JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: BIOGRAPHY, STYLE AND MUSICAL WORK - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) was a prominent German musician and composer of the Baroque era. He is considered one of the greatest composers of all time. In addition, he has been admired for being a great organist and expert in the creation of these instruments.

Bach was a member of a famous family of musicians from northern Germany. He was recognized for having created the Brandenburg Concertos, The Passion according to St. Matthew, the Mass in B minor, and many other masterpieces of the Church and instrumental music.

Elias Gottlob Haussmann

He spent several years of his life working as a musician for the Protestant Churches in the German cities of Arnstadt and Weimar. In Weimar he managed to expand his musical repertoire on the organ. Later, at Köthen, he became more committed to chamber music (composed with few instruments).

Bach enriched the musical styles of the time through the mastery of counterpoint and foreign rhythms; particularly those of Italy and France. Within Bach's compositions are included hundreds of cantatas in which he addressed sacred themes and topics of the Church.

Biography

Early years and studies

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach (Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach), in the Holy Roman Empire (what is now the state of Saxony, Germany).

He grew up under the influence of a large musical family. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the conductor of his hometown musicians and most of his uncles were professional musicians.

His father directed him to become a musician since Bach was very young, the violin and harpsichord being one of his first instruments. His older brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him to play the harpsichord and gave him his first lessons in contemporary music.

He began his studies at the school between 1692 and 1693 and served as a good student, despite his repeated absences. His parents died before the year 1695, so his older brother was the one who took care of his upbringing and studies.

His brother Christoph had been a student of the renowned keyboard composer Johann Pachelbel and taught keyboard classes to his brother. By 1700, he had developed a privileged voice that secured him a position in the boys' choir at the Michaelskirche school in Lüneburg .

Tastes for the organ

His voice deteriorated noticeably for no apparent reason, so he decided to lean into other branches of music. He stayed in Lüneburg because this city was a small musical center. He began to study music on his own in his school library, where he became interested in ecclesiastical compositions.

During his time of independent musical studies, he listened to the German organist and composer Georg Böhm, this being one of his first influences for his later studies of organ. By 1702 he had already become a fairly competent organist.

In 1703 he became a member of the Johann Ernst (Duke of Weimar) orchestra although it is not known how he got there. However, his stay in the orchestra was temporary; Bach had been interested in one of the organs that was being built in the New Church in Arnstadt, Germany.

Stay in Arnstadt

When the construction of the organ was completed, he helped to test it and in August 1703 he was appointed official organist of the place at the age of 18. He was awarded a generous salary for his activities in the Church. From there, Bach dedicated himself to playing the organ professionally.

In Arnstadt, he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the composition of the German Dietrich Buxtehude. Dietrich was one of the most significant exponents of the organ music school in northern Germany.

During the first years in Arnstadt, Bach had developed an impeccable musical culture, especially in the choirs serving the Orthodox Lutheran Church. However, Bach was dissatisfied with the choir singers and even went so far as to disrespect one of them. Despite that, he was not fired due to his great ability as a musician.

By 1708, he had already learned everything that his musical ancestors could teach him. He had studied on his own and had developed an innate talent for the French organ and instrumental music. Shortly afterwards, he married his cousin Maria Bárbara Bach in the municipality of Dornheim.

Stay in Weimar

His interest in finding a better job led him to make the decision to move to Weimar, a small city with high cultural content in Germany. Bach became a member of the orchestra, concentrating on the organ.

In 1713, he participated in one of the first court celebrations, which included his first performance as a composer in a cantata (a composition for one or more voices). The cantata of the hunt was his first cantata; It was developed in commemoration of the birthday of Duke Cristian de Saxony-Weissenfels.

The following year, Bach became a concertmaster with a duty to compose a cantata every month. The duke had increased the musician's salary in a rather conspicuous way. In fact, Bach had the opportunity to work in another city in Germany, but turned it down.

Despite having composed several cantatas between 1708 and 1714, many of their names are not known. What is known is that he introduced new styles and forms of contemporary composition to Italian operas, with combinations of composers such as Antonio Vivaldi.

Among the works composed in Weimar, is the composition entitled Little Book of Organs, a collection of 46 preludes of corals for organs.

Stay in

Leopold, the prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach in 1717 to work as a music director. The prince appreciated Bach's talents: he offered him good pay and the freedom to compose and perform as the musician saw fit.

The prince was a Calvinist; consequently, most of Bach's compositions during this period were secular. These include: the orchestral suites, the cello suites, the sonatas and scores for solo violin and the Brandenburg Concertos.

In addition, he wrote some personal cantatas for the prince's birthday and other pieces that the president commissioned him. In 1720, while Bach was still working for Prince Leopold outside the city, the composer's wife died suddenly.

The following year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young soprano who was 16 years younger than Bach. The young woman acted in the court of Köthen and they married that same year. Their first children were born almost immediately.

Bach had some of his happiest days given his good working relationship with the prince; However, in 1721, Leopold became engaged and the conditions of their relationship deteriorated significantly. The new princess demanded a lot of attention from the prince, so he had to neglect his hobbies.

Stay in Leipzig

Bach considered moving from town to Leipzig and applying for the position of ecclesiastical music director. To do this, he had to perform several tests to achieve the position he wanted in the German city. He requested the principality of Köthen to leave that city and be able to move to Leipzig.

In Leipzig a new cycle of cantatas began; he wrote 52 of the so-called choral cantatas during the first year. At that time, the German composer was praised for his phenomenal musical rhythm. Still, Bach never worked inspired, having to compose a large number of pieces weekly to accomplish his job.

In addition, he was director of the choir in the hymns and conducted his own church music. His baroque style was seen as traditional, which suited music connoisseurs of the time well.

Bach related his music to symbolism; his tendency was to go beyond sound elements. The German musician, classified as a religious, considered his pieces as a form of worship to God.

For this, he took the symbolic elements to express the music in a poetic way, in order to achieve the maximum possible perfection. The example of this dimension is in the composition entitled Have mercy, Lord, on me, written in 1729.

Last years

From 1740 to 1748, Bach's style was progressively changing, combining old elements with more modern ones. In 1747, Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. At that meeting, the king played a song for Bach and asked him to improvise. Bach obeyed and took one of the fashionable instruments of the moment, the fortepiano.

The fortepiano is a combination of two instruments: one stringed and one keyboard, so it was relatively easy for Bach to excel. From there, he made several compositions for King Frederick II of Prussia. This music was titled as The Musical Offering.

This Bach collection for the king was based on a single theme song, especially dedicated to the Prussian king. In addition, he made other compositions such as cantatas, choral preludes and canonical variations (musical compositions with improvisations) for the Mizler Society in Leipzig.

During the last years of his life, a great composition occupied most of his time. Around the year 1742, he began to write the work entitled El arte de la fuga, a piece that he could not finish before his death.

By 1749, Bach's health was reaching a critical point. Little is known about his illness and what caused it, except that he underwent twice for eye surgery. Bach died on July 28, 1750, after complications in his medical treatment.

Style

Influence of the baroque and secular style

Bach's compositions fit in with the baroque style of the time. The German composer composed countless concertos and suites (a type of music composed of instrumental movements for dance purposes).

In the age of baroque music, composers and musicians in general were expected to use improvisation. Furthermore, composers tended to make their compositions to be used for dance.

Bach's baroque style was characterized by excessive ornament and decoration in his compositions. Bach inherited his wide range of compositions from the Baroque style, among which he dominated cantatas, sonatas and solo concerts.

Religious music was at the center of Bach's production for many years. The sacred works he created were not only seen as part of his trade as a musician, but as a true devotion to God. In many of his pieces the influence of Calvinism in his thought is clearly noted.

Harmony in four pairs

Harmony in four pairs is a composition written for four voices or four musical instruments. Although this harmony was created before his time, Bach adapted it to many of his compositions. It was represented mainly in Bach's chorales and as an accompaniment to other instruments.

The harmony in four pairs was typical of the Baroque era. In the case of Bach, he composed the well-known Lutheran hymns; These were alternately called four-voice choirs, where a voice or an instrument, such as the viola, is given prominence. Bach's choral cantatas were also part of the four-pair harmony movement.

Modulations

The modulations, known as the changes in the course of a piece of music, correspond to another of the characteristics of Bach's style that were unusual for the time. Baroque instruments generally limited the possibilities of modulation, but Bach perfected this technique.

The composer experimented with modulation in many of his pieces. For example, he added different tones, mistaking the song for an instrument. Musical instruments used to be confined to each other during the Baroque period. That is, they were tied to a parameter and a certain level of tuning.

However, Bach created "strange tones" in many of his instruments. Other musicians of the time also took the risk of experimenting with instruments; Despite that, it was Bach who went the furthest with modulation. In the case of the keyboard, German allowed all the keys to be used to produce a new melody.

Ornament

Ornamentation in music is based on ornaments (notes added to decorate compositions). At that time, the ornament in the compositions was to the taste of the performer rather than the composer. In the case of Bach, ornamentation was not an option for the interpreter, but a necessity for the good sound of compositions.

Their ornamentation used to be quite elaborate. For example, in the case of the composition entitled Aria, it contains rich and varied ornamentation throughout most of the piece. In fact, Bach himself made several annotations to teach his eldest son about ornamentation in compositions.

Counterpoint

Another of the most significant characteristics of Bach's style is the extensive use of counterpoint. Counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are harmonically associated, but independent of rhythm and contour.

The fugues (a procedure in which musical ideas are superimposed) are the most characteristic of the baroque style and typical of counterpoint. Bach was known for being one of the artists who had the most variety in compositions of this style. In addition, it was a typical art of baroque music.

Many of Bach's compositions were strictly contrapuntal; those that were not characterized by different melodic lines full of improvisations, or they follow the rule of the harmony of the four parts.

Bach's compositions consisted of a mixture of independent melodies that in their union created an almost perfect construction, in a single melody. The characteristic of this mixture of melodies set him apart from many composers of his time.

Musical piece

Brandenburg Concerts

The Brandenburg Concertos consisted of a collection of six instrumental works written by the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach in 1721. The composition consisted of a variety of soloists and a small orchestra.

The work was dedicated to Christian Ludwig, the Marquis of Brandenburg (younger brother of King Frederick I of Prussia). It is currently considered one of the best orchestral compositions of the time and of baroque music in general.

In each of the concerts, Bach created solo roles for different instruments; including the participation of new instruments in each of them.

Passion of Saint Matthew

The Passion of Saint Matthew is a great oratorio, understood as a composition specially directed for orchestras, choirs and soloists, written by Bach in 1727. This piece is composed of a double choir and double orchestra. Because of this, it is recognized as a great musical composition.

It is a work that recounts chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew (from Martin Luther's Bible) with choirs and arias interspersed. It is considered one of the classical and masterpieces of sacred music. This type of music was relevant within the Western world, when interpreting liturgical texts that evoked God.

Goldberg variations

The Goldberg Variations were written for harpsichord (keyboard instrument) by Johann Sebastian Bach. The work consists of an aria, a piece dedicated to a single voice, accompanied by a set of 30 variations. The technique of variations was used by the German to repeat rhythms, harmonies and counterpoints in his pieces.

The work was published for the first time in 1742 and is considered one of the clearest examples to explain the technique of variation. It is named after the German harpsichord player Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who was the first performer of this technique.

References

1. Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert L. Marshall and Walter Emery, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
2. Johann Sebastian Bach, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
3. Bach, cantata BWV 208, Aeterna Christi Munera, (2016). Taken from blogs.periodistadigital.com
4. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Website British Library, (nd). Taken from bl.uk
5. Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Portal Biographies and Lives, (nd). Taken from biografiasyvidas.com