Brief description of Bach. Brief biography of Bach the most important

Biography and episodes of life Johann Sebastian Bach. When born and died Johann Sebastian Bach, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Composer and musician quotes, images and videos.

Johann Sebastian Bach's life years:

born March 21, 1685, died July 28, 1750

Epitaph

“They say when Orpheus touched the strings of his lute,
At the sound of her, animals fled from the forest.
But the art of Bach is rightly considered higher,
Because the whole world marveled at him.”
From a poem by the poet Kittel-Mikrander dedicated to Bach

Biography

He was a great composer, a virtuoso musician and a talented teacher, but until the end of his life, Johann Bach believed that his merit was only in diligence, and his talent belonged to God.

He was born into a wealthy family, his father was responsible for all the musical events of the city. But the parents of little Johann died when he was still a child, so the boy was raised by his older brother. Johann studied at the gymnasium, studied music, and then graduated from a vocal school. Immediately after school, the young musician received a court position in Weimar, and soon the whole city knew about the wonderful young performer. Bach had no shortage of work - first he worked as an organist in the church of St. Boniface, then moved to the position of organist in Mühlhausen, where he was highly valued and paid a high salary. But the heyday of Bach's work was the period when he returned to Weimar and took the place of the court organist, and was also responsible for arranging palace concerts. Complete freedom in the work of Bach was given by the prince of Anhalt-Ketensky, who invited the composer to work as a bandmaster for him. When Bach performed his John Passion in one of the main churches in Leipzig, he was appointed chief musical director of all the churches in the city.

It is not known how many more great works Johann Sebastian Bach would have created, how many more brilliant students he would have given to the world, if not for the illness that tormented him in the last years of his life. In the 1730s, his eyesight began to fail. He continued to write, dictating new works to his students on record. Finally, he decided to have an operation, then another, but, alas, none of the surgical interventions could save the composer's eyesight. On July 28, 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died, the cause of Bach's death was complications after his operations. Bach's funeral was held with great honors. At first, the composer was buried near the Church of St. John, but then Bach's grave was lost, years later his remains were found and reburied. During the Second World War, the church was destroyed, today Bach's ashes are kept in the Church of St. Thomas, where Bach worked.

life line

March 21, 1865 Birth date of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1700-1703 Studying at the vocal school of St. Michael in Lüneburg.
1703-1707 Work as an organist in the church of Arnstadt.
October 17, 1707 Marriage to Mary Barbara.
1708 Court Kapellmeister in Keten.
1720 Death of Bach's wife, Maria.
December 3, 1721 Marriage with Anna Magdalene Wilke.
1722 Bach writing the first volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
1723 Church music director in Leipzig.
1724 Bach writing the Passion according to John.
1727 Bach's writing of the Matthew Passion.
1729 Head of the Musical Board.
1744 Release of the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
July 28, 1750 Date of Bach's death.
July 31, 1750 Bach's funeral.

Memorable places

1. Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where the remains of Bach are today.
2. Church of St. Nicholas in Leipzig, where Bach first performed his "Christmas Oratorio".
3. Monument to Bach in Leipzig.
4. The Bach House Museum in Eisenach, next to which is a monument to Bach.
5. Bach House Museum in Leipzig.
6. Leipzig School of Music Johann Sebastian Bach, where the composer served as cantor of the choir.

Episodes of life

Bach's ancestors and descendants were musicians, except for Veit Bach, the "founder" of the dynasty. He was a baker, kept a mill, but was very fond of music and played some kind of stringed instrument. But already grandfather, father, grandfather, brothers, children of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as his grandson and great-grandson were musicians. At the end of his life, Johann Bach said that all his music belongs to God and all his abilities are intended for him.

Johann Sebastian Bach had a quirk. He dressed up as if he were a poor school teacher, came to the village church and asked permission to play the organ. When he started playing, everyone present was simply amazed. Some even ran out of the church in fright, believing that an ordinary person could not play like that and that the devil himself was probably sitting at the organ.

Johann Sebastian Bach was modest and did not like praise. One day he played his prelude to his students. When one of them began to admire the work and the game of the teacher, he interrupted him: “There is nothing surprising in this! You just need to know which keys to press and when, and the organ will do the rest.”

Covenant

“I had to work hard. The one who will be as industrious will achieve the same success.”

Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach

condolences

"Bach is not new, not old, he is something much more - he is eternal."
Robert Schumann, German composer, music critic

"Not a stream! "The sea must be his name."
Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist

Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography is of interest to many music lovers, has become one of the greatest composers in its history. In addition, he was a performer, a virtuoso organist, and a talented teacher. In this article, we will look at the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as present his work. The composer's works are often heard in concert halls around the world.

Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31 (21 - old style) 1685 - July 28, 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque era. He enriched the musical style created in Germany thanks to his mastery of counterpoint and harmony, adapted foreign rhythms and forms, borrowed, in particular, from Italy and France. Bach's works are "Goldberg Variations", "Brandenburg Concertos", "Mass in B Minor", more than 300 cantatas, of which 190 have survived, and many other compositions. His music is considered highly technical, filled with artistic beauty and intellectual depth.

Johann Sebastian Bach. short biography

Bach was born in Eisenach into a family of hereditary musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the founder of the city's music concerts, and all his uncles were professional performers. The composer's father taught his son to play the violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph, taught the clavichord, and also introduced Johann Sebastian to modern music. Partly on his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michael's Vocal School in Lüneburg for 2 years. After certification, he held several musical positions in Germany, in particular, the court musician of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar, the caretaker of the organ in the church named after St. Boniface, located in Arnstadt.

In 1749, Bach's eyesight and general health deteriorated, and he died in 1750, on July 28. Modern historians believe that the cause of his death was a combination of stroke and pneumonia. The fame of Johann Sebastian as a magnificent organist spread throughout Europe during Bach's lifetime, although he was not yet so popular as a composer. As a composer, he became known a little later, in the first half of the 19th century, when interest in his music revived. Currently, Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography is presented in a more complete version below, is considered one of the greatest musical creators in history.

Childhood (1685 - 1703)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, in 1685, on March 21, according to the old style (according to the new one, on the 31st of the same month). He was the son of Johann Ambrosius and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. The composer became the eighth child in the family (the eldest son at the time of Bach's birth was 14 years older than him). The mother of the future composer died in 1694, and his father eight months later. Bach at that time was 10 years old, and he moved to live with Johann Christoph, his older brother (1671 - 1731). There he studied, performed and rewrote music, including his brother's, despite being forbidden to do so. From Johann Christoph, he adopted many knowledge in the field of music. At the same time, Bach studied theology, Latin, Greek, French, Italian at the local gymnasium. As Johann Sebastian Bach later admitted, the classics inspired and amazed him from the very beginning.

Arnstadt, Weimar and Mühlhausen (1703 - 1717)

In 1703, after finishing his studies at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, the composer was appointed court musician to Duke Johann Ernst III's chapel in Weimar. During his seven-month stay there, Bach established a reputation as an excellent keyboard player, and he was invited to a new position as superintendent of the organ at the church of St. Boniface, located in Arnstadt, 30 km southwest of Weimar. Despite good family connections and his own musical enthusiasm, tensions arose with his superiors after several years of service. In 1706, Bach was offered the post of organist at St. Blaise's (Mühlhausen), which he took up the following year. The new position paid much more, included much better working conditions, as well as a more professional choir with which Bach was to work. Four months later, the wedding of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara took place. They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood, including Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel, who later became well-known composers.

In 1708, Johann Sebastian Bach, whose biography took a new direction, leaves Mühlhausen and returns to Weimar, this time as an organist, and since 1714 as a concert organizer, and has the opportunity to work with more professional musicians. In this city, the composer continues to play and compose works for the organ. He also began to write preludes and fugues, which later became part of his monumental work, The Well-Tempered Clavier, which consisted of two volumes. Each of them includes preludes and fugues, written in all possible minor and major keys. Also in Weimar, the composer Johann Sebastian Bach set to work on the work "Organ Book", containing Lutheran chorales, a collection of choral preludes for organ. In 1717 he fell out of favor in Weimar, was taken into custody for almost a month and subsequently removed from office.

Köthen (1717 - 1723)

Leopold (an important person - Prince Anhalt-Köthen) offered Bach the job of bandmaster in 1717. Prince Leopold, being himself a musician, admired the talent of Johann Sebastian, paid him well and gave him considerable freedom in composing and performing. The prince was a Calvinist, and they do not use complex and sophisticated music in worship, respectively, the work of Johann Sebastian Bach of that period was secular and included orchestral suites, suites for cello solo, for clavier, as well as the famous Brandenburg Concertos. In 1720, on July 7, his wife Maria Barbara dies, having given birth to seven children. The composer's acquaintance with his second wife takes place next year. Johann Sebastian Bach, whose works are gradually gaining popularity, marries a girl named Anna Magdalena Wilke, a singer (soprano), in 1721, on December 3rd.

Leipzig (1723 - 1750)

In 1723, Bach received a new position, starting to work as cantor of the choir of St. Thomas. It was a prestigious service in Saxony, which the composer carried for 27 years, until his death. Bach's duties included teaching students how to sing and writing church music for the main churches in Leipzig. Johann Sebastian was also supposed to give Latin lessons, but he had the opportunity to hire a special person instead of himself. During Sunday services, as well as on holidays, cantatas were required for worship in the church, and the composer usually performed his own compositions, most of which appeared in the first 3 years of his stay in Leipzig.

Johann Sebastian Bach, whose classic authorship is now well known to many people, expanded his composing and performing possibilities in March 1729 by taking charge of the College of Music, a secular gathering under the composer Georg Philipp Telemann. The college was one of dozens of private societies that were popular at that time in large German cities, created on the initiative of students in musical institutions. These associations played an important role in German musical life, being led for the most part by eminent specialists. Many of Bach's works from the period 1730-1740s. were written and performed at the College of Music. The last major work of Johann Sebastian - "Mass in B minor" (1748-1749), which was recognized as his most global church work. Although the Mass was never performed in its entirety during the author's lifetime, it is considered one of the composer's most outstanding works.

The Death of Bach (1750)

In 1749, the composer's health deteriorated. Bach Johann Sebastian, whose biography ends in 1750, began to suddenly lose his sight and turned to the English ophthalmologist John Taylor for help, who performed 2 operations in March-April 1750. However, both were unsuccessful. The composer's vision never returned. On July 28, at the age of 65, Johann Sebastian passed away. Modern newspapers wrote that "death was the result of an unsuccessful operation on the eyes." Currently, historians consider the cause of the composer's death to be a stroke complicated by pneumonia.

Carl Philipp Emmanuel, son of Johann Sebastian, and his student Johann Friedrich Agricola wrote an obituary. It was published in 1754 by Lorenz Christoph Mitzler in a musical magazine. Johann Sebastian Bach, whose brief biography is presented above, was originally buried in Leipzig, near the Church of St. John. The grave remained untouched for 150 years. Later, in 1894, the remains were transferred to a special storage in the Church of St. John, and in 1950 - to the Church of St. Thomas, where the composer still rests.

Organ creativity

Most of all, during his lifetime, Bach was known precisely as an organist and composer of organ music, which he wrote in all traditional German genres (preludes, fantasies). The favorite genres in which Johann Sebastian Bach created are toccata, fugue, choral preludes. His organ work is very diverse. At a young age, Johann Sebastian Bach (we have already briefly touched on his biography) earned a reputation as a very creative composer, able to adapt many foreign styles to the requirements of organ music. He was greatly influenced by the traditions of Northern Germany, in particular Georg Böhm, whom the composer met in Lüneburg, and Dietrich Buxtehude, whom Johann Sebastian visited in 1704 during an extended vacation. Around the same time, Bach rewrote the works of many Italian and French composers, and later Vivaldi's violin concertos, in order to breathe new life into them already as works for organ performance. During the most productive creative period (from 1708 to 1714), Johann Sebastian Bach wrote fugues and toccatas, several dozen pairs of preludes and fugues, and the Organ Book, an unfinished collection of 46 choral preludes. After leaving Weimar, the composer writes less organ music, although he creates a number of well-known works.

Other works for clavier

Bach wrote a great deal of harpsichord music, some of which can be played on the clavichord. Many of these writings are encyclopedic, incorporating the theoretical methods and techniques that Johann Sebastian Bach liked to use. The works (list) are presented below:

• The Well-Tempered Clavier is a two-volume work. Each volume contains preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys used, arranged in chromatic order.
• Inventions and overtures. These two- and three-part works are in the same order as the Well-Tempered Clavier, with the exception of some rare keys. They were created by Bach for educational purposes.
• 3 collections of dance suites, "French suites", "English suites" and scores for clavier.
• "Goldberg Variations".
• Various pieces such as "French Style Overture", "Italian Concerto".

Orchestral and chamber music

Johann Sebastian also wrote works for individual instruments, duets and small ensembles. Many of them, such as partitas and sonatas for solo violin, six different suites for solo cello, partita for solo flute, are considered among the most outstanding in the composer's repertoire. Johann Sebastian wrote Bach symphonies, and also created several compositions for solo lute. He also created trio sonatas, solo sonatas for flute and viola da gamba, a large number of ricercars and canons. For example, the cycles "Art of the Fugue", "Musical Offering". Bach's most famous orchestral work is the Brandenburg Concertos, so named because Johann Sebastian submitted it in the hope of getting a work from Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Swedish in 1721. His attempt, however, was unsuccessful. The genre of this work is concerto grosso. Other surviving works by Bach for orchestra: 2 violin concertos, a concerto written for two violins (key "D minor"), concertos for clavier and chamber orchestra (from one to four instruments).

Vocal and choral compositions

• Cantatas. Beginning in 1723, Bach worked in the church of St. Thomas, and every Sunday, as well as on holidays, he led the performance of cantatas. Although he sometimes staged cantatas by other composers, Johann Sebastian wrote at least 3 cycles of his works in Leipzig, not counting those composed in Weimar and Mühlhausen. In total, more than 300 cantatas devoted to spiritual topics were created, of which approximately 200 have survived.
• Motets. Motets, authored by Johann Sebastian Bach - works on spiritual themes for choir and basso continuo. Some of them were composed for funeral ceremonies.
• Passions, or passions, oratorios and magnificats. Bach's major works for choir and orchestra are the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion (both written for Good Friday in the churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas) and the Christmas Oratorio (a cycle of 6 cantatas intended for the Christmas service ). Shorter compositions - "Easter Oratorio" and "Magnificat".
• "Mass in B minor". Bach created his last major work, Mass in B Minor, between 1748 and 1749. "Mass" was never staged in its entirety during the composer's lifetime.

musical style

Bach's musical style was shaped by his talent for counterpoint, his ability to lead the motive, his flair for improvisation, his interest in the music of North and South Germany, Italy and France, and his devotion to Lutheran traditions. Thanks to the fact that Johann Sebastian had access to many instruments and works in childhood and adolescence, and also thanks to the ever-increasing talent for writing dense music with amazing sonority, Bach's work was filled with eclecticism and energy, in which foreign influence was skillfully combined with already existing improved German music school. During the baroque period, many composers mainly composed only frame works, and the performers themselves supplemented them with their melodic embellishments and developments. This practice varies considerably among European schools. However, Bach composed most or all of the melodic lines and details himself, leaving little room for interpretation. This feature reflects the density of contrapuntal textures to which the composer gravitated, limiting the freedom of spontaneous change in musical lines. For some reason, some sources mention works by other authors that Johann Sebastian Bach allegedly wrote. Moonlight Sonata, for example. You and I, of course, remember that this work was created by Beethoven.

Execution

Modern performers of Bach's works usually follow one of two traditions: the so-called authentic (historically oriented performance) or modern (using modern instruments, often in large ensembles). In Bach's time, orchestras and choirs were much more modest than they are today, and even his most ambitious works, Passions and the Mass in B Minor, were written for far fewer performers. In addition, today you can hear very different versions of the sound of the same music, because in some of Johann Sebastian's chamber works, initially there was no instrumentation at all. Modern "lite" versions of Bach's works have made a great contribution to the popularization of his music in the 20th century. Among them are famous tunes performed by the Swinger Singers and Wendy Carlos' 1968 Switched-On-Bach recording using a newly invented synthesizer. Jazz musicians, such as Jacques Loussier, also showed interest in Bach's music. Joel Spiegelman performed an adaptation of his famous "Goldberg Variations", creating his new-age piece.

The grandiose maestro Johann Sebastian Bach managed to write more than a thousand works during his own long life. Being a devout Protestant, Bach reworked church works in the Baroque style. Many of his masterpieces relate specifically to religious music. His works cover all significant musical genres except opera. The composer from Germany went down in history as a virtuoso, a brilliant teacher, the best bandmaster, and also as a professional organist.

Bach's early years and youth

Johann was the last child in the family of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Ember. He was born on March 31, 1685. The history of this family has always been associated with music and its manifestations. Since the 16th century, many of Bach's relatives have been known as quite professional musicians. Johann Sebastian's father lived in Eisenach, Germany. There he did the work of preparing concerts, as well as playing music for the flock. At the age of 9, the future virtuoso lost his mother, and soon his father. Bach's older brother Christoph took the boy to him. The relative, who carefully took custody of the orphan, also worked as an organist in a neighboring town. There Bach entered the gymnasium, he also learned to play the organ and his clavier from a relative.

In the process of learning, Johann got acquainted with the works of South German performers, studied the music of the German north and the French south. At the age of fifteen, Johann Sebastian moved to live in Lüneburg. Until 1703, he managed to study at St. Michael's School. As a teenager, Bach traveled extensively in Germany. I looked at Hamburg, appreciated Celle, as well as the province of Lübeck.

In a religious school, Johann acquired knowledge of the church and religion, the history of many countries and geography, the exact sciences, French, Latin and Italian. In an educational institution, Bach communicated with the children of the local nobility and musicians.

For a musician, Bach was well educated. He had a qualitative understanding of many secular areas, was an excellent student, absorbed knowledge like a sponge.

Master: Life Path

After graduating, Bach got a job as a court performer under the auspices of Duke Ernst. After a brilliant service, about a year later, Johann was appointed as the caretaker of the organ in the temple. Thus began his work in Arnstadt. Since work duties took away from Bach 3 days a week, and the instrument in the church was in excellent condition, he had a lot of time to write his own musical creations.

Despite extensive connections and the patronage of employers, Johann still had a conflict with the city authorities, as he was saddened by the training of choir performers. In 1705, Johann left for Lübeck for a couple of months to learn how to play as virtuoso as the Danish organist Buxtehude played.

Bach's trick did not go unnoticed. After that, the authorities brought charges against Bach, which consisted of non-standard accompaniment of the music of the choir, which embarrassed the community. Indeed, Johann's work could not be called purely secular or only religious. In his works, the incongruous was combined, what was simply impossible to combine in reality was mixed up.

After that, in 1706, Johann changed his place of service. He moved to a more prestigious position in the parish of St. Blaise. Then he had to move to the small town of Mühlhausen. There, in a new place, Johann Sebastian came to court. He was given a good salary. And the working conditions in the new temple were much better. There, Bach drew up a detailed plan for the restoration of the church organ. The church authorities approved the restoration plan in full. In 1707, Johann Sebastian proposed to his cousin Maria. Later, 7 children were born in the Bach family, unfortunately, three of them died in infancy.

Fed up with the old way of life, Johann Bach went in search of another position. The former employer did not want to let Bach go and even tried to arrest him for insistent requests for dismissal, but in 1717 Prince Leopold personally accepted Bach as his bandmaster. Successfully working under the prince, Bach created many new works.

In 1720, on July 7, the young wife of Johann Sebastian Maria died suddenly. Strongly experiencing the tragedy, Johann wrote a musical essay, expressing his grief with the help of a partita in D minor for solo violin. This work later became his hallmark. When Bach's wife died, an elderly relative who lived in the Bach family until the end of her days helped him take care of the children.

After a year of mourning and lamentation for the lost beloved, Johann Bach met with Anna Wilke. The girl was known as a gifted singer who performed at the duke's court. A year later, their wedding took place. In his second marriage, Johann had 13 children. Seven babies died at an early age.

When the ups and downs of life subsided, Bach became the manager of the choir of St. Thomas and at the same time a teacher in a church school. Unfortunately, over the years, Johann Bach began to lose his visual acuity, but the great composer did not give up, and continued to write music, dictating notes to his son-in-law.

In recent years, Bach created by ear, his later musical insinuations are considered the richest and most complex than his early creations.

Johann Bach passed away on July 28, 1750. The great maestro was buried in the Church of St. John, next to the church where he served for 27 years. Then, on July 28, 1949, the ashes of the composer were transferred to the parish of St. Thomas. The transfer was due to military operations that destroyed his tomb. In 1950, a bronze tombstone was erected on the grave of the virtuoso, and this year was proclaimed the year of the legendary musician.

The iconic art of the virtuoso

Organ music was leading in the works of Bach. He wrote 6 trios of sonatas for organ, the famous "organ book", as well as many lesser known compositions.

Clavier creativity is an area that was interesting for Bach in the same way as other musical directions. It was for playing the clavier that English suites were created, as well as well-known melodies with many variations.

Chamber music for ensembles included pieces for cello, lute, flute, and, of course, organ. Bach's vocal insinuations were expressed in passions, cantatas and masses.

The phenomenon of the German composer is well revealed in the discipline "Bach Studies". Since his works are so extensive that they are studied separately by musicians from all over the world.

The legendary composer created music not only for the secular and religious audience, he wrote his sonatas and parts for the productive training of young musicians. It was for them that the most complex and most exciting musical creations of Bach were written. After all, among other things, Johann Bach was an excellent teacher.

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 in the church almost all his life, he 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 cuts.

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

Johann Sebastian Bach- German composer, virtuoso organist, music teacher. During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works.

Was born March 31, 1685 in the city of Eisenach, where he lived until the age of ten. Orphaned, he moved to Ohrdruf, to his older brother Johann Christoph, an organist.

His brother became his first teacher on the clavier and organ. Then Bach went to study at a singing school in the city of Lüneburg. There he gets acquainted with the work of modern musicians, develops comprehensively. During the years 1700-1703 Bach's first organ music was written.

After completing his studies, Johann Sebastian was sent to Duke Ernst as a musician at the court. Then he was invited to be a caretaker in the organ hall of the church in Arnstadt, after which he became an organist. During this time, many works by Bach were written. Later he became an organist in the city of Mühlhausen.

In 1707 Bach married Maria Barbara, his cousin. They subsequently had seven children, three of whom died in childhood. Two of the survivors - Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel - later became well-known composers.

The authorities were pleased with his work, and the composer received a reward for publishing the work. However, Bach again decided to change jobs, this time becoming court organist in Weimar.

Bach's music is filled with the best trends of that time thanks to the teachings of other composers. The next employer of Bach, who highly appreciated his talent, was the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen. During the period from 1717 to 1723, Bach's magnificent suites appeared (for orchestra, cello, clavier).

In 1720, Bach's wife died, but a year later the composer married again, now to a singer. The happy family had 13 children. During his stay in Köthen, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos were written.

In 1723, the musician became a teacher at the church, then - music director in Leipzig. The wide repertoire of Johann Sebastian Bach included secular, wind music. During his life, Johann Sebastian Bach managed to visit the head of the music college. Several cycles of the composer Bach used all kinds of instruments (“Musical Offering”, “The Art of the Fugue”).

The last years of the composer's life were overshadowed by a serious eye disease. After an unsuccessful operation, Bach became blind. But even then he continued to compose, dictating his works for recording.