Johann Sebastian Bach

In this article you will learn:

For any lover of real music, this name causes true admiration.

Birth and childhood

The greatest composer was born in 1685, (21) March 31 in the large family of Johann Ambrosius Bach and his wife Elisabeth. The birthplace of little Johann is the small town of Eisenach (at that time the Holy Roman Empire). Sebastian was the eighth child and also the youngest.

The passion for music in Bach was laid down by nature and this is not surprising, because most of his ancestors were professional musicians. Bach's father was also a musician, who, at the time of the birth of his eighth son, organized concerts in Eisenach.

At the age of 9, Sebastian's mother died, and a year later his father left the world. The elder Bach, Johann Christoph, took up the education of his younger brother.

Music lessons

Living with Christoph, Sebastian entered the gymnasium, simultaneously studying music with his brother. Christoph gave him playing lessons on various musical instruments, basically it was - organ and clavier.

From the age of 15, the future genius began to study at a vocal school. She bore the name of St. Michael and was located in the city of Lüneburg. Bach proved to be an amazingly capable student. He eagerly comprehended the basics of musical art, studied the work of other musicians, and developed comprehensively. In Lüneburg, Johann wrote his first organ pieces.

First work

After graduating in 1703, the young genius went to serve Duke Ernst in Weimar. He served as court musician. This duty burdened Bach, and he changed jobs with great relief, getting a job as organist at St. Boniface's Church in Arndstadt.

The composer's musical talent began to bring him well-deserved fame.

In 1707, Johann decided to move to the city of Mühlhusen, continuing to perform the duties of a church musician in the church of St. Blaise. The city authorities were very pleased with his work.

Weimar

In the same year, Bach married for the first time. The girl's name was Maria Barbara, she was the musician's cousin.

In 1708 the family moved to Weimar. There, Johann again began to serve as court organist. In Weimar, a young couple had 6 children, but unfortunately only three survived. All of them later became talented musicians.

It was in Weimar that Bach became famous as a skilled organist and master of the harpsichord. He absorbed the music of other countries and composed something unimaginable. Even the French organist, famous at that time, Louis Marchand, refused to compete with him. At this time, Bach creates real masterpieces.

Köthen

Tired of Weimar, Bach decided to leave the service. For such a desire, he was even arrested, since the duke did not want to let the musician go. But, soon, Johann, released to freedom, went to give his music to the city of Köthen to the Duke of Anthalt-Köthen. This happened in 1717. During this period, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the famous Brandenburg Concertos were written, the Brandenburg Concertos, English and French suites were composed.

In 1720, while Bach was away, his wife Barbara died.

The second time Bach married a star of the singing scene in 1721. The singer's name was Anna Magdalene Wilhelm. Marriage should be considered happy. The couple had 13 children.

The creative journey continues

In 1723, Bach performed the Passion for John at the Church of St. Thomas. In the same year, he received the position of choir cantor there, and soon became the "musical director" of all the churches in the city.

The periods of Bach's life in Leipzig are considered the most productive.

Composer's last years

At the end of his life, Johann Bach was rapidly losing his sight. The capricious public believed that his time had passed, and now he writes boring and outdated music. And the musician continued to create, in spite of everything. This is how the pieces were born, which received the name "Music of the Offering".

Bach is not new, not old, it is something much more - it is eternal...
R. Schumann

The year 1520 marks the root of the branching genealogical tree of the old burgher family of Bachs. In Germany, the words "Bach" and "musician" were synonymous for several centuries. However, only in fifth generation “out of their midst ... came a man whose glorious art radiated such a bright light that a reflection of this radiance fell on them. It was Johann Sebastian Bach, the beauty and pride of his family and fatherland, a man who, like no one else, was patronized by the very Art of Music. So wrote in 1802 I. Forkel - the first biographer and one of the first true connoisseurs of the composer at the dawn of the new century, for the age of Bach said goodbye to the great cantor immediately after his death. But even during the life of the chosen one of the "Art of Music" it was difficult to call the chosen one of fate. Outwardly, the biography of Bach is no different from the biography of any German musician at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. Bach was born in the small Thuringian town of Eisenach, located not far from the legendary Wartburg castle, where in the Middle Ages, according to legend, the color of minnesang converged, and in 1521-22. the word of M. Luther sounded: in Wartburg the great reformer translated the Bible into the language of the fatherland.

J.S. Bach was not a child prodigy, but from childhood, being in a musical environment, he received a very thorough education. First, under the guidance of his elder brother J.K. Bach and school cantors J. Arnold and E. Herda in Ohrdruf (1696-99), then at the school at St. Michael's Church in Lüneburg (1700-02). By the age of 17, he owned the harpsichord, violin, viola, organ, sang in the choir, and, after mutating his voice, acted as prefect (cantor's assistant). From an early age, Bach felt his vocation in the organ field, tirelessly studied both with the Middle and North German masters - I. Pachelbel, I. Leve, G. Boehm, J. Reinken - the art of organ improvisation, which was the basis of his composing skills. To this should be added a wide acquaintance with European music: Bach took part in concerts of the court chapel known for its French tastes in Celle, had access to the rich collection stored in the school library Italian masters Finally, during his repeated visits to Hamburg, he could get acquainted with the local opera.

In 1702, a fairly educated musician emerged from the walls of the Michaelschule, but Bach did not lose his taste for learning, “imitation” of everything that could help broaden his professional horizons throughout his life. A constant striving for improvement marked his musical career, which, according to the tradition of the time, was associated with the church, city or court. Not by chance, which provided this or that vacancy, but firmly and persistently, he rose to the next step in the musical hierarchy from organist (Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, 1703-08) to concertmaster (Weimar, 170817), bandmaster (Kethen, 171723), finally, the cantor and director of music (Leipzig, 1723-50). At the same time, next to Bach, a practicing musician, the Bach composer grew and gained strength, stepping far beyond the limits of the specific tasks that were set for him in his creative impulses and accomplishments. The Arnstadt organist is reproached for making "many strange variations in the chorale ... which confused the community." An example of this is dating back to the first decade of the 18th century. 33 chorales found recently (1985) as part of a typical (from Christmas to Easter) working collection of a Lutheran organist Tsakhov, as well as the composer and theorist G. A. Sorge). To an even greater extent, these reproaches could apply to Bach's early organ cycles, the concept of which began to take shape already in Arnstadt. Especially after visiting in the winter of 1705-06. Lübeck, where he went at the call of D. Buxtehude ( famous composer and the organist was looking for a successor, ready to marry his only daughter together with getting a place in the Marienkirche). Bach did not stay in Lübeck, but communication with Buxtehude left a significant imprint on all his further work.

In 1707, Bach moved to Mühlhausen in order to take up the post of organist in the church of St. Blaise. A field that provided opportunities somewhat greater than in Arnstadt, but clearly insufficient to, in the words of Bach himself, “perform ... regular church music and in general, if possible, contribute ... to the development of church music, which is gaining strength almost everywhere, for which ... an extensive repertoire of excellent church compositions (Resignation sent to the magistrate of the city of Mühlhausen on June 25, 1708). These intentions Bach will carry out in Weimar at the court of Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, where he was waiting for versatile activities both in the castle church and in the chapel. In Weimar, the first and most important feature in the organ sphere was drawn. Exact dates have not survived, but, apparently, such masterpieces as Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Preludes and Fugues in C minor and F minor, Toccata in C major, Passacaglia in C minor, as well as the famous "Organ Booklet" ", in which "the novice organist is given guidance on how to conduct a chorale in all sorts of ways." The fame of Bach, "the best connoisseur and adviser, especially in terms of the disposition ... and the very construction of the organ", as well as "the phoenix of improvisation", spread far around. For example, the Weimar years include the legendary failed competition with the famous French organist and harpsichordist L. Marchand, who left the "battlefield" before meeting with his opponent.

With his appointment in 1714 as vice-kapellmeister, Bach's dream of "regular church music" came true, which, according to the terms of the contract, he had to supply monthly. Mostly in the genre of a new cantata with a synthetic textual basis (biblical sayings, choral stanzas, free, "madrigal" poetry) and corresponding musical components (orchestral introduction, "dry" and accompanied recitatives, aria, chorale). However, the structure of each cantata is far from any stereotypes. It is enough to compare such pearls of early vocal and instrumental creativity as BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) - a thematic list of works by J.S. Bach.) 11, 12,. Bach did not forget about the "accumulated repertoire" of other composers. Such, for example, are preserved in Bach copies of the Weimar time, most likely prepared for the upcoming performances of the Passion for Luke by an unknown author (for a long time erroneously attributed to Bach) and Passion for Mark by R. Kaiser, which served as a model for their own works in this genre.

No less active is Bach - kammermusikus and accompanist. Being in the midst of the intense musical life of the Weimar court, he could become widely acquainted with European music. As always, this acquaintance with Bach was creative, as evidenced by the organ arrangements of the concertos by A. Vivaldi, the clavier arrangements by A. Marcello, T. Albinoni and others.

The Weimar years are also characterized by the first appeal to the genre of solo violin sonata and suite. All these instrumental experiments found their brilliant implementation on new ground: in 1717, Bach was invited to Keten to the post of Grand Ducal Kapellmeister of Anhalt-Keten. A very favorable musical atmosphere reigned here thanks to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Keten himself, a passionate music lover and musician who played the harpsichord, gamba, and had a good voice. The creative interests of Bach, whose duties included accompanying the prince's singing and playing, and most importantly, the leadership of an excellent chapel consisting of 15-18 experienced orchestra members, naturally move to the instrumental area. Solo, mainly violin and orchestral concertos, including 6 Brandenburg concertos, orchestral suites, solo violin and cello sonatas. Such is the incomplete register of the Keten "harvest".

In Keten, another line is opened (or rather continues, if we mean the "Organ Book") another line in the master's work: compositions for pedagogical purposes, in Bach's language, "for the benefit and use of musical youth striving for learning." The first in this series is Notebook Wilhelm Friedemann Bach” (begun in 1720 for the firstborn and favorite of his father, the future famous composer). Here, in addition to dance miniatures and arrangements of chorales, there are prototypes of volume 1 "" (prelude), two and three-part "Inventions" (preambles and fantasies). Bach himself would complete these collections in 1722 and 1723, respectively.

In Keten, the "Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach" (the composer's second wife) was started, which includes, along with pieces by various authors, 5 out of 6 "French Suites". In the same years, "Little Preludes and Fughettas", "English Suites", "Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" and other clavier compositions were created. Just as the number of Bach's students multiplied from year to year, his pedagogical repertoire was replenished, which was destined to become a school of performing arts for all subsequent generations of musicians.

The list of Keten opuses would be incomplete without mentioning vocal compositions. This is a whole series of secular cantatas, most of which have not been preserved and have received a second life already with a new, spiritual text. In many ways, the latent, not lying on the surface work in the vocal field (in the Reformed Church of Keten "regular music" was not required) bore fruit in the last and most extensive period of the master's work.

Bach enters the new field of cantor of the St. Thomas School and music director of the city of Leipzig not empty-handed: “trial” cantatas BWV 22, 23 have already been written; Magnificat; "Passion according to John". Leipzig is the final station of Bach's wanderings. Outwardly, especially judging by the second part of his title, the desired top of the official hierarchy was reached here. At the same time, the "Commitment" (14 checkpoints), which he had to sign "in connection with taking office" and the failure to comply with which was fraught with conflicts with the church and city authorities, testifies to the complexity of this segment of Bach's biography. The first 3 years (1723-26) were devoted to church music. Until quarrels with the authorities began and the magistrate financed liturgical music, which meant that professional musicians could be involved in the performance, the energy of the new cantor knew no bounds. All Weimar and Köthen experience spilled over into Leipzig creativity.

The scale of what was conceived and done during this period is truly immeasurable: more than 150 cantatas created weekly (!), 2nd ed. "Passion according to John", and according to new data, and "Passion according to Matthew". The premiere of this most monumental work of Bach falls not in 1729, as was believed until now, but in 1727. The decrease in the intensity of cantorial activity, the reasons for which Bach formulated in the well-known “Project for a good setting of affairs in church music, with the addition of some unbiased considerations regarding its decline” (August 23, 1730, memorandum to the Leipzig magistrate), was compensated by activities of a different kind. Bach Kapellmeister again comes to the forefront, this time heading the student Collegium musicum. Bach led this circle in 1729-37, and then in 1739-44 (?) With weekly concerts in the Zimmermann Garden or the Zimmermann Coffee House, Bach made an enormous contribution to the public musical life of the city. The repertoire is the most diverse: symphonies (orchestral suites), secular cantatas and, of course, concertos - the "bread" of all amateur and professional meetings of the era. It was here that the specifically Leipzig variety of Bach's concertos most likely arose - for clavier and orchestra, which are adaptations of his own concertos for violin, violin and oboe, etc. Among them are classical concerts in D minor, F minor, A major.

With the active assistance of the Bach circle, the city’s musical life in Leipzig also proceeded, whether it was “solemn music on the glorious name day of August II, performed in the evening under illumination in the Zimmermann garden”, or “Evening music with trumpets and timpani” in honor of the same Augustus, or beautiful “night music with many wax torches, with the sounds of trumpets and timpani”, etc. In this list of “music” in honor of the Saxon electors, a special place belongs to the Missa dedicated to Augustus III (Kyrie, Gloria, 1733) - part of another monumental creation of Bach - Mass in B minor, completed only in 1747-48. In the last decade, Bach has focused most of all on music free from any applied purpose. These are the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier (1744), as well as the partitas, Italian Concerto, Organ Mass, Aria with Various Variations (named Goldberg's after Bach's death), included in the collection Clavier Exercises. Unlike liturgical music, which Bach apparently considered a tribute to the craft, he sought to make his non-applied opuses available to the general public. Under his own editorship, Clavier Exercises and a number of other compositions were published, including the last 2, the largest instrumental works.

In 1737, the philosopher and historian, a student of Bach, L. Mitzler organized in Leipzig the "Society of Musical Sciences", where "the first among equals" was recognized as counterpoint, or, as we would now say, polyphony. At different times, G. Telemann, G. F. Handel joined the Society. In 1747, the greatest polyphonist J. S. Bach became a member. In the same year, the composer visited the royal residence in Potsdam, where he improvised on a new instrument at that time - the piano - in front of Frederick II on a theme he had set. The royal idea was returned to the author a hundredfold - Bach created an incomparable monument of contrapuntal art - "Musical Offering", a grandiose cycle of 10 canons, two ricercars and a four-part trio sonata for flute, violin and harpsichord.

And next to the “Musical Offering”, a new “single-dark” cycle was maturing, the idea of ​​​​which was born in the early 40s. This is the "Art of the Fugue", containing all kinds of counterpoints and canons. “Illness (towards the end of his life, Bach went blind. - T.F.) prevented him from completing the penultimate fugue ... and working out the last one ... This work saw the light only after the death of the author, commemorating the highest level polyphonic skill.

The last representative of the age-old patriarchal tradition and at the same time a universally equipped artist of the new time - this is how he appears in historical retrospective J. S. Bach. A composer who managed like no one else in his generous time for great names to combine the incompatible. The Dutch canon and the Italian concerto, the Protestant chorale and the French divertissement, the liturgical monody and the Italian virtuoso aria... Combine both horizontally and vertically, both in breadth and depth. That is why so freely interpenetrate in his music, in the words of the era, the styles "theatrical, chamber and church", polyphony and homophony, instrumental and vocal beginning. That is why separate parts migrate so easily from composition to composition, both preserving (as, for example, in the Mass in B minor, two-thirds of the already sounded music), and radically changing their appearance: the aria from the Wedding Cantata (BWV 202) becomes the finale of the violin the sonatas (BWV 1019), the symphony and choir from the cantata (BWV 146) are identical to the first and slow parts of the clavier Concerto in D minor (BWV 1052), the overture from the orchestral Suite in D major (BWV 1069), enriched with choral sound, opens the cantata BWV110. Examples of this kind made up a whole encyclopedia. In everything (the only exception is opera), the master spoke fully and completely, as if completing the evolution of a particular genre. And it is deeply symbolic that the universe of Bach's thought The Art of the Fugue, recorded in the form of a score, does not contain instructions for performance. Bach, as it were, addresses him everyone musicians. “In this work,” F. Marpurg wrote in the preface to the publication of The Art of Fugue, “the most hidden beauties that are conceivable in this art are enclosed ...” These words were not heard by the composer's closest contemporaries. There was no buyer not only for a very limited subscription edition, but also for the "cleanly and neatly engraved boards" of Bach's masterpiece, announced for sale in 1756 "from hand to hand at a reasonable price" by Philippe Emanuel, "so that this work is for the benefit of the public - gained popularity everywhere. A cassock of forgetfulness dangled the name of the great cantor. But this oblivion was never complete. Bach's works, published, and most importantly, handwritten - in autographs and numerous copies - settled in the collections of his students and connoisseurs, both eminent and completely obscure. Among them are the composers I. Kirnberger and the already mentioned F. Marpurg; a great connoisseur of old music, Baron van Swieten, in whose house W. A. ​​Mozart joined Bach; composer and teacher K. Nefe, who inspired love for Bach to his student L. Beethoven. Already in the 70s. 18th century begins to collect material for his book I. Forkel, who laid the foundation for the future new branch of musicology - Bach studies. At the turn of the century, the director of the Berlin Singing Academy, friend and correspondent of I. W. Goethe K. Zelter, was especially active. The owner of the richest collection of Bach's manuscripts, he entrusted one of them to the twenty-year-old F. Mendelssohn. These were the Matthew Passion, the historic performance of which on May 11, 1829 heralded the advent of a new Bach era. “A closed book, a treasure buried in the ground” (B. Marx) were opened, and a powerful stream of the “Bach movement” swept the entire musical world.

Today, vast experience has been accumulated in studying and promoting the work of the great composer. The Bach Society has existed since 1850 (since 1900, the New Bach Society, which in 1969 became an international organization with sections in the GDR, the FRG, the USA, Czechoslovakia, Japan, France and other countries). On the initiative of the NBO, Bach festivals are held, as well as International competitions of performers named after. J. S. Bach. In 1907, on the initiative of the NBO, the Bach Museum in Eisenach was opened, which today has a number of counterparts in different cities of Germany, including the one opened in 1985 on the 300th anniversary of the birth of the composer "Johann-Sebastian-Bach- Museum" in Leipzig.

There is a wide network of Bach institutions in the world. The largest of them are the Bach-Institut in Göttingen (Germany) and the National Research and Memorial Center of J. S. Bach in Germany in Leipzig. The last decades have been marked by a number of significant achievements: the four-volume Bach-Documente collection has been published, a new chronology of vocal compositions has been established, as well as the Art of Fugue, the previously unknown 14 canons from the Goldberg Variations and 33 chorales for organ have been published. Since 1954, the Institute in Göttingen and the Bach Center in Leipzig have been carrying out a new critical edition of the complete works of Bach. The publication of the analytical and bibliographic list of Bach's works "Bach-Compendium" in cooperation with Harvard University (USA) continues.

The process of mastering Bach's heritage is endless, just as Bach himself is endless - an inexhaustible source (let us recall the famous play on words: der Bach - a stream) of the highest experiences of the human spirit.

T. Frumkis

Characteristics of creativity

Bach's work, almost unknown during his lifetime, was forgotten for a long time after his death. It took a long time before it was possible to truly appreciate the legacy left by the greatest composer.

The development of art in the 18th century was complex and contradictory. The influence of the old feudal-aristocratic ideology was strong; but the sprouts of a new bourgeoisie, which reflected the spiritual needs of the young, historically advanced class of the bourgeoisie, were already emerging and maturing.

In the sharpest struggle of directions, through the negation and destruction of old forms, a new art was affirmed. The cold loftiness of classical tragedy, with its rules, plots, and images established by aristocratic aesthetics, was opposed by a bourgeois novel, a sensitive drama from philistine life. In contrast to the conventional and decorative court opera, the vitality, simplicity and democratic nature of the comic opera were promoted; light and unpretentious everyday genre music was put forward against the "learned" church art of the polyphonists.

Under such conditions, the predominance of forms and means of expression inherited from the past in Bach's works gave reason to consider his work obsolete and cumbersome. During the period of widespread enthusiasm for gallant art, with its elegant forms and simple content, Bach's music seemed too complicated and incomprehensible. Even the composer's sons saw nothing in their father's work but learning.

Bach was openly preferred by musicians whose names history barely preserved; on the other hand, they did not "wield only learning", they had "taste, brilliance and tender feeling."

Adherents of orthodox church music were also hostile to Bach. Thus, Bach's work, far ahead of its time, was denied by supporters of gallant art, as well as by those who reasonably saw in Bach's music a violation of church and historical canons.

In the struggle of the contradictory trends of this critical period in the history of music, a leading trend gradually emerged, the paths for the development of that new one loomed, which led to the symphonism of Haydn, Mozart, to the operatic art of Gluck. And only from the heights to which musical culture was raised major artists the end of the 18th century, the grandiose legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach became visible.

Mozart and Beethoven were the first to recognize its true meaning. When Mozart, already the author of The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, became acquainted with Bach's works, previously unknown to him, he exclaimed: "There is much to learn here!" Beethoven enthusiastically says: "Eg ist kein Bach - er ist ein Ozean" ("He is not a stream - he is an ocean"). According to Serov, these figurative words best express "the immense depth of thought and the inexhaustible variety of forms in Bach's genius."

Since the 19th century, a slow revival of Bach's work begins. In 1802, the first biography of the composer appeared, written by the German historian Forkel; with rich and interesting material, she drew some attention to the life and personality of Bach. Thanks to the active propaganda of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Bach's music began to gradually penetrate into a wider environment. In 1850, the Bach Society was formed, which set as its goal to find and collect all the manuscript material that belonged to the great musician, and publish it in the form of a complete collection of works. Since the 30s of the 19th century, Bach's work has been gradually introduced into musical life, sounds from the stage, and is included in the educational repertoire. But there were many conflicting opinions in the interpretation and evaluation of Bach's music. Some historians characterized Bach as an abstract thinker, operating with abstract musical and mathematical formulas, others saw him as a mystic detached from life or an orthodox philanthropist church musician.

Especially negative for understanding the real content of Bach's music was the attitude towards it as a storehouse of polyphonic "wisdom". A practically similar point of view reduced Bach's work to the position of a manual for students of polyphony. Serov wrote about this indignantly: “There was a time when the whole musical world looked at the music of Sebastian Bach as school pedantic rubbish, junk, which sometimes, as, for example, in Clavecin bien tempere, is suitable for finger exercise, along with sketches by Moscheles and exercises by Czerny. Since the time of Mendelssohn, taste has again leaned towards Bach, even much more than at the time when he himself lived - and now there are still "directors of conservatories" who, in the name of conservatism, are not ashamed to teach their pupils play Bach's fugues without expressiveness, i.e., as "exercises", as finger-breaking exercises... If there is anything in the field of music that must be approached not from under the ferula and with a pointer in hand, but with love in the heart , with fear and faith, so these are the creations of the great Bach.

In Russia, a positive attitude towards the work of Bach was determined at the end of the 18th century. A review of Bach's works appeared in the "Pocket Book for Music Lovers" published in St. Petersburg, in which the versatility of his talent and exceptional skill were noted.

For the leading Russian musicians, Bach's art was the embodiment of a mighty creative force, enriching and immeasurably advancing human culture. Russian musicians of different generations and trends were able to comprehend in the complex Bach polyphony the high poetry of feelings and effective force thoughts.

The depth of the images of Bach's music is immeasurable. Each of them is able to contain a whole story, poem, story; in each, significant phenomena are realized, which can equally be deployed in grandiose musical canvases or concentrated in a laconic miniature.

The diversity of life in its past, present and future, everything that an inspired poet can feel, what a thinker and philosopher can reflect on, is contained in the all-encompassing art of Bach. A huge creative range allowed simultaneous work on works of various scales, genres, and forms. Bach's music naturally combines the monumental form of passions, the B minor mass, with the effortless simplicity of little preludes or inventions; the drama of organ compositions and cantatas - with contemplative lyrics of choral preludes; chamber sound of the finely honed preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier - with virtuoso brilliance, the vital energy of the Brandenburg concertos.

emotional and philosophical essence Bach's music - in the deepest humanity, in selfless love for people. He sympathizes with a person in grief, shares his joys, sympathizes with the desire for truth and justice. In his art, Bach shows the most noble and beautiful that is hidden in a person; the pathos of the ethical idea is filled with his work.

Not in an active struggle and not in heroic deeds does Bach portray his hero. Through emotional experiences, reflections, feelings, his attitude to reality, to the world around him is reflected. Bach does not move away from real life. It was the truth of reality, the hardships endured by the German people, that gave rise to images of stunning tragedy; It is not for nothing that the theme of suffering runs through all of Bach's music. But the bleakness of the surrounding world could not destroy or displace the eternal feeling of life, its joys and great hopes. The themes of jubilation, enthusiastic enthusiasm are intertwined with the themes of suffering, reflecting reality in its contrasting unity.

Bach is equally great in expressing simple human feelings and in conveying the depths of folk wisdom, in high tragedy and in revealing the universal aspiration to the world.

Bach's art is characterized by close interaction and connection of all its spheres. The commonality of figurative content makes the folk epics of passions related to the miniatures of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the majestic frescoes of the B-minor mass - with suites for violin or harpsichord.

Bach has no fundamental difference between spiritual and secular music. Common is character musical images, means of implementation, methods of development. It is no coincidence that Bach so easily transferred from secular works to spiritual ones not only individual themes, large episodes, but even entire finished numbers, without changing either the plan of the composition or the nature of the music. The themes of suffering and sorrow, philosophical reflections, unpretentious peasant fun can be found in cantatas and oratorios, in organ fantasies and fugues, in clavier or violin suites.

It is not the belonging of a work to a spiritual or secular genre that determines its significance. The enduring value of Bach's creations lies in the loftiness of ideas, in the deep ethical sense that he puts into any composition, be it secular or spiritual, in the beauty and rare perfection of forms.

Bach's creativity owes its vitality, unfading moral purity and mighty power to folk art. Bach inherited the traditions of folk songwriting and music-making from many generations of musicians, they settled in his mind through direct perception of living musical customs. Finally, a close study of the monuments of folk musical art supplemented Bach's knowledge. Such a monument and at the same time an inexhaustible creative source for him was the Protestant chant.

Protestant chant has a long history. During the Reformation, choral chants, like martial hymns, inspired and united the masses in the struggle. The chorale "The Lord is our stronghold", written by Luther, embodied the militant fervor of the Protestants, became the anthem of the Reformation.

The Reformation made extensive use of secular folk songs, melodies that have long been common in everyday life. Regardless of their former content, often frivolous and ambiguous, religious texts were attached to them, and they turned into choral chants. The number of chorales included not only German folk songs, but also French, Italian, and Czech ones.

Instead of Catholic hymns alien to the people, sung by the choir in an incomprehensible Latin language, choral melodies accessible to all parishioners are introduced, which are sung by the entire community in their own German language.

So secular melodies took root and adapted to the new cult. In order for "the whole Christian community to join in the singing", the melody of the chorale is taken out in the upper voice, and the rest of the voices become accompaniment; complex polyphony is simplified and forced out of the chorale; a special choral warehouse is formed in which rhythmic regularity, the tendency to merge into a chord of all voices and highlight the upper melodic one are combined with the mobility of middle voices.

A peculiar combination of polyphony and homophony is salient feature chorale.

Folk tunes, turned into chorales, nevertheless remained folk melodies, and collections of Protestant chorales turned out to be a repository and treasury of folk songs. Bach extracted the richest melodic material from these ancient collections; he returned to the choral melodies the emotional content and spirit of the Protestant hymns of the Reformation, returned the music of the chorale to its former meaning, that is, resurrected the chorale as a form of expression of the thoughts and feelings of the people.

Chorale is far from the only type of Bach's musical connections with folk art. The strongest and most fruitful was the influence of genre music in its various forms. In numerous instrumental suites and other pieces, Bach not only recreates images of everyday music; he develops in a new way many of the genres that have been established mainly in urban life and creates opportunities for their further development.

Forms borrowed from folk music, song and dance melodies can be found in any of Bach's works. Not to mention secular music, he uses them widely and in various ways in his spiritual compositions: in cantatas, oratorios, passions, and the B-minor Mass.

Bach's creative heritage is almost immense. Even what has survived counts many hundreds of names. It is also known that a large number of Bach's compositions turned out to be irretrievably lost. Of the three hundred cantatas that belonged to Bach, about a hundred disappeared without a trace. Of the five passions, the Passion according to John and the Passion according to Matthew have been preserved.

Bach began composing relatively late. The first works known to us were written at about the age of twenty; there is no doubt that the experience of practical work, independently acquired theoretical knowledge did a great job, since already in the early Bach compositions one can feel the confidence of writing, the courage of thought and creative search. The path to prosperity was not long. For Bach as an organist, it came first in the field of organ music, that is, in the Weimar period. But the genius of the composer was most fully and comprehensively revealed in Leipzig.

en.wikipedia.org

During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. All significant genres of that time are represented in his work, except for opera; he summarized the achievements of the musical art of the Baroque period. Bach is a master of polyphony. Contrary to popular myth, Bach was not forgotten after his death. True, this primarily concerned works for the clavier: his opuses were performed and published, used for didactic purposes. Bach's works for organ continued to sound in the church, harmonizations of chorales were in constant use. Bach's cantata-oratorio opuses were rarely heard (although the notes were carefully preserved in the Church of St. Thomas), as a rule, on the initiative of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, but already in 1800, Carl Friedrich Zelter organized the Singakademie Berlin Singing Academy, the main purpose of which was precisely the promotion of Bach's singing heritage. The performance of the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy by Zelter's student Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy on March 11, 1829 in Berlin acquired the St. Matthew Passion. Even the rehearsals conducted by Mendelssohn became an event - they were visited by many music lovers. The performance was such a success that the concerto was repeated on Bach's birthday. "Passion according to Matthew" was also heard in other cities - in Frankfurt, Dresden, Koenigsberg. Bach's work had a strong influence on the music of subsequent composers, including in the 21st century. Without exaggeration, Bach created the foundations of all music of modern and contemporary times - the history of music is reasonably divided into pre-Bach and post-Bach. Bach's pedagogical works are still used for their intended purpose.

Biography

Childhood

Johann Sebastian Bach was the youngest, eighth child in the family of musician Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. The Bach family has been known for its musicality since the beginning of the 16th century: many of Johann Sebastian's ancestors were professional musicians. During this period, the Church, local authorities and the aristocracy supported the musicians, especially in Thuringia and Saxony. Bach's father lived and worked in Eisenach. At that time, the city had about 6,000 inhabitants. The work of Johann Ambrosius included organizing secular concerts and performing church music.

When Johann Sebastian was 9 years old, his mother died, and a year later, his father, having managed to marry again shortly before that. The boy was taken in by his older brother, Johann Christoph, who served as an organist in nearby Ohrdruf. Johann Sebastian entered the gymnasium, his brother taught him to play the organ and clavier. Johann Sebastian was very fond of music and did not miss the opportunity to study it or study new works.

While studying in Ohrdruf under the guidance of his brother, Bach became acquainted with the work of contemporary South German composers - Pachelbel, Froberger and others. It is also possible that he became acquainted with the works of composers from Northern Germany and France. Johann Sebastian observed how the organ was cared for and, perhaps, he himself took part in this [source not specified 316 days].

At the age of 15, Bach moved to Lüneburg, where in 1700-1703 he studied at the vocal school of St. Michael. 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. The first works by Bach for organ and clavier belong to the same years. In addition to singing in the acapella choir, Bach probably played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichord. Here he received his first knowledge of theology, Latin, history, geography and physics, and also, possibly, began to learn French and Italian. At school, Bach had the opportunity to associate with the sons of famous North German aristocrats and famous organists, especially with Georg Böhm in Lüneburg and Reinken in Hamburg. With their help, Johann Sebastian may have gained access to the largest instruments he has ever played. During this period, Bach expanded his knowledge of the composers of that era, most notably Dietrich Buxtehude, whom he greatly respected.

Arnstadt and Mühlhausen (1703-1708)

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 only 3 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.

Family ties and a music-loving employer could not prevent the tension between Johann Sebastian and the authorities that arose a few years later. Bach was dissatisfied with the level of training of the singers in the choir. In addition, in 1705-1706, Bach arbitrarily went to Lübeck for several months, where he got acquainted with the game of Buxtehude, which caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. The first biographer of Bach Forkel writes that Johann Sebastian walked more than 40 km on foot to listen to the outstanding composer, but today some researchers question this fact.

In addition, the authorities charged Bach with "strange choral accompaniment" that embarrassed the community, and inability to manage the choir; The latter accusation appears to have been justified.

In 1706, Bach decides to change jobs. He was offered a more profitable and high position as organist at St. Blaise's Church in Mühlhausen, a large city in the north of the country. The following year, Bach accepted this offer, taking the place of organist Johann Georg Ahle. His salary was increased compared to the previous one, and the level of the choristers was better. Four months later, on October 17, 1707, Johann Sebastian married his cousin Maria Barbara of Arnstadt. They subsequently had seven 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.

Weimar (1708-1717)

After working in Mühlhausen for about a year, Bach changed jobs again, this time getting a job as court organist and concert organizer - a much higher position than his previous position - in Weimar. Probably, the factors that forced him to change jobs were high salaries and a well-chosen composition of professional musicians. The Bach family settled in a house just a five-minute walk from the ducal palace. The following year, the first child in the family was born. At the same time, the elder unmarried sister of Maria Barbara moved to the Bahamas, who helped them run the household until her death in 1729. In Weimar, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel were born to Bach. In 1704, Bach met the violinist von Westhoff, who had a great influence on Bach's work. Von Westhof's works inspired Bach to create his sonatas and partitas for solo violin.

In Weimar, a long period of composing clavier and orchestral works began, in which Bach's talent reached its peak. During this period, Bach absorbs musical influences from other countries. The works of the Italians Vivaldi and Corelli taught Bach how to write dramatic introductions, from which Bach learned the art of using dynamic rhythms and decisive harmonic schemes. Bach studied the works of Italian composers well, creating transcriptions of Vivaldi's concertos for organ or harpsichord. He could borrow the idea of ​​writing arrangements from his employer, Duke Johann Ernst, a composer and musician. In 1713, the duke returned from a trip abroad and brought with him a large number of notes, which he showed to Johann Sebastian. In Italian music, the duke (and, as can be seen from some works, Bach himself) was attracted by the alternation of solo (playing one instrument) and tutti (playing the whole orchestra).

In Weimar, Bach had the opportunity to play and compose organ works, as well as use the services of the ducal orchestra. In Weimar, Bach wrote most of his fugues (the largest and most famous collection of Bach's fugues is the Well-Tempered Clavier). While serving in Weimar, Bach began work on the Organ Booklet, a collection of organ chorale preludes, possibly for the instruction of Wilhelm Friedemann. This collection consists of adaptations of Lutheran chants.

Köthen (1717-1723)

After some time, Bach again went in search of 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 already 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. However, the prince was a Calvinist and did not welcome the use of sophisticated music in worship, so most of Bach's works were secular. Among other things, in Köthen, Bach composed suites for orchestra, six suites for solo cello, English and French suites for clavier, as well as three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin. The famous Brandenburg Concertos were written in the same period.

On July 7, 1720, while Bach was abroad with the prince, his wife Maria Barbara died suddenly, leaving four young children. The following year, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young and highly gifted soprano who sang at the ducal court. They married on December 3, 1721. Despite the difference in age - she was 17 years younger than Johann Sebastian - their marriage, apparently, was happy [source not specified 316 days]. They had 13 children.

Leipzig (1723-1750)

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 position of cantor of this church while simultaneously acting as a school teacher at the church, replacing Johann Kuhnau in this post. Bach's duties included teaching singing and holding weekly concerts in Leipzig's two main churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. Johann Sebastian's position also provided for the teaching of Latin, but he was allowed to hire an assistant to do this work for him, so Petzold taught Latin for 50 thalers a year. Bach received the position of "music director" of all the churches in the city: his duties included selecting performers, overseeing their training and choosing music to perform. While working in Leipzig, the composer repeatedly came into conflict with the city administration.

The first six years of his life in Leipzig turned out to be very productive: Bach composed up to 5 annual cycles of cantatas (two of them, in all likelihood, were lost). Most of these works were written in gospel texts, which were read in the Lutheran church every Sunday and on holidays throughout the year; many (such as "Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme" or "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland") are based on traditional church chants - Lutheran chants.

Writing cantatas for most of the 1720s, Bach amassed an extensive repertoire for performance in Leipzig's main churches. Over time, he wanted to compose and perform more secular music. 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. At that time, in many large German cities, gifted and active university students created similar ensembles. Such associations played an ever greater role in public musical life; they were often led by renowned professional musicians. For most of the year, the College of Music held two-hour concerts twice a week at Zimmermann's coffee house, located near the market square. The owner of the coffee shop provided the musicians with a large hall and purchased several instruments. Many of Bach's secular works dating back to the 1730s, 1740s, and 1750s were written specifically for performance in Zimmermann's coffee shop. Such works include, for example, the Coffee Cantata and, possibly, clavier pieces from the Clavier-Ubung collections, as well as many concertos for cello and harpsichord.

In 1747, Bach visited the court of the Prussian king Frederick II, where the king offered him a musical theme and asked him to compose something on it right there. Bach was a master of improvisation and immediately performed a three-voice fugue. Later, Johann Sebastian composed a whole cycle of variations on this theme and sent it as a gift to the king. The cycle consisted of ricercars, canons and trios based on the theme dictated by Friedrich. This cycle was called "The Musical Offering".

Another major cycle, The Art of the Fugue, was not completed by Bach, despite the fact that it was written, most likely, long before his death (according to modern research, before 1741). During his lifetime, he never published. The cycle consists of 18 complex fugues and canons based on one simple theme. In this cycle, Bach used all his rich experience in writing polyphonic works. After Bach's death, The Art of Fugue was published by his sons, along with the chorale prelude BWV 668, which is often erroneously called Bach's last work - in fact it exists in at least two versions and is a reworking of an earlier prelude to the same melody, BWV 641 .

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 28 July; the cause of death may have been complications from surgery. His remaining fortune was estimated at more than 1000 thalers and included 5 harpsichords, 2 lute harpsichords, 3 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos, viola da gamba, lute and spinet, as well as 52 sacred books.

During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. In Leipzig, Bach maintained friendly relations with university professors. Especially fruitful was the collaboration with the poet Christian Friedrich Henrici, who wrote under the pseudonym Pikander. Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena often hosted friends, family members and musicians from all over Germany in their home. Frequent guests were court musicians from Dresden, Berlin and other cities, including Telemann, the godfather of Carl Philipp Emmanuel. Interestingly, Georg Friedrich Handel, Bach's age from Halle, just 50 kilometers from Leipzig, never met Bach, although Bach tried to meet him twice in his life - in 1719 and 1729. The fates of these two composers, however, were brought together by John Taylor, who operated on both shortly before their deaths.

The composer was buried near the Church of St. John (German: Johanniskirche), one of the two churches where he served for 27 years. However, the grave was soon lost, and only in 1894 the remains of Bach were accidentally found during construction work to expand the church, where they were reburied in 1900. After the destruction of this church during the Second World War, the ashes were transferred on July 28, 1949 to the Church of St. Thomas. In 1950, which was called the year of J.S. Bach, a bronze tombstone was erected over his burial place.

Bach studies

The first description of Bach's life and work was a work published in 1802 by Johann Forkel. Forkel's biography of Bach is based on an obituary and stories from Bach's sons and friends. AT mid-nineteenth century, the interest of the general public in Bach's music increased, composers and researchers began to collect, study and publish all of his works. Honored propagandist of Bach's works - Robert Franz, published several books about the composer's work. The next major work on Bach was the book by Philippe Spitta, published in 1880. At the beginning of the 20th century, the German organist and researcher Albert Schweitzer published a book. In this work, in addition to Bach's biography, description and analysis of his works, much attention is paid to the description of the era in which he worked, as well as theological issues related to his music. These books were the most authoritative until the middle of the 20th century, when, with the help of new technical means and careful research, new facts about the life and work of Bach were established, which in places came into conflict with traditional ideas. So, for example, it was established that Bach wrote some cantatas in 1724-1725 (it was previously believed that this happened in the 1740s), unknown works were found, and some previously attributed to Bach were not written by him. Some facts of his biography were established. In the second half of the 20th century, many works were written on this topic - for example, books by Christoph Wolf. There is also a work called a hoax of the 20th century, "Chronicle of the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, compiled by his widow Anna Magdalena Bach", written by the English writer Esther Meynel on behalf of the composer's widow.

Creation

Bach wrote over 1000 pieces of music. Today, each of the famous works has been assigned a BWV number (short for Bach Werke Verzeichnis - a catalog of Bach's works). Bach wrote music for various instruments, both spiritual and secular. Some of Bach's works are adaptations of works by other composers, and some are revised versions of their own works.

Other clavier works

Bach also wrote a number of works for harpsichord, many of which could also be played on the clavichord. Many of these creations are encyclopedic collections, demonstrating various techniques and methods for composing polyphonic works. Most of Bach's clavier works published during his lifetime were contained in collections called "Clavier-Ubung" ("clavier exercises").
* "The Well-Tempered Clavier" in two volumes, written in 1722 and 1744, is a collection, each volume of which contains 24 preludes and fugues, one for each common key. This cycle was very important in connection with the transition to instrument tuning systems that make it easy to play music in any key - first of all, to the modern equal temperament system.
* 15 two-voice and 15 three-voice inventions - small works, arranged in order of increasing number of characters in the key. They were intended (and are used to this day) for learning to play the keyboard instruments.
* Three collections of suites: English suites, French suites and Partitas for clavier. Each cycle contained 6 suites built according to the standard scheme (allemande, courante, sarabande, gigue and an optional part between the last two). In the English suites, the allemande is preceded by a prelude, and there is exactly one movement between the sarabande and the gigue; in the French suites, the number of optional movements increases, and there are no preludes. In partitas, the standard scheme is expanded: in addition to exquisite introductory parts, there are additional ones, and not only between the sarabande and the gigue.
* Goldberg Variations (circa 1741) - a melody with 30 variations. The cycle has a rather complex and unusual structure. Variations are built more on the tonal plane of the theme than on the melody itself.
* Varied pieces such as Overture in french style”, BWV 831, “Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue”, BWV 903, or “Italian Concerto”, BWV 971.

Orchestral and chamber music

Bach wrote music both for individual instruments and for ensembles. His works for solo instruments - 6 sonatas and partitas for solo violin, BWV 1001-1006, 6 suites for cello, BWV 1007-1012, and a partita for solo flute, BWV 1013 - are considered by many to be among the composer's most profound works. In addition, Bach composed several works for lute solo. He also wrote trio sonatas, sonatas for solo flute and viola da gamba, accompanied only by a general bass, as well as a large number of canons and ricercars, mostly without specifying the instruments for performance. The most significant examples of such works are the cycles "Art of the Fugue" and "Musical Offering".

Bach's most famous works for orchestra are the Brandenburg Concertos. They were so named because Bach, having sent them to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, was thinking of getting a job at his court; this attempt was unsuccessful. Six concertos were written in the concerto grosso genre. Other surviving works by Bach for orchestra include two violin concertos, a concerto for 2 violins in D minor, BWV 1043, and concertos for one, two, three, and even four harpsichords. Researchers believe that these harpsichord concertos were just transcriptions of older works by Johann Sebastian, now lost [source not specified 649 days]. In addition to concertos, Bach composed 4 orchestral suites.

Among the chamber works, the second partita for violin, in particular the last part, the chaconne, should be highlighted. [source not specified 316 days]

Vocal works

* Cantatas. For a long period of his life, every Sunday in the church of St. Thomas, Bach led the performance of a cantata, the theme of which was chosen according to the Lutheran church calendar. Although Bach also performed cantatas by other composers, in Leipzig he composed at least three complete annual cycles of cantatas, one for each Sunday of the year and each church holiday. In addition, he composed a number of cantatas in Weimar and Mühlhausen. In total, Bach wrote more than 300 cantatas on spiritual topics, of which only 200 have survived to this day (the last one is in the form of a single fragment). Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Some of them are written for one voice, some for a choir; some require for execution large orchestra and some with just a few tools. However, the most commonly used model is as follows: the cantata opens with a solemn choral introduction, then alternate recitatives and arias for soloists or duets, and ends with a chorale. As a recitative, the same words from the Bible are usually taken that are read this week according to the Lutheran canons. The final chorale is often preceded by a chorale prelude in one of the middle parts, and is also sometimes included in the introductory part in the form of a cantus firmus. The most famous of Bach's spiritual cantatas are "Christ lag in Todesbanden" (number 4), "Ein' feste Burg" (number 80), "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (number 140) and "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (number 147). In addition, Bach also composed a number of secular cantatas, usually timed to coincide with some event, such as a wedding. Among Bach's most famous secular cantatas are two Wedding Cantatas and a humorous Coffee Cantata.
* Passions, or passions. Passion according to John (1724) and Passion according to Matthew (c. 1727) - works for choir and orchestra on the gospel theme of the suffering of Christ, intended to be performed at Vespers on Good Friday in the churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. Passions are one of Bach's most ambitious vocal works. It is known that Bach wrote 4 or 5 passions, but only these two have completely survived to this day.
* Oratorios and Magnificats. The most famous is the Christmas Oratorio (1734) - a cycle of 6 cantatas to be performed during the Christmas period of the liturgical year. The Easter Oratorio (1734-1736) and the Magnificat are rather extensive and elaborate cantatas and are of a smaller scope than the Christmas Oratorio or Passions. The Magnificat exists in two versions: the original (E-flat major, 1723) and the later and well-known (D major, 1730).
* Masses. Bach's most famous and significant Mass is the Mass in B minor (completed in 1749), which is a complete cycle of the ordinary. This mass, like many other works of the composer, included revised early compositions. The mass was never performed in its entirety during Bach's lifetime - the first time this happened only in the 19th century. In addition, this music was not performed as intended due to inconsistency with the Lutheran canon (it included only Kyrie and Gloria), and also because of the duration of the sound (about 2 hours). In addition to the Mass in B minor, 4 short two-movement Masses by Bach (Kyrie and Gloria) have come down to us, as well as separate parts, such as Sanctus and Kyrie.

The rest of Bach's vocal works include several motets, about 180 chorales, songs and arias.

Execution

Today, performers of Bach's music are divided into two camps: those who prefer authentic performance (or "historically oriented performance"), that is, using the instruments and methods of the Bach era, and those who perform Bach on modern instruments. In Bach's time, there were no such large choirs and orchestras as, for example, in the time of Brahms, and even his most ambitious works, such as the Mass in B minor and passions, do not involve large ensembles. In addition, in some chamber works Bach's instrumentation is not indicated at all, so very different versions of the performance of the same works are known today. In organ works, Bach almost never indicated the registration and change of manuals. From strings keyboard instruments Bach preferred the clavichord. He met Zilberman and discussed with him the structure of his new instrument, contributing to the creation of the modern piano. Bach's music for some instruments was often rearranged for others, for example, Busoni arranged the organ toccata and fugue in D minor and some other works for the piano.

Numerous "lightened" and "modernized" versions of his works contributed to the popularization of Bach's music in the 20th century. Among them are today's well-known tunes performed by the Swingle Singers and Wendy Carlos' 1968 recording of "Switched-On Bach", which used a newly invented synthesizer. Processed the music of Bach and jazz musicians such as Jacques Loussier. Joel Spiegelman handled the New Age Goldberg Variations. Among Russian contemporary performers, Fyodor Chistyakov tried to pay tribute to the great composer in his solo album 1997 "When Bach wakes up."

The fate of Bach's music

In the last years of his life and after the death of Bach, his fame as a composer began to decline: his style was considered old-fashioned compared to the burgeoning classicism. He was more known and remembered as a performer, teacher and father of the Bachs Jr., primarily Carl Philipp Emmanuel, whose music was more famous. However, many major composers such as Mozart and Beethoven knew and loved the work of Johann Sebastian. In Russia early XIX century, as connoisseurs and performers of Bach's music, Field's student Maria Shimanovskaya and Alexander Griboedov stand out. For example, when visiting the St. Thomas School, Mozart heard one of the motets (BWV 225) and exclaimed: “There is a lot to learn here!” - after which, asking for notes, he studied them for a long time and rapturously. Beethoven greatly appreciated Bach's music. As a child, he played preludes and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, and later called Bach "the true father of harmony" and said that "not the Stream, but the Sea is his name" (the word Bach in German means "stream"). The works of Johann Sebastian have influenced many composers. Some themes from Bach's works, such as the theme of the toccata and fugue in D minor, were repeatedly used in the music of the 20th century.

A biography written in 1802 by Johann Nikolaus Forkel spurred the general public's interest in his music. More and more people were discovering his music. For example, Goethe, who became acquainted with his works quite late in his life (in 1814 and 1815, some of his clavier and choral works were performed in the city of Bad Berka), in a letter of 1827 he compared the sensation of Bach's music with "eternal harmony in dialogue with herself." But the real revival of Bach's music began with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 in Berlin, organized by Felix Mendelssohn. Hegel, who attended the concert, later called Bach "a great, true Protestant, a strong and, so to speak, erudite genius, whom we have only recently learned to fully appreciate again." In subsequent years, Mendelssohn's work continued to popularize Bach's music and the composer's fame grew. In 1850, the Bach Society was founded, the purpose of which was to collect, study and disseminate the works of Bach. In the next half century, this society carried out significant work on compiling and publishing a corpus of the composer's works.

In the 20th century, awareness of the musical and pedagogical value of his compositions continued. Interest in Bach's music spawned a new movement among performers: the idea of ​​authentic performance became widespread. Such performers, for example, use the harpsichord instead of the modern piano and smaller choirs than was customary in the 19th and early 20th centuries, wanting to accurately recreate the music of the Bach era.

Some composers expressed their reverence for Bach by including the BACH motif (B-flat - la - do - si in Latin notation) in the themes of their works. For example, Liszt wrote a prelude and fugue on BACH, and Schumann wrote 6 fugues on the same theme. Bach himself used the same theme, for example, in the XIV counterpoint from the Art of Fugue. Many composers took their cue from his works or used themes from them. Examples are Beethoven's Diabelli Variations based on the Goldberg Variations, Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, and Brahms's Cello Sonata in D Major, whose finale includes musical quotations from Iskusstvo fugue." The chorale prelude "Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ" performed by Garry Grodberg is featured in the film Solaris (1972). Bach's music is among the best creations of mankind recorded on the Voyager gold disc.

Bach monuments in Germany

* Monument in Leipzig, erected on April 23, 1843 by Hermann Knaur on the initiative of Mendelssohn and according to the drawings of Eduard Bendemann, Ernst Rietschel and Julius Hübner.
* Bronze statue on the Frauenplan in Eisenach, designed by Adolf von Donndorf, erected on September 28, 1884. First stood on the Market Square near the Church of St. George, April 4, 1938 was moved to Frauenplan with a shortened pedestal.
* Monument to Heinrich Pohlmann on Bach Square in Köthen, erected on March 21, 1885.
* Bronze statue of Karl Seffner from the south side of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig - May 17, 1908.
* Bust by Fritz Behn in the Walhalla monument near Regensburg, 1916.
* Statue of Paul Birr at the entrance to the Church of St. George in Eisenach, erected on April 6, 1939.
* The monument to Bruno Eiermann in Weimar, first installed in 1950, then removed for two years and reopened in 1995 on Democracy Square.
* Relief by Robert Propf in Köthen, 1952.
* Monument to Bernd Goebel near the market of Arnstadt, erected on March 21, 1985.
* Wooden stele by Ed Harrison on Johann Sebastian Bach Square in front of St. Blaise's Church in Mühlhausen - 17 August 2001.
* Monument in Ansbach, designed by Jurgen Görtz, erected in July 2003.

Literature

* Documents of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach (Collection, translated from German, compiled by Hans Joachim Schulze). M.: Music, 1980. (Book at www.geocities.com (web archive))
* I. N. Forkel. About the life, art and works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Moscow: Music, 1987. (Book on early-music.narod.ru, Book in djvu format on www.libclassicmusic.ru)
* F. Wolfrum. Johann Sebastian Bach. M.: 1912.
* A. Schweitzer. Johann Sebastian Bach. M.: Music, 1965 (with cuts; book on ldn-knigi.lib.ru, book in djvu format); M.: Classics-XXI, 2002.
* M. S. Druskin. Johann Sebastian Bach. M.: Music, 1982. (Book in djvu format)
* M. S. Druskin. Passions and Masses by Johann Sebastian Bach. M.: Music, 1976.
* A. Milka, G. Shabalina. Entertaining Bahian. Issues 1, 2. St. Petersburg: Composer, 2001.
* S. A. Morozov. Bach. (Biography of J. S. Bach in the ZhZL series), M .: Young Guard, 1975. (djvu book, Book on www.lib.ru)
* M. A. Saponov. Bach's masterpieces in Russian. Moscow: Classics-XXI, 2005. ISBN 5-89817-091-X
*Ph. Spitta. Johann Sebastian Bach (two vols.). Leipzig: 1880. (German)
* K. Wolff. Johann Sebastian Bach: the learned musician (New York: Norton, 2000) ISBN 0-393-04825-X (hbk.); (New York: Norton, 2001) ISBN 0-393-32256-4 (pbk.)

Notes

* 1. A. Schweitzer. Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 1. The origins of Bach's art
* 2. S. A. Morozov. Bach. (Biography of J. S. Bach in the ZhZL series), M .: Young Guard, 1975. (Book on www.lib.ru)
* 3. Eisenach 1685-1695, J. S. Bach Archive and Bibliography
* 4. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - the genealogy of the Bach family (web archive)
* 5. Manuscripts of Bach were found in Germany, confirming his studies with Böhm - RIA Novosti, 08/31/2006
* 6. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Protocol of the interrogation of Bach (web archive)
* 7. 1 2 I. N. Forkel. On the Life, Art and Works of J. S. Bach, Chapter II
* 8. M. S. Druskin. Johann Sebastian Bach - page 27
* 9. A. Schweitzer. Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 7
* 10. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Entry in the file, Arnstadt, June 29, 1707 (web archive)
* 11. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - entry in the church book, Dornheim (web archive)
* 12. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Organ Reconstruction Project (web archive)
* 13. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Entry in the file, Mühlhausen, June 26, 1708 (web archive)
* 14. Yu. V. Keldysh. Musical encyclopedia. Volume 1. - Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - S. 761. - 1070 p.
* 15. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Entry in the file, Weimar, December 2, 1717 (web archive)
* 16. M. S. Druskin. Johann Sebastian Bach - page 51
* 17. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - entry in the church book, Köthen (web archive)
* 18. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Minutes of the meeting of the magistrate and other documents related to the move to Leipzig (web archive)
* 19. Documents of the life and work of J. S. Bach - Letter from J. S. Bach to Erdman (web archive)
* 20. A. Schweitzer. Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 8
* 21. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Report by L. Mitzler about the concerts of the Collegium Musicum (web archive)
* 22. Peter Williams. The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, p. 382-386.
* 23. Russell Stinson. J. S. Bach's Great Eighteen Organ Chorales, p. 34-38.
* 24. Documents of the life and work of J. S. Bach - Quellmalz about Bach's operations (web archive)
* 25. Documents of the life and work of J.S. Bach - Inventory of Bach's legacy (web archive)
* 26. A. Schweitzer. Johann Sebastian Bach - chapter 9
* 27. City of music - Johann Sebastian Bach, Leipzig Tourist Office
* 28. Leipzig Church of St. Thomas (Thomaskirche)
* 29. M. S. Druskin. Johann Sebastian Bach - page 8
* 30. A. Schweitzer. J. S. Bach - Chapter 14
* 31. Documents of the life and work of J. S. Bach - Rokhlits about this event, November 21, 1798 (web archive)
* 32. Pressemitteilungen (German)
* 33. Matthaus-Passion BWV 244 - conducted by Christoph Spering
* 34. Solaris, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky. Mosfilm, 1972
* 35. Voyager - Music From Earth (English)

Biography

Childhood and youth.

Weimar (1685–1717).

Johann Sebastian Bach was born March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, a small Thuringian town in Germany, where his father Johann Ambrosius served as the town musician and his uncle Johann Christoph as organist. The boy began to study music early. Apparently, his father taught him to play the violin, his uncle - the organ, and thanks to a good soprano, he was accepted into the church choir, which performed motets and cantatas. At the age of 8, the boy entered the church school, where he made great strides.

A happy childhood ended for him at the age of nine, when he lost his mother, and a year later, his father. The orphan was brought up in his modest home by his elder brother, an organist in nearby Ohrdruf; there the boy went to school again and continued his music lessons with his brother. Johann Sebastian spent 5 years in Ohrdruf.

When he was fifteen, on the recommendation of a school teacher, he was given the opportunity to continue his education at the school at the church of St. Michael in Lüneburg in northern Germany. To get there, he had to walk three hundred kilometers. There he lived on full board, received a small scholarship, studied and sang in the school's choir, which enjoyed a high reputation (the so-called morning choir, Mettenchor). This was a very important stage in the education of Johann Sebastian. Here he got acquainted with the best examples of choral literature, struck up a relationship with the famous master of organ art Georg Böhm (his influence is obvious in Bach's early organ compositions), got an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bFrench music, which he had the opportunity to hear at the court of neighboring Celle, where French culture was held in high esteem ; in addition, he often traveled to Hamburg to listen to the virtuoso playing of Johann Adam Reinken, the most important representative of the North German organ school.

In 1702, at the age of 17, Bach returned to Thuringia and, after serving briefly as a "footman and violinist" at the Weimar court, received a position as organist of the New Church in Arnstadt, the city where Bach served both before and after him, until 1739. Thanks to a brilliantly passed test performance, he was immediately assigned a salary that far exceeded that paid to his relatives. He remained in Arnstadt until 1707, leaving the city in 1705 to attend the famous "evening concerts" held in Lübeck, in the north of the country, by the brilliant organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude. Obviously, Lübeck was so interesting that Bach spent four months there instead of the four weeks he asked for as a vacation. The ensuing troubles in the service, as well as dissatisfaction with the weak and untrained Arnstadt church choir, which he was obliged to lead, forced Bach to look for a new place.

In 1707 he accepted an invitation to the post of organist in the famous church of St. Blaise in Thuringian Mühlhausen. Back in Arnstadt, the 23-year-old Bach married his cousin Maria Barbara, an orphan daughter of the organist Johann Michael Bach of Geren. In Mühlhausen, Bach quickly gained fame as an author of cantatas (one of them was even printed at the expense of the city) and as a specialist in the repair and reconstruction of organs. But a year later he left Mühlhausen and moved to a more attractive place at the ducal court in Weimar: there he served as an organist, and from 1714 as a bandmaster. Here, his artistic development was influenced by his acquaintance with the works of outstanding Italian masters, especially Antonio Vivaldi, whose orchestral concertos Bach translated for keyboard instruments: such work helped him master the art of expressive melody, improve harmonic writing, and develop a sense of form.

In Weimar, Bach reached the pinnacle of excellence as a virtuoso organist and composer, and thanks to numerous trips to Germany, his fame spread far beyond the boundaries of the Duchy of Weimar. His reputation was furthered by the outcome of a competition organized in Dresden with the French organist Louis Marchand. Contemporaries say that Marchand did not dare to speak to the public, who were looking forward to the competition, and hastily left the city, recognizing the superiority of the opponent. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister of the Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, who offered him more honorable and favorable conditions. The former owner at first did not want to let him go and even put him under arrest for "too persistent requests for dismissal", but then he nevertheless allowed Bach to leave Weimar.

Köthen, 1717–1723.

During the 6 years spent at the Calvinist Köthen court, Bach, as a devout Lutheran, was not obliged to write church music: he had to compose for court music. Therefore, the composer focused on instrumental genres: in the Köthen period, such masterpieces as the Well-Tempered Clavier (1st volume), sonatas and suites for violin and cello solo, as well as six Brandenburg concertos (dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg) appeared. The Köthen prince, himself an excellent musician, highly valued his bandmaster, and the time spent in this city is one of the happiest periods in Bach's life. But in June 1720, when the composer accompanied the prince on a trip, Maria Barbara died suddenly. The following December, the 36-year-old widower married 21-year-old Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a singer who, like Bach himself, came from a well-known musical dynasty. Anna Magdalena became an excellent assistant to her husband; many of his scores were transcribed by her hand. She gave birth to Bach 13 children, of which six survived to adulthood (in total, Johann Sebastian had 20 children in two marriages, ten of them died in infancy). In 1722 a profitable vacancy for cantor opened up at the famous St. Thomas in Leipzig. Bach, who again wanted to return to church genres, filed a corresponding petition. After a competition in which two more candidates participated, he became a Leipzig cantor. This happened in April 1723. Leipzig, 1723-1750. Bach's duties as cantor were of two kinds. He was the "music director", i.e. was responsible for the musical part of the services in all Leipzig Protestant churches, including St. Thomas (Thomas Church) and St. Nicholas, where quite complex works were performed. In addition to this, he became a teacher at a very respectable school at the Thomaskirche (founded in 1212), where he was supposed to teach boys the basics of musical art and prepare them for participation in church services. Bach diligently performed the duties of "music director"; as for teaching, it rather bothered the composer, deeply immersed in the world of his own creativity. Most of the sacred music that sounded at that time in Leipzig belonged to his pen: such masterpieces as the Passion according to John, the Mass in B minor, the Christmas Oratorio were created here. Bach's attitude to official affairs caused discontent among the city fathers; in turn, the composer accused the "strange and insufficiently devoted to music authorities" of creating an atmosphere of persecution and envy. An acute conflict with the headmaster increased tension, and after 1740 Bach began to neglect his official duties - he began to write more instrumental music than vocal music, tried to print a number of compositions. The triumph of the last decade of the composer's life was a trip to the Prussian King Frederick II in Berlin, which Bach made in 1747: one of the sons of Johann Sebastian, Philip Emanuel, served at the court of the king, a passionate lover of music. The Leipzig cantor played the excellent royal harpsichords and demonstrated to admiring listeners his unsurpassed skill as an improviser: without any preparation, he improvised a fugue on a theme given by the king, and on his return to Leipzig used the same theme as the basis for a grandiose polyphonic cycle in simple style and published this work under the title Musical Offering (Musikalisches Opfer) with a dedication to Frederick II of Prussia. Soon, Bach's vision, which he had been complaining about for a long time, began to deteriorate rapidly. Almost blind, he decided to undergo an operation by a well-known English ophthalmologist at that time. Two operations carried out by a charlatan did not bring relief to Bach, and the medicines that he had to take completely ruined his health. On July 18, 1750, his sight suddenly returned, but only a few hours later he had a stroke. On July 28, 1750, Bach died.

WORKS

In the work of Bach, all the main genres of the late Baroque era are represented with the exception of opera. His legacy includes compositions for soloists and choir with instruments, organ compositions, clavier and orchestral music. His powerful creative imagination brought to life an extraordinary wealth of forms: for example, in numerous Bach cantatas it is impossible to find two fugues of the same structure. Nevertheless, there is a structural principle very characteristic of Bach: it is a symmetrical concentric form. Continuing the centuries-old tradition, Bach uses polyphony as the main means of expression, but at the same time, his most complex contrapuntal constructions are based on a clear harmonic basis - this was undoubtedly the trend of a new era. In general, Bach's "horizontal" (polyphonic) and "vertical" (harmonic) beginnings are balanced and form a magnificent unity.

Cantatas.

Most of Bach's vocal and instrumental music consists of spiritual cantatas: he created five cycles of such cantatas for every Sunday and for the holidays of the church year. About two hundred of these works have come down to us. The early cantatas (before 1712) were written in the style of Bach's predecessors such as Johann Pachelbel and Dietrich Buxtehude. The texts are taken from the Bible or from Lutheran church hymns - chorales; composition consists of several relatively short sections, usually contrasting in melody, tonality, tempo, performing composition. A striking example of Bach's early cantata style is the beautiful Tragic Cantata (Actus Tragicus) No. 106 (God's Time is the Best Time, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit). After 1712, Bach turns to another form of spiritual cantata, which was introduced into Lutheran life by the pastor E. Neumeister: it does not use quotations from Scripture and Protestant hymns, but paraphrases of biblical fragments or chorales. In this type of cantata, sections are more clearly separated from one another, and solo recitatives are introduced between them, accompanied by an organ and a general bass. Sometimes such cantatas are two-part: during the service, a sermon was delivered between the parts. Most of Bach's cantatas belong to this type, including No. 65 All of them will come from Sava (Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen), on the day of the Archangel Michael No. 19 And there was a battle in heaven (Es erhub sich ein Streit), on the feast of the Reformation No. 80 Strong stronghold our God (Ein "feste Burg), No. 140 Rise from sleep (Wachet auf). A special case is cantata No. 4 Christ lay in chains of death (Christ lag in Todesbanden): it uses 7 stanzas of Martin Luther's chorale of the same name, moreover, in each stanza, the choral theme is treated in its own way, and in the final it sounds in simple harmonization.In most cantatas, solo and choral sections alternate, replacing each other, but Bach's heritage also contains entirely solo cantatas - for example, the touching cantata for bass and orchestra No. 82 Enough for me (Ich habe genug) or the brilliant cantata for soprano and orchestra No. Gott in allen Landen).

Several secular Bach cantatas have also survived: they were composed on the occasion of birthdays, name days, wedding ceremonies of dignitaries and other solemn occasions. The comic Coffee Cantata (Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht) No. 211 is known, in the text of which the Germans' obsession with an overseas drink is ridiculed. In this work, as in the Peasant Cantata No. 217, Bach's style approaches that of the comic opera of his era.

Motets.

6 Bach motets on German texts have come down to us. They enjoyed particular fame and for a long period after the death of the composer were the only of his vocal-instrumental compositions that were still performed. Like the cantata, the motet uses biblical and choral texts, but does not feature arias or duets; orchestral accompaniment is optional (if available, it simply duplicates the choral parts). Among the compositions of this genre, one can mention the motets Jesus is my joy (Jesu meine Freude) and Sing to the Lord (Singet dem Herrn). Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio. Among the major vocal and instrumental works by Bach, two Christmas cycles attract special attention. The Magnificat for a five-part choir, soloists and orchestra was written in 1723, the second edition in 1730. The entire text, except for the final Gloria, is the Song of the Mother of God, My soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46–55) in Latin translation (Vulgate). The Magnificat is one of Bach's most complete compositions: its laconic parts are clearly grouped into three sections, each of which begins with an aria and ends with an ensemble; powerful choral parts - Magnificat and Gloria serve as a frame. Despite the brevity of the parts, each has its own emotional aspect. The Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium), which appeared in 1734, consists of 6 cantatas intended for performance on Christmas Eve, two days of Christmas, January 1, the following Sunday and the feast of the Epiphany. The texts are taken from the gospels (Luke, Matthew) and Protestant hymns. The narrator - the Evangelist (tenor) - in recitatives sets out the gospel narrative, while the replicas actors Christmas stories are given to soloists or choral groups. The narrative is interrupted by lyrical episodes - arias and chorales, which should serve as an instruction for the flock. 11 of the 64 numbers of the oratorio were originally composed by Bach for secular cantatas, but then they were excellently adapted to spiritual texts.

Passions.

Of the 5 cycles of passions known from Bach's biography, only two have come down to us: the Passion for John (Johannespassion), on which the composer began working in 1723, and the Passion for Matthew (Matthuspassion), completed in 1729. (Passion for Luke, published in the Complete Works, apparently belong to a different author.) Each of the passions consists of two parts: one sounds before the sermon, the other after it. Each cycle has a storyteller - an Evangelist; parts of specific participants in the drama, including Christ, are performed by solo singers; the chorus depicts the reaction of the crowd to what is happening, and the inserted recitatives, arias and chorales depict the response of the community to the unfolding drama. However, the Passion according to John and the Passion according to Matthew differ markedly from each other. In the first cycle, the image of a raging crowd is more clearly given, it is opposed by the Savior, from whom emanates sublime peace and detachment from the world. The Passion according to Matthew radiates love and tenderness. Here there is no impassable abyss between the divine and the human: the Lord draws closer to humanity through His suffering, and humanity suffers with Him. If in the Passion according to John the part of Christ consists of recitatives with organ accompaniment, then in the Passion according to Matthew it is surrounded, like a nimbus, by the soulful sound of a string quartet. The Matthew Passion is the highest achievement in Bach's music written for the Protestant Church. A very large performing ensemble is used here, including two orchestras, two mixed choirs with soloists and a boys' choir, which performs the chorale melody in the number that opens the passion. The introductory choir is the most compositionally difficult section of the composition: two choirs oppose each other - excited questions and sad answers are heard against the background of orchestral figurations depicting streams of tears. Above this element of boundless human sorrow, a crystal clear and serene chorale melody hovers, evoking thoughts of human weakness and divine power. The arrangements of the choral melodies are done here with exceptional skill: one of Bach's favorite themes - O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden - appears at least five times with different text, and each time its harmonization is done differently, depending on the content of this episode.

Mass in B minor.

In addition to 4 short masses, consisting of two parts - Kyrie and Gloria, Bach also created a complete cycle of the Catholic Mass (its ordinary - that is, permanent, unchanging parts of the service), the Mass in B minor (usually called the High Mass). It was apparently composed between 1724 and 1733 and consists of 4 sections: the first, including parts of Kyrie and Gloria, is designated by Bach as the "Mass" proper; the second, the Credo, is called the "Nicene Creed"; the third is Sanctus; the fourth included the remaining parts - Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem. The Mass in B minor is a sublime and majestic composition; it contains such masterpieces of compositional skill as the piercingly mournful Crucifixus - thirteen variations on a constant bass (like a passacaglia) and Credo - a grandiose fugue on a theme of Gregorian chant. In the last part of the cycle, Dona nobis, which is a prayer for peace, Bach uses the same music as in the choir Gratias agimus tibi (We thank you), and this can have a symbolic meaning: Bach clearly expresses the belief that a true believer does not has needs to ask the Lord for peace, but must thank the Creator for this gift.

The colossal scale of the Mass in B minor does not allow it to be used for church services. This work should be performed in a concert hall, which, under the influence of the awe-inspiring grandeur of this music, turns into a temple open to any listener capable of religious experience.

Compositions for organ.

Bach wrote music for organ all his life. His last composition was an organ chorale to the melody Before Your throne I appear (Vor deinem Thron tret "ich hiemit), dictated by a blind composer to his student. Here we can name only a few of Bach's many magnificent organ works: the well-known brilliantly virtuoso toccata and fugue in D minor was composed in Arnstadt (its numerous orchestral arrangements are also popular); the grandiose passacaglia in C minor, a cycle of 12 variations on a theme that constantly takes place in the bass and the final fugue, appeared in Weimar; "large" preludes and fugues in C minor, C in major, E minor and B minor are works from the Leipzig period (between 1730 and 1740).Special attention should be paid to the choral arrangements, 46 of which (intended for different holidays of the church year) are presented in the collection called the Organ Booklet (Orgelbchlein): it appeared at the end Weimar period (perhaps during his time in prison.) In each of these treatments, Bach embodies the inner The lower content, the mood of the text, is in the freely developed lower three voices, while the chorale theme is heard in the upper, soprano voice. In 1739 he published 21 choral arrangements in a collection called the Third Part of Clavier Exercises (also known as the German Organ Mass). Here, the spiritual hymns follow in the order corresponding to the Lutheran catechism, and each chorale is presented in two versions - difficult for connoisseurs and simple for lovers. Between 1747 and 1750, Bach prepared for publication another 18 "large" organ choral arrangements (the so-called Schübler chorales), which are characterized by somewhat less complex counterpoint and the refinement of melodic ornamentation. Among them, the cycle of choral variations Adorn yourself, blessed soul (Schmcke dich, o liebe Seele), in which the composer builds a magnificent sarabande from the initial motive of the hymn, stands out.

Keyboard compositions.

Most of Bach's clavier compositions were created by him in adulthood and owe their appearance to his deep interest in musical education. These pieces were written primarily to teach their own sons and other gifted students, but under Bach's hand the exercises turn into musical gems. In this sense, a true masterpiece of ingenuity is represented by 15 two-voice inventions and the same number of three-voice sinfonia inventions, which demonstrate different types of contrapuntal writing and different types of melody corresponding to certain images. Bach's most famous clavier work is the Well-Tempered Clavier (Das Wohltemperierte Clavier), a cycle containing 48 preludes and fugues, two for each major and minor key. The expression "well-tempered" refers to the new principle of tuning keyboard instruments, in which the octave is divided into 12 equal parts in the acoustic sense - semitones. The success of the first volume of this collection (24 preludes and fugues in all keys) prompted the composer to create a second volume of the same kind. Bach also wrote cycles of clavier pieces composed according to the models of popular dances of that era - 6 English and 6 French suites; 6 more partitas were published between 1726 and 1731 under the title Clavier Exercises (Clavierbung). The second part of the Exercises includes another partita and a brilliant Italian concerto, which combines the stylistic features of clavier genres and the genre of concerto for clavier and orchestra. The series of Clavier Exercises is completed by the Goldberg Variations that appeared in 1742 - the Aria and thirty variations written for Bach's student I.G. Goldberg. More precisely, the cycle was written for one of Bach's admirers, Count Kaiserling, the Russian ambassador in Dresden: Kaiserling was seriously ill, suffered from insomnia, and often asked Goldberg to play Bach's plays for him at night.

Compositions for violin and cello solo. In his 3 partitas and 3 sonatas for solo violin, the great master of polyphony sets himself an almost impossible task - to write a four-voice fugue for a solo string instrument, neglecting all the technical limitations imposed by the very nature of the instrument. The pinnacle of Bach's greatness, the wonderful fruit of his inspiration, is the famous chaconne (from partita No. 2), a cycle of variations for violin, which Bach's biographer F. Spitt characterizes as "the triumph of spirit over matter." Equally magnificent are the 6 suites for cello solo.

Orchestral compositions.

Among Bach's orchestral music, the Concertos for Violin and String Orchestra and the Double Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra should be singled out. In addition, Bach creates a new form - the clavier concerto, using the solo violin part of the previously written violin concertos: it is played on the clavier with the right hand, while the left hand accompanies and doubles the bass voice.

The six Brandenburg Concertos are of a different type. The second, third and fourth follow the Italian concerto grosso form, in which a small group of solo ("concert") instruments "compete" with a full orchestra. In the fifth concerto there is a long cadenza for solo clavier, and this work is, in fact, the first clavier concerto in history. In the first, third and sixth concertos, the orchestra is divided into several well-balanced groups that are opposed to one another, with thematic material moving from group to group and solo instruments only occasionally seizing the initiative. Although there are many polyphonic tricks in the Brandenburg Concertos, they are easily perceived by an unprepared listener. These works radiate joy, and it seems that they reflect the fun and luxury of the princely court, in which Bach then worked. Inspiring melody, bright colors, technical brilliance of the concertos make them a unique achievement even for Bach.

Equally brilliant and virtuosic are the 4 orchestral suites; each of them includes a French-style overture (slow introduction - fast fugue - slow conclusion) and a string of charming dance parts. Suite No. 2 in B minor for flute and string orchestra contains such a virtuoso solo part that it could well be called a flute concerto.

In the last years of his life, Bach reached the highest peaks of contrapuntal skill. After the Musical Offering, written for the Prussian king, in which all possible types of canonical variations are presented, the composer began work on the Art of the Fugue cycle (Die Kunst der Fuge), which remained unfinished. Here Bach uses various types of fugue, up to the grand quadruple (it breaks off at bar 239). It is not known exactly what tool the cycle was intended for; in various editions this music is addressed to the clavier, organ, string quartet or an orchestra: in all versions, the Art of Fugue sounds excellent and captivates the listeners with the grandeur of the idea, the solemnity and amazing skill with which Bach solves the most complex polyphonic problems.

Exploring the heritage of Bach.

Bach's creations remained almost in complete oblivion for half a century. Only in a narrow circle of students of the great cantor, the memory of him was preserved, and even from time to time examples of his contrapuntal researches were given in textbooks. During this time, not a single work by Bach was published, except for the four-voice chorales published by the composer's son Philip Emanuel. In this sense, the story told by F. Rochlitz is very indicative: when Mozart visited Leipzig in 1789, the Bach motet Sing to the Lord (Singet dem Herrn) was performed for him in Thomasschul: “Mozart knew Bach more by hearsay than by his compositions... the chorus sang a few measures as he jumped; a few more bars - and he cried out: what is this? And from that moment on, everything turned into a rumor. When the singing ended, he exclaimed in delight: one can really learn from this! He was told that the school... kept the complete collection of Bach's motets. There were no scores for these works, so he demanded to bring the painted parts. In silence, those present watched with pleasure, with what enthusiasm Mozart laid out these voices around him - on his knees, on the nearest chairs. Forgetting everything in the world, he did not get up until he carefully looked through everything that was available from the works of Bach. He begged himself for a copy of the motet and treasured it very much. The situation changed by 1800, when, under the influence of the then spreading romanticism, they began to pay closer attention to the history of German art. In 1802 the first biography of Bach was published, its author I.N. Forkel managed to obtain valuable information about Bach from his sons. Thanks to this book, many music lovers got an idea of ​​the scope and significance of Bach's work. German and Swiss musicians began to study Bach's music; in England, the organist S. Wesley (1766–1837), nephew of the religious leader John Wesley, became a pioneer in this field. The instrumental compositions were the first to be appreciated. The statement of the great Goethe about Bach's organ music very eloquently testifies to the mood of that time: "Bach's music is a conversation of eternal harmony with itself, it is like a Divine thought before the creation of the world." After the historical performance of the Passion according to Matthew conducted by F. Mendelssohn (this happened in Berlin in 1829, exactly on the hundredth anniversary of the first performance of the Passion), the composer's vocal works began to sound. In 1850, the Bach Society was founded with the aim of publishing the complete works of Bach. It took half a century to complete this task. The new Bach Society was created immediately after the dissolution of the old one: its task was to spread the heritage of Bach with the help of publications for a wide range musicians and amateurs, as well as the organization of high-quality performances of his compositions, including at special Bach festivals. Bach's work was popularized, of course, not only in Germany. In 1900, the Bach Festivals were organized in the USA (in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), and their founder I.F. Walle did a lot to recognize the genius of Bach in America. Similar festivals were also held in California (Carmel), Florida (Rollins College), and at a fairly high level.

An important role in the scientific understanding of Bach's heritage was played by the monumental work of the above-mentioned F. Spitta; it still retains its value. The next stage marked the publication in 1905 of A. Schweitzer's book: the author proposed a new method for analyzing the composer's musical language - by identifying symbolic, as well as "pictorial", "picturesque" motifs in it. Schweitzer's ideas had a profound effect on modern researchers, emphasizing the important role of symbolism in Bach's music. In the 20th century An important contribution to Bach studies was also made by the Englishman C.S. Terry, who introduced many new biographical materials into scientific use, translated the most important Bach texts into English, and published a serious study on the composer's orchestral writing. Peru A. Schering (Germany) owns a fundamental work that illuminates the musical life of Leipzig and the role that Bach played in it. Serious studies have appeared on the reflection of the ideas of Protestantism in the composer's work. One of the prominent Bach scholars, F. Smend, managed to find some of Bach's secular cantatas, which were considered lost. The researchers also actively engaged in other musicians from the Bach family, first of all, his sons, and then his ancestors.

After the Complete Works were completed in 1900, it turned out that there were many gaps and errors in it. In 1950, the Bach Institute was founded in Göttingen and Leipzig with the aim of reviewing all available materials and creating a new Complete Collection. By 1967, approximately half of the planned 84 volumes of Bach's New Collected Works (Neue Bach-Ausgabe) had been published.

SONS OF BACH

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–1784). Four of Bach's sons were exceptionally musically gifted. The eldest of them, Wilhelm Friedemann, an outstanding organist, as a virtuoso was not inferior to his father. For 13 years, Wilhelm Friedemann served as organist at St. Sophia in Dresden; in 1746 he became cantor in Halle and held this position for 18 years. Then he left Halle and subsequently changed his place of residence frequently, supporting his existence by lessons. Friedemann left about two dozen church cantatas and quite a lot of instrumental music, including 8 concertos, 9 symphonies, compositions of various genres for organ and clavier, and chamber ensembles. His graceful polonaises for clavier and sonatas for two flutes deserve special mention. As a composer, Friedemann was strongly influenced by his father and teacher; he also tried to find a compromise between the Baroque style and the expressive language of the new era. The result was a highly individual style, which in some respects anticipates the subsequent development of musical art. However, to many contemporaries, Friedemann's writings seemed too complicated.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788). The second son of Johann Sebastian achieved great success both in his personal life and in professional activity. He is usually called the "Berlin" or "Hamburg" Bach, since he first served for 24 years as a court harpsichordist for the Prussian king Frederick II, and then took the honorary position of cantor in Hamburg. This, apparently, the brightest representative of sentimentalism in music, gravitated towards the expression of strong feelings, not constrained by rules. Philippe Emanuel brought drama and emotional richness to instrumental genres (especially clavier ones), which had previously been found only in vocal music, and had a decisive influence on the artistic ideals of J. Haydn. Even Beethoven learned from the compositions of Philippe Emanuel. Philippe Emanuel had a reputation as an outstanding teacher, and his textbook Experience in the right way to play the clavier (Versuch ber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen) became an important stage in the development of modern pianistic technique. The influence of Philippe Emanuel's work on the musicians of his era was facilitated by the wide distribution of his compositions, most of which were published during the composer's lifetime. Although the main place in his work was occupied by clavier music, he also worked in various vocal and instrumental genres, with the only exception being opera. The vast legacy of Philip Emanuel includes 19 symphonies, 50 piano concertos, 9 concertos for other instruments, about 400 compositions for solo clavier, 60 duets, 65 trios, quartets and quintets, 290 songs, about fifty choirs, as well as cantatas and oratorios.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732–1795), son of Johann Sebastian from his second marriage, served in the same position all his life - concertmaster and director of music (kapellmeister) at the court in Bückeburg. He was an excellent harpsichordist and successfully composed and published many of his compositions. Among them are 12 clavier sonatas, approximately 17 duets and trios for various instruments, 12 string (or flute) quartets, a sextet, a septet, 6 clavier concertos, 14 symphonies, 55 songs and 13 larger vocal compositions. The early work of Johann Christoph is marked by the influence of Italian music that reigned at the Bückeburg court; later, the composer's style acquires features that bring him closer to the style of the great contemporary of Johann Christoph - J. Haydn.

Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782). The younger son of Johann Sebastian is usually called the "Milanese" or "London" Bach. After the death of his father, 15-year-old Johann Christian continued his studies in Berlin, with Philip's half-brother Emanuel, and made great strides in playing the clavier. But he was especially attracted to opera, and he went to Italy - the classical country of opera, where he soon received a position as an organist in the Milan Cathedral and achieved recognition as opera composer. His fame spread beyond the borders of Italy, and in 1761 he was invited to the English court. There he spent the rest of his life composing operas and teaching music and singing to the queen and representatives of aristocratic families, as well as conducting concert cycles with great success.

The glory of Christian, at times surpassing the fame of his brother Philip Emanuel, was not so durable. The tragedy for Christian was a weakness of character: he could not stand the test of success and quite early stopped in his artistic development. He continued to work in the old style, not paying attention to the new trends in art; and so it happened that the minion of London's high society gradually eclipsed the new luminaries in the musical sky. Christian died at the age of 47 a disappointed man. And yet his influence on the music of the 18th century. was significant. Christian gave lessons to the nine-year-old Mozart. In essence, Christian Bach gave Mozart no less than Philip Emanuel gave Haydn. Thus, two of Bach's sons actively contributed to the birth of the Viennese classic style.

There is a lot of beauty, liveliness, invention in Christian’s music, and although his compositions belong to the “light”, entertaining style, they still attract with warmth, tenderness, distinguishing Christian from the mass of fashionable authors of that era. He worked in all genres, with equal success - in vocal and instrumental. His legacy includes about 90 symphonies and other works for orchestra, 35 concertos, 120 chamber instrumental works, more than 35 clavier sonatas, 70 opuses of church music, 90 songs, arias, cantatas and 11 operas.

Biography

Johann Sebastian Bach (born March 21, 1685 Eisenach, Germany - died July 28, 1750 Leipzig, Germany) was a German composer and organist, representative of the Baroque era. One of the greatest composers in the history of music.

During his life, Bach wrote more than 1000 works. All significant genres of that time are represented in his work, except for opera; he summarized the achievements of the musical art of the Baroque period. Bach is a master of polyphony. After Bach's death, his music went out of fashion, but in the 19th century, thanks to Mendelssohn, it was rediscovered. His work had a strong influence on the music of subsequent composers, including in the 20th century. Bach's pedagogical works are still used for their intended purpose.

Johann Sebastian Bach was the sixth child of the musician Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lemmerhirt. The Bach family has been known for its musicality since the beginning of the 16th century: many of Johann Sebastian's ancestors were professional musicians. During this period, the Church, local authorities and the aristocracy supported the musicians, especially in Thuringia and Saxony. Bach's father lived and worked in Eisenach. At that time, the city had about 6,000 inhabitants. The work of Johann Ambrosius included organizing secular concerts and performing church music.

When Johann Sebastian was 9 years old, his mother died, and a year later, his father, having managed to marry again shortly before that. The boy was taken in by his older brother, Johann Christoph, who served as an organist in nearby Ohrdruf. Johann Sebastian entered the gymnasium, his brother taught him to play the organ and clavier. Johann Sebastian was very fond of music and did not miss the opportunity to study it or study new works. Known next story illustrating Bach's passion for music. Johann Christoph kept a notebook with notes of famous composers of that time in his closet, but, despite the requests of Johann Sebastian, he did not let him get acquainted with it. Once, young Bach managed to extract a notebook from his brother’s always locked cabinet, and for six months on moonlit nights he copied its contents for himself. When the work was already completed, the brother found a copy and took away the notes.

While studying in Ohrdruf under the guidance of his brother, Bach became acquainted with the work of contemporary South German composers - Pachelbel, Froberger and others. It is also possible that he became acquainted with the works of composers from Northern Germany and France. Johann Sebastian observed how the organ was cared for, and possibly took part in it himself.

At the age of 15, Bach moved to Lüneburg, where in 1700-1703 he studied at the St. Michael. 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. The first works by Bach for organ and clavier belong to the same years. In addition to singing in the a cappella choir, Bach probably played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichord. Here he received his first knowledge of theology, Latin, history, geography and physics, and also, possibly, began to learn French and Italian. At school, Bach had the opportunity to associate with the sons of famous North German aristocrats and famous organists, especially with Georg Böhm in Lüneburg and Reinken and Bruns in Hamburg. With their help, Johann Sebastian may have gained access to the largest instruments he has ever played. During this period, Bach expanded his knowledge of the composers of that era, most notably Dietrich Buxtehude, whom he greatly respected.

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 only 3 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, including the famous Toccata in D minor.

Family ties and a music-loving employer could not prevent the tension between Johann Sebastian and the authorities that arose a few years later. Bach was dissatisfied with the level of training of the singers in the choir. In addition, in 1705-1706, Bach arbitrarily went to Lübeck for several months, where he got acquainted with the game of Buxtehude, which caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. In addition, the authorities charged Bach with "strange choral accompaniment" that embarrassed the community, and inability to manage the choir; The latter accusation appears to have been justified. The first biographer of Bach Forkel writes that Johann Sebastian walked more than 40 km on foot to listen to the outstanding composer, but today some researchers question this fact.

In 1706, Bach decides to change jobs. He was offered a more profitable and high position as organist in the church of St. Vlasia in Mühlhausen, a large city in the north of the country. The following year, Bach accepted this offer, taking the place of organist Johann Georg Ahle. His salary was increased compared to the previous one, and the level of the choristers was better. Four months later, on October 17, 1707, Johann Sebastian married his cousin Maria Barbara of Arnstadt. They subsequently had seven 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.

The city and church authorities of Mühlhausen were pleased with the new employee. They approved without hesitation his plan for the restoration of the church organ, which required great expense, and for the publication of the festive cantata "The Lord is my king", BWV 71 (it was the only cantata printed during Bach's lifetime), written for the inauguration of the new consul, he was given a large reward.

After working in Mühlhausen for about a year, Bach changed jobs again, this time getting a job as court organist and concert organizer - a much higher position than his previous position - in Weimar. Probably, the factors that forced him to change jobs were high salaries and a well-chosen composition of professional musicians. The Bach family settled in a house just a five-minute walk from the count's palace. The following year, the first child in the family was born. At the same time, the elder unmarried sister of Maria Barbara moved to the Bahamas, who helped them run the household until her death in 1729. In Weimar, Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emmanuel were born to Bach.

In Weimar, a long period of composing clavier and orchestral works began, in which Bach's talent reached its peak. During this period, Bach absorbs musical influences from other countries. The works of the Italians Vivaldi and Corelli taught Bach how to write dramatic introductions, from which Bach learned the art of using dynamic rhythms and decisive harmonic schemes. Bach studied the works of Italian composers well, creating transcriptions of Vivaldi's concertos for organ or harpsichord. He could borrow the idea of ​​writing arrangements from his employer, Duke Johann Ernst, who was a professional musician. In 1713, the duke returned from a trip abroad and brought with him a large number of notes, which he showed to Johann Sebastian. In Italian music, the duke (and, as can be seen from some works, Bach himself) was attracted by the alternation of solo (playing one instrument) and tutti (playing the whole orchestra).

In Weimar, Bach had the opportunity to play and compose organ works, as well as use the services of the ducal orchestra. In Weimar, Bach wrote most of his fugues (the largest and most famous collection of Bach's fugues is the Well-Tempered Clavier). While serving in Weimar, Bach began work on the Organ Notebook, a collection of pieces for the teaching of Wilhelm Friedemann. This collection consists of adaptations of Lutheran chants.

By the end of his service in Weimar, Bach was already a well-known organist and harpsichord maker. The episode with Marchand belongs to this time. In 1717, the famous French musician Louis Marchand arrived in Dresden. Dresden concertmaster Volumier decided to invite Bach and arrange a musical competition between two famous harpsichordists, Bach and Marchand agreed. However, on the day of the competition, it turned out that Marchand (who, apparently, had previously had the opportunity to listen to Bach play) hastily and secretly left the city; the competition did not take place, and Bach had to play alone.

After some time, Bach again went in search of 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 already on December 2 he released him "with an expression of disgrace." Leopold, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach as Kapellmeister. The duke, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talent, paid him well and provided him with great freedom of action. However, the duke was a Calvinist and did not welcome the use of sophisticated music in worship, so most of Bach's Köthen works were secular. Among other things, in Köthen, Bach composed suites for orchestra, six suites for solo cello, English and French suites for clavier, as well as three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin. The famous Brandenburg Concertos were written in the same period.

On July 7, 1720, while Bach was abroad with the duke, tragedy struck: his wife Maria Barbara died suddenly, leaving four young children. The following year, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young and highly gifted soprano who sang at the ducal court. They married on December 3, 1721. Despite the difference in age - she was 17 years younger than Johann Sebastian - their marriage, apparently, was happy. They had 13 children.

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 position of cantor of this church while simultaneously acting as a school teacher at the church, replacing Johann Kuhnau in this post. Bach's duties included teaching singing and holding weekly concerts in Leipzig's two main churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas. The position of Johann Sebastian also provided for the teaching of Latin, but he was allowed to hire an assistant to do this work for him - therefore Petzold taught Latin for 50 thalers a year. Bach received the position of "music director" of all the churches in the city: his duties included selecting performers, overseeing their training and choosing music to perform. While working in Leipzig, the composer repeatedly entered into conflicts with the city administration.

The first six years of his life in Leipzig turned out to be very productive: Bach composed up to 5 annual cycles of cantatas (two of them, in all likelihood, were lost). Most of these works were written in gospel texts, which were read in the Lutheran church every Sunday and on holidays throughout the year; many (such as "Wachet auf! Ruft uns die Stimme" and "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland") are based on traditional church chants.

During the performance, Bach apparently sat at the harpsichord or stood in front of the choir in the lower gallery below the organ; wind instruments and timpani were located on the side gallery to the right of the organ, strings were located to the left. The city council provided Bach with only about 8 performers, and this often became the cause of disputes between the composer and the administration: Bach himself had to hire up to 20 musicians to perform orchestral works. The composer himself usually played the organ or harpsichord; if he directed the choir, then that place was filled by the staff organist or by one of Bach's eldest sons.

Bach recruited sopranos and altos from among the students, and tenors and basses - not only from school, but from all over Leipzig. In addition to regular concerts paid for by the city authorities, Bach and his choir earned extra money by performing at weddings and funerals. Presumably, at least 6 motets were written for these purposes. Part of his usual work in the church was the performance of composers' motets. Venetian school, as well as some Germans, for example, Schutz; while composing his motets, Bach was guided by the works of these composers.

Zimmermann's Coffee House, where Bach frequently gave concertsWhile composing cantatas for most of the 1720s, Bach amassed an extensive repertoire for performance in Leipzig's main churches. Over time, he wanted to compose and perform more secular music. 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. At that time, in many large German cities, gifted and active university students created similar ensembles. Such associations played an ever greater role in public musical life; they were often led by renowned professional musicians. For most of the year, the College of Music held two-hour concerts twice a week at Zimmermann's coffee house, located near the market square. The owner of the coffee shop provided the musicians with a large hall and purchased several instruments. Many of Bach's secular works dating back to the 1730s, 40s, and 50s were composed specifically for performance in Zimmermann's coffee shop. Such works include, for example, the Coffee Cantata and the clavier collection Clavier-Ubung, as well as many concertos for cello and harpsichord.

In the same period, Bach wrote the Kyrie and Gloria parts of the famous Mass in B minor, later adding the remaining parts, the melodies of which are almost entirely borrowed from the composer's best cantatas. Bach soon secured an appointment as court composer; apparently, he had long sought this high post, which was a weighty argument in his disputes with the city authorities. Although the entire Mass was never performed in its entirety during the composer's lifetime, today it is considered by many to be one of the finest choral works of all time.

In 1747, Bach visited the court of the Prussian king Frederick II, where the king offered him a musical theme and asked him to compose something on it right there. Bach was a master of improvisation and immediately performed a three-voice fugue. Later, Johann Sebastian composed a whole cycle of variations on this theme and sent it as a gift to the king. The cycle consisted of ricercars, canons and trios based on the theme dictated by Friedrich. This cycle was called "The Musical Offering".

Johann Sebastian Bach is a German composer and musician of the Baroque era, who collected and combined in his work the traditions and the most significant achievements of European musical art, and also enriched all this with a virtuoso use of counterpoint and a subtle sense of perfect harmony. Bach is the greatest classic who left a huge legacy that has become the golden fund of world culture. This is a universal musician, in his work he covered almost all famous genres. Creating immortal masterpieces, he turned each measure of his compositions into small works, then combining them into priceless creations of exceptional beauty and expressiveness, perfect in form, which vividly reflected the diverse spiritual world of man.

Read a brief biography of Johann Sebastian Bach and many interesting facts about the composer on our page.

Brief biography of Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the German town of Eisenach in the fifth generation of a family of musicians on March 21, 1685. It should be noted that musical dynasties were quite common at that time in Germany, and talented parents sought to develop appropriate talents in their children. The boy's father, Johann Ambrosius, was an organist in the Eisenach church and court accompanist. Obviously, it was he who gave the first lessons in playing the violin and harpsichord little son.

From the biography of Bach, we learn that at the age of 10 the boy lost his parents, but was not left without a roof over his head, because he was the eighth and youngest child in the family. Ohrdruf's respected organist Johann Christoph Bach, Johann Sebastian's older brother, took care of the little orphan. Among his other students, Johann Christoph also taught his brother to play the clavier, but the strict teacher safely hid the manuscripts of modern composers under lock and key so as not to spoil the taste of young performers. However, the castle did not prevent little Bach from getting acquainted with forbidden works.

Lüneburg

At the age of 15, Bach entered the prestigious Lüneburg school of church choristers, which was located at the church of St. Michael, and at the same time, thanks to his beautiful voice, young Bach was able to earn some money in the church choir. In addition, in Lüneburg, the young man met Georg Böhm, a famous organist, communication with whom had an impact on the composer's early work. He also repeatedly traveled to Hamburg to listen to the play of the largest representative of the German organ school A. Reinken. The first works by Bach for clavier and organ belong to the same period. After successfully completing school, Johann Sebastian receives the right to enter the university, but due to lack of funds, he did not have the opportunity to continue his education.

Weimar and Arnstadt

Johann began his career in Weimar, where he was accepted into the court chapel of Duke Johann Ernst of Saxony as a violinist. However, this did not last long, as such work did not satisfy creative impulses. young musician. Bach in 1703, without hesitation, agrees to move to the city of Arnstadt, where he was in the church of St. Boniface was initially offered the post of superintendent of the organ, and later the post of organist. A decent salary, work only three days a week, a good modernized instrument tuned to the latest system, all this created the conditions for expanding the musician's creative possibilities not only as a performer, but also as a composer.

During this period he created a large number of organ works, as well as capriccios, cantatas and suites. Here Johann becomes a true organ expert and a brilliant virtuoso, whose playing aroused unbridled delight among the listeners. It is in Arnstadt that his gift for improvisation is revealed, which the church leadership did not like very much. Bach always strived for perfection and did not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with famous musicians, for example, with the organist Dietrich Buxtehude, who served in the city of Lübeck. After receiving a four-week vacation, Bach went to listen to the great musician, whose playing impressed Johann so much that, forgetting about his duties, he stayed in Lübeck for four months. Upon returning to Arndstadt, the indignant leadership gave Bach a humiliating trial, after which he had to leave the city and look for a new job.

Mühlhausen

The next city on life path Bach was Mühlhausen. Here in 1706 he won a competition for the position of organist in the church of St. Vlasia. He was accepted with a good salary, but also with a certain condition: the musical accompaniment of the chorales must be strict, without any kind of "decorations". The city authorities later treated the new organist with respect: they approved the plan for the reconstruction of the church organ, and also paid a good reward for the festive cantata “The Lord is my Tsar” composed by Bach, which was dedicated to the inauguration ceremony of the new consul. Staying in Mühlhausen in Bach's life was marked by a happy event: he married his beloved cousin Maria Barbara, who later gave him seven children.

Weimar

In 1708, Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar heard the magnificent game of the Mühlhausen organist. Impressed by what he heard, the noble nobleman immediately offered Bach the positions of court musician and city organist with a salary much higher than before. Johann Sebastian began the Weimar period, which is characterized as one of the most fruitful in creative life composer. At this time, he created a large number of compositions for clavier and organ, including a collection of choral preludes, Passacaglia in c-moll, the famous " Toccata and Fugue in d-moll ”, “Fantasy and Fugue C-dur” and many other great works. It should also be noted that the composition of more than two dozen spiritual cantatas also belongs to this period. Such efficiency in composer's work Bach was associated with his appointment in 1714 as vice-kapellmeister, whose duties included regular monthly updating of church music.

At the same time, Johann Sebastian's contemporaries were more admired by his performing arts, and he constantly heard remarks of admiration for his game. The fame of Bach as a virtuoso musician quickly spread not only in Weimar, but also beyond. Once the Dresden royal Kapellmeister invited him to compete with the famous French musician L. Marchand. However, the musical competition did not work out, since the Frenchman, having heard Bach play at a preliminary audition, secretly, without warning, left Dresden. In 1717, the Weimar period in Bach's life came to an end. Johann Sebastian dreamed of getting the place of bandmaster, but when this place became vacant, the duke offered him to another, very young and inexperienced musician. Bach, considering this an insult, asked for his immediate resignation, and for this he was arrested for four weeks.

Köthen

According to Bach's biography, in 1717 he left Weimar to get a job in Köthen as a court bandmaster to Prince Anhalt of Köthen. In Köthen, Bach had to write secular music, because, as a result of the reforms, no music was performed in the church, except for the singing of psalms. Here Bach occupied an exceptional position: as a court conductor he was well paid, the prince treated him like a friend, and the composer repaid this with excellent compositions. In Köthen, the musician had many students, and for their education he compiled “ Well-Tempered Clavier". These are 48 preludes and fugues that made Bach famous as a master of clavier music. When the prince married, the young princess showed dislike for both Bach and his music. Johann Sebastian had to look for another job.

Leipzig

In Leipzig, where Bach moved in 1723, he reached the pinnacle of his career ladder: he was appointed cantor in the church of St. Thomas and musical director of all churches in the city. Bach was engaged in the education and preparation of church choir performers, the selection of music, the organization and holding of concerts in the main temples of the city. Since 1729, heading the College of Music, Bach began to arrange 8 two-hour concerts of secular music a month in a Zimmermann's coffee house, adapted for orchestra performances. Having received an appointment as court composer, Bach handed over the leadership of the College of Music to his former student Karl Gerlach in 1737. In recent years, Bach often reworked his early works. In 1749 he graduated from the High Mass in B minor, some parts of which were written by him 25 years ago. The composer died in 1750 while working on The Art of Fugue.

Interesting facts about Bach

• Bach was a recognized organ specialist. He was invited to check and tune instruments in various temples in Weimar, where he lived for quite some time. Each time impressing clients with the amazing improvisations he played to hear what the instrument in need of his work sounded like.
• Johann was bored during the service to perform monotonous chorales, and without restraining his creative impulse, he impromptu inserted his small embellishing variations into the established church music, which caused great displeasure of the authorities.
• Better known for his religious works, Bach also excelled in composing secular music, as evidenced by his Coffee Cantata. Bach presented this work full of humor as a small comic opera. Originally titled "Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht" ("Shut up, stop talking"), it describes the lyrical hero's addiction to coffee, and, not coincidentally, this cantata was first performed in the Leipzig coffee house.
• At the age of 18, Bach really wanted to get a place as an organist in Lübeck, which at that time belonged to the famous Dietrich Buxtehude. Another contender for this position was G. Handel. The main condition for taking this position was marriage to one of Buxtehude's daughters, but neither Bach nor Handel dared to sacrifice themselves like that.
• Johann Sebastian Bach really liked to dress up as a poor teacher and in this form visit small churches, where he asked the local organist to play the organ a little. Some parishioners, hearing an unusually beautiful performance for them, frightenedly left the service, thinking that the devil himself appeared in their temple in the form of a strange man.

• The Russian envoy in Saxony, Hermann von Keyserling, asked Bach to write a piece to which he could quickly fall into a sound sleep. This is how the Goldberg Variations appeared, for which the composer received a golden cube filled with a hundred louis. These variations are still one of the best "sleeping pills" to this day.
• Johann Sebastian was known to his contemporaries not only as an outstanding composer and virtuoso performer, but also as a man with a very difficult character, intolerant of the mistakes of others. There is a case when a bassoonist, publicly insulted by Bach for an imperfect performance, attacked Johann. A real duel took place, as both were armed with daggers.
• Bach, who was fond of numerology, liked to weave the numbers 14 and 41 into his musical works, because these numbers corresponded to the first letters of the composer's name. By the way, Bach also liked to play with his surname in his compositions: the musical decoding of the word “Bach” forms a drawing of a cross. It is this symbol that is the most important for Bach, who considers non-random similar coincidences.

• Thanks to Johann Sebastian Bach, not only men sing in church choirs today. The first woman who sang in the temple was the wife of the composer Anna Magdalena, who has a beautiful voice.
• In the middle of the 19th century, German musicologists founded the first Bach Society, whose main task was to publish the composer's works. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the society dissolved itself and the complete works of Bach were published only in the second half of the twentieth century at the initiative of the Bach Institute, established in 1950. In the world today there are a total of two hundred and twenty-two Bach societies, Bach orchestras and Bach choirs.
• Researchers of Bach's work suggest that the great maestro composed 11,200 works, although the legacy known to posterity includes only 1,200 compositions.
• To date, there are more than fifty-three thousand books and various publications about Bach on different languages, published about seven thousand complete biographies of the composer.
• In 1950, W. Schmider compiled a numbered catalog of Bach's works (BWV– Bach Werke Verzeichnis). This catalog has been updated several times as the data on the authorship of certain works has been clarified, and, in contrast to the traditional chronological principles for classifying works by other famous composers, this catalog is built on the thematic principle. Works with close numbers belong to the same genre, and were not written at all in the same years.
• Bach's works: "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2", "Gavotte in the form of a rondo" and "HTK" were recorded on the Golden Record and launched from Earth in 1977, attached to the Voyager spacecraft.

• Everyone knows that Beethoven suffered from hearing loss, but few people know that Bach went blind in his later years. Actually, the unsuccessful operation on the eyes, performed by the charlatan surgeon John Taylor, caused the death of the composer in 1750.
• Johann Sebastian Bach was buried near the Church of St. Thomas. After some time, a road was laid through the territory of the cemetery and the grave was lost. At the end of the 19th century, during the reconstruction of the church, the remains of the composer were found and reburied. After World War II, in 1949, Bach's relics were transferred to the church building. However, due to the fact that the grave changed its place several times, skeptics doubt that the ashes of Johann Sebastian are in the burial.
• To date, 150 postage stamps dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach, 90 of them were published in Germany.
• Johann Sebastian Bach, the great musical genius, is treated with great reverence all over the world, monuments to him are erected in many countries, only in Germany there are 12 monuments. One of them is located in Dornheim near Arnstadt and is dedicated to the wedding of Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara.

Family of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian belonged to the largest German musical dynasty, whose pedigree is usually counted from Veit Bach, a simple baker, but very fond of music and perfectly performing folk melodies on his favorite instrument - the zither. This passion was passed on from the founder of the family to his descendants, many of them became professional musicians: composers, cantors, bandmasters, as well as a variety of instrumentalists. They settled not only in Germany, some even went abroad. Within two hundred years, there were so many Bach musicians that any person whose occupation was connected with music began to be named after them. by the most famous ancestors Johann Sebastian whose works have come down to us were: Johannes, Heinrich, Johann Christoph, Johann Bernhard, Johann Michael and Johann Nikolaus. Johann Sebastian's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was also a musician and served as organist in Eisenach, the city where Bach was born.

Johann Sebastian himself was the father big family He had twenty children by two wives. He first married his beloved cousin Maria Barbara, daughter of Johann Michael Bach, in 1707. Maria bore Johann Sebastian seven children, three of whom died in infancy. Maria herself also did not live a long life, she died at the age of 36, leaving Bach four young children. Bach was very upset by the loss of his wife, but a year later he again fell in love with the young girl Anna Magdalena Wilken, whom he met at the court of the Duke of Anhalt-Keten and proposed to her. Despite the big difference in age, the girl agreed and it is obvious that this marriage was very successful, since Anna Magdalena gave Bach thirteen children. The girl did an excellent job with the housework, cared for the children, sincerely rejoiced at the success of her husband and provided great assistance in the work, rewriting his scores. The family for Bach was a great joy, he devoted a lot of time to raising children, making music with them and composing special exercises. In the evenings, the family very often arranged impromptu concerts, which brought joy to everyone. Bach's children had excellent natural gifts, but four of them had exceptional musical talent - these are Johann Christoph Friedrich, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann and Johann Christian. They also became composers and left their mark on the history of music, but none of them could surpass their father either in writing or in the art of performing.

Works of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most prolific composers, his heritage in the treasury of world musical culture includes about 1200 immortal masterpieces. There was only one inspirer in Bach's work - this is the Creator. Johann Sebastian dedicated almost all his works to him and at the end of the scores he always signed the letters, which were an abbreviation of the words: “In the name of Jesus”, “Jesus help”, “Glory to God alone”. To create for God was the main goal in the life of the composer, and therefore his musical works absorbed all the wisdom of the "Holy Scripture". Bach was very faithful to his religious outlook and never betrayed it. According to the composer, even the smallest instrumental piece should indicate the wisdom of the Creator.

Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his works in virtually all, except opera, known at that time musical genres. The compiled catalog of his works includes: 247 works for organ, 526 vocal works, 271 works for harpsichord, 19 solo works for various instruments, 31 concertos and suites for orchestra, 24 duets for harpsichord with any other instrument, 7 canons and others works.

Musicians around the world perform Bach's music and begin to get acquainted with many of his works from childhood. For example, every little pianist studying at a music school must have in his repertoire pieces from « Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach » . Then little preludes and fugues are studied, followed by inventions, and finally « Well-Tempered Clavier » but this is high school.

To famous works Johann Sebastian also include " Matthew Passion”, “Mass in B Minor”, ​​“Christmas Oratorio”, “John Passion” and, undoubtedly, “ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor". And the cantata "The Lord is my King" is still heard at festive services in churches in different parts of the world.

Johann Walther (1496-1570),

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672),

Michael Praetorius (1571 -1621),

Georg Böhm (1661-1733) from Lüneburg,

Jakob Reinken from Hamburg,

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654), student of Jan Pieter Sweelinck,

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667), student of Frescobaldi,

Dietrich Buchstehude (1637-1707) from Lübeck,

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) from Nuremberg,

Reinhardt Kaiser (1674-1739),

Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759),

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767),

Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722),

Johann Matteson (1681-1764).

20. Name the cities where Bach lived and worked.

The life of J.S. Bach is outwardly not spectacular, monotonous and quiet, entirely focused on creativity, which the composer considered as his “business”, “craft”. The main events of Bach's life are his compositions. Genre reference points of creativity are determined by the place of service, the nature of the work. In Germany at the beginning of the 18th century, a professional musician could work either in the church or at court. Until 1723, Bach often changed his place of work, wandered around small German cities.

Born in Eisenach (Thuringia) - sang in the choir;

in Ohrdruf (1695-1700) - he made extraordinary progress in playing the violin, harpsichord and organ;

in Lüneburg (1700-1703) - listened to the famous organists Böhm and Reinck-on (in Hamburg), received a general education at the Lyceum, and in the extensive music library of Lüneburg carefully studied the works of ancient and some contemporary German, Austrian, Italian, French masters ; in Arnstadt (1704-1705) Bach took his first steps in the composer's field - by that time he was already a versatile educated and practically trained musician;

in Mühlhausen (1705-1708) - worked as an organist.

With Weimar (1708-1717) the first period of the composer's maturity is connected: here he worked not only as a church composer, but also as an author of music in secular genres. Weimar period - the first peak in organ creativity Bach: for example, the well-known toccata and fugue in D minor were created here.

In Köthen (1717-1723) the composer took the place of "Director of chamber music" at the court of Prince Köthen. Here, mainly chamber instrumental and orchestral works were created, in particular six "Brandenburg Concertos". The Keten period is characterized as the heyday of Bach's clavier work. In 1722 he completed the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier. In addition, during these years, written: English and French suites for clavier, Chromatic fantasy and fugue. In Leipzig (1723-1750) Bach lived most life. The Leipzig period is the final culmination of the composer's creative path. Here he worked as cantor of two main cathedrals: St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, and also headed the city's concert organization Collegium musicum. From Leipzig, Bach traveled only a few times to Berlin, Dresden, Potsdam, never, however, leaving Germany.

Bach's most significant works were created in Leipzig: the grandiose scores of the Passion and the Mass in B minor, 26 annual cycles of church cantatas, the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier, clavier and orchestral suites, many organ works, finally the "Musical Offering" (1747) and "The Art of Fugue" (1750) - the greatest works of baroque polyphonic art.