Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685  28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and over three hundred cantatas of which around two hundred survive. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Life

Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a great musical family. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and exposed him to much contemporary music. Apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michael's School in Lüneburg for two years. After graduating, he held several musical posts across Germany: he served as Kapellmeister (director of music) to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, and as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a position of music director at the main Lutheran churches and educator at the Thomasschule. He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736. Bach's health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750.

List of keyboard and lute compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

Keyboard and Lute Works is the topic of the fifth series of the New Bach Edition.

Keyboard Works (Klavierwerke) by Johann Sebastian Bach traditionally refers to the Nos. 772 to 994, Chapter 8 in the BWV catalogue, listing compositions for a solo keyboard instrument like the harpsichord or the clavichord. Despite the fact that organ is also a keyboard instrument, and that in Bach's time the distinction wasn't always made whether a keyboard composition was for organ or another keyboard instrument, Wolfgang Schmieder ranged organ compositions in a separate section of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Nos. 525-771). Also other compositions for keyboard, like compositions for lute-harpsichord and fortepiano were listed outside the "Klavierwerke" range by Schmieder. Lute works are in the range 995–1000, Chapter 9 in the BWV catalogue.

Bach was a prodigious talent at the keyboard, well known during his lifetime for both his technical and improvisational abilities. Many of Bach's keyboard works started out as improvisations. Bach wrote widely for the harpsichord, producing numerous inventions, suites, fugues, partitas, overtures, as well as keyboard arrangements of concerto music by his contemporaries. The fortepiano is an instrument Bach would have encountered once, by the end of his life when it was recently invented, while visiting his son in Potsdam. The visit resulted in Das Musikalische Opfer, parts of which may have been intended for the new instrument.

Podcasts:

Johann Sebastian Bach

ALBUMS

Coleção Folha Mestres da música clássica, volume 3: Johann Sebastian Bach

Released 2014

Matthäus-Passion BWV 244

Released 2014

Cantatas, Volume 28: City of London (The Monteverdi Choir, The English Baroque Soloists feat. conductor: John Eliot Gardiner)

Released 2013

Matthäus-Passion BWV 244

Released 2012

The Complete Bach Collection

Released 2012

Matthäus Passion, BWV 244 (Orkest van de 18e Eeuw feat. conductor: Brüggen)

Released 2011

Angela Hewitt plays Bach

Released 2010

The Well-Tempered Clavier

Released 2009

The Well-Tempered Clavier

Released 2007

Bach's Passion

Released 2004

Bach: Preludes, Fughettas and Fugues

Released 2003

Bach Edition, Volume 7: Secular Cantatas/Weltliche Kantaten

Released 2000

Bach Edition, Volume 5: Cantatas/Kantaten, Volume II

Released 2000

Bach Edition, Volume 10: Passions/Passionen

Released 2000

Weihnachts-Oratorium, BWV 248

Released 1997

Italian Concerto / Goldberg Variations

Released 1996

Transcendental Bach

Released 1993

Concerti BWV 972-976,978, 981 Organi della "Nuova Olanda" (Edoardo Bellotti)

Released 1993

75 Cantatas for Sundays and Feast Days of the Church Year: Volume III (Münchener Bach-Orchester feat. conductor: Karl Richter)

Released 1993

Mathäus-Passion BWV 244 - Leonhardt

Released 1990

Die Großen Komponisten J.S. Bach

The 99 Most Essential Bach Masterpieces (Full Works Edition)

Born: 1685-03-21

Died: 1750-07-28

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Latest News for: js bach

The week in classical: Arias Reimagined; Rhythm of the Seasons; Out of the Deep; Turandot – review

The Observer 30 Mar 2025
The radical singer-composer Loré Lixenberg and accordionist Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, who brings dignity and melancholy to every phrase she plays, worked aural spells with Handel, JS Bach and John Cage (sound by Isa Ferri).

Spring classical season includes musical meditations on forests and a lost Oregon waterfall

The Oregonian 27 Mar 2025
This spring’s classical music calendar includes concerts featuring the instruments that led the way to the future ... The concert also includes vocal music by JS Bach, earlier Italian Baroque master Alessandro Scarlatti, and a seasonal Vivaldi concerto.

Alexandros Kapelis/Berliner Barock Solisten review – ravishing period immersion in Bach’s keyboard concertos

The Observer 26 Mar 2025
String players wielding baroque bows don’t often share the stage with a pianist playing a modern Steinway grand, but that was the setup for this immersion in JS Bach’s keyboard concertos – six of ...

Brief History of a Family review: Startlingly eerie debut finds new angles to a familiar genre

The Irish Times 20 Mar 2025
Brief History of a Family.     . Director. None. Starring. 1 hr 40 mins. The cuckoo in the bourgeois nest has long been a staple of film and drama ... We get a brief scene of semi-formal tea service, but we also get a fair bit of JS Bach ... READ MORE ... .

Artists have the power to stand up for truth, says Edinburgh festival director

The Observer 13 Mar 2025
... circus company and video projections; and the premiere of a hip-hop interpretation of JS Bach’s work featuring dancers from Acland Burghley school in north London and 18th-century period instruments.
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