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Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach was born March 21, 1685, in Eisnach, East Germany. Unfortunately, Bach was declared an orphan at the young age of ten. He moved in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph who lived in Ohrdruf. At age 15, he enrolled in Saint Michaels Church, where he sang in the choir. He stayed there for two years. Soon after he left the school, he became an organist at Saint Boniface Church, then at Saint Blasius Church.
In 1717 he was employed as a court organist, chamber musician and a concertmaster. That led his love of music and the next six years to him becoming a Kapellmeister, meaning a conductor of the court orchestra for the duke of Cohen. At age 23, Bach married his first wife, and second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, with whom he had seven children. Three survived, and out of those three, two became outstanding composers.
Maria died in 1720. A year later Bach married Anna Magdalena Wulcken, with whom he had thirteen children. Six survived, and out of those six one became an important composer and another became a court musician. Throughout his life, his children were more famous in music than he. (The beauty of his music was not realized until about 75 years after his death. ) Bach's beginning music was played on the organ, which fell under the keyboard category. That was the start to all his other music to come in his future. His music from that instrument is in the unfinished manuscript The Little Organ Book.
The harpsichord and clavichord were two of Bach's most famous keyboard instruments. Bach played many other instruments aside from the keyboards. The flute, violin, and gamba assisted more beautiful music of his, and completed more musical masterpieces. Bach's music was famous long after his death. Thousands of compositions of his were used on churches or in instruction. He combined parts of the Lutheran chorale, French and Italian orchestral styles, and baroque organ music.
Together that music was produced in the Brandenburg concertos (1721) for orchestra, The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722 - 44) for keyboard, the Saint John (1723) and Saint Matthew (1729) passions, almost 200 cantatas, and hundreds of others. Bach's music was beginning to be heard and recognized throughout some countries. In 1747, Bach visited Postal to see his musician son, Karl Philipp Emanuel. Carl was a musician at the court of King Fredrick the second of Prussia.
The king met Bach and was impressed with his music. At the kings request, Bach worked on a melody for him. After Bach returned home he composed the Musical Offering and dedicated it to the king as a friend ship gift. As it unexpectedly turned out, Bach's cantatas, which is church music for voices and instruments, turned out to be his most admired work. Only five were discovered from before 1714; those five were said to have shown Bach's German style. The rest showed the Italian operas influence.
Bach's cantatas would begin with a chorus, followed by four solo numbers and end with a simple chorale. Sometimes there would be a solo that would start before the chorus. Many cantatas from 1723 - 24 were set to Bible versus. Around this time the modern opera of the day was being created. Surprisingly, Bach never wrote an opera. The reason is said to be the fact that his mind and musical style always pulled him to religion.
Bach realized he had written so much he started rearranging older compositions instead of creating new ones. He did this to save time and fulfill his desire of having complete perfection to all of his music. He followed his rule of never redoing religious pieces, unless completely necessary. During this time he started his last piece Art of Fugue. Johann Sebastian Bach was getting old. His poor eyesight was decreasing until finally he became totally blind.
He died on Leipzig on July 28, 1750.
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Research essay sample on Johann Sebastian Bach Bach Cantatas Music
