went unmarked for nearly 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were located and moved to a vault in St. John's Church. This building was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II, so in 1950 Bach's remains were taken to their present grave in St. Thomas Church.[22] Later research has called into question whether the remains in the grave are actually those of Bach.[225]

References

Notes

  1. ^ In the portrait, Bach holds a copy of the six-part canon BWV 1076[1]
  2. ^ a b German: [ˈjoːhan zeˈbasti̯a(ː)n ˈbax] ( listen). The last name appears in English as /bɑːx/ on Lexico[5] and in Dictionary.com.[6]
  3. ^ Johann Sebastian Bach drafted a genealogy around 1735, titled "Origin of the musical Bach family", printed in translation in David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 283
  4. ^ For more information, please click the articles on performers; see also reviews and listings in Gramophone, Diapason, YouTube, Discogs and Muziekweb.
  5. ^ See
  6. ^ See

Citations

  1. ^ Wolff & Emery 2001, "10. Iconography".
  2. ^ Crist & Stauff 2011.
  3. ^ Marshall, Robert L.; Emery, Walter (18 May 2020). "Johann Sebastian Bach | Biography, Music, Death & Facts". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  4. ^ Blanning, T. C. W. (2008). The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-674-03104-3. And of course the greatest master of harmony and counterpoint of all time was Johann Sebastian Bach, 'the Homer of music'.
  5. ^ . Lexico. Archived from the original on 11 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  6. ^ "Bach". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  7. ^ Jones 2007, p. 3.
  8. ^ Geck 2003, pp. 2, 156.
  9. ^ Boyd 2000, p. 6.
  10. ^ a b Wolff et al. 2018, II. List of all family members alphabetically by first name.
  11. ^ a b c Wolff & Emery 2001.
  12. ^ a b Miles 1962, pp. 86–87.
  13. ^ Boyd 2000, pp. 7–8.
  14. ^ David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 299.
  15. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 45.
  16. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 19, 46.
  17. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 73.
  18. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 170.
  19. ^ Spitta 1899a, pp. 186–187.
  20. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 41–43.
  21. ^ a b Eidam 2001, Ch. I
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Johann Sebastian Bach: a detailed informative biography". The Baroque Music Site. from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  23. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 55–56.
  24. ^ Rich 1995, p. 27.
  25. ^ Boyd 2000, pp. 15–16.
  26. ^ Chiapusso 1968, p. 62.
  27. ^ Williams 2003a, p. 40.
  28. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 83ff
  29. ^ Snyder, Kerala J. (2007). Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck (2nd ed.). pp. 104–106. ISBN 978-1-58046-253-2. from the original on 28 September 2015.
  30. ^ a b Wolff 2000, pp. 102–104
  31. ^ Williams 2003a, p. 38–39.
  32. ^ Bach Digital Work 00005 at www.bach-digital.de
  33. ^ "History of the Bach House". Bach House Weimar. from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  34. ^ Forkel 1920, Table VII, p. 309.
  35. ^ Thornburgh, Elaine. . Music in Our World. San Diego State University. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  36. ^ Chiapusso 1968, p. 168.
  37. ^ Schweitzer 1923, p. 331.
  38. ^ Koster, Jan. "Weimar (II) 1708–1717". J. S. Bach Archive and Bibliography. from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  39. ^ a b Sadie, Julie Anne, ed. (1998). Companion to Baroque Music. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-520-21414-9. from the original on 14 May 2015.
  40. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 147, 156.
  41. ^ a b Wolff 1991, p. 30
  42. ^ Gardiner, John Eliot (2010). "Cantatas for Christmas Day: Herderkirche, Weimar" (PDF). pp. 1–2. (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  43. ^ Wolff, Christoph (1996). "From konzertmeister to thomaskantor: Bach's cantata production 1713–1723" (PDF). pp. 15–16. (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  44. ^ David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 80.
  45. ^ Miles 1962, p. 57.
  46. ^ Boyd 2000, p. 74.
  47. ^ Van Til 2007, pp. 69, 372.
  48. ^ Dent 2004, p. 23.
  49. ^ Spaeth 1937, p. 37.
  50. ^ Spitta 1899b, p. 11.
  51. ^ Geiringer 1966, p. 50.
  52. ^ Wolff 1983, pp. 98, 111.
  53. ^ Spitta 1899b, pp. 192–193.
  54. ^ a b Wolff 2013, p. 253
  55. ^ Wolff 2013, p. 345.
  56. ^ Spitta 1899b, p. 265.
  57. ^ Spitta 1899b, p. 184.
  58. ^ "Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)". British Library: Online Gallery. from the original on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  59. ^ Wolff 2013, p. 348.
  60. ^ Wolff 2013, p. 349.
  61. ^ a b Wolff 1997, p. 5
  62. ^ "Motets BWV 225–231". Bach Cantatas Website. from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  63. ^ "Works of Other Composers performed by J.S. Bach". Bach Cantatas Website. from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  64. ^ Boyd 2000, pp. 112–113.
  65. ^ Spitta 1899b, pp. 288–290.
  66. ^ Spitta 1899b, pp. 281, 287.
  67. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 341.
  68. ^ Stauffer 2008
  69. ^ a b "Bach Mass in B Minor BWV 232". The Baroque Music Site. from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  70. ^ US-PRu M 3.1. B2 C5. 1739q 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  71. ^ GB-Lbl Add. MS. 35021 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  72. ^ D-B Mus. ms. 16714 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  73. ^ D-Cv A.V,1109,(1), 1a 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine and 1b 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  74. ^ D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 195 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  75. ^ D-B Mus. ms. 1160 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  76. ^ D-WFe 191 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website (RISM 250000899)
  77. ^ D-Bsa SA 301, Fascicle 1 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine and Fascicle 2 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  78. ^ Neuaufgefundenes Bach-Autograph in Weißenfels 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de
  79. ^ F-Pn Ms. 17669 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  80. ^ D-B N. Mus. ms. 468 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine and Privatbesitz C. Thiele, BWV deest (NBA Serie II:5) 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  81. ^ D-B N. Mus. ms. 307 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  82. ^ D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 271, Fascicle 2 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  83. ^ D-B Mus. ms. 30199, Fascicle 14 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine and D-B Mus. ms. 17155/16 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  84. ^ D-B Mus. ms. 7918 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website
  85. ^ Musikalische Bibliothek, III.2 [1746], 353 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Felbick 2012, 284. In 1746, Mizler announced the membership of three famous members, Musikalische Bibliothek, III.2 [1746], 357 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  86. ^ Musikalische Bibliothek, IV.1 [1754], 108 and Tab. IV, fig. 16 (Source online); letter of Mizler to Spieß, 29 June 1748, in: Hans Rudolf Jung and Hans-Eberhard Dentler: Briefe von Lorenz Mizler und Zeitgenossen an Meinrad Spieß, in: Studi musicali 2003, Nr. 32, 115.
  87. ^ David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 224.
  88. ^ US-PRscheide BWV 645–650 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine (original print of the Schübler Chorales with Bach's handwritten corrections and additions from before August 1748 – description at Bach Digital website)
  89. ^ Breig, Werner (2010). "Introduction 22 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine" (pp. 14, 17–18) in Vol. 6: Clavierübung III, Schübler-Chorales, Canonische Veränderungen 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine of Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Organ Works. 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Breitkopf.
  90. ^ a b c Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel; Agricola, Johann Friedrich (1754). "Nekrolog". Musikalische Bibliothek [de] (in German). Leipzig: Mizlerischer Bücherverlag. IV.1: 158–173. Printed in translation in David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 299.
  91. ^ Hans Gunter Hoke: "Neue Studien zur Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080", in: Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 17 (1975), 95–115; Hans-Eberhard Dentler: "Johann Sebastian Bachs Kunst der Fuge – Ein pythagoreisches Werk und seine Verwirklichung", Mainz 2004; Hans-Eberhard Dentler: "Johann Sebastian Bachs Musicalisches Opfer – Musik als Abbild der Sphärenharmonie", Mainz 2008.
  92. ^ Chiapusso 1968, p. 277.
  93. ^ Rathey, Markus (18 April 2003). Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor: The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People (PDF). The Tangeman Lecture. New Haven. (PDF) from the original on 15 July 2014.
  94. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 442, from David, Mendel & Wolff 1998
  95. ^ Zegers, Richard H.C. (2005). "The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach". Archives of Ophthalmology. 123 (10): 1427–1430. doi:10.1001/archopht.123.10.1427. PMID 16219736.
  96. ^ Hanford, Jan. . J.S. Bach Home Page. Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  97. ^ David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 188.
  98. ^ Spitta 1899c, p. 274.
  99. ^ David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, pp. 191–197.
  100. ^ "Did Bach really leave Art of Fugue unfinished?". The Art of Fugue. American Public Media. from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  101. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 166.
  102. ^ "Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)". British Library. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  103. ^ Herl 2004, p. 123.
  104. ^ Fuller Maitland, J. A., ed. (1911). "Johann Sebastian Bach". Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Publishers. p. 154.
  105. ^ Leaver 2007, pp. 280, 289–291.
  106. ^ Huizenga, Tom. "A Visitor's Guide to the St. Matthew Passion". NPR Music. National Public Radio. from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  107. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. . Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  108. ^ Spitta 1899c, vol. 3, appendix XII, p. 315.
  109. ^ Clemens Romijn. Liner notes for Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, BWV 1083 (after Pergolesi's Stabat Mater). Brilliant Classics, 2000. (2014 reissue: J.S. Bach Complete Edition. "Liner notes" 22 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine p. 54)
  110. ^ Jopi Harri. St. Petersburg Court Chant and the Tradition of Eastern Slavic Church Singing. 20 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Finland: University of Turku (2011), p. 24
  111. ^ Eidam 2001, Ch. IV.
  112. ^ Eidam 2001, Ch. IX.
  113. ^ a b Marshall, Robert L. (1989). Franklin, Don O. (ed.). On the Origin of Bach's Magnificat: a Lutheran composer's challenge. Vol. Bach Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–17. ISBN 978-0-521-34105-9. from the original on 29 April 2016.
  114. ^ Eidam 2001, Ch. III.
  115. ^ Klavierbüchlein für W. F. Bach 18 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine at www.bachdigital.de
  116. ^ Donington 1982, p. 91.
  117. ^ Kuhnau, Johann (1700), Der musicalische Quack-Salber, Dresden
  118. ^ Eidam 2001, Ch. XVIII.
  119. ^ André Isoir (organ) and Le Parlement de Musique conducted by Martin Gester. Johann Sebastian Bach: L'oeuvre pour orgue et orchestre. Calliope 1993. Liner notes by Gilles Cantagrel.
  120. ^ George Frideric Handel. 6 Organ Concertos, Op. 4 at IMSLP website
  121. ^ Peter Wollny, "Harpsichord Concertos," 22 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine booklet notes for Andreas Staier's 2015 recording of the concertos, Harmonia mundi HMC 902181.82
  122. ^ Schulenberg 2006, pp. 1–2.
  123. ^ a b Lester 1999, pp. 3–24
  124. ^ "Did Bach intend Art of Fugue to be performed?". The Art of Fugue. American Public Media. from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  125. ^ Eidam 2001, Ch. XXX.
  126. ^ Forkel 1920, pp. 73–74.
  127. ^ Bach Digital Work 01677 at www.bachdigital.de
  128. ^ Williams 1980, p. 217
  129. ^ Basso, Alberto (1979). Frau Musika: La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach (in Italian). Vol. 1. Turin: EDT. p. 493. ISBN 978-88-7063-011-4.
  130. ^ Don O. Franklin. "The Libretto of Bach's John Passion and the Doctrine of Reconciliation: An Historical Perspective", pp. 179–203 31 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Proceedings of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol. 143 edited by A. A. Clement, 1995.
  131. ^ "Bach Works Catalogue". Bach Digital. from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  132. ^ Wolfgang Schmieder (editor). Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1950. Unaltered through its eighth printing in 1986.
  133. ^ Schmieder, Wolfgang; Alfred, Dürr; Kobayashi, Yoshitake, eds. (1998). (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 978-3-7651-0249-3. Archived from the original on 31 October 2016.
  134. ^ Bach Digital Work 01307
  135. ^ Joel H. Kuznik. "BWV 1128: A recently discovered Bach organ work" pp. 22–23[permanent dead link] in The Diapason, Vol. 99 No. 22. December 2008. ()
  136. ^ Leaver 2007, p. 430.
  137. ^ Williams 2003a, p. 114.
  138. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. "The Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248". Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  139. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. . Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  140. ^ Bach's secular cantatas in BWV order, each followed by a link to the Bach Digital Work (BDW) page of the cantata at the Bach-Digital website:
    1. BWV 30a (BDW 00039)
    2. BWV 36a (BDW 00049)
    3. BWV 36b (BDW 00050)
    4. BWV 36c (BDW 00051)
    5. BWV 66a (BDW 00083)
    6. BWV 134a (BDW 00166)
    7. BWV 173a (BDW 00211)
    8. BWV 184a (BDW 00223)
    9. BWV 193a (BDW 00235)
    10. BWV 194a (BDW 00239)
    11. BWV 198 (BDW 00246)
    12. BWV 201 (BDW 00251)
    13. BWV 202 (BDW 00252)
    14. BWV 203 (BDW 00253)
    15. BWV 204 (BDW 00254)
    16. BWV 205 (BDW 00255)
    17. BWV 205a (BDW 00256)
    18. BWV 206, first version (BDW 00257)
    19. BWV 206, second version (BDW 00258)
    20. BWV 207 (BDW 00259)
    21. BWV 207a (BDW 00260)
    22. BWV 208, first version (BDW 00261)
    23. BWV 208, second version (BDW 00262)
    24. BWV 208a (BDW 00263)
    25. BWV 209 (BDW 00264)
    26. BWV 210 (BDW 00265)
    27. BWV 210a (BDW 00266)
    28. BWV 211 (BDW 00267)
    29. BWV 212 (BDW 00268)
    30. BWV 213 (BDW 00269)
    31. BWV 214 (BDW 00270)
    32. BWV 215 (BDW 00271)
    33. BWV 216 (BDW 00272)
    34. BWV 216a (BDW 00273)
    35. BWV 249a (BDW 00318)
    36. BWV 249b (BDW 00319)
    37. BWV Anh. 6 (BDW 01314)
    38. BWV Anh. 7 (BDW 01315)
    39. BWV Anh. 8 (BDW 01316)
    40. BWV Anh. 9 (BDW 01317)
    41. BWV Anh. 10 (BDW 01318)
    42. BWV Anh. 11 (BDW 01319)
    43. BWV Anh. 12 (BDW 01320)
    44. BWV Anh. 13 (BDW 01321)
    45. BWV Anh. 18 (BDW 01326)
    46. BWV Anh. 19 (BDW 01327)
    47. BWV Anh. 20 (BDW 01328)
    48. BWV Anh. 195 (BDW 01506)
    49. BWV Anh. 196 (BDW 01507)
    50. BWV deest (BDW 01536)
  141. ^ For instance, Helmut Rilling's box set of the complete secular cantatas 19 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine contains 22 works
  142. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 100–101.
  143. ^ "Especially in its opening chorus, it is one of Bach's contrapuntal masterpieces": Robin A. Leaver in Boyd 1999.
  144. ^ "one of Bach's best-known church works" wrote David Schulenberg in Boyd 1999.
  145. ^ Bach Digital Work 00246 at www.bachdigital.de
  146. ^ Bach Digital Work 00261, 00262 at www.bachdigital.de
  147. ^ Bach Digital Work 00268 at www.bachdigital.de
  148. ^ Bach Digital Work 00253 at www.bachdigital.de
  149. ^ Bach Digital Work 01319, 01320 at www.bachdigital.de
  150. ^ Bach Digital Work 00251 at www.bachdigital.de
  151. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. "Cantata BWV 211, Coffee Cantata". Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  152. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 65
  153. ^ Wolff 2000, p. 363.
  154. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. "Choral Works". Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  155. ^ Melamed, Daniel R. (1995). J. S. Bach and the German Motet. pp. 90–94. ISBN 978-0-521-41864-5. from the original on 15 May 2015.
  156. ^ "The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232". Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  157. ^ Herz 1985, p. 187.
  158. ^ . GMN ClassicalPlus. Archived from the original on 19 June 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
  159. ^ Smith, Timothy A. "Arnstadt (1703–1707)". The Canons and Fugues of J. S. Bach. from the original on 5 February 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
  160. ^ Schweitzer 1923, p. 333.
  161. ^ Kroesbergen, Willem; Cruickshank, Andrew (October 2015) [November 2013]. "18th Century Quotations Relating to J. S. Bach's Temperament" (2nd ed.). Academia.edu.
  162. ^ Tomita, Yo. "J. S. Bach: Inventions and Sinfonias". from the original on 20 January 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  163. ^ McComb, Todd M. "Bach: English Suites". Early Music FAQ. from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  164. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. . Bach 101. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  165. ^ McComb, Todd M. "Bach: Partitas, BWV 825–30". Early Music FAQ. from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
  166. ^ Libbey, Ted. "Gold Standard for Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'". NPR Music. National Public Radio. from the original on 19 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  167. ^ Bratman, David. "Shaham: Bold, Brilliant, All-Bach". San Francisco Classical Voice. from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  168. ^ Wolff 1991, p. 111.
  169. ^ Schwarm, Betsy (19 April 2019). "The Art of Fugue | History, Description & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  170. ^ . Music of the Baroque. Archived from the original on 27 December 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  171. ^ Traupman-Carr, Carol. . Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  172. ^ Forkel 1920, pp. 10–11.
  173. ^ Forkel 1920, pp. 140–141.
  174. ^ Zehnder, Jean-Claude (2011) Toccatas and Fugues / Individual Works. 23 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel. Introduction p. 20.
  175. ^ Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. Church Publishing, Inc. 17 December 2019. ISBN 978-1-64065-235-4.
  176. ^ "Church Music Sunday" (PDF). Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 2013.
  177. ^ Geck 2003, p. 141.
  178. ^ Johann Sebastian Bach. Letter to Augustus III of Poland. 27 July 1733; Quoted in Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. W. W. Norton, 1945, p. 128; Quoted in David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 158.
  179. ^ Johann Adolf Scheibe. pp. 46–47 in Critischer Musicus VI, 14 May 1737. Quoted in Eidam 2001, Ch. XXII.
  180. ^ Johann Mattheson. Das Beschützte Orchestre, oder desselben Zweyte Eröffnung, footnote p. 222 Hamburg: Schiller, 1717.
  181. ^ Lorenz Christoph Mizler. Musikalische Bibliothek. Volume I, Part 4, pp. 61–73. Leipzig, April 1738. Includes a reprint of Johann Abraham Birnbaum's Unpartheyische Anmerckungen über eine bedenckliche stelle in dem Sechsten stück des Critischen Musicus. 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine published early January of the same year.
  182. ^ Bach was regarded as "passé even in his own lifetime". (Morris 2005, p. 2)
  183. ^ Wolff 2000, pp. 456–461.
  184. ^ Forkel 1920, pp. 85–86.
  185. ^ Listing of manuscripts of Bach compositions once in the possession of C. P. E. Bach[permanent dead link] at www.bach-digital.de
  186. ^ Peter Wollny. "Chapter twelve: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Halle performances of cantatas by his father", pp. 202–228 in Bach Studies 2 edited by Daniel R. Melamed. Cambridge University Press 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-02891-2
  187. ^ Forkel 1920, p. 139.
  188. ^ Wolff 2013, p. 459.
  189. ^ a b c d Christoph Wolff. "A Bach Cult in Late-Eighteenth-Century Berlin: Sara Levy's Musical Salon" 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Bulletin of the American Academy. Spring 2005. pp. 26–31.
  190. ^ a b Applegate 2005, p. 14
  191. ^ Spitta 1899b, p. 518–519, 611.
  192. ^ A-Wgm A 169 b (III 31685) 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at www.bachdigital.de
  193. ^ Preludes and Fugues, K.404a: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
  194. ^ Köchel, Ludwig Ritter von (1862). Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amade Mozart's (in German). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. OCLC 3309798. from the original on 29 April 2016., No. 405, pp. 328–329
  195. ^ "Bach, Mozart and the 'Musical Midwife'". from the original on 4 November 2015.
  196. ^ Brown, A. Peter, The Symphonic Repertoire (Volume 2). Indiana University Press (ISBN 978-0-253-33487-9), pp. 423–432 (2002).
  197. ^ a b c d e f McKay, Cory. "The Bach Reception in the 18th and 19th century" 2 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine at www.music.mcgill.ca
  198. ^ a b Schenk, Winston & Winston 1959, p. 452
  199. ^ Daniel Heartz. Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven: 1781–1802, p. 678. W. W. Norton, 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-28578-9
  200. ^ Kerst 1904, p. 101.
  201. ^ Edward Noel Green. Chromatic Completion in the Late Vocal Music of Haydn and Mozart: A Technical, Philosophic, and Historical Study, p. 273 New York University. ISBN 978-0-549-79451-6
  202. ^ Geck 2006, pp. 9–10.
  203. ^ Schneider 1907, p. 94.
  204. ^ Schneider 1907, pp. 96–97.
  205. ^ Schneider 1907, p. 100.
  206. ^ Forkel 1920, p. xvii.
  207. ^ Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Magnificat, MWV A2 edited by Pietro Zappalà. Carus, 1996. Foreword, p. VI
  208. ^ Johann Sebastian Bach's noch wenig bekannte Orgelcompositionen (auch am Pianoforte von einem oder zwei Spielern ausführbar), three volumes, edited by Adolph Bernhard Marx. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1833
  209. ^ Kupferberg 1985, p. 126.
  210. ^ Spitta 1899a, 1899b, 1899c (first publication in German, in two volumes: Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel 1873 and 1880)
  211. ^ "Robert Johnson and Pablo Casals' Game Changers Turn 70". NPR Music. National Public Radio. from the original on 24 February 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
  212. ^ McComb, Todd M. "What is Early Music?–Historically Informed Performance". Early Music FAQ. from the original on 6 January 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  213. ^ Shipton, Alyn. "Bach and Jazz". A Bach Christmas. BBC Radio 3. from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
  214. ^ a b Rokus de Groot (2000). "And Nowhere Bach. Bach Reception in a Late Twentieth-Century Dutch Composition by Elmer Schönberger" pp. 145–158 in Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, volume 50, no. 1/2.
  215. ^ "Bach Edition" 10 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at www.musicweb-international.com 1 December 2001
  216. ^ Teldec's 1999 Bach 2000 Box set, Limited Edition 12 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine at www.amazon.com
  217. ^ Bach-Edition: The Complete Works (172 CDs & CDR) 29 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine at the Hänssler Classic website
  218. ^ "Golden Record: Music from Earth". NASA. from the original on 1 July 2013. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  219. ^ Bach 23 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
  220. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". from the original on 24 February 2017.
  221. ^ List of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Category:Bach, Johann Sebastian at IMSLP website
  222. ^ "Bach Digital". bach-digital.de. Bach Digital. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  223. ^ "Autograph of h-Moll-Messe (Mass in B minor) by Johann Sebastian Bach". UNESCO. 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  224. ^ BBC Music Magazine (31 October 2019). "JS Bach is the greatest composer of all time, say today's leading composers for BBC Music Magazine". classical-music.com Ltd. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  225. ^ Zegers, Richard H.C.; Maas, Mario; Koopman, A.G. & Maat, George J.R. (2009). "Are the alleged remains of Johann Sebastian Bach authentic?" (PDF). The Medical Journal of Australia. 190 (4): 213–216. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02354.x. PMID 19220191. S2CID 7925258. (PDF) from the original on 2 December 2013.

Works cited

Biographies

See also: Biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach

Other

Further reading

See: Crist & Stauff 2011, for an extensive bibliography.

External links

 
German Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Johann Sebastian Bach

Scores

Recordings

January 26, 2023
johann, sebastian, bach, this, article, about, composer, painter, painter, series, series, bach, redirects, here, other, uses, bach, disambiguation, this, article, have, many, section, headers, dividing, content, please, help, improve, article, merging, simila. This article is about the composer For the painter see Johann Sebastian Bach painter For the TV series see Johann Sebastian Bach TV series Bach redirects here For other uses see Bach disambiguation This article may have too many section headers dividing up its content Please help improve the article by merging similar sections and removing unneeded subheaders July 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Johann Sebastian Bach n 2 31 March O S 21 March 1685 28 July 1750 was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period He is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well Tempered Clavier organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor Since the 19th century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music 2 3 Johann Sebastian BachPortrait of Bach by E G Haussmann 1748 n 1 Born21 March 1685 O S 31 March 1685 1685 03 31 N S EisenachDied28 July 1750 1750 07 28 aged 65 LeipzigWorksList of compositionsSignatureThe Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach After being orphaned at the age of 10 he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph after which he continued his musical education in Luneburg From 1703 he was back in Thuringia working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Muhlhausen and for longer stretches of time at courts in Weimar where he expanded his organ repertory and Kothen where he was mostly engaged with chamber music From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor cantor at St Thomas s in Leipzig There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and for its university s student ensemble Collegium Musicum From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music In Leipzig as had happened during some of his earlier positions he had difficult relations with his employer a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign Augustus III of Poland in 1736 In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65 Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint harmonic and motivic organisation 4 and his adaptation of rhythms forms and textures from abroad particularly from Italy and France Bach s compositions include hundreds of cantatas both sacred and secular He composed Latin church music Passions oratorios and motets He often adopted Lutheran hymns not only in his larger vocal works but for instance also in his four part chorales and his sacred songs He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments He composed concertos for instance for violin and for harpsichord and suites as chamber music as well as for orchestra Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue Throughout the 18th century Bach was primarily valued as an organist while his keyboard music such as The Well Tempered Clavier was appreciated for its didactic qualities The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals and later also websites exclusively devoted to him and other publications such as the Bach Werke Verzeichnis BWV a numbered catalogue of his works and new critical editions of his compositions His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements including the Air on the G String and Jesu Joy of Man s Desiring and of recordings such as three different box sets with complete performances of the composer s oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death Contents 1 Life 1 1 Childhood 1685 1703 1 2 Weimar Arnstadt and Muhlhausen 1703 1708 1 3 Return to Weimar 1708 1717 1 4 Kothen 1717 1723 1 5 Leipzig 1723 1750 1 5 1 Appointment in Leipzig 1 5 2 Cantata cycle years 1723 1729 1 5 3 Middle years of the Leipzig period 1730 1739 1 5 4 Final years and death 1740 1750 2 Musical style 2 1 Four part harmony 2 2 Modulation 2 3 Ornamentation 2 4 Continuo instruments solos 2 5 Instrumentation 2 6 Counterpoint 2 7 Structure and lyrics 3 Compositions 3 1 Passions and oratorios 3 2 Cantatas 3 2 1 Church cantatas 3 2 2 Secular cantatas 3 3 A cappella music 3 3 1 Motets 3 3 2 Chorale harmonisations 3 4 Church music in Latin 3 4 1 Magnificat 3 4 2 Mass in B minor 3 5 Keyboard music 3 5 1 Organ works 3 5 2 Harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments 3 6 Orchestral and chamber music 3 6 1 Violin concertos 3 6 2 Brandenburg Concertos 3 6 3 Keyboard concertos 3 6 4 Orchestral suites 3 7 Copies arrangements and uncertain attributions 4 Reception 4 1 18th century 4 2 19th century 4 3 20th century 4 4 21st century 4 5 Burial site 5 References 5 1 Notes 5 2 Citations 5 3 Works cited 5 3 1 Biographies 5 3 2 Other 6 Further reading 7 External linksLifeChildhood 1685 1703 Johann Ambrosius Bach 1685 Bach s father Painting attributed to Johann David Herlicius de Further information Bach family Johann Sebastian Bach n 2 was born in Eisenach the capital of the duchy of Saxe Eisenach in present day Germany on 21 March 1685 O S 31 March 1685 N S He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach the director of the town musicians and Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt 7 8 9 His father likely taught him violin and basic music theory His uncles were all professional musicians whose posts included church organists court chamber musicians and composers 10 One uncle Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ 11 and an older second cousin Johann Ludwig Bach was a well known composer and violinist 10 n 3 Bach s mother died in 1694 and his father died eight months later 12 The 10 year old Bach moved in with his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach the organist at St Michael s Church in Ohrdruf Saxe Gotha Altenburg 13 There he studied performed and copied music including his own brother s despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper of that type was costly 14 15 He received valuable teaching from his brother who instructed him on the clavichord Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of great composers of the day including South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann Pachelbel under whom Johann Christoph had studied North Germans 16 Frenchmen such as Jean Baptiste Lully Louis Marchand and Marin Marais 17 and even the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi 18 During this time he was also taught theology Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium 19 By 3 April 1700 Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann who was two years Bach s elder were enrolled in the prestigious St Michael s School in Luneburg some two weeks travel north of Ohrdruf 20 21 Their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot 21 His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a wider range of European culture In addition to singing in the choir he played the school s three manual organ and harpsichords 22 He also came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines 23 Weimar Arnstadt and Muhlhausen 1703 1708 The Wender organ Bach played in Arnstadt In January 1703 shortly after graduating from St Michael s and being turned down for the post of organist at Sangerhausen 24 Bach was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar 25 His role there is unclear but it probably included menial non musical duties During his seven month tenure at Weimar his reputation as a keyboardist spread so much that he was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church now Bach Church in Arnstadt located about 30 kilometres 19 mi southwest of Weimar 26 On 14 August 1703 he became the organist at the New Church 11 with light duties a relatively generous salary and a new organ tuned in a temperament that allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be played 27 Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir He called one of them a Zippel Fagottist weenie bassoon player Late one evening this student named Geyersbach went after Bach with a stick Bach filed a complaint against Geyersbach with the authorities They acquitted Geyersbach with a minor reprimand and ordered Bach to be more moderate regarding the musical qualities he expected from his students Some months later Bach upset his employer by a prolonged absence from Arnstadt after obtaining leave for four weeks he was absent for around four months in 1705 1706 to visit the organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude in the northern city of Lubeck The visit to Buxtehude involved a 450 kilometre 280 mi journey each way reportedly on foot 28 29 In 1706 Bach applied for a post as organist at the Blasius Church in Muhlhausen 30 31 As part of his application he had a cantata performed on Easter 24 April 1707 likely an early version of his Christ lag in Todes Banden 32 A month later Bach s application was accepted and he took up the post in July 30 The position included significantly higher remuneration improved conditions and a better choir Four months after arriving at Muhlhausen Bach married Maria Barbara Bach his second cousin Bach was able to convince the church and town government at Muhlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church In 1708 Bach wrote Gott ist mein Konig a festive cantata for the inauguration of the new council which was published at the council s expense 22 Return to Weimar 1708 1717 Organ of the St Paul s Church in Leipzig tested by Bach in 1717 Further information Erschallet ihr Lieder erklinget ihr Saiten BWV 172 Background Bach left Muhlhausen in 1708 returning to Weimar this time as organist and from 1714 Konzertmeister director of music at the ducal court where he had an opportunity to work with a large well funded contingent of professional musicians 22 Bach and his wife moved into a house close to the ducal palace 33 Later the same year their first child Catharina Dorothea was born and Maria Barbara s elder unmarried sister joined them She remained to help run the household until her death in 1729 Three sons were also born in Weimar Wilhelm Friedemann Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Gottfried Bernhard Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children who however did not live to their first birthday including twins born in 1713 34 Bach s time in Weimar was the start of a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and include influences from abroad He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi Corelli and Torelli Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects in part by transcribing Vivaldi s string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ many of these transcribed works are still regularly performed Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style in which one or more solo instruments alternate section by section with the full orchestra throughout a movement 35 In Weimar Bach continued to play and compose for the organ and perform concert music with the duke s ensemble 22 He also began to write the preludes and fugues which were later assembled into his monumental work The Well Tempered Clavier clavier meaning clavichord or harpsichord 36 consisting of two books 37 each containing 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key Bach also started work on the Little Organ Book in Weimar containing traditional Lutheran chorale tunes set in complex textures In 1713 Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady 38 39 In the spring of 1714 Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister an honour that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the castle church 40 The first three cantatas in the new series Bach composed in Weimar were Himmelskonig sei willkommen BWV 182 for Palm Sunday which coincided with the Annunciation that year Weinen Klagen Sorgen Zagen BWV 12 for Jubilate Sunday and Erschallet ihr Lieder erklinget ihr Saiten BWV 172 for Pentecost 41 Bach s first Christmas cantata Christen atzet diesen Tag BWV 63 was premiered in 1714 or 1715 42 43 In 1717 Bach eventually fell out of favour in Weimar and according to a translation of the court secretary s report was jailed for almost a month before being unfavourably dismissed On November 6 1717 the quondam former concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge s place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavourable discharge 44 Kothen 1717 1723 Bach s autograph of the first movement of the first sonata for solo violin BWV 1001 source source Leopold Prince of Anhalt Kothen hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister director of music in 1717 Prince Leopold himself a musician appreciated Bach s talents paid him well and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing The prince was a Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship accordingly most of Bach s work from this period was secular 45 including the orchestral suites cello suites sonatas and partitas for solo violin and Brandenburg Concertos 46 Bach also composed secular cantatas for the court such as Die Zeit die Tag und Jahre macht BWV 134a Despite being born in the same year and only about 130 kilometres 80 mi apart Bach and Handel never met In 1719 Bach made the 35 kilometre 22 mi journey from Kothen to Halle with the intention of meeting Handel however Handel had left the town 47 48 In 1730 Bach s oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann travelled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in Leipzig but the visit did not take place 49 On 7 July 1720 while Bach was away in Carlsbad with Prince Leopold Bach s wife suddenly died 50 The following year he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke a young highly gifted soprano 16 years his junior who performed at the court in Kothen they married on 3 December 1721 51 Together they had 13 children six of whom survived into adulthood Gottfried Heinrich Elisabeth Juliane Friederica 1726 1781 Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian who both especially Johann Christian became significant musicians Johanna Carolina 1737 1781 and Regina Susanna 1742 1809 52 Leipzig 1723 1750 In 1723 Bach was appointed Thomaskantor Cantor of the St Thomas School at the St Thomas Church in Leipzig which provided music for four churches in the city the St Thomas Church and St Nicholas Church and to a lesser extent the New Church and St Peter s Church 53 This was the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany 54 located in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony which he held for 27 years until his death During that time he gained further prestige through honorary appointments at the courts of Kothen and Weissenfels as well as that of the Elector Frederick Augustus who was also King of Poland in Dresden 54 Bach frequently disagreed with his employer Leipzig s city council which he regarded as penny pinching 55 Appointment in Leipzig St Thomas Church and School Leipzig in 1723 Johann Kuhnau had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1701 until his death on 5 June 1722 Bach had visited Leipzig during Kuhnau s tenure in 1714 he attended the service at the St Thomas Church on the first Sunday of Advent 56 and in 1717 he had tested the organ of the St Paul s Church 57 In 1716 Bach and Kuhnau had met on the occasion of the testing and inauguration of an organ in Halle 39 After being offered the position Bach was invited to Leipzig only after Georg Philipp Telemann indicated that he would not be interested in relocating to Leipzig 58 Telemann went to Hamburg where he had his own struggles with the city s senate 59 Bach was required to instruct the students of the Thomasschule in singing and provide church music for the main churches in Leipzig He was also assigned to teach Latin but was allowed to employ four prefects deputies to do this instead The prefects also aided with musical instruction 60 A cantata was required for the church services on Sundays and additional church holidays during the liturgical year Cantata cycle years 1723 1729 Bach usually led performances of his cantatas most of which were composed within three years of his relocation to Leipzig The first was Die Elenden sollen essen BWV 75 performed in the St Nicholas Church on 30 May 1723 the first Sunday after Trinity Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles Five are mentioned in obituaries three are extant 41 Of the more than 300 cantatas which Bach composed in Leipzig over 100 have been lost to posterity 61 Most of these works expound on the Gospel readings prescribed for every Sunday and feast day in the Lutheran year Bach started a second annual cycle the first Sunday after Trinity of 1724 and composed only chorale cantatas each based on a single church hymn These include O Ewigkeit du Donnerwort BWV 20 Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140 Nun komm der Heiden Heiland BWV 62 and Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern BWV 1 Bach drew the soprano and alto choristers from the school and the tenors and basses from the school and elsewhere in Leipzig Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income for these groups it was probably for this purpose and for in school training that he wrote at least six motets 62 As part of his regular church work he performed other composers motets which served as formal models for his own 63 Bach s predecessor as cantor Johann Kuhnau had also been music director for the St Paul s Church the church of Leipzig University But when Bach was installed as cantor in 1723 he was put in charge only of music for festal church holiday services at the St Paul s Church his petition to also provide music for regular Sunday services there for a corresponding salary increase went all the way to the Elector but was denied After this in 1725 Bach lost interest in working even for festal services at the St Paul s Church and appeared there only on special occasions 64 The St Paul s Church had a much better and newer 1716 organ than did the St Thomas Church or the St Nicholas Church 65 Bach was not required to play any organ in his official duties but it is believed he liked to play on the St Paul s Church organ for his own pleasure 66 Cafe Zimmermann c 1720 Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over in March 1729 the directorship of the Collegium Musicum a secular performance ensemble started by Telemann This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German speaking cities that were established by musically active university students these societies had become increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city In the words of Christoph Wolff assuming the directorship was a shrewd move that consolidated Bach s firm grip on Leipzig s principal musical institutions 67 Every week the Collegium Musicum would give two hour performances in winter at the Cafe Zimmermann a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main market square and during the summer months in the proprietor s outdoor coffee garden just outside the town walls near the East Gate The concerts all free of charge ended with Gottfried Zimmermann s death in 1741 Apart from showcasing his earlier orchestral repertoire such as the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites many of Bach s newly composed or reworked pieces were performed for these venues including parts of his Clavier Ubung Keyboard Practice his violin and keyboard concertos and of course the eponymous Coffee Cantata 22 68 Middle years of the Leipzig period 1730 1739 Bach s seal centre used throughout his Leipzig years It contains the superimposed letters J S B in mirror image topped with a crown The flanking letters illustrate the arrangement on the seal In 1733 Bach composed a Kyrie Gloria Mass in B minor which he later incorporated in his Mass in B minor He presented the manuscript to the Elector in an eventually successful bid to persuade the prince to give him the title of Court Composer 69 He later extended this work into a full mass by adding a Credo Sanctus and Agnus Dei the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas and partly original Bach s appointment as Court Composer was an element of his long term struggle to achieve greater bargaining power with the Leipzig council Between 1737 and 1739 Bach s former pupil Carl Gotthelf Gerlach held the directorship of the Collegium Musicum In 1735 Bach started to prepare his first publication of organ music which was printed as the third Clavier Ubung in 1739 70 From around that year he started to compile and compose the set of preludes and fugues for harpsichord that would become his second book of The Well Tempered Clavier 71 He received the title of Royal Court Composer from Augustus III in 1736 69 12 Final years and death 1740 1750 From 1740 to 1748 Bach copied transcribed expanded or programmed music in an older polyphonic style stile antico by among others Palestrina BNB I P 2 72 Kerll BWV 241 73 Torri BWV Anh 30 74 Bassani BWV 1081 75 Gasparini Missa Canonica 76 and Caldara BWV 1082 77 Bach s own style shifted in the last decade of his life showing an increased integration of polyphonic structures and canons and other elements of the stile antico 78 His fourth and last Clavier Ubung volume the Goldberg Variations for two manual harpsichord contained nine canons and was published in 1741 79 Throughout this period Bach also continued to adopt music of contemporaries such as Handel BNB I K 2 80 and Stolzel BWV 200 81 and gave many of his own earlier compositions such as the St Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes 82 their final revisions He also programmed and adapted music by composers of a younger generation including Pergolesi BWV 1083 83 and his own students such as Goldberg BNB I G 2 84 In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler s Society of Musical Sciences de 85 In order to be admitted Bach had to submit a composition for which he chose his Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her and a portrait which was painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann and featured Bach s Canon triplex a 6 Voc 86 In May 1747 Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam The king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme Bach obliged playing a three part fugue on one of Frederick s fortepianos by Gottfried Silbermann 87 which was a new type of instrument at the time Upon his return to Leipzig he composed a set of fugues and canons and a trio sonata based on the Thema Regium theme of the king Within a few weeks this music was published as The Musical Offering and dedicated to Frederick The Schubler Chorales a set of six chorale preludes transcribed from cantata movements Bach had composed some two decades earlier were published within a year 88 89 Around the same time the set of five canonic variations which Bach had submitted when entering Mizler s society in 1747 were also printed 90 Two large scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach s last years From around 1742 he wrote and revised the various canons and fugues of The Art of Fugue which he continued to prepare for publication until shortly before his death 91 92 After extracting a cantata BWV 191 from his 1733 Kyrie Gloria Mass for the Dresden court in the mid 1740s Bach expanded that setting into his Mass in B minor in the last years of his life Although the complete mass was never performed during the composer s lifetime it is considered to be among the greatest choral works in history 93 In January 1749 Bach s daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann Christoph Altnickol Bach s health was however declining On 2 June Heinrich von Bruhl wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director Johann Gottlob Harrer fill the Thomaskantor and Director musices posts upon the eventual decease of Mr Bach 94 Becoming blind Bach underwent eye surgery in March 1750 and again in April by the British eye surgeon John Taylor a man widely understood today as a charlatan and believed to have blinded hundreds of people 95 Bach died on 28 July 1750 from complications due to the unsuccessful treatment 96 97 98 An inventory drawn up a few months after Bach s death shows that his estate included five harpsichords two lute harpsichords three violins three violas two cellos a viola da gamba a lute and a spinet along with 52 sacred books including works by Martin Luther and Josephus 99 The composer s son Carl Philipp Emanuel saw to it that The Art of Fugue although still unfinished was published in 1751 100 Together with one of the composer s former students Johann Friedrich Agricola the son also wrote the obituary Nekrolog which was published in Mizler s Musikalische Bibliothek de a periodical journal produced by the Society of Musical Sciences in 1754 90 Musical style A handwritten note by Bach in his copy of the Calov Bible The note next to 2 Chronicles 5 13 reads NB Bey einer andachtigen Musiq ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart N ota B ene In a music of worship God is always present with his grace See also List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach From an early age Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period and those of prior generations and those influences were reflected in his music 101 Like his contemporaries Handel Telemann and Vivaldi Bach composed concertos suites recitatives da capo arias and four part choral music and employed basso continuo Bach s music was harmonically more innovative than his peer composers employing surprisingly dissonant chords and progressions often with extensive exploration of harmonic possibilities within one piece 102 The hundreds of sacred works Bach created are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but also a truly devout relationship with God 103 104 He had taught Luther s Small Catechism as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig and some of his pieces represent it 105 The Lutheran chorale was the basis of much of his work In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes he wrote more cogent and tightly integrated works than most even when they were massive and lengthy citation needed The large scale structure of every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle elaborate planning to create a religiously and musically powerful expression For example the St Matthew Passion like other works of its kind illustrated the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives arias choruses and chorales but in crafting this work Bach created an overall experience that has been found over the intervening centuries to be both musically thrilling and spiritually profound 106 Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many collections of pieces that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except opera For example The Well Tempered Clavier comprises two books each of which presents a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key displaying a dizzying variety of structural contrapuntal and fugal techniques 107 Four part harmony O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden the four part chorale setting as included in the St Matthew Passion Four part harmonies predate Bach but he lived during a time when modal music in Western tradition was largely supplanted in favour of the tonal system In this system a piece of music progresses from one chord to the next according to certain rules each chord being characterised by four notes The principles of four part harmony are found not only in Bach s four part choral music he also prescribes it for instance for the figured bass accompaniment 108 The new system was at the core of Bach s style and his compositions are to a large extent considered as laying down the rules for the evolving scheme that would dominate musical expression in the next centuries Some examples of this characteristic of Bach s style and its influence When in the 1740s Bach staged his arrangement of Pergolesi s Stabat Mater he upgraded the viola part which in the original composition plays in unison with the bass part to fill out the harmony thus adapting the composition to his four part harmony style 109 When starting in the 19th century in Russia there was a discussion about the authenticity of four part court chant settings compared to earlier Russian traditions Bach s four part chorale settings such as those ending his Chorale cantatas were considered as foreign influenced models Such influence was deemed unavoidable however 110 Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 performed by Kevin MacLeod 1 Fantasia source source 2 Fugue source source Bach re interpreting older genres tied to the modal system Bach s insistence on the tonal system and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at ease with the older modal system and the genres associated with it more than his contemporaries who had moved on to the tonal system without much exception Bach often returned to the then antiquated modi and genres His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue emulating the chromatic fantasia genre as used by earlier composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck in D dorian mode comparable to D minor in the tonal system is an example of this Modulation Modulation or changing key in the course of a piece is another style characteristic where Bach goes beyond what was usual in his time Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation possibilities keyboard instruments prior to a workable system of temperament limited the keys that could be modulated to and wind instruments especially brass instruments such as trumpets and horns about a century before they were fitted with valves were tied to the key of their tuning Bach pushed the limits he added strange tones in his organ playing confusing the singing according to an indictment he had to face in Arnstadt 111 and Louis Marchand another early experimenter with modulation seems to have avoided confrontation with Bach because the latter went further than anyone had done before 112 In the Suscepit Israel of his 1723 Magnificat he had the trumpets in E flat play a melody in the enharmonic scale of C minor 113 The major development taking place in Bach s time and to which he contributed in no small way was a temperament for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in all available keys 12 major and 12 minor and also modulation without retuning His Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother a very early work showed a gusto for modulation unlike any contemporary work this composition has been compared to 114 but the full expansion came with the Well Tempered Clavier using all keys which Bach apparently had been developing since around 1720 the Klavierbuchlein fur Wilhelm Friedemann Bach being one of its earliest examples 115 Ornamentation Bach s guide on ornaments as contained in the Klavierbuchlein fur Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Aria of the Goldberg Variations showing Bach s use of ornaments source source The second page of the Klavierbuchlein fur Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and performance guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son who was nine years old at the time Bach was generally quite specific on ornamentation in his compositions where in his time much of the ornamentation was not written out by composers but rather considered a liberty of the performer 116 and his ornamentation was often quite elaborate For instance the Aria of the Goldberg Variations has rich ornamentation in nearly every measure Bach s dealing with ornamentation can also be seen in a keyboard arrangement he made of Marcello s Oboe Concerto he added explicit ornamentation which some centuries later is played by oboists when performing the concerto Although Bach did not write any operas he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal style In church music Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as the Neapolitan mass In Protestant surroundings there was more reluctance to adopt such a style for liturgical music For instance Kuhnau Bach s predecessor in Leipzig had notoriously shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music 117 Bach was less moved One of the comments after a performance of his St Matthew Passion was that it all sounded much like opera 118 Continuo instruments solos In concerted playing in Bach s time the basso continuo consisting of instruments such as organ viola da gamba or harpsichord usually had the role of accompaniment providing the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of a piece From the late 1720s Bach had the organ play concertante i e as a soloist with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements 119 a decade before Handel published his first organ concertos 120 Apart from the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and the Triple Concerto which already had harpsichord soloists in the 1720s Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s 121 and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord neither instrument plays a continuo part they are treated as equal soloists far beyond the figured bass In this sense Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto 122 Instrumentation Bach wrote virtuoso music for specific instruments as well as music independent of instrumentation For instance the sonatas and partitas for solo violin are considered the pinnacle of what has been written for this instrument only within reach of accomplished players The music fits the instrument pushing it to the full scale of its possibilities and requiring virtuosity of the player but without bravura 123 Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem inseparable Bach made transcriptions for other instruments of some pieces of this collection Similarly for the cello suites the virtuoso music seems tailored for the instrument the best of what is offered for it yet Bach made an arrangement for lute of one of these suites The same applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music Bach exploited the capabilities of an instrument to the fullest while keeping the core of such music independent of the instrument on which it is performed In this sense it is no surprise that Bach s music is easily and often performed on instruments it was not necessarily written for that it is transcribed so often and that his melodies turn up in unexpected places such as jazz music Apart from this Bach left a number of compositions without specified instrumentation the canons BWV 1072 1078 fall in that category as well as the bulk of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue 124 Counterpoint Analysis of the counterpoint of the chorale prelude Herr Jesu Christ dich zu uns wend BWV 632 Orgelbuchlein BWV 632 extract 0 48 source source source source source source source source source source source source source source This video shows the intertwining of melodies and motives including the melody of the chorale Herr Jesu Christ dich zu uns wend source source source Sonata No 3 in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1029 performed by John Michel 1st movement source source 2nd movement source source 3rd movement source source Continuo instruments moving to the front here performed on cello and piano Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D minor BWV 1052 performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Schindler with Johannes Volker Schmidt piano 1 Allegro source source 2 Adagio source source 3 Allegro source source Keyboard concerto Double Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1043 performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra with David Perry and Roxana Pavel Goldstein violins 1 Vivace source source 2 Largo ma non tanto source source 3 Allegro source source A strictly contrapuntal composition the two violins playing in canon throughout in the guise of an Italian type of concerto See also List of fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach Another characteristic of Bach s style is his extensive use of counterpoint as opposed to the homophony used in his four part Chorale settings for example Bach s canons and especially his fugues are most characteristic of this style which Bach did not invent but contributed to so fundamentally that he defined it to a large extent Fugues are as characteristic to Bach s style as for instance the Sonata form is characteristic to the composers of the Classical period 125 These strictly contrapuntal compositions and most of Bach s music in general are characterised by distinct melodic lines for each of the voices where the chords formed by the notes sounding at a given point follow the rules of four part harmony Johann Nikolaus Forkel Bach s first biographer gives this description of this feature of Bach s music which sets it apart from most other music If the language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line a simple sequence of musical notes it can justly be accused of poverty The addition of a Bass puts it upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it but defines rather than gives it added richness A melody so accompanied even though all the notes are not those of the true Bass or treated with simple embellishments in the upper parts or with simple chords used to be called homophony But it is a very different thing when two melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a footing of pleasant equality In the first case the accompaniment is subordinate and serves merely to support the first or principal part In the second case the two parts are not similarly related New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving out of which new forms of musical expression emerge If more parts are interwoven in the same free and independent manner the apparatus of language is correspondingly enlarged and becomes practically inexhaustible if in addition varieties of form and rhythm are introduced Hence harmony becomes no longer a mere accompaniment of melody but rather a potent agency for augmenting the richness and expressiveness of musical conversation To serve that end a simple accompaniment will not suffice True harmony is the interweaving of several melodies which emerge now in the upper now in the middle and now in the lower parts From about the year 1720 when he was thirty five until his death in 1750 Bach s harmony consists in this melodic interweaving of independent melodies so perfect in their union that each part seems to constitute the true melody Herein Bach excels all the composers in the world At least I have found no one to equal him in music known to me Even in his four part writing we can not infrequently leave out the upper and lower parts and still find the middle parts melodious and agreeable 126 Structure and lyrics Bach devoted more attention than his contemporaries to the structure of compositions This can be seen in minor adjustments he made when adapting someone else s composition such as his earliest version of the Keiser St Mark Passion where he enhances scene transitions 127 and in the architecture of his own compositions such as his Magnificat 113 and Leipzig Passions In the last years of his life Bach revised several of his prior compositions Often the recasting of such previously composed music in an enhanced structure was the most visible change as in the Mass in B minor Bach s known preoccupation with structure led peaking around the 1970s to various numerological analyses of his compositions although many such over interpretations were later rejected especially when wandering off into symbolism ridden hermeneutics 128 129 The librettos or lyrics of his vocal compositions played an important role for Bach He sought collaboration with various text authors for his cantatas and major vocal compositions possibly writing or adapting such texts himself to make them fit the structure of the composition he was designing when he could not rely on the talents of other text authors His collaboration with Picander for the St Matthew Passion libretto is best known but there was a similar process in achieving a multi layered structure for his St John Passion libretto a few years earlier 130 CompositionsSee also List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach In 1950 Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalogue of Bach s compositions called the Bach Werke Verzeichnis Bach Works Catalogue 131 Schmieder largely followed the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe a comprehensive edition of the composer s works that was produced between 1850 and 1900 The first edition of the catalogue listed 1 080 surviving compositions indisputably composed by Bach 132 BWV Range CompositionsBWV 1 224 CantatasBWV 225 231 MotetsBWV 232 243 Liturgical compositions in LatinBWV 244 249 Passions and oratoriosBWV 250 438 Four part choralesBWV 439 524 Small vocal worksBWV 525 771 Organ compositionsBWV 772 994 Other keyboard worksBWV 995 1000 Lute compositionsBWV 1001 1040 Other chamber musicBWV 1041 1071 Orchestral musicBWV 1072 1078 CanonsBWV 1079 1080 Late contrapuntal worksBWV 1081 1126 were added to the catalogue in the second half of the 20th century and BWV 1127 and higher are 21st century additions 133 134 135 Passions and oratorios Bach s autograph of the recitative with the gospel text of Christ s death from St Matthew Passion Matthew 27 45 47a See also List of masses passions and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach Passions and oratorios Bach composed Passions for Good Friday services and oratorios such as the Christmas Oratorio which is a set of six cantatas for use in the liturgical season of Christmas 136 137 138 Shorter oratorios include the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio With its double choir and orchestra the St Matthew Passion is one of Bach s most extended works The St John Passion was the first passion Bach composed during his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig Cantatas Cantata Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140 performed by the MIT Concert Choir conducted by W Cutter 1 Chorus Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme source source 2 Recitative Er kommt er kommt der Braut gam kommt source source 3 Duet Wenn kommst du mein Heil source source 4 Chorale Zion hort die Wachter singen source source 5 Recitative So geh herein zu mir source source 6 Duet Mein Freund ist mein source source 7 Chorale Gloria sei dir gesungen source source Cantata text See also Bach cantata and List of Bach cantatas According to his obituary Bach would have composed five year cycles of sacred cantatas and additional church cantatas for weddings and funerals for example 90 Approximately 200 of these sacred works are extant an estimated two thirds of the total number of church cantatas he composed 61 139 The Bach Digital website lists 50 known secular cantatas by the composer 140 about half of which are extant or largely reconstructable 141 Church cantatas See also Church cantata Bach Bach s cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation Many consist of a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative aria pairs for soloists or duets and a concluding chorale The melody of the concluding chorale often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement citation needed Bach s earliest cantatas date from his years in Arnstadt and Muhlhausen The earliest surviving work in the genre is Nach dir Herr verlanget mich BWV 150 As a whole the extant early works all show remarkable mastery and skill Many feature an instrumental opening which display effective use of the limited instrumental forces available to Bach whether it be in the subdued combination of two recorders and two viola de gamba for BWV 106 or the independent bassoon in BWV 196 Bach s compositional skills are also manifested through his daring harmonies and advanced unprecedented chord progressions According to Christoph Wolff Bach s early cantatas are impressive evidence of how the modest means at his disposal did not restrain the composer in the slightest and they compare favourably with compositions by the most talented composers from the beginning of the 18th century such as Krieger Kuhnau or Zachow 142 After taking up his office as Thomaskantor in late May 1723 Bach performed a cantata each Sunday and feast day corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week 22 His first cantata cycle ran from the first Sunday after Trinity of 1723 to Trinity Sunday the next year For instance the Visitation cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben BWV 147 containing the chorale that is known in English as Jesu Joy of Man s Desiring belongs to this first cycle The cantata cycle of his second year in Leipzig is called the chorale cantata cycle as it consists mainly of works in the chorale cantata format His third cantata cycle was developed over a period of several years followed by the Picander cycle of 1728 29 Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 80 final version 143 and Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme BWV 140 144 Only the first three Leipzig cycles are more or less completely extant Apart from his own work Bach also performed cantatas by Telemann and by his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach 22 Secular cantatas See also List of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach Bach also wrote secular cantatas for instance for members of the royal Polish and prince electoral Saxonian families e g Trauer Ode 145 or other public or private occasions e g Hunting Cantata 146 The text of these cantatas was occasionally in dialect e g Peasant Cantata 147 or Italian e g Amore traditore 148 Many of the secular cantatas were lost but for some of them the text and occasion are known for instance when Picander later published their librettos e g BWV Anh 11 12 149 Some of the surviving secular cantatas have a plot involving mythological figures of Greek antiquity e g Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan 150 and others were almost miniature buffo operas e g Coffee Cantata 151 Although Bach never expressed any interest in opera 152 his secular cantatas or drammi per musica would have allowed Leipzig audiences deprived of opera since 1720 to experience musical performances comparable to the royal opera in Dresden These were not at all poor or makeshift substitutes for real opera but spectacles displaying full mastery of the dramatic genre and the proper pacing of the dialogues 153 A cappella music Bach s a cappella music includes motets and chorale harmonisations Motets Main article Motets Bach Bach s motets BWV 225 231 are pieces on sacred themes for choir and continuo with instruments playing colla parte Several of them were composed for funerals 154 The six motets definitely composed by Bach are Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf Jesu meine Freude Furchte dich nicht Komm Jesu komm and Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden The motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren BWV 231 is part of the composite motet Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt BWV Anh 160 other parts of which may be based on work by Telemann 155 Chorale harmonisations See also List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach Bach wrote hundreds of four part harmonisations of Lutheran chorales Church music in Latin See also Bach s church music in Latin Bach s church music in Latin includes the Magnificat four Kyrie Gloria Masses and the Mass in B minor Magnificat See also Magnificat Bach The first version of Bach s Magnificat dates from 1723 but the work is best known in its D major version of 1733 Mass in B minor from Mass in B minor Agnus Dei source source performed by Solomija Drozd voice Petro Titiajev violin and Ivan Ostapovych organ See also Mass in B minor In 1733 Bach composed a Kyrie Gloria Mass for the Dresden court Near the end of his life around 1748 1749 he expanded this composition into the large scale Mass in B minor The work was never performed in full during Bach s lifetime 156 157 Keyboard music Bach wrote for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichord clavichord and lute harpsichord Organ works Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543 performed by Robert Kobler on the Silbermann organ in the village church of Grosshartmannsdorf Saxony Prelude source source Fugue source source See also List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist organ consultant and composer of organ works in both the traditional German free genres such as preludes fantasias and toccatas and stricter forms such as chorale preludes and fugues 22 At a young age he established a reputation for creativity and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Bohm with whom Bach came into contact in Luneburg and Dieterich Buxtehude whom the young organist visited in Lubeck in 1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt Around this time Bach copied the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insights into their compositional languages and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord During his most productive period 1708 1714 he composed about a dozen pairs of preludes and fugues five toccatas and fugues and the Orgelbuchlein or Little Organ Book an unfinished collection of 46 short chorale preludes that demonstrate compositional techniques in the setting of chorale tunes After leaving Weimar Bach wrote less for organ although some of his best known works the six Organ Sonatas the German Organ Mass in Clavier Ubung III from 1739 and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes revised late in his life were composed after leaving Weimar Bach was extensively engaged later in his life in consulting on organ projects testing new organs and dedicating organs in afternoon recitals 158 159 The Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her and the Schubler Chorales are organ works Bach published in the last years of his life Harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments The Art of Fugue title page Performed by Mehmet Okonsar on organ and harpsichord source source Nos 1 12 source source Nos 13 20 Prelude No 1 in C major BWV 846 performed on harpsichord by Robert Schroter Prelude No 1 in C major BWV 846 source source Italian Concerto BWV 971 performed by Martha Goldstein 1st movement source source 2nd movement source source 3rd movement source source See also List of solo keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach Bach wrote many works for harpsichord some of which may also have been played on the clavichord or lute harpsichord Some of his larger works such as Clavier Ubung II and IV are intended for a harpsichord with two manuals performing them on a keyboard instrument with a single manual like a piano may present technical difficulties for the crossing of hands The Well Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2 BWV 846 893 Each book consists of a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys in chromatic order from C major to B minor thus the whole collection is often referred to as the 48 Well tempered in the title refers to the temperament system of tuning many temperaments before Bach s time were not flexible enough to allow compositions to utilise more than just a few keys 160 161 The Inventions and Sinfonias BWV 772 801 These short two and three part contrapuntal works are arranged in the same chromatic order as The Well Tempered Clavier omitting some of the rarer keys These pieces were intended by Bach for instructional purposes 162 Three collections of dance suites the English Suites BWV 806 811 French Suites BWV 812 817 and Partitas for keyboard Clavier Ubung I BWV 825 830 Each collection contains six suites built on the standard model allemande courante sarabande optional movement gigue The English Suites closely follow the traditional model adding a prelude before the allemande and including a single movement between the sarabande and gigue 163 The French Suites omit preludes but have multiple movements between the sarabande and gigue 164 The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model 165 The Goldberg Variations BWV 988 an aria with 30 variations The collection has a complex and unconventional structure the variations build on the bass line of the aria rather than its melody and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan There are 9 canons within the 30 variations every third variation is a canon 166 These variations move in order from canon at unison to canon at the ninth The first eight are in pairs unison and octave second and seventh third and sixth fourth and fifth The ninth canon stands on its own due to compositional dissimilarities The final variation instead of being the expected canon at the tenth is a quodlibet Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style French Overture BWV 831 and the Italian Concerto BWV 971 published together as Clavier Ubung II and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 Among Bach s lesser known keyboard works are seven toccatas BWV 910 916 four duets BWV 802 805 sonatas for keyboard BWV 963 967 the Six Little Preludes BWV 933 938 and the Aria variata alla maniera italiana BWV 989 Orchestral and chamber music See also List of chamber music works by Johann Sebastian Bach and List of orchestral works by Johann Sebastian 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 cello suites BWV 1007 1012 are widely considered to be among the most profound in the repertoire 167 123 He wrote sonatas for a solo instrument such as the viola de gamba accompanied by harpsichord or continuo as well as trio sonatas two instruments and continuo The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue are late contrapuntal works containing pieces for unspecified instruments or combinations of instruments 168 169 Violin concertos Surviving works in the concerto form 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 Brandenburg Concertos Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G Major BWV 1049 1 Allegro source source 2 Andante source source 3 Presto source source Further information Brandenburg Concertos Bach s best known orchestral works are the Brandenburg Concertos so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg Schwedt in 1721 his application was unsuccessful 22 These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre Keyboard concertos Further information Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach Bach composed and transcribed concertos for one to four harpsichords Many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments now lost 170 A number of violin oboe and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these Orchestral suites Main article Orchestral suites Bach In addition to concertos Bach wrote four orchestral suites each suite being a series of stylised dances for orchestra preceded by a French overture 171 Copies arrangements and uncertain attributions Some of Bach s most popular melodies are more often than not heard in various arrangements Air on the G String excerpt source source Air 2nd movement from Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068 performed in an Air on the G String adaptation by Capella Istropolitana conducted by Oliver von Dohnanyi courtesy of Naxos Sheep May Safely Graze instrumental version source source The aria Schafe konnen sicher weiden Sheep May Safely Graze No 9 from the Hunting Cantata BWV 208 composed for soprano recorders and continuo the music of this movement exists in a variety of instrumental arrangements See also BWV Anh and List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach In his early youth Bach copied pieces by other composers to learn from them 172 Later he copied and arranged music for performance or as study material for his pupils Some of these pieces like Bist du bei mir copied not by Bach but by Anna Magdalena became famous before being dissociated with Bach Bach copied and arranged Italian masters such as Vivaldi e g BWV 1065 Pergolesi BWV 1083 and Palestrina Missa Sine nomine French masters such as Francois Couperin BWV Anh 183 and closer to home various German masters including Telemann e g BWV 824 TWV 32 14 and Handel arias from Brockes Passion and music from members of his own family He also often copied and arranged his own music e g movements from cantatas for his short masses BWV 233 236 as his music was likewise copied and arranged by others Some of these arrangements like the late 19th century Air on the G String helped to popularise Bach s music Sometimes who copied whom is not clear For instance Forkel mentions a Mass for double chorus among the works composed by Bach The work was published and performed in the early 19th century and although a score partially in Bach s handwriting exists the work was later considered spurious 173 In 1950 the design of the Bach Werke Verzeichnis was to keep such works out of the main catalogue if there was a strong association with Bach they could be listed in its appendix German Anhang abbreviated as Anh Thus for instance the aforementioned Mass for double chorus became BWV Anh 167 But this was far from the end of the attribution issues For instance Schlage doch gewunschte Stunde BWV 53 was later attributed to Melchior Hoffmann For other works Bach s authorship was put in doubt without a generally accepted answer to the question of whether or not he composed it the best known organ composition in the BWV catalogue the Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565 was indicated as one of these uncertain works in the late 20th century 174 ReceptionMain article Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach s music This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Johann Sebastian Bach news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2017 Learn how and when to remove this template message The church in Arnstadt where Bach had been the organist from 1703 to 1707 In 1935 the church was renamed Bachkirche Throughout the 18th century the appreciation of Bach s music was mostly limited to distinguished connoisseurs The 19th century started with publication of the first biography of the composer and ended with the completion of the publication of all of Bach s known works by the Bach Gesellschaft A Bach Revival had started from Mendelssohn s performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829 Soon after that performance Bach started to become regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time if not the greatest a reputation he has retained ever since A new extensive Bach biography was published in the second half of the 19th century In the 20th century Bach s music was widely performed and recorded while the Neue Bachgesellschaft among others published research on the composer Modern adaptations of Bach s music contributed greatly to his popularisation in the second half of the 20th century Among these were the Swingle Singers versions of Bach pieces for instance the Air from Orchestral Suite No 3 and the Wachet auf chorale prelude and Wendy Carlos 1968 Switched On Bach which used the Moog electronic synthesiser By the end of the 20th century more classical performers were gradually moving away from the performance style and instrumentation that were established in the romantic era they started to perform Bach s music on period instruments of the baroque era studied and practised playing techniques and tempi as established in his time and reduced the size of instrumental ensembles and choirs to what he would have employed The BACH motif used by the composer in his own compositions was used in dozens of tributes to the composer from the 19th century to the 21st In the 21st century the complete extant output of the composer became available online with several websites exclusively dedicated to him citation needed The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach annually with a feast day on 28 July 175 on the same day the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches such as the ELCA remembers Bach and Handel with Heinrich Schutz 176 18th century Painting of Johann Sebastian Bach by Gebel before 1798 In his own time Bach was highly regarded amongst his colleagues 177 although his reputation outside of this small circle of connoisseurs was due not to his compositions which had an extremely narrow circulation 11 but due to his virtuosic abilities Nevertheless during his life Bach received public recognition such as the title of court composer by Augustus III of Poland and the appreciation he was shown by Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Keyserling Such highly placed appreciation contrasted with the humiliations he had to cope with for instance in Leipzig 178 Also in the contemporary press Bach had his detractors such as Johann Adolf Scheibe suggesting he write less complex music and his supporters such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mizler 179 180 181 After his death Bach s reputation as a composer at first declined his work was regarded as old fashioned compared to the emerging galant style 182 Initially he was remembered more as a virtuoso player of the organ and as a teacher The bulk of the music that had been printed during the composer s lifetime at least the part that was remembered was for the organ and the harpsichord Thus his reputation as a composer was initially mostly limited to his keyboard music and that even fairly limited to its value in music education Bach s surviving family members who inherited a large part of his manuscripts were not all equally concerned with preserving them leading to considerable losses 183 Carl Philipp Emanuel his second eldest son was most active in safeguarding his father s legacy he co authored his father s obituary contributed to the publication of his four part chorales 184 staged some of his works and the bulk of previously unpublished works of his father were preserved with his help 185 Wilhelm Friedemann the eldest son performed several of his father s cantatas in Halle but after becoming unemployed sold part of the large collection of his father s works he owned 186 187 188 Several students of the old master such as his son in law Johann Christoph Altnickol Johann Friedrich Agricola Johann Kirnberger and Johann Ludwig Krebs contributed to the dissemination of his legacy The early devotees were not all musicians for example in Berlin Daniel Itzig a high official of Frederick the Great s court venerated Bach 189 His eldest daughters took lessons from Kirnberger and their sister Sara from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach who was in Berlin from 1774 to 1784 189 190 Sara Itzig Levy became an avid collector of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons and was a patron of CPE Bach 190 While in Leipzig performances of Bach s church music were limited to some of his motets and under cantor Doles some of his Passions 191 A new generation of Bach aficionados emerged they studiously collected and copied his music including some of his large scale works such as the Mass in B minor and performed it privately One such connoisseur was Gottfried van Swieten a high ranking Austrian official who was instrumental in passing Bach s legacy on to the composers of the Viennese school Haydn owned manuscript copies of the Well Tempered Clavier and the Mass in B minor and was influenced by Bach s music Mozart owned a copy of one of Bach s motets 192 transcribed some of his instrumental works K 404a 405 193 194 and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style 195 196 Beethoven played the entire Well Tempered Clavier by the time he was 11 and described Bach as Urvater der Harmonie progenitor of harmony 197 198 199 200 201 19th century Image of the Bach memorial de erected by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1843 See also Bach Revival and St Matthew Passion 19th century In 1802 Johann Nikolaus Forkel published Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben Kunst und Kunstwerke the first biography of the composer which contributed to his becoming known to a wider public 202 In 1805 Abraham Mendelssohn who had married one of Itzig s granddaughters bought a substantial collection of Bach manuscripts that had come down from C P E Bach and donated it to the Berlin Sing Akademie 189 The Sing Akademie occasionally performed Bach s works in public concerts for instance his first keyboard concerto with Sara Itzig Levy at the piano 189 The first decades of the 19th century saw an increasing number of first publications of Bach s music Breitkopf started publishing chorale preludes 203 Hoffmeister harpsichord music 204 and the Well Tempered Clavier was printed concurrently by Simrock Germany Nageli Switzerland and Hoffmeister Germany and Austria in 1801 205 Vocal music was also published motets in 1802 and 1803 followed by the E major version of the Magnificat the Kyrie Gloria Mass in A major and the cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott BWV 80 206 In 1818 Hans Georg Nageli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition ever 197 Bach s influence was felt in the next generation of early Romantic composers 198 When Felix Mendelssohn Abraham s son aged 13 produced his first Magnificat setting in 1822 it is clear that he had been inspired by the then unpublished D major version of Bach s Magnificat 207 Felix Mendelssohn significantly contributed to the renewed interest in Bach s work with his 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion which was instrumental in setting off what has been called the Bach Revival The St John Passion saw its 19th century premiere in 1833 and the first performance of the Mass in B minor followed in 1844 Besides these and other public performances and an increased coverage on the composer and his compositions in printed media the 1830s and 1840s also saw the first publication of more vocal works by Bach six cantatas the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor A series of organ compositions saw their first publication in 1833 208 Chopin started composing his 24 Preludes Op 28 inspired by the Well Tempered Clavier in 1835 and Schumann published his Sechs Fugen uber den Namen B A C H in 1845 Bach s music was transcribed and arranged to suit contemporary tastes and performance practice by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter Robert Franz and Franz Liszt or combined with new music such as the melody line of Charles Gounod s Ave Maria 197 209 Brahms Bruckner and Wagner were among the composers who promoted Bach s music or wrote glowingly about it In 1850 the Bach Gesellschaft Bach Society was founded to promote Bach s music In the second half of the 19th century the Society published a comprehensive edition of the composer s works Also in the second half of the 19th century Philipp Spitta published Johann Sebastian Bach the standard work on Bach s life and music 210 By that time Bach was known as the first of the three Bs in music Throughout the 19th century 200 books were published on Bach By the end of the century local Bach societies were established in several cities and his music had been performed in all major musical centres 197 In Germany all throughout the century Bach was coupled to nationalist feelings and the composer was inscribed in a religious revival In England Bach was coupled to an existing revival of religious and baroque music By the end of the century Bach was firmly established as one of the greatest composers recognised for both his instrumental and his vocal music 197 20th century 1908 Statue of Bach in front of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig 28 July 1950 memorial service for Bach in Leipzig s Thomaskirche on the 200th anniversary of the composer s death During the 20th century the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works continued as in the promotion of the cello suites by Pablo Casals the first major performer to record these suites 211 Leading performers of classical music such as Willem Mengelberg Edwin Fischer Georges Enescu Leopold Stokowski Herbert von Karajan Arthur Grumiaux Helmut Walcha Wanda Landowska Karl Richter I Musici Dietrich Fischer Dieskau and Glenn Gould recorded his music n 4 A significant development in the later part of the 20th century was the momentum gained by the historically informed performance practice with forerunners such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt acquiring prominence by their performances of Bach s music His keyboard music was again performed more on the instruments Bach was familiar with rather than on modern pianos and 19th century romantic organs Ensembles playing and singing Bach s music not only kept to the instruments and the performance style of his day but were also reduced to the size of the groups Bach used for his performances 212 But that was far from the only way Bach s music came to the forefront in the 20th century his music was heard in versions ranging from Ferruccio Busoni s late romantic piano transcriptions to jazzy interpretations such as those by The Swingle Singers orchestrations like the one opening Walt Disney s Fantasia movie and synthesiser performances such as Wendy Carlos Switched On Bach recordings Bach s music has influenced other genres For instance jazz musicians have adopted Bach s music with Jacques Loussier Ian Anderson Uri Caine and the Modern Jazz Quartet among those creating jazz versions of his works 213 Several 20th century composers referred to Bach or his music for example Eugene Ysaye in Six Sonatas for solo violin Dmitri Shostakovich in 24 Preludes and Fugues and Heitor Villa Lobos in Bachianas Brasileiras All kinds of publications involved Bach not only were there the Bach Jahrbuch publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft various other biographies and studies by among others Albert Schweitzer Charles Sanford Terry Alfred Durr Christoph Wolff Peter Williams John Butt n 5 and the 1950 first edition of the Bach Werke Verzeichnis but also books such as Godel Escher Bach put the composer s art in a wider perspective Bach s music was extensively listened to performed broadcast arranged adapted and commented upon in the 1990s 214 Around 2000 the 250th anniversary of Bach s death three record companies issued box sets with complete recordings of Bach s music 215 216 217 Bach s music features three times more than that of any other composer on the Voyager Golden Record a gramophone record containing a broad sample of the images common sounds languages and music of Earth sent into outer space with the two Voyager probes 218 Tributes to Bach in the 20th century include statues erected in his honour and a variety of things such as streets and space objects being named after him 219 220 Also a multitude of musical ensembles such as the Bach Aria Group Deutsche Bachsolisten Bachchor Stuttgart and Bach Collegium Japan adopted the composer s name Bach festivals were held on several continents and competitions and prizes such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize were named after the composer While by the end of the 19th century Bach had been inscribed in nationalism and religious revival the late 20th century saw Bach as the subject of a secularised art as religion Kunstreligion 197 214 21st century In the 21st century Bach s compositions have become available online for instance at the International Music Score Library Project 221 High resolution facsimiles of Bach s autographs became available at the Bach Digital website 222 21st century biographers include Christoph Wolff Peter Williams and John Eliot Gardiner n 6 In 2015 Bach s handwritten personal copy of his Mass in B minor held by the Berlin State Library was added to UNESCO s Memory of the World Register 223 a program intended to protect culturally significant manuscripts In 2019 Bach was named the greatest composer of all time in a poll conducted among 174 living composers 224 Burial site Bach was originally buried at Old St John s Cemetery in Leipzig His grave went unmarked for nearly 150 years but in 1894 his remains were located and moved to a vault in St John s Church This building was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II so in 1950 Bach s remains were taken to their present grave in St Thomas Church 22 Later research has called into question whether the remains in the grave are actually those of Bach 225 ReferencesNotes In the portrait Bach holds a copy of the six part canon BWV 1076 1 a b German ˈjoːhan zeˈbasti a ː n ˈbax listen The last name appears in English as b ɑː x on Lexico 5 and in Dictionary com 6 Johann Sebastian Bach drafted a genealogy around 1735 titled Origin of the musical Bach family printed in translation in David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 283 For more information please click the articles on performers see also reviews and listings in Gramophone Diapason YouTube Discogs and Muziekweb See Schweitzer 1911 1905 and 1908 editions Terry 1928 Durr 1981 Durr amp Jones 2006 English translation Wolff 1991 Wolff 2000 Williams 1980 Butt 1997 See Wolff 2000 Williams 2003a Williams 2007 Williams 2016 Gardiner 2013 Citations Wolff amp Emery 2001 10 Iconography Crist amp Stauff 2011 Marshall Robert L Emery Walter 18 May 2020 Johann Sebastian Bach Biography Music Death amp Facts Encyclopaedia Britannica Chicago Retrieved 16 June 2021 Blanning T C W 2008 The Triumph of Music The Rise of Composers Musicians and Their Art Cambridge Massachusetts Belknap Press of Harvard University Press p 272 ISBN 978 0 674 03104 3 And of course the greatest master of harmony and counterpoint of all time was Johann Sebastian Bach the Homer of music Bach Johann Sebastian Lexico Archived from the original on 11 May 2016 Retrieved 3 May 2016 Bach Dictionary com Retrieved 3 May 2016 Jones 2007 p 3 Geck 2003 pp 2 156 Boyd 2000 p 6 a b Wolff et al 2018 II List of all family members alphabetically by first name a b c Wolff amp Emery 2001 a b Miles 1962 pp 86 87 Boyd 2000 pp 7 8 David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 299 Wolff 2000 p 45 Wolff 2000 pp 19 46 Wolff 2000 p 73 Wolff 2000 p 170 Spitta 1899a pp 186 187 Wolff 2000 pp 41 43 a b Eidam 2001 Ch I a b c d e f g h i j Johann Sebastian Bach a detailed informative biography The Baroque Music Site Archived from the original on 20 February 2012 Retrieved 19 February 2012 Wolff 2000 pp 55 56 Rich 1995 p 27 Boyd 2000 pp 15 16 Chiapusso 1968 p 62 Williams 2003a p 40 Wolff 2000 pp 83ff Snyder Kerala J 2007 Dieterich Buxtehude Organist in Lubeck 2nd ed pp 104 106 ISBN 978 1 58046 253 2 Archived from the original on 28 September 2015 a b Wolff 2000 pp 102 104 Williams 2003a p 38 39 Bach Digital Work 00005 at www wbr bach digital wbr de History of the Bach House Bach House Weimar Archived from the original on 26 November 2015 Retrieved 10 August 2015 Forkel 1920 Table VII p 309 Thornburgh Elaine Baroque Music Part One Music in Our World San Diego State University Archived from the original on 5 September 2015 Retrieved 24 December 2014 Chiapusso 1968 p 168 Schweitzer 1923 p 331 Koster Jan Weimar II 1708 1717 J S Bach Archive and Bibliography Archived from the original on 28 March 2014 Retrieved 11 April 2014 a b Sadie Julie Anne ed 1998 Companion to Baroque Music p 205 ISBN 978 0 520 21414 9 Archived from the original on 14 May 2015 Wolff 2000 pp 147 156 a b Wolff 1991 p 30 Gardiner John Eliot 2010 Cantatas for Christmas Day Herderkirche Weimar PDF pp 1 2 Archived PDF from the original on 24 September 2015 Retrieved 27 December 2014 Wolff Christoph 1996 From konzertmeister to thomaskantor Bach s cantata production 1713 1723 PDF pp 15 16 Archived PDF from the original on 24 September 2015 Retrieved 27 December 2014 David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 80 Miles 1962 p 57 Boyd 2000 p 74 Van Til 2007 pp 69 372 Dent 2004 p 23 Spaeth 1937 p 37 Spitta 1899b p 11 Geiringer 1966 p 50 Wolff 1983 pp 98 111 Spitta 1899b pp 192 193 a b Wolff 2013 p 253 Wolff 2013 p 345 Spitta 1899b p 265 Spitta 1899b p 184 Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 1750 British Library Online Gallery Archived from the original on 29 January 2016 Retrieved 16 June 2021 Wolff 2013 p 348 Wolff 2013 p 349 a b Wolff 1997 p 5 Motets BWV 225 231 Bach Cantatas Website Archived from the original on 24 February 2015 Retrieved 31 December 2014 Works of Other Composers performed by J S Bach Bach Cantatas Website Archived from the original on 17 July 2014 Retrieved 31 December 2014 Boyd 2000 pp 112 113 Spitta 1899b pp 288 290 Spitta 1899b pp 281 287 Wolff 2000 p 341 Stauffer 2008 a b Bach Mass in B Minor BWV 232 The Baroque Music Site Archived from the original on 7 March 2012 Retrieved 21 February 2012 US PRu M 3 1 B2 C5 1739q Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website GB Lbl Add MS 35021 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms 16714 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D Cv A V 1109 1 1a Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine and 1b Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms Bach P 195 Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms 1160 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D WFe 191 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website RISM 250000899 D Bsa SA 301 Fascicle 1 Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine and Fascicle 2 Archived 18 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website Neuaufgefundenes Bach Autograph in Weissenfels Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at lisa wbr gerda henkel stiftung wbr de F Pn Ms 17669 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B N Mus ms 468 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine and Privatbesitz C Thiele BWV deest NBA Serie II 5 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B N Mus ms 307 Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms Bach P 271 Fascicle 2 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms 30199 Fascicle 14 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine and D B Mus ms 17155 16 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website D B Mus ms 7918 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine at Bach Digital website Musikalische Bibliothek III 2 1746 353 Archived 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine Felbick 2012 284 In 1746 Mizler announced the membership of three famous members Musikalische Bibliothek III 2 1746 357 Archived 16 January 2013 at the Wayback Machine Musikalische Bibliothek IV 1 1754 108 and Tab IV fig 16 Source online letter of Mizler to Spiess 29 June 1748 in Hans Rudolf Jung and Hans Eberhard Dentler Briefe von Lorenz Mizler und Zeitgenossen an Meinrad Spiess in Studi musicali 2003 Nr 32 115 David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 224 US PRscheide BWV 645 650 Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine original print of the Schubler Chorales with Bach s handwritten corrections and additions from before August 1748 description at Bach Digital website Breig Werner 2010 Introduction Archived 22 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine pp 14 17 18 in Vol 6 Clavierubung III Schubler Chorales Canonische Veranderungen Archived 11 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine of Johann Sebastian Bach Complete Organ Works Archived 5 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine Breitkopf a b c Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Agricola Johann Friedrich 1754 Nekrolog Musikalische Bibliothek de in German Leipzig Mizlerischer Bucherverlag IV 1 158 173 Printed in translation in David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 299 Hans Gunter Hoke Neue Studien zur Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080 in Beitrage zur Musikwissenschaft 17 1975 95 115 Hans Eberhard Dentler Johann Sebastian Bachs Kunst der Fuge Ein pythagoreisches Werk und seine Verwirklichung Mainz 2004 Hans Eberhard Dentler Johann Sebastian Bachs Musicalisches Opfer Musik als Abbild der Spharenharmonie Mainz 2008 Chiapusso 1968 p 277 Rathey Markus 18 April 2003 Johann Sebastian Bach s Mass in B Minor The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People PDF The Tangeman Lecture New Haven Archived PDF from the original on 15 July 2014 Wolff 2000 p 442 from David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 Zegers Richard H C 2005 The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach Archives of Ophthalmology 123 10 1427 1430 doi 10 1001 archopht 123 10 1427 PMID 16219736 Hanford Jan J S Bach Timeline of His Life J S Bach Home Page Archived from the original on 26 February 2012 Retrieved 8 March 2012 David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 188 Spitta 1899c p 274 David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 pp 191 197 Did Bach really leave Art of Fugue unfinished The Art of Fugue American Public Media Archived from the original on 8 December 2013 Retrieved 28 March 2014 Wolff 2000 p 166 Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 1750 British Library Retrieved 23 June 2021 Herl 2004 p 123 Fuller Maitland J A ed 1911 Johann Sebastian Bach Grove s Dictionary of Music and Musicians Vol 1 New York Macmillan Publishers p 154 Leaver 2007 pp 280 289 291 Huizenga Tom A Visitor s Guide to the St Matthew Passion NPR Music National Public Radio Archived from the original on 27 February 2012 Retrieved 25 February 2012 Traupman Carr Carol The Well Tempered Clavier BWV 846 869 Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 2 July 2013 Retrieved 23 December 2014 Spitta 1899c vol 3 appendix XII p 315 Clemens Romijn Liner notes for Tilge Hochster meine Sunden BWV 1083 after Pergolesi s Stabat Mater Brilliant Classics 2000 2014 reissue J S Bach Complete Edition Liner notes Archived 22 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine p 54 Jopi Harri St Petersburg Court Chant and the Tradition of Eastern Slavic Church Singing Archived 20 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Finland University of Turku 2011 p 24 Eidam 2001 Ch IV Eidam 2001 Ch IX a b Marshall Robert L 1989 Franklin Don O ed On the Origin of Bach sMagnificat a Lutheran composer s challenge Vol Bach Studies Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 3 17 ISBN 978 0 521 34105 9 Archived from the original on 29 April 2016 Eidam 2001 Ch III Klavierbuchlein fur W F Bach Archived 18 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Donington 1982 p 91 Kuhnau Johann 1700 Der musicalische Quack Salber Dresden Eidam 2001 Ch XVIII Andre Isoir organ and Le Parlement de Musique conducted by Martin Gester Johann Sebastian Bach L oeuvre pour orgue et orchestre Calliope 1993 Liner notes by Gilles Cantagrel George Frideric Handel 6 Organ Concertos Op 4 at IMSLP website Peter Wollny Harpsichord Concertos Archived 22 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine booklet notes for Andreas Staier s 2015 recording of the concertos Harmonia mundi HMC 902181 82 Schulenberg 2006 pp 1 2 a b Lester 1999 pp 3 24 Did Bach intend Art of Fugue to be performed The Art of Fugue American Public Media Archived from the original on 3 December 2013 Retrieved 28 March 2014 Eidam 2001 Ch XXX Forkel 1920 pp 73 74 Bach Digital Work 01677 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Williams 1980 p 217 Basso Alberto 1979 Frau Musika La vita e le opere di J S Bach in Italian Vol 1 Turin EDT p 493 ISBN 978 88 7063 011 4 Don O Franklin The Libretto of Bach s John Passion and the Doctrine of Reconciliation An Historical Perspective pp 179 203 Archived 31 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Proceedings of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol 143 edited by A A Clement 1995 Bach Works Catalogue Bach Digital Archived from the original on 30 September 2015 Retrieved 29 September 2015 Wolfgang Schmieder editor Thematisch systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach Leipzig Breitkopf amp Hartel 1950 Unaltered through its eighth printing in 1986 Schmieder Wolfgang Alfred Durr Kobayashi Yoshitake eds 1998 Bach Werke Verzeichnis Kleine Ausgabe BWV2a in German Wiesbaden Breitkopf amp Hartel ISBN 978 3 7651 0249 3 Archived from the original on 31 October 2016 Bach Digital Work 01307 Joel H Kuznik BWV 1128 A recently discovered Bach organ work pp 22 23 permanent dead link in The Diapason Vol 99 No 22 December 2008 archived 21 July 2011 Leaver 2007 p 430 Williams 2003a p 114 Traupman Carr Carol The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 7 April 2014 Retrieved 29 March 2014 Traupman Carr Carol Bach Master of the Cantata Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 2 July 2013 Retrieved 24 December 2014 Bach s secular cantatas in BWV order each followed by a link to the Bach Digital Work BDW page of the cantata at the Bach Digital website BWV 30a BDW 00039 BWV 36a BDW 00049 BWV 36b BDW 00050 BWV 36c BDW 00051 BWV 66a BDW 00083 BWV 134a BDW 00166 BWV 173a BDW 00211 BWV 184a BDW 00223 BWV 193a BDW 00235 BWV 194a BDW 00239 BWV 198 BDW 00246 BWV 201 BDW 00251 BWV 202 BDW 00252 BWV 203 BDW 00253 BWV 204 BDW 00254 BWV 205 BDW 00255 BWV 205a BDW 00256 BWV 206 first version BDW 00257 BWV 206 second version BDW 00258 BWV 207 BDW 00259 BWV 207a BDW 00260 BWV 208 first version BDW 00261 BWV 208 second version BDW 00262 BWV 208a BDW 00263 BWV 209 BDW 00264 BWV 210 BDW 00265 BWV 210a BDW 00266 BWV 211 BDW 00267 BWV 212 BDW 00268 BWV 213 BDW 00269 BWV 214 BDW 00270 BWV 215 BDW 00271 BWV 216 BDW 00272 BWV 216a BDW 00273 BWV 249a BDW 00318 BWV 249b BDW 00319 BWV Anh 6 BDW 01314 BWV Anh 7 BDW 01315 BWV Anh 8 BDW 01316 BWV Anh 9 BDW 01317 BWV Anh 10 BDW 01318 BWV Anh 11 BDW 01319 BWV Anh 12 BDW 01320 BWV Anh 13 BDW 01321 BWV Anh 18 BDW 01326 BWV Anh 19 BDW 01327 BWV Anh 20 BDW 01328 BWV Anh 195 BDW 01506 BWV Anh 196 BDW 01507 BWV deest BDW 01536 For instance Helmut Rilling s box set of the complete secular cantatas Archived 19 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine contains 22 works Wolff 2000 pp 100 101 Especially in its opening chorus it is one of Bach s contrapuntal masterpieces Robin A Leaver in Boyd 1999 one of Bach s best known church works wrote David Schulenberg in Boyd 1999 Bach Digital Work 00246 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Bach Digital Work 00261 00262 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Bach Digital Work 00268 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Bach Digital Work 00253 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Bach Digital Work 01319 01320 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Bach Digital Work 00251 at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Traupman Carr Carol Cantata BWV 211 Coffee Cantata Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 27 April 2015 Retrieved 31 March 2014 Wolff 2000 p 65 Wolff 2000 p 363 Traupman Carr Carol Choral Works Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 30 March 2014 Retrieved 31 March 2014 Melamed Daniel R 1995 J S Bach and the German Motet pp 90 94 ISBN 978 0 521 41864 5 Archived from the original on 15 May 2015 The Mass in B Minor BWV 232 Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 30 March 2014 Retrieved 29 March 2014 Herz 1985 p 187 Bach Johann Sebastian GMN ClassicalPlus Archived from the original on 19 June 2008 Retrieved 19 May 2008 Smith Timothy A Arnstadt 1703 1707 The Canons and Fugues of J S Bach Archived from the original on 5 February 2014 Retrieved 11 April 2014 Schweitzer 1923 p 333 Kroesbergen Willem Cruickshank Andrew October 2015 November 2013 18th Century Quotations Relating to J S Bach s Temperament 2nd ed Academia edu Tomita Yo J S Bach Inventions and Sinfonias Archived from the original on 20 January 2012 Retrieved 22 February 2012 McComb Todd M Bach English Suites Early Music FAQ Archived from the original on 27 February 2014 Retrieved 10 December 2014 Traupman Carr Carol French Suites 1 6 Bach 101 The Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 2 July 2013 Retrieved 23 December 2014 McComb Todd M Bach Partitas BWV 825 30 Early Music FAQ Archived from the original on 22 February 2014 Retrieved 10 December 2014 Libbey Ted Gold Standard for Bach s Goldberg Variations NPR Music National Public Radio Archived from the original on 19 February 2012 Retrieved 22 February 2012 Bratman David Shaham Bold Brilliant All Bach San Francisco Classical Voice Archived from the original on 11 February 2012 Retrieved 23 February 2012 Wolff 1991 p 111 Schwarm Betsy 19 April 2019 The Art of Fugue History Description amp Facts Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica Chicago Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc Retrieved 22 August 2021 Baroque Music Music of the Baroque Archived from the original on 27 December 2014 Retrieved 27 December 2014 Traupman Carr Carol A compendium of works performed by the Bach Choir Bach 101 Bach Choir of Bethlehem Archived from the original on 19 July 2013 Retrieved 23 December 2014 Forkel 1920 pp 10 11 Forkel 1920 pp 140 141 Zehnder Jean Claude 2011 Toccatas and Fugues Individual Works Archived 23 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine Leipzig Breitkopf amp Hartel Introduction p 20 Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 Church Publishing Inc 17 December 2019 ISBN 978 1 64065 235 4 Church Music Sunday PDF Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 2013 Geck 2003 p 141 Johann Sebastian Bach Letter to Augustus III of Poland 27 July 1733 Quoted in Hans T David and Arthur Mendel The Bach Reader A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents W W Norton 1945 p 128 Quoted in David Mendel amp Wolff 1998 p 158 Johann Adolf Scheibe pp 46 47 in Critischer Musicus VI 14 May 1737 Quoted in Eidam 2001 Ch XXII Johann Mattheson Das Beschutzte Orchestre oder desselben Zweyte Eroffnung footnote p 222 Hamburg Schiller 1717 Lorenz Christoph Mizler Musikalische Bibliothek Volume I Part 4 pp 61 73 Leipzig April 1738 Includes a reprint of Johann Abraham Birnbaum s Unpartheyische Anmerckungen uber eine bedenckliche stelle in dem Sechsten stuck des Critischen Musicus Archived 1 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine published early January of the same year Bach was regarded as passe even in his own lifetime Morris 2005 p 2 Wolff 2000 pp 456 461 Forkel 1920 pp 85 86 Listing of manuscripts of Bach compositions once in the possession of C P E Bach permanent dead link at www wbr bach digital wbr de Peter Wollny Chapter twelve Wilhelm Friedemann Bach s Halle performances of cantatas by his father pp 202 228 in Bach Studies 2 edited by Daniel R Melamed Cambridge University Press 2006 ISBN 978 0 521 02891 2 Forkel 1920 p 139 Wolff 2013 p 459 a b c d Christoph Wolff A Bach Cult in Late Eighteenth Century Berlin Sara Levy s Musical Salon Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Bulletin of the American Academy Spring 2005 pp 26 31 a b Applegate 2005 p 14 Spitta 1899b p 518 519 611 A Wgm A 169 b III 31685 Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine at www wbr bachdigital wbr de Preludes and Fugues K 404a Scores at the International Music Score Library Project Kochel Ludwig Ritter von 1862 Chronologisch thematisches Verzeichniss sammtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amade Mozart s in German Leipzig Breitkopf amp Hartel OCLC 3309798 Archived from the original on 29 April 2016 No 405 pp 328 329 Bach Mozart and the Musical Midwife Archived from the original on 4 November 2015 Brown A Peter The Symphonic Repertoire Volume 2 Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 33487 9 pp 423 432 2002 a b c d e f McKay Cory The Bach Reception in the 18th and 19th century Archived 2 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine at www wbr music wbr mcgill wbr ca a b Schenk Winston amp Winston 1959 p 452 Daniel Heartz Mozart Haydn and Early Beethoven 1781 1802 p 678 W W Norton 2008 ISBN 978 0 393 28578 9 Kerst 1904 p 101 Edward Noel Green Chromatic Completion in the Late Vocal Music of Haydn and Mozart A Technical Philosophic and Historical Study p 273 New York University ISBN 978 0 549 79451 6 Geck 2006 pp 9 10 Schneider 1907 p 94 Schneider 1907 pp 96 97 Schneider 1907 p 100 Forkel 1920 p xvii Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Magnificat MWV A2 edited by Pietro Zappala Carus 1996 Foreword p VI Johann Sebastian Bach s noch wenig bekannte Orgelcompositionen auch am Pianoforte von einem oder zwei Spielern ausfuhrbar three volumes edited by Adolph Bernhard Marx Leipzig Breitkopf amp Hartel 1833 Kupferberg 1985 p 126 Spitta 1899a 1899b 1899c first publication in German in two volumes Leipzig Breitkopf amp Hartel 1873 and 1880 Robert Johnson and Pablo Casals Game Changers Turn 70 NPR Music National Public Radio Archived from the original on 24 February 2012 Retrieved 22 February 2012 McComb Todd M What is Early Music Historically Informed Performance Early Music FAQ Archived from the original on 6 January 2015 Retrieved 2 January 2015 Shipton Alyn Bach and Jazz A Bach Christmas BBC Radio 3 Archived from the original on 24 September 2013 Retrieved 27 December 2014 a b Rokus de Groot 2000 And Nowhere Bach Bach Reception in a Late Twentieth Century Dutch Composition by Elmer Schonberger pp 145 158 in Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis volume 50 no 1 2 Bach Edition Archived 10 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at www wbr musicweb international wbr com 1 December 2001 Teldec s 1999 Bach 2000 Box set Limited Edition Archived 12 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine at www wbr amazon wbr com Bach Edition The Complete Works 172 CDs amp CDR Archived 29 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine at the Hanssler Classic website Golden Record Music from Earth NASA Archived from the original on 1 July 2013 Retrieved 26 July 2012 Bach Archived 23 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature JPL Small Body Database Browser Archived from the original on 24 February 2017 List of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Category Bach Johann Sebastian at IMSLP website Bach Digital bach digital de Bach Digital Retrieved 16 June 2021 Autograph of h Moll Messe Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach UNESCO 2015 Retrieved 31 January 2022 BBC Music Magazine 31 October 2019 JS Bach is the greatest composer of all time say today s leading composers for BBC Music Magazine classical music com Ltd Retrieved 14 August 2020 Zegers Richard H C Maas Mario Koopman A G amp Maat George J R 2009 Are the alleged remains of Johann Sebastian Bach authentic PDF The Medical Journal of Australia 190 4 213 216 doi 10 5694 j 1326 5377 2009 tb02354 x PMID 19220191 S2CID 7925258 Archived PDF from the original on 2 December 2013 Works cited Biographies See also Biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach Boyd Malcolm 2000 Bach Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 514222 8 David Hans T in German Mendel Arthur Wolff Christoph 1998 The New Bach Reader A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents New York W W Norton ISBN 978 0 393 31956 9 OCLC 37801400 Eidam Klaus in German 2001 The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach New York Basic Books ISBN 978 0 465 01861 1 Forkel Johann Nikolaus 1920 Johann Sebastian Bach His Life Art and Work Translated by Charles Sanford Terry New York London Harcourt Brace and Howe Constable Gardiner John Eliot 2013 Music in the Castle of Heaven A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach London Allen Lane ISBN 978 0 7139 9662 3 Geck Martin 2003 Bach Translated by Anthea Bell London Haus Publishing ISBN 978 1 904341 16 1 Archived 24 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine Geck Martin 2006 Johann Sebastian Bach Life and Work Orlando Harcourt ISBN 978 0 15 100648 9 Geiringer Karl 1966 Johann Sebastian Bach The Culmination of an Era New York Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 500554 7 Schweitzer Albert 1911 J S Bach Translated by Ernest Newman New York Macmillan Publishers first published in French in 1905 and in German in 1908 Vol 1 Vol 2 Schweitzer Albert 1923 1905 J S Bach Vol 1 Translated by Ernest Newman New York Macmillan Publishers Spitta Philipp 1899a Johann Sebastian Bach His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany 1685 1750 Vol 1 Translated by Clara Bell J A Fuller Maitland London Novello amp Co Spitta Philipp 1899b Johann Sebastian Bach His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany 1685 1750 Vol 2 Translated by Clara Bell J A Fuller Maitland London Novello amp Co Spitta Philipp 1899c Johann Sebastian Bach His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany 1685 1750 Vol 3 Translated by Clara Bell J A Fuller Maitland London Novello amp Co Terry Charles Sanford 1928 Bach A Biography Oxford Oxford University Press Williams Peter 2003a The Life of Bach Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 53374 4 Williams Peter 2007 Bach A Life in Music Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 87074 0 Williams Peter 2016 Bach A Musical Biography Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 107 13925 1 Wolff Christoph 1991 Bach Essays on his Life and Music Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 05926 9 Wolff Christoph 2000 Johann Sebastian Bach The Learned Musician Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 816534 7 Second edition 2013 W W Norton New York and London ISBN 978 0 393 32256 9 pbk Wolff Christoph Emery Walter 20 January 2001 Bach Johann Sebastian Grove Music Online 8th ed Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 gmo 9781561592630 article 6002278195 ISBN 978 1 56159 263 0 subscription or UK public library membership required Other Applegate Celia 2005 Bach in Berlin Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn s revival of the St Matthew Passion Ithaca New York Cornell University Press ISBN 9780801443893 Boyd Malcolm ed 1999 J S Bach Oxford Composer Companions Oxford University Press Butt John ed 1997 The Cambridge Companion to Bach ISBN 978 0 521 58780 8 Chiapusso Jan 1968 Bach s World Scarborough Ontario Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 10520 2 Crist Stephen A Stauff Derek 2011 Johann Sebastian Bach Oxford Bibliographies Music Oxford Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 OBO 9780199757824 0043 subscription required Dent Edward Joseph 2004 Handel R A Kessinger Publishing ISBN 1 4191 2275 4 Donington Robert 1982 Baroque Music Style and Performance A Handbook New York W W Norton ISBN 978 0 393 30052 9 Durr Alfred 1981 Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach in German 4 ed Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag ISBN 978 3 423 04080 8 Durr Alfred Jones Richard D P 2006 The Cantatas of J S Bach Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 929776 4 Herl Joseph 2004 Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism Choir Congregation and Three Centuries of Conflict Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 515439 9 Herz Gerhard 1985 Essays on J S Bach Ann Arbor Michigan University of Michigan Press ISBN 978 0 8357 1989 6 Jones Richard 2007 The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 816440 1 Kerst Friedrich 1904 Beethoven im eigenen Wort in German Berlin Schuster amp Loeffler Kupferberg Herbert 1985 Basically Bach A 300th Birthday Celebration New York McGraw Hill ISBN 978 0 07 035646 7 Leaver Robin A 2007 Luther s Liturgical Music Grand Rapids Michigan William B Eerdmans Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 8028 3221 4 Lester Joel 1999 Bach s Works for Solo Violin Style Structure Performance Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 512097 4 Miles Russell H 1962 Johann Sebastian Bach An Introduction to His Life and Works Englewood Cliffs New Jersey Prentice Hall OCLC 600065 Morris Edmund 2005 Beethoven the Universal Composer New York HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 06 075974 2 Rich Alan 1995 Johann Sebastian Bach Play by Play San Francisco HarperCollins ISBN 978 0 06 263547 1 Schenk Erich Winston Richard Winston Clara 1959 Mozart and His Times New York Alfred A Knopf OCLC 602180 Schneider Max 1907 Verzeichnis der bis zum Jahre 1851 gedruckten und der geschrieben im Handel gewesenen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach Bach Jahrbuch Neue Bachgesellschaft VII 3 84 113 Schulenberg David 2006 The Keyboard Music of J S Bach New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 97400 4 Spaeth Sigmund 1937 Stories Behind the World s Great Music New York Whittlesey House Stauffer George B 2008 Music for Cavaliers et Dames Bach and the Repertoire of His Collegium Musicum In Butler Gregory G Stauffer George B Greer Mary Galton eds About Bach University of Illinois Press pp 135 156 ISBN 978 0 252 03344 5 Van Til Marian 2007 George Frideric Handel A Music Lover s Guide to His Life His Faith amp the Development of Messiah and His Other Oratorios Youngstown New York WordPower Publishing ISBN 978 0 9794785 0 5 Williams Peter 1980 The Organ Music of J S Bach Volume II BWV 599 771 etc Cambridge Studies in Music Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 31700 9 Williams Peter 2003b The Organ Music of J S Bach 2nd ed Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 89115 8 Wolff Christoph ed 1983 The New Grove Bach Family London Macmillan ISBN 978 0 333 34350 0 Wolff Christoph ed 1997 The World of the Bach Cantatas Johann Sebastian Bach s Early Sacred Cantatas New York W W Norton ISBN 978 0 393 33674 0 Wolff Christoph Emery Walter Wollny Peter Leisinger Ulrich Roe Stephen 17 January 2018 2001 Bach family Grove Music Online Oxford Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 gmo 9781561592630 article 40023 ISBN 978 1 56159 263 0 subscription or UK public library membership required Further readingSee Crist amp Stauff 2011 for an extensive bibliography Baron Carol K 2006 Bach s Changing World Voices in the Community Rochester New York University of Rochester Press ISBN 978 1 58046 190 0 Dorffel Alfred 1882 Thematisches Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke von Joh Seb Bach in German Leipzig C F Peters N B First published in 1867 superseded for scholarly purposes by Wolfgang Schmieder s complete thematic catalog but useful as a handy reference tool for only the instrumental works of Bach and as a partial alternative to Schmieder s work Hofstadter Douglas 1999 Godel Escher Bach An Eternal Golden Braid New York Basic Books ISBN 978 0 465 02656 2 Leaver Robin A 2016 The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach Routledge ISBN 978 0 367 58143 5 Pirro Andre 2014 1907 The Aesthetic of Johann Sebastian Bach Lanham Maryland Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 3290 7 Stauffer George B May Ernest 1986 J S Bach as Organist His Instruments Music and Performance Practices Bloomington Indiana University Press ISBN 978 0 253 33181 6 External linksJohann Sebastian Bach at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource German Wikisource has original text related to this article Johann Sebastian Bach Discovering Bach BBC Radio 3 bach leipzig website of the Bach Archive Yo Tomita s Bach Bibliography 23 March 2012 mirror at the Riemenschneider Bach Institute Works by or about Johann Sebastian Bach at Internet Archive Scores Johann Sebastian Bach at the Musopen project Free scores by Johann Sebastian Bach at the International Music Score Library Project IMSLP Music manuscripts and early prints at Bach Digital website Recordings Johann Sebastian Bach recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings Johann Sebastian Bach 1685 1750 at Muziekweb website All of Bach website of the Netherlands Bach Society Portals Classical music Biography Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Johann Sebastian Bach amp oldid 1135000651, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.