Bach Essay, Research Paper

One of the most profoundly inspired and

masterful composers in history, Johann

Sebastian Bach was born into a musical family

in Eisenach, Thuringia – until recently part

of East Germany. His father, Johann Ambrosius

Bach, was a talented violinist, and taught

his son the basic skills of string-playing;

another relation, the organist at Eisenach’s

most important church, instructed the young

boy on the organ.

In 1695, Johann Sebastian was orphaned; he

went to live with his older brother, Johann

Christoph, in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph was a

professional organist, and continued his

younger brother’s education on that

instrument, as well as on the harpsichord.

After several years in this arrangement,

Johann Sebastian won a scholarship to study

in Luneberg, Northern Germany, and so left

his brother’s tutelage.

A master of several instruments while still

in his teens, Johann Sebastian first found

employment at the age of 18 as a “lackey and

violinist” in a court orchestra in Weimar;

soon after, he took the job of organist at a

church in Arnstadt. Here, as in later posts,

his perfectionist tendencies and high

expectations of other musicians – for

example, the church choir – rubbed his

colleagues the wrong way, and he was

embroiled in a number of hot disputes during

his short tenure. In 1707, at the age of 22,

Bach became fed up with the lousy musical

standards of Arnstadt (and the working

conditions) and moved on to another organist

job, this time at the St. Blasius Church in

Muhlhausen. The same year, he married his

cousin Maria Barbara Bach.

Again caught up in a running conflict between

factions of his church, Bach fled to Weimar

after one year in Muhlhausen. In Weimar, he

assumed the post of organist and

concertmaster in the ducal chapel. He

remained in Weimar for nine years, and there

he composed his first wave of major works,

including organ showpieces and cantatas.

By this stage in his life, Bach had developed

a reputation as a brilliant, if somewhat

inflexible, musical talent. His profiency on

the organ was unequalled in Europe – in fact,

he toured regularly as a solo virtuoso – and

his growing mastery of compositional forms,

like the fugue and the canon, was already

attracting interest from the musical

establishment – which, in his day, was the

Lutheran church. But, like many individuals

of uncommon talent, he was never very good at

playing the political game, and therefore

suffered periodic setbacks in his career. He

was passed over for a major position – that

of Kapellmeister of Weimar – in 1716; partly

in reaction to this snub, he left Weimar the

following year to take a job as court

conductor in Anhalt-Cothen. There, he slowed

his output of church cantatas, and instead

concentrated on instrumental music – the

Cothen period produced, among other

masterpieces, the Brandenburg Concerti.

While at Cothen, Bach’s wife, Maria Barbara,

died. Bach remarried soon after – to Anna

Magdalena – and forged ahead with his work.

He also forged ahead in the child-rearing

department, producing 13 children with his

new wife – six of whom survived childhood -

to add to the four children he had raised

with Maria Barbara. Several of these children

would become fine composers in their own

right – particularly three sons, Wilhelm

Friedmann, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann

Christian.

After conducting and composing for the court

orchestra at Cothen for seven years, Bach was

offered the highly prestigious post of cantor

(music director) of St. Thomas’ Church in

Leipzig – after it had been turned down by

two other composers. The job was a demanding

one; he had to compose cantatas for the St.

Thomas and St. Nicholas churches, conduct the

choirs, oversee the musical activities of

numerous municipal churches, and teach Latin

in the St. Thomas choir school. Accordingly,

he had to get along with the Leipzig church

authorities, which proved rocky going. But he

persisted, polishing the musical component of

church services in Leipzig and continuing to

write music of various kinds with a level of

craft and emotional profundity that was his

alone.

Bach remained at his post in Leipzig until

his death in 1750. He was creatively active

until the very end, even after cataract

problems virtually blinded him. His last

musical composition, a chorale prelude

entitled “Before They Throne, My God, I

Stand”, was dictated to his son-in-law only

days before his death.

Bach was that rare composer whose genius

cannot be summed up, even approximated, by

any known means. He was the supreme master of

counterpoint, fugue, vocal writing, melody,

chamber composition, solo instrument

repertoire…the list is endless. His

Passions are arguably the greatest

compositions ever created for choral ensemble

and orchestra. His solo works (for violin,

and cello) are of such beauty and perfection

of form that their secrets have never been

divulged fully, not even by the greatest

virtuosi on those instruments. His writing

for keyboard – the Goldberg Variations and

The Well-Tempered Clavier, among others -

reveal an unsurpassed ability to combine

intricate musical structure with pure

spiritual force; in fact, most leading

musicians point to the mastery of these

pieces as their ultimate goal.

Bach was the greatest master of the Baroque,

and probably of all classical music. Any

student of music must start – and end – an

inquiry into the glories of classical music

with him.