Johann Sebastian Bach

1. Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750

2. Bach’s Life • One of the greatest composers in the history of music. • German composer • Career spent in one region of Germany; he moved from one small town to another as job opportunities arose. • He composed most of his music to order, or to fulfill the requirements of a job. • He never wrote an opera (the most popular genre at the time) because his jobs never required it. • 1st job as a church organist in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen.

3. Bach’s Jobs • Married at 23, he found a better job at the court of the Duke of Weimar, first as organist and then leader of the orchestra. He stayed here for nine years, only leaving when he was turned down for the position of music director. The Duke was so angry that Bach left, that he put him in jail for a month. • Bach next gets a job as music director with the Prince of Cöthen • In 1720, Bach’s wife Barbara dies. The following year Bach marries Anna Magdalena, a young singer. • Between his two wives, Bach had twenty children, eleven of which died as children. Of the remaining nine, four became famous composers in their own right.

4. Bach’s Jobs continued • The Prince loved music, but when he got married, his new wife did not like music. The prince’s support for Bach and his activities diminished, the orchestra was dismissed and Bach looked for a new job. • Leipzig was looking for a music director for St Thomas’s Church. Bach was the third choice. The first was Georg Philipp Telemann, who turned it down and the second was not allowed to leave his post. Bach gladly accepted the position and he remained there for the rest of his life

5. Leipzig • Several aspects to Bach’s job • He was required to compose, rehearse, direct a new church cantata for every Sunday and feast day of the year. • He was head of the music school attached to St. Thomas’s and was responsible for composing, teaching Latin, playing the organ, maintaining all the instruments and preparing the choirs for the services at the three other main churches in Leipzig.

6. End of Bach’s Life and His Legacy • Bach died in 1750 • Bach’s music is carefully organized, has clear tonal direction, is expressive in nature, and intellectually brilliant. • To Bach, composing music was a means of supporting his family, instructing his fellow human beings and glorifying God

7. Wrap -up of Bach’s music • Bach composed in every genre, except opera • Bach was a master of counterpoint and his music is often used as a model for composers and students • Early years – composed primarily organ music • Middle years – mainly composed keyboard and instrumental music • Final years – composed religious choral music and instrumental works

8. Bach’s Organ Music • Varied, includes settings of Lutheran chorals, organ trio sonatas, and preludes & fugues • Chorales are either set in harmony for organ or used as the basis for a series of variations. • Trio sonatas – right hand plays one line, the left hand the another, and the pedals play the basso continuo • Prelude & Fugue – (sometimes called a toccata or fantasia) is a rambling, improvisatory piece used to fill in time before, during, or after a church service • Fugue= carefully worked out polyphonic composition, using a theme that occurs in all voices, may have 2,3, or 4 voices. It begins with a single voice sounding the subject unaccompanied. The second voice then enters with the fugue subject while the first continues playing until all the voices are sounding independently

9. Bach’s Keyboard, Instrumental, and Orchestral Music • Bach included characteristics of the Italian, French, and German styles into his music of this period • Italian = Rhythmic drive and brilliance • French = Favored dance forms and ornamentation • German = Serious and contrapuntal • During the Cöthen years, Bach composed many orchestral compositions and concertos, including the Brandenburg Concertos

10. Bach’s Vocal Church Music • In Leipzig, Bach composed hundreds of cantatas for church service and some motets, Passions and the Mass in B Minor • Passion – a musical setting of the story from the Gospels of the death and resurrection of Jesus. • St. Matthew Passion- lasts nearly three hours and is for solo singers, two choruses, one boys’ choir, two orchestras and two organs