What did bang. Bach's most famous work

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, a small provincial town of Thuringia, in the family of a poor city musician. At the age of ten, orphaned, I.S. Bach moved to Ohrdruf, to his older brother Johann Christoph, an organist, who taught his little brother, who entered the gymnasium, to play the organ and clavier.

At the age of 15, Bach moved to Lüneburg, where in 1700-1703 he studied at the vocal school of St. Michael. A beautiful voice, playing the violin, organ, harpsichord, helped him enter the choir of "chosen singers", where he received a small salary. The extensive library of the Lüneburg school contained many manuscript compositions by old German and Italian musicians, and Bach immersed himself in their study. During his studies, he visited Hamburg - the largest city in Germany, as well as Celle (where French music was held in high esteem) and Lübeck, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of his time. During this period of his life, Bach expanded his knowledge of the composers of that era, above all about Dietrich Buxtehude, whom he greatly respected.

In January 1703, after finishing his studies, Bach received the position of court musician from the Weimar Duke Johann Ernst. But he did not work there for long. Not satisfied with his work and dependent position, he willingly accepted an invitation to the post of organist of the New Church in the city of Arnstadt and moved there in 1704.
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In 1707, after a three-year stay in Arnstadt, J.S. Bach moves to Mühlhausen and enters the same position as a church musician. Four months later, on October 17, 1707, Johann Sebastian married his cousin Maria Barbara of Arnstadt. They subsequently had six children, three of whom died in childhood. Three of the survivors - Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christian and Carl Philipp Emmanuel - went on to become well-known composers.

After working at Mühlhausen for about a year, Bach changed jobs again, this time getting a position as court organist and concert organizer - a much higher position than his previous position - in Weimar, where he stayed for about ten years. Here, for the first time in his biography, I.S. Bach had the opportunity to reveal his multifaceted talent in versatile performing music, to test it in all directions: as an organist, musician of an orchestral chapel, in which he had to play the violin and harpsichord, and from 1714 - as an assistant bandmaster.

After some time, I.S. Bach again began looking for a more suitable job. The old owner did not want to let him go, and on November 6, 1717, he even arrested him for constant requests for resignation, but on December 2 he released him "with an expression of disgrace." Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister. The prince, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talent, paid him well and provided him with great freedom of action.

In 1722, I.S. Bach completed the first volume of the Preludes and Fugues of the *Well-Tempered Clavier*. Before that, in 1720, another, no less outstanding composition for the same instrument appeared - *Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue * in D minor, which transfers the monumentality of forms and the dramatic pathos of organ compositions to the clavier. The best compositions for other instruments also appear: six sonatas for solo violin, six famous Brandenburg concertos for instrumental ensemble. All these creations are among the outstanding works of the composer, but they are far from exhausting what Bach wrote in the Köthen period.

In 1723, the performance of his "Passion according to John" took place in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, and on June 1, Bach received the post of cantor of the choir of St. Thomas, while simultaneously acting as a school teacher at the church, replacing Johann Kuhnau in this post. The first six years of his life in Leipzig turned out to be very productive: Bach composed up to 5 annual cycles of cantatas. Bach was unable to overcome the stinginess and inertia of the Leipzig bosses. On the other hand, all the bureaucratic authorities took up arms against the “obstinate” cantor. “Cantor not only does nothing, but this time does not want to give explanations.” They decide that “the cantor is incorrigible”, and that as a punishment, his salary should be reduced and he should be transferred to the lower grades. The severity of Bach's position was somewhat brightened up by artistic success. The long won fame of an incomparable virtuoso on the organ and clavier brought him new triumphs, attracted admirers and friends, among whom were such prominent people as the composer Gasse and his famous wife, the Italian singer Faustina Bordoni.

In March 1729, Johann Sebastian became the head of the College of Music (Collegium Musicum), a secular ensemble that had existed since 1701, when it was founded by Bach's old friend Georg Philipp Telemann. Bach devoted himself with enthusiasm to work, free from intrusive interference and constant control. He acts as a conductor and performer in public concerts, which were held in various public places. The new form of musical activity put forward new creative tasks. It was necessary to create works in accordance with the tastes and needs of the urban audience. For performances, Bach wrote a huge variety of music; orchestral, vocal There is a lot of fiction, jokes and ingenuity in it.

In the last decade of his life, Bach's interest in social and musical activities noticeably decreases. In 1740 he relinquished the leadership of the Collegium Musicum; did not take part in the new concert musical organization founded in 1741.

Over time, Bach's vision became progressively worse. However, he continued to compose music, dictating it to his son-in-law Altnikkol. In 1750, the English ophthalmologist John Taylor, whom many modern researchers consider a charlatan, arrived in Leipzig. Taylor operated on Bach twice, but both operations were unsuccessful, Bach remained blind. On July 18, he suddenly regained his sight for a short time, but in the evening he had a stroke. Bach died on July 28, 1750.

During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works.

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH - MUSIC'S CHOSEN

The surname Bach and the word "musician" were synonymous in Germany for several centuries, because this ancient family gave the world 56 musicians, but only in the fifth generation was born the one who was destined to glorify the surname -. His biographer later wrote that Johann's work radiated such a bright light that its reflection fell on all representatives of the family. This man became the pride of his fatherland, it seemed as if the very art of music patronized him. However, during the life of the great composer, he could hardly be considered the chosen one of fate.

Influenced by brother

At first glance, the path of life Johann Sebastian Bach may not seem much different from the biographies of other German musicians who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. He was born in 1685 in the small town of Eisenach in Thuringia. Bach was orphaned early - he was only 9 years old when his mother died, and a year later his father. He was taken in by his elder brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist in a nearby town. First Johann Sebastian studied music under the guidance of his brother and school cantors, he later moved to the Lower Saxon city of Lüneburg, where he attended a school at the church. He mastered the technique of playing the harpsichord, violin, viola, organ, in addition, Johann Sebastian was a choir singer, and later became an assistant cantor after a voice mutation.

Already in his youth, Bach was clearly aware of his vocation in organ music. He constantly studied the art of improvisation on the organ from the best German masters of that time. Subsequently, these skills will become the basis of his skill. It is worth adding to this the acquaintance of Johann Sebastian with various genres of European music. He participated in concerts of the court chapel of the city of Celle, which was distinguished by its love for French music, visited Lübeck and Hamburg, had the opportunity to study the works of Italian masters in the school library.

Young perfectionist

Johann Sebastian, after school, was a fairly educated and experienced musician, but the craving for learning did not leave him throughout his life. He was interested in everything that could at least a little broaden his professional horizons. Bach's career was distinguished by perfectionism and the eternal desire for self-improvement. It was not at all by chance that he occupied this or that position, each step of his musical hierarchy (from organist to cantor) earned by perseverance and hard work. And with each step, the practical musician turned into a composer, whose creative impulses and accomplishments stepped far beyond the goals that Bach set.

In 1703 he became court musician to Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. A few months later, they started talking about him as a prominent performer. Then Bach was invited to Arnstadt to take up the post of church superintendent of the organ. In the church of St. Boniface, Johann Sebastian worked with a well-tuned instrument, which expanded his performing and composing possibilities. In Arnstadt, he wrote a lot of organ works, but over time he had problems in communicating with the local authorities. Bach was not satisfied with the level of training of choir singers, and local officials showed him dissatisfaction with the musical accompaniment of the choral performance, which allegedly confuses the parishioners.

Bach's large family

In Arnstadt, Johann Sebastian fell in love with his cousin Maria. Despite the relationship, the lovers decided to get married, but their the family union was short-lived. Maria lived only 36 years, although she gave birth to 7 children to the composer. Only four of them survived. Bach's second wife was Anna Magdalena, who was 16 years younger than him. But such a difference in age did not prevent Anna from becoming a caring mother for her husband's already grown children. She gave Johann Sebastian 13 more heirs, did an excellent job with housekeeping and was sincerely interested in her husband's achievements in the musical field.

In search of prospects

When Bach was offered the position of organist at Mühlhausen in 1706, he changed jobs without hesitation. The position was profitable and provided Johann Sebastian with clearly greater opportunities than in Arnstadt, but was not enough to contribute to the development of church music, as Bach believed. By this time, he had already accumulated an extensive repertoire and, not seeing for his prospects, wrote to the magistrate of the city a letter of resignation.

Versatile activities awaited Johann Sebastian Bach in the castle church and chapel at the court of Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar. In Weimar, the composer managed to complete several of his iconic works - Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Passacaglia in C minor, as well as the famous "Organ Book" - a guide for beginner organists. Bach became famous far beyond the city limits as a connoisseur of improvisation and the best adviser on organ construction. The failed competition between Johann Sebastian and the famous French organist Louis Marchand, who decided to give in to his opponent before the meeting, also belongs to the Weimar period.

Experience of Weimar and Kothen

The composer's dream of composing church music on a regular basis came true after his appointment as vice-kapellmeister in 1714. Under the terms of the contract, Bach had to create new works every month. No less active Johann Sebastian showed himself as an accompanist. The intense musical life of Weimar gave the composer the opportunity not only to become closely acquainted with European music, but also to create under its influence. He made organ adaptations of concertos, clavier - Tomaso Albinoni and Alessandro Marcello.

In Weimar, Bach first turned to the genre of the suite and the solo violin sonata. The instrumental experiments of the master were not in vain - in 1717 he was invited to Keten and offered to take up the post of Grand Duke's Kapellmeister. The most favorable creative atmosphere reigned here. Prince Leopold was a passionate music lover and also a musician who played the viola and harpsichord and had outstanding vocal abilities. Johann Sebastian was supposed to accompany the prince's singing and playing, but his main duty was to lead the orchestra members of the chapel. Here the creative interests of the composer moved to the instrumental sphere. In Köthen he wrote orchestral suites, concertos, violin and cello sonatas. Immediately, he continued his pedagogical work and created compositions, as he said, for musical youth who strive for learning. The first among them is Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Music Notebook. He started it in 1720 for his first son and future composer. In addition to arrangements of chorales and dance miniatures, it contains prototypes of the Well-Tempered Clavier and two and three-part Inventions. Will complete these meetings in a couple of years.

Simultaneously with the annual increase in the number of Bach's students, his pedagogical repertoire was also replenished. This legacy of Johann Sebastian has become a performing arts school for many generations of musicians.

The end of Bach's wanderings

With a wealth of experience and an enviable repertoire, Bach stepped one step further in his career and became the music director of Leipzig and the cantor of the St. Thomas School. This city became the last point on the map of Bach's wanderings. Here he reached the top of the official hierarchy. While the magistrate provided funding for the creation of liturgical music, Johann Sebastian's energy as cantor knew no bounds. He attracted experienced professional musicians to perform. His Leipzig work combined the knowledge and skills gained in Weimar and Köthen. Weekly he created cantatas and wrote more than a hundred and fifty of them, at the same time he composed two of his famous works on the theme of the Gospel - "Passion according to John" and "Passion according to Matthew". In total, he wrote four or five passions, but only these have been fully preserved to this day.

In Leipzig, the composer again took over the duties of bandmaster and headed the student "Musical Commonwealth". With this group, Bach gave weekly concerts for a secular audience, which made an invaluable contribution to the musical life of the city. Researchers believe that it was in Leipzig that a special kind of clavier concerto by Johann Sebastian arose. These were, speaking in modern terminology, remixes - adaptations of his own concertos for violin or violin and oboe.

Unforgotten genius

In 1747, Johann Sebastian was invited to visit the royal residence in Potsdam to improvise on a novelty among musical instruments - the piano. The theme was given to the composer Frederick II himself. Inspired by this idea, Bach created the grandiose cycle "Musical Offering", which is considered an incomparable monument of contrapuntal (polyphonic) art. In parallel with this creation, the composer was completing the Art of Fugue cycle, which had been conceived many years ago, and contained all kinds of canons and counterpoints.

By the end of his life, Johann Sebastian lost his sight, and loving Anna Magdalena helped him in his work. His name gradually began to be lost in a series of other musicians, but, contrary to a common myth, the great composer was not completely forgotten. died 1750. His grave was lost over time, and only in 1894 the remains of the composer were accidentally discovered during the reconstruction of the church.

Numerous published and handwritten works of Bach were collected by his students and simple connoisseurs of the composer's work, because he, like no one else, in his generous time for talents, managed to combine the incompatible, completing the evolution of many genres.

Surname Johann Sebastian Bach means "stream" in German. Once using this analogy, he said that "not a stream, but a sea there must be a name for him, ”meaning the full scale of the work of a genius.

The older brother Bach had a collection of works by famous composers of the time, which he hid from Johann Sebastian in a cabinet with bars. Nine-year-old Bach somehow pulled out a music collection at night and rewrote it under the moonlight. One day his brother caught him, took the notes and sent him to bed. In tears, Johann Sebastian shouted that he himself would write such music or even better. Time has shown that the boy kept his promise.

Updated: April 7, 2019 by: Elena

Johann Sebastian Bach
Years of life: 1685-1750

Bach was a genius of such magnitude that even today it seems to be an unsurpassed, exceptional phenomenon. His work is truly inexhaustible: after the "discovery" of Bach's music in the 19th century, interest in it has steadily increased, Bach's works are gaining an audience even among listeners who usually do not show interest in "serious" art.

Bach's work, on the one hand, was a kind of summing up. In his music, the composer relied on everything that had been achieved and discovered in the art of music. before him. Bach had an excellent knowledge of German organ music, choral polyphony, and the peculiarities of the German and Italian violin style. He not only met, but also copied the works of contemporary French harpsichordists (primarily Couperin), Italian violinists (Corelli, Vivaldi), and major representatives of Italian opera. Possessing an amazing receptivity to everything new, Bach developed and generalized the accumulated creative experience.

At the same time, he was a brilliant innovator who opened up for the development of world musical culture new perspectives. His powerful influence was also reflected in the work of the great composers of the 19th century (Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Glinka, Taneyev), and in the works of outstanding masters of the 20th century (Shostakovich, Honegger).

Bach's creative heritage is almost boundless, it includes more than 1000 works of various genres, and among them there are those whose scale is exceptional for their time (MP). Bach's works can be divided into three main genre groups:

• vocal and instrumental music;
• organ music,
• music for other instruments (clavier, violin, flute, etc.) and instrumental ensembles (including orchestral).

The works of each group are mainly associated with a certain period of Bach's creative biography. The most significant organ works were created in Weimar, clavier and orchestral works mainly belong to the Köthen period, vocal and instrumental compositions were mostly written in Leipzig.

The main genres in which Bach worked are traditional: these are masses and passions, cantatas and oratorios, choral adaptations, preludes and fugues, dance suites and concertos. Inheriting these genres from his predecessors, Bach gave them a scope that they did not know before. He updated them with new means of expression, enriched them with features borrowed from other genres of musical creativity. A striking example is . Created for the clavier, it includes the expressive qualities of large organ improvisations, as well as dramatic recitations of theatrical origin.

Bach's creativity, for all its universality and inclusiveness, "bypassed" one of the leading genres of its time - opera. At the same time, little distinguishes some of Bach's secular cantatas from the comedy interlude, which was already being reborn at that time in Italy in opera-buffa. The composer often called them, like the first Italian operas, "dramas on music." It can be said that such works by Bach as "Coffee", "Peasant" cantatas, solved as witty genre scenes from everyday life, anticipated the German Singspiel.

Circle of images and ideological content

The figurative content of Bach's music is boundless in its breadth. The majestic and the simple are equally accessible to him. Bach's art contains both deep grief, and simple-minded humor, the sharpest drama and philosophical reflection. Like Handel, Bach reflected the essential aspects of his era - the first half of the 18th century, but others - not effective heroism, but the religious and philosophical problems put forward by the Reformation. In his music, he reflects on the most important, eternal issues of human life - about the purpose of a person, about his moral duty, about life and death. These reflections are most often connected with religious themes, because Bach served almost all his life at the church, wrote a huge part of the music for the church, he himself was a deeply religious person, who knew the Holy Scripture perfectly. He observed church holidays, fasted, confessed, and a few days before his death he took communion. The Bible in two languages ​​- German and Latin - was his reference book.

Bach's Jesus Christ is the main character and ideal. In this image, the composer saw the personification of the best human qualities: fortitude, fidelity to the chosen path, purity of thoughts. The most sacred thing in the history of Christ for Bach is Golgotha ​​and the cross, the sacrificial feat of Jesus for the salvation of mankind. This theme, being the most important in Bach's work, receives ethical, moral interpretation.

Musical symbolism

The complex world of Bach's works is revealed through the musical symbolism that has developed in line with the Baroque aesthetics. By Bach's contemporaries, his music, including instrumental, "pure", was perceived as understandable speech due to the presence of stable melodic turns in it, expressing certain concepts, emotions, ideas. By analogy with classical oratory, these sound formulas are called musical rhetorical figures. Some rhetorical figures were pictorial in nature (for example, anabasis - ascent, catabasis - descent, circulatio - rotation, fuga - running, tirata - arrow); others imitated the intonations of human speech (exclamatio - exclamation - ascending sixth); still others conveyed an affect (suspiratio - a sigh, passus duriusculus - a chromatic move used to express grief, suffering).

Thanks to stable semantics, musical figures have turned into "signs", emblems of certain feelings and concepts. For example, descending melodies (catadasis) were used to symbolize sadness, dying, and laying in a coffin; ascending scales expressed the symbolism of the resurrection, etc.

Symbolic motifs are present in all of Bach's compositions, and these are not only musical and rhetorical figures. Melodies often appear in symbolic meaning protestant chant, their segments.

Bach was associated with the Protestant chorale throughout his life - both by religion and by occupation as a church musician. He constantly worked with the chorale in a variety of genres - organ choral preludes, cantatas, passions. It is quite natural that P.Kh. became an integral part of Bach's musical language.

Chorals were sung by the entire Protestant community; they entered the spiritual world of a person as a natural, necessary element of the worldview. Choral melodies and the religious content associated with them were known to everyone, so the people of Bach's time easily had associations with the meaning of the chorale, with a specific event in Holy Scripture. Penetrating all the work of Bach, the melodies of P.Kh. fill his music, including instrumental, with a spiritual program that clarifies the content.

Symbols are also stable sound combinations that have constant meanings. One of Bach's most important symbols - cross symbol, consisting of four differently directed notes. If you graphically connect the first with the third, and the second with the fourth, a cross pattern is formed. (It is curious that the surname BACH, when transcribed into musical notes, forms the same pattern. Probably, the composer perceived this as a kind of finger of fate).

Finally, there are numerous connections between Bach's cantata-oratorio (i.e., textual) compositions and his instrumental music. Based on all the above connections and analysis of various rhetorical figures, a Bach's musical symbol system. A. Schweitzer, F. Busoni, B. Yavorsky, M. Yudina made a huge contribution to its development.

"Second birth"

Bach's brilliant work was not truly appreciated by his contemporaries. Enjoying fame as an organist, he did not attract due attention as a composer during his lifetime. Not a single serious work was written about his work, only an insignificant part of the works was published. After Bach's death, his manuscripts gathered dust in the archives, many were irretrievably lost, and the composer's name was forgotten.

Genuine interest in Bach arose only in the 19th century. It was started by F. Mendelssohn, who accidentally found the notes of the Passion according to Matthew in the library. Under his direction this work was performed in Leipzig. Most listeners, literally shocked by the music, have never heard the name of the author. This was the second birth of Bach.

On the occasion of the centenary of his death (1850), a Bach society, which aimed to publish all the surviving manuscripts of the composer in the form of a complete collection of works (46 volumes).

Several of Bach's sons became prominent musicians: Philipp Emmanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann (Dresden), Johann Christoph (Bückenburg), Johann Christian (the youngest, "London" Bach).

Biography of Bach

All about Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685 – July 28, 1750) was a German Baroque composer and musician. He made a significant contribution to the development of significant genres of German classical music through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organization, as well as adaptations of foreign rhythms, forms and structures, in particular from Italy and France. Bach's musical compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, the two Passions and over three hundred cantatas, of which about two hundred have survived. His music is renowned for its technical excellence, artistic beauty and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly regarded during his lifetime, but as a great composer he was not widely recognized until the first half of the 19th century, when interest in his music and its performance revived. He is currently considered one of the greatest composers of all time.

Biography of Bach

Bach was born in Eisenach, in the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a large family of musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the head of the city's orchestra, and all his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him the violin and harpsichord, while his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and introduced him to many contemporary composers. Obviously, on his own initiative, Bach entered St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, where he studied for two years. After graduation, he held a number of musical positions throughout Germany: he served as kalipdiner (music director) to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, and thomascantor in Leipzig, music director in famous Lutheran churches and teacher at the St. Thomas School. In 1736, August III awarded him the title of "court composer". In 1749, Bach's health and eyesight deteriorated. On July 28, 1750, he died.

Bach's childhood

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, located in what is now Germany, on March 21, 1685, Art. style (March 31, 1685 A.D.). He was the son of Johann Abrosius Bach, leader of the city orchestra, and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. In the family of Johann Abrosius, he was the eighth and youngest child, and his father probably taught him the violin and the basics of music theory. All his uncles were professional musicians, among them were church organists, court chamber musicians and composers. One of them, Johann Christoph Bach (1645-93), introduced Johann Sebastian to the organ, and his older cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach (1677-1731), was a renowned composer and violinist.

Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his older brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671-1721), who served as organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. There he studied, played and copied music, including the pen of his own brother, although this was forbidden, since the scores at that time were very personal and of great value, and clean office paper of the right type was expensive. He received valuable knowledge from his brother, who taught him to play the clavichord. Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the great composers of his time, including South German ones such as Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph studied) and Johann Jakob Froberger; North German composers; Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand and Marin Marais; as well as the Italian pianist Girolamo Frescobaldi. At the same time, at the local grammar school, he studied theology, Latin, Greek, French and Italian.

On April 3, 1700, Bach and his schoolmate Georg Erdmann, who was two years older, entered the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, which was a two-week journey from Ohrdruf. Most of this distance they probably covered on foot. The two years Bach spent at this school played a crucial role in shaping his interest in various branches of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the School's three-manual organ and harpsichords. He began to associate with the sons of aristocrats from northern Germany, who were sent to this very demanding school to prepare for careers in other disciplines.

While in Lüneburg, Bach had access to St. John's Church and may have used the church's famous 1553 organ, as it was played by his organ teacher Georg Böhm. Thanks to his musical talent, Bach was in close contact with Böhm during his studies in Lüneburg, and also traveled to nearby Hamburg, where he attended performances by "the great North German organist Johann Adam Reinken." Stauffer reports that, discovered in 2005, the organ tablature that Bach wrote as a teenager to the works of Reinken and Buxtehude shows "a disciplined, methodical, well-prepared teenager deeply committed to the study of his art."

Bach's service as organist

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from the St. Michael's School and being refused an appointment as organist at Sangerhausen, Bach entered the service as court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar. It is not known exactly what his duties were there, but they were probably rough and had nothing to do with music. During his seven-month stay in Weimar, Bach became so famous as a keyboardist that he was invited to inspect the new organ and perform the opening concert at the Neues Church (now the Bach Church) in Arnstadt, located about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Weimar. In August 1703, he took up a position as organist at the New Church, with simple duties, a relatively generous salary, and a fine new organ, whose temperament settings allowed him to play music written in a wider keyboard range.

Despite powerful family connections and an employer passionate about music, after a few years in the service, tension arose between Bach and the authorities. Bach was dissatisfied with the level of training of the singers in the choir, and his employer did not approve of his unauthorized absence from Arnstadt - in 1705-06, when Bach left for several months to visit the great organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude and attend his evening concerts in the church St. Mary in the northern city of Lübeck. In order to visit Buxtehude, it was necessary to cover a distance of 450 kilometers (280 miles) - according to available evidence, Bach made this journey on foot.

In 1706 Bach applied for a position as organist at the Blasius Church (also known as St. Blasius Church or Divi Blasii) in Mühlhausen. As a demonstration of his skills, he performed a cantata for Easter, April 24, 1707 - this was probably an early version of his composition "Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in chains of death"). A month later, Bach's application was accepted, and in July he took the desired position. The salary in this service was significantly higher, the conditions and the choir were better. Four months after arriving in Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Bach managed to convince the church and city authorities of Mühlhausen to finance an expensive restoration of the organ in the Blasius Church. In 1708, Bach wrote "Gott ist mein König" ("The Lord is my King"), a festive cantata for the inauguration of a new consul, the cost of publication of which was paid by the consul himself.

The beginning of Bach's work

In 1708 Bach left Mühlhausen and returned to Weimar, this time as organist and, from 1714, as court accompanist (musical director), where he had the opportunity to work with a large, well-funded body of professional musicians. Bach and his wife moved into a house near the ducal palace. Later that year, their first daughter, Katharina Dorothea, was born; Mary Barbara's unmarried older sister also moved in with them. She helped the Bach family with the housework and lived with them until her death in 1729. Bach also had three sons in Weimar: Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emmanuel and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children, but none of them survived a year, including twins born in 1713.

Bach's life in Weimar marked the beginning of a long period of composing clavier and orchestral works. He honed his skills and acquired the confidence that allowed him to expand the boundaries of traditional musical structures and include foreign musical influences. He learned to write dramatic introductions, use the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes inherent in the music of such Italians as Vivaldi, Corelli and Torelli. Bach derived these stylistic aspects in part from the arrangement of Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these pieces, in his adaptations, are regularly performed to this day. In particular, Bach was attracted by the Italian style, in which solo parts on one or more instruments alternated with the playing of a full orchestra throughout the movement.

In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for organ, and also performed concert music with the Duke's Ensemble. In addition, he began to write preludes and fugues, which later entered the monumental cycle called "The Well-Tempered Clavier" ("Das Wohltemperierte Klavier" - "Klavier" means clavichord or harpsichord). The cycle includes two books, compiled in 1722 and 1744, each containing 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys.

In addition, in Weimar, Bach began work on the "Organ Book", containing complex arrangements of traditional Lutheran chorales (church melodies). In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during the restoration of the main organ in the western gallery of the Catholic Church of St. Mary, carried out by Christoph Kuntzius. Johann Kunau and Bach played again at its opening in 1716.

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

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

Bach family and children

In 1717, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister (Music Director). As a musician himself, Prince Leopold appreciated Bach's talents, paid him a good salary and provided him with considerable freedom in composing and performing musical works. However, the prince was a Calvinist and did not use complex music in his worship services. As a consequence, the works written by Bach during this period were largely secular, including orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and scores for solo violin, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Bach also wrote secular court cantatas, notably "Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht" ("Time and days make years") (BWV 134a). An important component of Bach's musical development during the years of service with Prince Stauffer describes as "his complete acceptance of dance music, which had perhaps the most important influence on the flowering of his style, along with the music of Vivaldi, mastered by him in Weimar."

Despite the fact that Bach and Handel were born the same year, only about 130 kilometers (80 miles) apart, they never met. In 1719, Bach made the 35 kilometers (22 miles) journey from Köthen to Halle to meet Handel, but Handel had already left the city by then. In 1730, Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, traveled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in Leipzig, but no visit followed.

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

Bach as an educator

In 1723, Bach received the position of thomascantor - cantor at the St. Thomas School at the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, which provided concerts in four churches in the city: Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church), to a somewhat lesser extent Neue Kirche (New Church) and Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church). It was "the leading cantorate of Protestant Germany", located in a commercial city in the Electorate of Saxony, where he served for twenty-seven years until his death. During this period, he strengthened his authority through the honorary court positions he held in Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as in the court of Elector Friedrich August (who was also King of Poland) in Dresden. Bach had many disagreements with his actual employers - the city administration of Leipzig, whose members he considered "misers". For example, despite receiving an offer to be appointed to the post of thomascantor, Bach, however, was invited to Leipzig only after Telemann declared that he was not interested in moving to Leipzig. Telemann went to Hamburg, where he "had his own conflicts with the city's senate."

Bach's duties included teaching singing to the students of the St. Thomas School and holding concerts in the main churches of Leipzig. In addition, Bach was obliged to teach Latin, but he was allowed to hire four "prefects" (assistants) who did this instead of him. The prefects also provided assistance in musical literacy. Cantatas were performed during Sunday and holiday services throughout the church year. As a rule, Bach himself directed the performance of his cantatas, most of which he composed during the first three years after moving to Leipzig. The very first was "Die Elenden sollen essen" ("Let the poor eat and be satisfied") (BWV 75), first performed at the Nikolaikirche on May 30, 1723, the first Sunday after Whitsunday. Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Of the five such cycles mentioned in obituaries, only three have survived. Of the more than 300 cantatas written by Bach in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to later generations. Basically, these concert works are based on the texts of the Gospel, which were read in the Lutheran Church at every Sunday and holiday service throughout the year. The second yearly cycle, which Bach set about creating on the first Sunday after Trinity in 1724, consists exclusively of chorale contata, each based on a particular church hymn. These include "O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort" ("O eternity, word of thunder") (BWV 20), "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" ("Wake up, a voice calls to you") (BWV 140), "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" ("Come, Savior of the nations") (BWV 62), and "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" ("Oh, how beautifully the light of the morning star shines") (BWV 1).

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

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, also directed concerts at the Paulinerkirche, the church attached to the University of Leipzig. However, when Bach took over this position in 1723, he had at his disposal only concerts for "ceremonial" (held on church holidays) services in the Paulinerkirche; his request for concerts and regular Sunday services in this church (with a corresponding increase in salary) reached the elector himself, but was refused. After that, in 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even on solemn divine services in Paulinerkirche and began to appear there only on "special occasions". The organ in Paulinerkirche was much better and newer (1716) than in Thomaskirche or Nikolaikirche. In 1716, when the organ was built, Bach was asked to give official advice, for which he arrived from Köthen and presented his report. Bach's formal duties did not include playing any organ, but it is believed that he enjoyed playing the organ at the Paulinerkirche "for his pleasure".

In March 1729, Bach took over as head of the College of Music (Collegium Musicum) - a secular concert ensemble founded by Telemann, and this allowed him to extend his activities as a composer and performer beyond church services. The College of Music was one of many closed groups that were founded in large German-speaking cities by musically gifted university students; such groups acquired at that time more and more important in public musical life; as a rule, they were led by the most prominent professional musicians of the city. According to Christoph Wolff, the adoption of this manual was a shrewd move that "strengthened Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's main musical institutions". Throughout the year, the Leipzig College of Music held regular concerts at venues such as the Zimmermann Café, a coffee shop on Katherine Street near the main market square. Many of Bach's compositions written in the 1730s and 1740s were composed for and performed by the College of Music; among them are selected works from the collection "Clavier-Übung" ("Clavier Exercises"), as well as many of his violin and keyboard concertos.

In 1733, Bach composed a mass for the Dresden court (movements "Kyrie" and "Gloria"), which he later included in his Mass in B minor. He presented the manuscript to the elector in the hope of persuading the prince to appoint him court composer, and this attempt was subsequently successful. Later, he remade this work into a full mass, adding parts of "Credo", "Sanctus" and "Agnus Dei", the music for which he partly based on his own cantatas, partly composed entirely. Bach's appointment as court composer was part of his long struggle to strengthen his authority in disputes with the city council of Leipzig. In 1737-1739 the College of Music was headed by a former student of Bach, Karl Gotthelf Gerlach.

In 1747 Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. The king played a melody for Bach and invited him to immediately impromptu fugue, based on the musical theme he had performed. Bach immediately played an improvisation of a three-voice fugue on one of Friedrich's pianos, then a new composition, and later presented the King with a "Musical Offering" consisting of fugues, canons and trios based on the motif proposed by Friedrich. His six-voice fugue incorporates the same musical theme, making it more suitable for various variations thanks to a number of changes.

In the same year, Bach joined the Society for Musical Sciences (Correspondierende Societät der musikalischen Wissenschafften) by Lorenz Christoph Mitzler. On the occasion of his entry into the society, Bach composed the Canonical Variations on the Christmas carol "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her "("From heaven I will descend to earth") (BWV 769). Each member of the society was supposed to present a portrait, so in 1746 in during the preparation of Bach for the performance, the artist Elias Gottlob Hausmann painted his portrait, which later became famous. "Triple canon for six voices" (BWV 1076) was presented along with this portrait as a dedication to the Society. Perhaps other later works of Bach also had a connection with the Society based on the theory of music.Among these works is the Art of the Fugue cycle, which consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme.The Art of the Fugue was published only posthumously in 1751.

Bach's last significant work was the Mass in B minor (1748-49), which Stauffer describes as "Bach's most comprehensive ecclesiastical work. Composed largely of processed parts of cantatas that had been written over the course of thirty-five years, he allowed Bach to examine your vocal parts and select individual parts for later revision and improvement." Although the Mass was never performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime, it is considered one of the greatest choral works of all time.

Illness and death of Bach

In 1749 Bach's health began to fail; On June 2, Heinrich von Brühl wrote a letter to one of the burgomasters of Leipzig asking him to appoint his music director, Johann Gottlieb Garrer, to the post of thomascantor and music director "in connection with the approaching ... death of Herr Bach." Bach was losing his sight, so the British eye surgeon John Taylor operated on him twice during his stay in Leipzig in March and April 1750.

On July 28, 1750, Bach died at the age of 65. Local newspaper reports cited "the tragic consequences of a very unsuccessful eye operation" as the cause of death. Spitta gives some details. He writes that Bach died of "apoplexy," that is, of a stroke. Confirming the reports in the newspapers, Spitta notes: "The treatment carried out in connection with the [unsuccessful eye] operation had such bad consequences that his health ... was greatly shaken," and Bach completely lost his sight. His son Carl Philipp Emmanuel, in collaboration with his student Johann Friedrich Agricola, compiled an obituary for Bach, which was published in the Mitzler Music Library in 1754.

Bach's property included five harpsichords, two lute harpsichords, three violins, three violas, two cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute and a spinet, as well as 52 "holy books", including works by Martin Luther and Joseph. Initially, the composer was buried in the old cemetery at the Church of St. John in Leipzig. Later, the inscription on his tombstone was erased, and the grave was lost for almost 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were discovered and moved to a crypt in the church of St. John. During World War II, this church was destroyed by Allied bombing, so that in 1950 Bach's ashes were transferred to their current burial site in the Church of St. Thomas. In later studies, doubts were expressed that the remains lying in the grave really belong to Bach.

Bach's musical style

Bach's musical style largely corresponds to the traditions of his time, which was the final stage in the era of the Baroque style. When his contemporaries such as Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi wrote concertos, he did the same. When they composed suites, he did the same. The same with recitatives, followed by da capo arias, four-part chorales, the use of basso continuo, and so on. Features of his style lie in such properties as the mastery of contrapuntal invention and motivic control, as well as his talent for creating tightly woven musical compositions with a powerful sound. From an early age, he was inspired by the works of his contemporaries and previous generations, learned everything possible from the work of European composers, including French and Italian, as well as people from all over Germany, and few of them were not reflected in his own music.

Bach devoted most of his life to sacred music. Hundreds of church works created by him are usually regarded as manifestations not only of his skill, but also of a truly reverent attitude towards God. As a Thomascantor in Leipzig, he taught the small catechism, and this was reflected in some of his works. Lutheran chants provided the basis for many of his compositions. By reworking these hymns for his choral preludes, he created more heartfelt and integral compositions than any other, and this applies even to heavier and longer works. The large-scale structure of all of Bach's significant ecclesiastical vocal compositions shows a refined, skillful design capable of expressing all the spiritual and musical power. For example, "Passion according to Matthew", like other compositions of this kind, illustrates the Passion, conveying the biblical text in recitatives, arias, choirs and chorales; By writing this work, Bach created a comprehensive experience that is now, many centuries later, recognized as both musically exciting and spiritually profound.

Bach published and compiled from manuscripts a large number of collections of works that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities available to almost all musical genres of his time, with the exception of opera. For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier consists of two books, including preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, showing a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques.

Bach harmonic style

Four-part harmonies were invented before Bach, but he lived at a time when modal music in Western traditions was largely supplanted by the tonal system. According to this system, the musical part moves from one chord to another according to certain rules, with each chord being characterized by four notes. The principles of four-part harmony can be found not only in Bach's four-part chorale works, but also, for example, in the general bass accompaniment he wrote. The new system underlay Bach's entire style, and his compositions are often seen as fundamental components in shaping the scheme that prevailed in the musical expression of subsequent centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence:

When Bach staged his own arrangement of Pergolesi's "Stabat Mater" in the 1740s, he improved the alto part (which in the original composition is in unison with the bass part) as an addition to the harmony, thereby bringing the composition into line with his four-part harmonic style.

In the course of the discussions that have arisen since the 19th century in Russia about the authenticity of the exposition of four-part court chants, the exposition of Bach's four-part chorales - for example, the final parts of his choral cantatas - compared with earlier Russian traditions served as an example of foreign influence: such influence, however, was considered inevitable.

Bach's decisive intervention in the tonal system and his contribution to its formation does not mean that he worked less freely with the old modal system and related genres: more than his contemporaries (practically all of whom "switched" to the tonal system) Bach often returned to outdated techniques and genres. An example of this is his "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" - this work reproduces the genre of chromatic fantasy, in which such predecessor composers as Dowland and Sweelinck worked, and it is written in D-Dorian mode (which in the tonal system corresponds to D minor).

Modulations in Bach's music

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

Another significant technological breakthrough of Bach's time, in which he played an important role, is the improvement in the temperament of keyboard instruments, which made it possible to use them in all keys (12 major and 12 minor), and also made it possible to apply modulation without retuning. His "Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother" is a very early work, but it already shows a wide use of modulation, incomparable with any of the works of the time with which this composition has been compared. But this technique is most fully disclosed only in the Well-Tempered Clavier, where all keys are used. Bach worked on its improvement from about 1720, the first mention of which is found in his "Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach" ("Klavier book of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach").

Jewelry in Bach's music

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

Even though Bach never wrote an opera, he was not opposed to the genre, nor was he opposed to his embellished vocal style. In church music, Italian composers imitated the operatic vocal style of genres such as the Neapolitan Mass. Protestant society was more reserved about the idea of ​​using a similar style in liturgical music. For example, Kunau, Bach's predecessor in Leipzig, was known to express negative opinions in his notes about opera and vocal compositions by Italian virtuosos. Bach was less categorical; according to one review of a performance of his Matthew Passion, the whole work sounded very much like an opera.

Clavier music by Bach

In the concert performance of Bach's time, the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as the organ and/or viola da gamba and harpsichord, was usually given the role of accompaniment: providing the harmonic and rhythmic basis of the composition. In the late 1720s, Bach introduced the performance of solo parts for organ and orchestra in the instrumental movements of cantatas, ten years before Handel published his first organ concertos. In addition to the "5th Brandenburg Concerto" and the "Triple Concerto" of the 1720s, where there are already solo parts for harpsichord, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s, and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord one of these instruments does not participate in the continuo parts: they are used as full-fledged solo instruments, which goes far beyond the general bass. In this sense, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto.

Features of Bach's music

Bach wrote virtuosic works for specific instruments, as well as music independent of instrumentation. For example, "Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo" is considered to be the apotheosis of all works written for this instrument, accessible only to skilled musicians: the music corresponds to the instrument, fully revealing its capabilities, and requires a virtuoso, but not a bravura performer. Even though the music and the instrument seem to be inseparable, Bach transferred some parts of this collection to other instruments. Similarly with the cello suites - their virtuoso music seems to be created especially for this instrument, conveys the best of what it is capable of, but Bach managed to arrange one of these suites for the lute. This also applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach revealed the possibilities of the instrument in full, while preserving the independence of the core of such music from the instrument of performance.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that Bach's music is often and easily performed on those instruments for which it is not always written, that it is so often transcribed, and that his melodies are found in the most unexpected cases, for example, in jazz. In addition, in a number of compositions, Bach did not indicate the instrumentation at all: this category includes the canons BWV 1072-1078, as well as the main parts of the "Musical Offering" and "The Art of Fugue".

Counterpoint in Bach's music

Another characteristic feature of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint (in contrast to the homophony used, for example, in his presentation of the four-part chorale). Bach's canons and, above all, his fugues are most characteristic of this style: and although Bach is not its inventor, his contribution to this style was so fundamental that it became decisive in many ways. Fugues are as characteristic of Bach's style as, for example, the sonata form is characteristic of composers of the classical period.

However, not only these strictly contrapuntal compositions, but most of Bach's music as a whole is characterized by special musical phrases for each of the voices, where chords, which consist of notes sounding at a certain time, follow the rules of four-part harmony. Forkel, Bach's first biographer, gives the following description of this feature of Bach's works that distinguishes them from all other music:

If the language of music is only the pronunciation of a musical phrase, a simple sequence of musical notes, such music can rightly be accused of poverty. The addition of bass provides the music with a harmonic basis and clarifies it, but overall it defines rather than enriches it. A melody with such an accompaniment, although all of its notes did not belong to a real bass, or trimmed with simple decorations or simple chords in the parts of the upper voices, was called "homophony". However, it is a completely different case when two melodies are so closely intertwined that they carry on a conversation with each other, like two people sharing a pleasant equality. In the first case, the accompaniment is subordinate and serves only to support the first or main part. In the second case, the parties have a different connection. Their interweaving serves as a source of new melodic combinations that give rise to new forms of musical expression. If more parties are intertwined in the same free and independent way, the language mechanism expands accordingly, and when a variety of forms and rhythms are added, it becomes practically inexhaustible. Consequently, harmony becomes no longer just an accompaniment to the melody, but rather a powerful tool for adding richness and expressiveness to musical conversation. Mere accompaniment is not enough for this purpose. True harmony lies in the interweaving of several melodies, which occurs first in the upper, then in the middle, and finally in the lower parts.

From about 1720, when he was thirty-five years old, until his death in 1750, Bach's harmony consisted in this melodic interweaving of independent motifs, in their fusion so perfect that every detail seems to be an integral part of the true melody. In this Bach excels all the composers of the world. At least I have not met anyone equal to him in the music I know. Even in his four-voice presentation, one can often dismiss the upper and lower parts, and the middle part will not become less melodic and acceptable.

Structure of Bach compositions

Bach paid more attention to the structure of compositions than all his contemporaries. This is evident in the minor corrections he made when transposing other people's compositions, such as in his early version of "Kaiser" from the Passion of St. Mark, where he increased the transitions between scenes, and in the construction of his own compositions, for example, "Magnificat", and his Passions written in Leipzig. In the last years of his life, Bach made changes to some of his earlier compositions, often the most significant effect of this was the expansion of the structure of such previously composed works, such as the Mass in B minor. Bach's well-known emphasis on structure led to various numerological studies of his compositions, which peaked around the 1970s. Subsequently, however, many of these overly detailed interpretations were rejected, especially when their meaning was lost in the hermeneutics full of symbolism.

Bach attached great importance to the libretto, that is, to the texts of his vocal works: to work on his cantatas and basic vocal compositions, he sought collaboration with various composers, and at times, when he could not rely on the talents of other authors, he wrote or adapted such texts with his own hand in order to include them in the composition that you created. His collaboration with Picander in writing the libretto for the Matthew Passion is best known, but a similar process had taken place a few years earlier, resulting in the layered structure of the libretto for the St. John Passion.

List of compositions by Bach

In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalog of Bach's compositions under the title "Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis" ("Catalogue of Bach's Works"). Schmieder borrowed heavily from the Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe, a complete edition of the composer's works published between 1850 and 1900. The first edition of the catalog contained 1,080 surviving compositions, undoubtedly composed by Bach.

BWV 1081-1126 were added to the catalog in the second half of the 20th century, and BWV 1127 and above were even later additions.

Passions and oratorios by Bach

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

Bach's longest work

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

Oratorio "Passion according to John"

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

Spiritual cantatas by Bach

According to Bach's obituary, he composed five annual cycles of sacred cantatas, as well as additional church cantatas, for example, for weddings and funerals. Of these sacred works, about 200 are currently known, that is, approximately two-thirds of the total number of church cantatas composed by him. The Bach Digital website lists 50 of the composer's famous secular cantatas, about half of which have survived or are largely in the process of being restored.

Bach cantatas

Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Among them are those written for solo performance, individual choir, small ensembles and large orchestras. Many consist of a large choral introduction followed by one or more "recitative-aria" pairs for soloists (or duets) and a closing chorale. The melody of the final chorale often acted as the cantus firmus of the opening movement.

The earliest cantatas date from the years Bach spent in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest known date of composition is "Christ lag in Todes Banden" ("Christ lay in chains of death") (BWV 4), composed for Easter 1707, which is one of his chorale cantatas. "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" ("God's time is the best time") (BWV 106), also known as Actus Tragicus, is a funerary cantata from the Mühlhausen period. About 20 church cantatas written in a later period in Weimar have also survived to this day, for example "Ich hatte Viel Bekümmernis" ("Sorrows in my heart multiplied") (BWV 21).

After assuming the office of thomascantor at the end of May 1723, at every Sunday and holiday service, Bach performed a cantata that corresponded to the material of each week's lectures. The first cycle of his cantatas ran from the first Sunday after Trinity in 1723 until Trinity Sunday the following year. For example, the cantata for the day of the Virgin Mary's visit to Elizabeth, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" ("With our lips, our hearts, our deeds, all our lives") (BWV 147), which contains a chorale known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man "s Desiring" ("Jesus, my joy") belongs to this first cycle. The cycle of cantatas written in the second year of his stay in Leipzig is called the "choral cantata cycle", since it mainly included works in the form of a choral cantata The third cycle of his cantatas was composed over several years, and in 1728-29 it was followed by the Picander cycle.

Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("The Lord is Our Stronghold") (BWV 80) (final version) and "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" ("Wake up, a voice calls to you" ) (BWV 140). Only the first three Leipzig cycles have been relatively completely preserved. In addition to his own, Bach also performed cantatas by Telemann and his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach.

Secular music of Bach

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for example, for members of the royal Polish and princely elector Saxon family (for example, "Trauer-Ode" - "Funeral Ode") or on other public or private occasions (for example, "Hunting Cantata") . The text of these cantatas was sometimes written in dialect (eg "Peasant Cantata") or in Italian (eg "Amore traditore"). Subsequently, many of the secular cantatas were lost, but the reasons for the creation and the text of some of them nevertheless survived, in particular due to Picander's publication of their librettos (eg BWV Anh. 11-12). The plots of some secular cantatas involved the mythical heroes of Greek antiquity (for example, "Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan" - "The dispute between Phoebus and Pan"), others were practically miniature buffoonery (for example, "Coffee Cantata").

A cappella

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

Bach motets

Bach's motets (BWV 225-231) are works on sacred themes for choir and continuo with solo instrumental parts. Some of them were composed for burials. Six motets composed by Bach are authentically known: they are "Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied" ("Sing to the Lord a new song"), "Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf" ("The Spirit strengthens us in our weaknesses"), "Jesu, Meine Freude" ("Jesus, my joy"), "Fürchte Dich Nicht" ("Don't be afraid..."), "Komm, Jesu, komm" ("Come, Jesus"), and "Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden" (" Praise the Lord, all nations." The motet "Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren" ("Praise and honor") (BWV 231) is part of the compound motet "Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt" ("Praise the Lord all the world") (BWV Anh. 160), the other parts of which , possibly based on Telemann's work.

Bach Chorales

Bach church music

Bach's ecclesiastical works in Latin include his "Magnificat", the four "Kyrie-Gloria" masses, and the Mass in B minor.

Bach's Magnificat

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

Mass in B minor by Bach

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

Clavern music by Bach

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

Organ works by Bach

During his lifetime, Bach was best known as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works, both in the free genres of the German tradition, preludes, fantasies, and toccatas, and in more rigorous forms, such as the chorale prelude and fugue. In his youth, he became famous for his great creative potential and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. The undeniable North German influence on him was Georg Böhm, whom Bach met in Lüneburg, and Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in 1704 during a long absence from his post in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach transcribed the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insight into their compositional languages, and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord. During his most productive period (1708-14) he wrote about a dozen paired preludes and fugues, five toccatas and fugues, and The Little Organ Book, an unfinished collection of forty-six short chorale preludes that showcases compositional techniques in performance choral melodies. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for the organ, although some of his most famous works (six trio sonatas, the German Organ Mass in the Clavier-Übung III of 1739, and the great Eighteen Chorales, added to in later years) he composed after his departure from Weimar. In later life, Bach took an active part in consulting organ orders, testing newly built organs, and involving organ music in daytime rehearsals. The canonical variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm" ich her" ("I descend from heaven to earth") and "Schübler Chorales" are organ works that Bach published in the last years of his life.

Music by Bach for harpsichord and clavichord

Bach wrote numerous works for harpsichord; some of them may have been played on the clavichord. Larger pieces are usually intended for a double-keyboard harpsichord, as when playing them on a single-keyboard keyboard instrument (such as a piano), technical difficulties can arise with crossing hands. Many of his keyboard works are almanacs that cover entire theoretical systems in an encyclopedic manner.

"The Well-Tempered Clavier", Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846-893). Each book consists of a prelude and a fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, in chromatic order from C major to B minor (because of this, the collection as a whole is often referred to as "48"). The phrase "well-tempered" in the title refers to temperament (tuning system); many temperaments of the period preceding Bach's time had little flexibility and did not allow more than two keys to be used in works.

"Inventions and Symphonies" (BWV 772-801). These short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are in the same chromatic order as the Well-Tempered Clavier movements, with the exception of a few rare keys. These parts, as conceived by Bach, were intended for educational purposes.

Three collections of dance suites: "English suites" (BWV 806-811), "French suites" (BWV 812-817), and "Keyboard scores" ("(Clavier-Übung I", BWV 825-830). Each collection consists of six suites built according to standard models (allemande-curante-sarabande-(arbitrary movement)-gigue)."English suites" strictly adhere to the traditional model with the addition of a prelude before the allemande and a single arbitrary movement between the sarabande and gigue. In the "French Suites" the preludes are omitted, but there are several movements between the sarabande and the gigue.In the Partitas, further modifications of the standard principles are traced in the form of complex opening movements and varied movements between the main elements of the model.

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

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

Bach's lesser-known keyboard works include the Seven Toccatas (BWV 910-916), Four Duets (BWV 802-805), Keyboard Sonatas (BWV 963-967), Six Little Preludes (BWV 933-938), and Aria variata alla maniera italiana" (BWV 989).

Orchestral and chamber music by Bach

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

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

Bach's works for violin

Surviving concerto works include two violin concertos (BWV 1041 in A minor and BWV 1042 in E major) and a concerto for two violins in D minor (BWV 1043), often referred to as Bach's "double" concerto.

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Bach's most famous orchestral works are the Brandenburg Concertos. They received this name because they were presented by the author in the hope of obtaining a position from Margrave Christian Ludwig Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, although his expectations were not met. These works serve as examples of the concerto grosso genre.

Bach's Clavier Concertos

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

Orchestral suites by Bach

In addition to the concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites - each of which is represented by a series of stylized dances for the orchestra, preceded by an introduction in the form of a French overture.

Bach's self-education

In his early youth, Bach copied the works of other composers in order to learn from them. He later copied and arranged the music for performance and/or as teaching material for his students. Some of these works, such as "Bist du bei mir" ("You are with me") (copied not even by Bach himself, but by Anna Magdalena), managed to become famous before they were no longer associated with Bach. Bach copied and arranged the works of Italian masters such as Vivaldi (e.g. BWV 1065), Pergolesi (BWV 1083) and Palestrina (Missa Sine Nomine), French masters such as François Couperin (BWV Anh. 183), and also living more within the reach of German masters, including Telemann (eg BWV 824 = TWV 32:14) and Handel (arias from the Brockes Passion), as well as the music of his own relatives. In addition, he often copied and arranged his own music (eg BWV 233-236) and his music was copied and arranged by other composers. Some of these arrangements, such as the "Aria on the G String", created at the end of the 19th century, helped Bach's music to become famous.

Sometimes it was not clear who copied whom. For example, Forkel mentions the mass for double choir among the works created by Bach. The composition was published and performed at the beginning of the 19th century, and although there is some evidence that the handwriting in which it was written belonged to Bach, this work was subsequently considered a fake. Such works were not included in the catalog "Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis" published in 1950: if there were serious grounds for believing that a work was Bach's, such works were published in an appendix to the catalog (in German: Anhang, abbreviated "Anh."), so that the aforementioned mass for double choir, for example, received the designation "BWV Anh. 167". However, the problems of authorship did not end there, attributions, for example "Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde" ("Strike, the desired hour") (BWV 53) were later re-attributed to the work of Melchior Hoffmann. In the case of other works, doubts about the authenticity of Bach's authorship have never been unambiguously confirmed or refuted: even the most famous organ composition in the BWV catalog, "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" (BWV 565), at the end of the 20th century fell into the category of these uncertain works.

Evaluation of Bach's work

In the 18th century, Bach's music was appreciated only in narrow circles of prominent connoisseurs. The 19th century began with the publication of the first biography of the composer and ended with the complete publication of all known works by Bach by the German Bach Society. Bach's renaissance began with Mendelssohn's performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Shortly after the 1829 performance, Bach began to be regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, if not the greatest, a reputation he has retained to this day. A new extensive biography of Bach was published in the second half of the 19th century.

In the 20th century, Bach's music was widely performed and recorded; at the same time, the New Bach Society published, among other works, its study of the composer's work. Modern adaptations of Bach's music contributed greatly to the popularization of Bach in the second half of the 20th century. These include versions of Bach by the Swingle Singers (for example, "Air" from Orchestral Suite No. 3, or the chorale prelude from "Wachet Auf..."), as well as the Wendy Carlos album "Switched On Bach" (1968 which used a Moog electronic synthesizer.

By the end of the 20th century, more and more classical performers gradually moved away from the style of performance and instruments popular in the Romantic era: they began to play Bach's music on historical instruments of the Baroque era, studied and practiced the techniques and performance tempos characteristic of Bach's time, and reduced the size of instrumental ensembles. and choruses up to the one used by Bach. The B-A-C-H motif used by the composer in his own compositions was used in dozens of dedications to Bach, created from the 19th century to the 21st century. In the 21st century, online, on sites dedicated to the great composer, a complete collection of his surviving works became available.

Recognition of Bach's work by contemporaries

In his time, Bach was no less famous than Telemann, Graun and Handel. During his lifetime, he received public recognition, in particular, the title of court composer from August III of Poland, and the approval that Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Kaiserling showed to his work. This high appreciation of influential persons contrasted with the humiliations that he had to endure, for example, in his native Leipzig. In addition, Bach had detractors in the press of his time, such as Johann Adolf Scheibe, who encouraged him to write "less complicated" music, but also supporters, such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mitzler.

After Bach's death, his reputation first began to decline: his work began to be considered old-fashioned compared to the new gallant style. Initially, he was more famous as a virtuoso organist and as a music teacher. Of all the music published during the composer's lifetime, the most famous were his works written for organ and harpsichord. That is, initially his fame as a composer was limited to keyboard music, and even its importance in music teaching was greatly underestimated.

Not all of those relatives of Bach who inherited most of his manuscripts attached equal importance to their preservation, and this led to significant losses. Carl Philip Emmanuel, his second son, most carefully guarded the legacy of his father: he was a co-author of his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales, staged some of his compositions; most of his father's previously unpublished works also survived only thanks to his efforts. Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest son, performed many of his father's cantatas in Halle, but subsequently, having lost his position, sold part of the large Bach collection that belonged to him. Some students of the old master, in particular, his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnicol, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Kirnberger and Johann Ludwig Krebs, contributed to the spread of his legacy. Not all of his early admirers were musicians, for example, one of the admirers of his music in Berlin was Daniel Itzich, a high-ranking official at the court of Frederick the Great. His older daughters took lessons from Kirnberger; their sister Sarah studied music with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who lived in Berlin from 1774 to 1784. Subsequently, Sarah Itzich-Lewy became an avid collector of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons; she also acted as the "patron" of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

Although the performance of Bach's church music in Leipzig was limited to only some of his motets and, under the direction of Cantor Dole, a few of his Passions, a new generation of Bach's followers soon emerged: they carefully collected and copied his music, including a number of major works, for example, Mass in B minor, and unofficially performed it. One of these connoisseurs was Gottfried van Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who played an important role in the transfer of Bach's heritage to the composers of the Viennese school. Haydn owned handwritten copies of the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Mass in B minor, and Bach's music influenced his work. Mozart had a copy of one of Bach's motets, transcribed some of his instrumental works (K. 404a, 405), and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style. Beethoven played the entire Well-Tempered Clavier at the age of eleven, and referred to Bach as "Urvater der Harmonie" ("progenitor of harmony").

The first biography of J. S. Bach

In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published his book "Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke" ("On the life, art and works of Johann Sebastian Bach") - the first biography of the composer, which helped him become famous among the general public. In 1805, Abraham Mendelssohn, married to one of Itzich's granddaughters, acquired an extensive collection of Bach manuscripts, preserved through the efforts of Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and donated them to the Berlin Singing Academy. The Singing Academy occasionally held public concerts in which Bach's music was performed, such as his first keyboard concerto, with Sarah Itzich-Levy as pianist.

In the first few decades of the 19th century, the number of first publications of Bach's music increased: Breitkopf began to publish his choral preludes, Hoffmeister - works for harpsichord, and in 1801 "The Well-Tempered Clavier" was published simultaneously by Simrock (Germany), Negeli (Switzerland) and Hoffmeister (Germany and Austria). The same applies to vocal music: "Motets" were published in 1802-1803, then a version of the "Magnificat" in E flat major, the mass "Kyrie-Gloria" in A major, as well as the cantata "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("Our God is a stronghold") (BWV 80). In 1818, Hans Georg Nägeli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition of all time. Bach's influence was felt in the next generation of early Romantic composers. In 1822, when Abraham Mendelssohn's son Felix composed his first arrangement of the Magnificat at the age of 13, it was obvious that he was inspired by the D major version of Bach's Magnificat, which was still unpublished in those years.

Felix Mendelssohn made a significant contribution to the renewal of interest in Bach's work with his performance of the Matthew Passion in Berlin in 1829, which served as a key moment in organizing the movement that later became known as the "Bach Renaissance". The St. John Passion premiered in the 19th century in 1833, followed in 1844 by the first performance of the Mass in B minor. In addition to these and other public performances and the growing number of publications of biographies of the composer and his works, the 1830s and 40s also saw the first publications of Bach's other vocal works: six cantatas, the Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. In 1833 some organ works were first published. In 1835, inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, Chopin began composing his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, and in 1845 Schumann published his "Sechs Fugen über den Namen B-A-C-H" ("Six Fugues on B-A-C-H"). Bach's music was transcribed and arranged according to the tastes and performance practices of their time by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter, Robert Franz and Franz Liszt, and also combined with new music, as, for example, in the melody to Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria". Composers who contributed to the dissemination of Bach's music and spoke enthusiastically about it include Brahms, Bruckner and Wagner.

In 1850, in order to further promote Bach's music, the "Bach-Gesellschaft" (Bach Society) was formed. In the second half of the 19th century, the Society published an extensive edition of the composer's works. Also in the second half of the 19th century, Philipp Spitta published his book Johann Sebastian Bach, a standard description of Bach's life and music. By that time, Bach was known as the first of the "three big Bs in the history of music" (an English expression referring to the three greatest composers of all time whose last names begin with the letter B - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms). In total, 200 books dedicated to Bach were published in the 19th century. By the end of the century, local societies dedicated to Bach were founded in many cities, and his works were performed in all significant musical institutions.

In Germany, throughout the century, the work of Bach served as a symbol of national feelings; also captured the important role of the composer in the religious revival. In England, Bach was associated with the revival of church and baroque music that already existed at that time. By the end of the century, Bach had established a solid reputation as one of the greatest composers, recognized in both instrumental and vocal music.

The value of Bach's compositions

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

In the second half of the 20th century, a significant development was the practice of historically competent performance, whose pioneers, such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, became famous for their performance of Bach's music. Bach's keyboard works were again played on instruments typical of Bach's time, instead of modern grand pianos and romantic organs of the 19th century. The ensembles that performed Bach's instrumental and vocal compositions not only adhered to the instrumentation and performance style of Bach's time, but the composition of their groups was reduced to the size that Bach used in his concerts. But this is by no means the only reason why Bach's music came to the fore in the 20th century: his works gained fame in a wide variety of performances, from piano arrangements in the romantic style of Ferruccio Busoni, to jazz interpretations such as compositions of "Swindle Singers", orchestrations , for example, in the intro to Walt Disney's Fantasia, to synth performances such as Wendy Carlos' "Switched-On Bach" recording.

Bach's music has received recognition in other genres as well. For example, jazz musicians have often adapted Bach's works; Jazz versions of his compositions have been performed by Jacques Loussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Kane and the Modern Jazz Quartet, among others. Many composers of the 20th century relied on the work of Bach when creating their works, for example, Eugène Ysaïe in his Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues, and Heitor Villa-Lobos in his Brazilian Bachians. Bach has been mentioned in a wide variety of publications: this applies not only to the annual almanac "Bach Jahrbuch" published by the New Bach Society and other studies and biographies, including the authorship of Albert Schweitzer, Charles Sanford Terry, John Batt, Christoph Wolff, as well as the first edition of the catalog Bach Werke Verzeichnis in 1950, but books such as Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter took the composer's art from a broader perspective. In the 1990s, Bach's music was actively listened to, performed, broadcast on radio and television, arranged, arranged and commented on. Around 2000, three record companies released commemorative sets of the complete recordings of Bach's works for the 250th anniversary of his death.

Recordings of Bach's works take up three times as much space as any other composer's compositions on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a vast array of images, common sounds, languages ​​and music of the Earth, which was sent into outer space with two Voyager probes. . In the 20th century, many statues were erected in honor of Bach; many things are also dedicated to his name, including streets and space objects. In addition, such musical ensembles as "Bach Aria Group", "Deutsche Bachsolisten", "Bachchor Stuttgart" and "Bach Collegium Japan" were named after the composer. Bach festivals were held in different parts of the world; in addition, many competitions and prizes are named after him, such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Bach Prize of the Royal Academy of Music. If at the end of the 19th century Bach's work symbolized national and spiritual rebirth, then at the end of the 20th century Bach was regarded as an object of non-spiritual art as a religion (Kunstreligion).

Bach Online Library

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

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

The attitude of the Protestant Church to the work of Bach

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The beginning of the toccata

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

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

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

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