Music Fundamentals 9 th Grade Mr. Lias

1. Music Fundamentals9th Grade Mr. Lias The Life and Music of Johann Sebastian Bach Music: Toccata and Fugue in d minor

2. Bach: His Life • Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisensach, Germany in 1685. • Bach’s father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the town organist and musician

3. Bach was orphaned at the age of ten and then sent to live with his brother Johann Jacob. • Interesting Fact of Bach’s Family: All five of Bach’s brothers were named Johann.

4. His Career • In 1703, at age eighteen, Bach received his first post as a musician in the Weimar Court and organist for the Neuekirche in Arnstadt. • Bach spent the next twenty years of his life moving from post to post.

5. Organist, Harpsichordist, and Clavier player in Muhlhausen Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold of Cothen The Wandering Years • Bach’s twenty years of posts included:

6. Settling Down • In 1723, Bach received his last post in Leipzig, Germany as a “musician of all trades” at St. Thomas Church. • Bach father over twenty children in two marriages. His first wife, Maria Barbara Bach (his cousin) gave birth to seven children, and his second wife, Anna Magdelena Wilcken, gave birth to the other thirteen.

7. Tragedies of Bach • Bach’s first wife, Maria Barbara Bach, died in 1720. • Of his twenty children, ten lived past childhood, and only four became composers. • Bach was the runner-up for the post at Leipzig and it was given to him only because the other person backed out.

8. His Music • Bach is accredited to over 1,000 works over his forty-seven year career. • His music, though highly regarded now, was to the people of the time as “old fashioned” Music: “Little” Fugue in g minor

9. Bach wrote many types, or forms ofmusic, they include: • Fugues • Inventions • Concertos • Partitas • Preludes • Bach was most famous for his Fugues as heard throughout class today

10. Harpsichord Organ Instruments Bach played mainly keyboard instruments his whole life, but wrote for all instruments of the time that include:

11. Voice Orchestras His works are numerous and infamous and stand as a pillar for young composers everywhere

12. Bach Contributions • Beyond his music, or actually, in his music Bach was an artist. • The technique he used became known as counterpoint. • Though Bach did not invent the technique of counterpoint, he was known as its master.

13. Voice-Leading/Part-Writing • In all of Bach’s choral pieces, the voices all apply to certain rules discovered music theorists. • These rules, or the technique itself is known as Voice-Leading/Part-Writing. • V-L/P-W uses rules to determine how harmony fits with a predetermined melody.

14. The Fugue • The technique of writing fugue was one of Bach’s largest contributions. • Fugue uses a subject, or melody, this subject is manipulated using tools like voice inversion, inversion, retrograde….etc. • Composers today still use the techniques mastered by him

15. Home Work • AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! • Read pp.62-82 and do review for Monday • Have a Good Weekend!!!!

16. References • Foil, David. Bach: The Keyboard Works. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, New York, 1996. • Turek, Ralph. The Elements of Music Vol. 2, 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill Publishers, New York, New York, 1996.