What is the name of baja. Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig period and last years of life

The leader of the noble assembly Oleg Shcherbachev spoke about the "composer of all times and peoples" mystic and theologian Johann Sebastian Bach in the framework of the club "Event"

If you think that, having lived a good half of the 18th century, the Baroque century, Johann Sebastian Bach was his contemporary, then you are only partly right. In the tradition of the medieval worldview, he wrote his music beginning and ending with a prayer, and sounded old-fashioned to his contemporaries. However, the unknown instrument, for which some of his works were written, was invented only after his death, and individual moves of his compositions sounded habitually only in the 20th century.

Johann Sebastian Bach

In Bach's music, we often hear a step, a tread. The pace is key here. The measure of speed, as I recently realized, is the rhythm of the heart. If you play how you breathe, then everything turns out right.

As a composer, Bach hardly changed throughout his life, which is a rarity for any creator. His musical language was formed when he was about 20, and he died when he was 65. I suppose that in 1706 or 1707 Bach experienced some kind of strong mystical shock. We do not know which one, but it turned his life upside down, he came to know - as Dostoevsky would say - the living God, and further on this experience he went through his entire creative path.

From a biographical point of view, Bach lived two lives. By everyday standards, he was an ordinary German burgher: he moved from one service to another, very prudently choosing where it was more profitable for him to work, where the salary was higher. In a letter to a friend, he once complained that because of the good weather, his funeral "accidents" had noticeably decreased. This is also Bach.

We are accustomed to the image of a romantic creator, whose life and work are inextricably linked: he creates, refracting his life in creativity. But Bach is an anti-romantic. He is a medieval artist. The outer side of his life has practically nothing to do with creativity. But creativity for him is not even 99 percent, but more. Everyday life is just a shell, a shell; it is completely uninteresting compared to creativity, because it creates about God and for God. How much do we know about Andrei Rublev's life path? And how important is it to know his biography in order to understand his icons? Compared to his "Trinity" it is absolutely not interesting. Bach's music is a musical icon. The life of an icon painter is not part of an icon.

For Bach, the process of writing music was very important. At the end of the score, he always wrote " SoliDeogloria"(Glory to God alone" - ed.), and at the beginning - "Lord, help." Therefore, you can play Bach only by praying: you play - as if you are doing the Jesus Prayer. Only a few succeeded. For example, Albert Schweitzer, a well-known Protestant theologian and humanist. In his performances, you hear that Bach's music is always a prayer, but the most amazing thing is that it is not only a prayer, but also a dialogue. Bach doesn't just pray, he hears answers. This is unique for a composer! Bach's music is a conversation between man and God.

Bach and sons

One of Bach's most important works is the High Mass, or Mass in B minor, which he wrote almost all his life: he began in the 1720s and finished just before his death. According to the popular notion, Bach's last work is The Art of the Fugue, but this is not entirely true. It is established that it was practically completed in 1747 (however, the last fugue remained unfinished).

It is interesting that Bach wrote this mass knowing full well that it would never be performed. Those parts of the mass that were performed in the then Lutheran church ("Kyrie" and "Gloria") are so huge here that it is impossible to imagine them in liturgical practice. The entire mass was simply not performed in the Protestant church. And the mystery remains: why should a staunch Lutheran Protestant write an absolutely Catholic mass, moreover, “the best mass of all times and peoples”? I found this answer for myself. It lies in the fact that Bach goes far beyond the framework of Protestantism and belongs to the entirety of the Christian tradition.

For me personally, “Kyrie” from this mass is a universal church, universal cry to God. Mankind, in the person of Johann Sebastian Bach, managed to write such a mass, and I think this is a significant argument in favor of the fact that God was not mistaken in creating the human world. This is the absolute archetype of man's prayer to God and the musical archetype of the liturgy.

Title page of Bach's autograph, with the caption Missa

The beginning of the 18th century is baroque, and baroque is primarily a melody. But Bach is not a melodist, he is a polyphonist. Schweitzer even considered that he had problems with melody. What was so easy for the Italians was difficult for him. But is it the main thing? With Italians, the melody can be wonderful, but empty. So what if everyone likes Albinoni's Adagio, for example, or Marcello's oboe concerto? (However, the well-known adagio is a later revision). Bach also liked a lot: he boldly, without hesitation, took someone else's work, was inspired by it, and then completely German, very intellectual music was obtained from it.

Hence, by the way, a lot of pseudo-Bachian scores. It so happened that he liked some works, and he rewrote them. After all, he was a musical director, which means that he had to perform not only his own, while his own works were often written not by his hand: he did not have time to write down, for example, a cantata composed for the next Sunday service and harnessed the whole family: his wife wrote, the children wrote ...

Bach's baroque is high baroque, it is sculptural, relief music. Melody for Bach is always a symbol. All her movements - up and down - are very meaningful. In this music, you always imagine a certain picture: long descending and ascending lines, movement, soaring - all this is so embossed that sometimes it seems as if you actually see it. And if you are still looking at the score, then these upswings of notes are simply quite obvious there. Bach's music is a real sound recording, and sometimes a crossword puzzle, because behind the general polyphony of voices, some lines, nuances, strokes cannot be shown by any performer - they remain known only to the conductor who sees the score, and to God.

Bach. Autograph of the first sheet of "Credo"

In fact, Bach had no followers; a certain tradition ended with him. His sons, who already composed in the manner of early classicism, for a time eclipsed their father in popularity. If, in the time of Haydn and Mozart, one asked about Bach, one would first of all think of Carl Philipp Emmanuel or Johann Christian, but hardly of Johann Sebastian. Only later was the great Bach rediscovered by Mendelssohn and the circle of romantics. And although, of course, we must thank them for this, it was precisely their peculiar understanding of his music that laid the foundation for its not quite adequate performance. They heard it in a very different way, very romantic.

The great Mozart is perhaps the only composer of the second half of the 18th century who was able to truly understand Bach. That Mozart knew and appreciated Bach's music is beyond doubt. In his later works, he even used it: in particular, he made transcriptions of several Bach preludes and fugues.

Yes, Bach and Mozart are often contrasted. It is very thin matter. These two people were, of course, musical visionaries, there are no more like them in the foreseeable future. But Mozart, as I see it, did not pass his musical revelations through the ratio. He, like a medium, listened to music from heaven and wrote down. Perhaps he himself was sometimes frightened of her, did not understand, and even choked on her, as Foreman wonderfully shows in the film Amadeus. The main thing is to write it down as soon as possible... With Bach it is completely different.

Bach is a conscious prayer, penetrating through his whole being. His music is inspired by God, sometimes even ecstatic, but it is also passed through the intellect. It has an element of gnosis. Bach lives every note and moves from every note to the next note – you can feel it. Even in secular works you hear all the polyphony, the multi-layeredness of his musical fabric. When the performance is right, you feel such tension and density of the structure that it is simply impossible to add a single note to it! None of his contemporaries have this. But at the same time, all this merges into perfect harmony and is perceived even gracefully in a baroque way. How this is done is not clear. It's a miracle.

Bach was generally an aesthete. He subtly felt the specifics of each instrument. But he wrote some things without designating the instrument at all, so to speak, for some abstract instrument. Maybe you should just look at such scores and perform them inside yourself? The Art of the Fugue, for example. This is already a kind of mathematics, the “philosophy of the name” of Alexei Losev. Bach did not finish this work, but maybe the music simply went into some kind of “fourth dimension”, into some sky-high worlds of musical abstractions and eidos?

Bach monument in Leipzig

Bach often sounds in the cinema. You can remember, say, Tarkovsky or von Trier. Why? Maybe because Bach is a guide to the world of faith. From my own biography it is very clear why this is so. Bach was my first love, it was Bach who was one of those who led me to the Church and to God. As you understand, we are talking about the 70s, and, apart from the vague memories of the religiosity of my great-aunt, who went to church, prayed at night, I did not see inspirational examples next to me. But Bach's music itself is such that if one is imbued with it, it is impossible to remain an atheist. In the typical Soviet era, in the era of official atheism, it was quite natural for a person to yearn for God. But Bach could not be banned. Still, this is a musical Everest, and it is impossible to bypass it. But this Everest was talking about God all the time. And no matter how Soviet musicologists tried to get around this trouble, nothing could be done about it.

I graduated from MEPhI, Department of Theoretical Physics. This is my only higher education. Why do I need Bach - "physics of the XXI century"? Then, that Bach is needed by everyone and always - and the physics of the XXI century, just like the lyrics of the XXXV century. Everyone needs Bach's music, just as everyone needs to read the Holy Scriptures, just as everyone needs faith in Christ. The same is true of Bach's music.

March 31 - the birthday of the outstanding German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. His musical heritage has entered the golden fund of world culture and is well known to connoisseurs of the classics, but his personal fate is rarely spoken about. But Johann Bach was a representative of one of the most "musical" families in history: all he had There are 56 musicians and composers in the family. Johann Bach himself became father of 20 children!

You can find out what Johann Sebastian Bach could look like from our photo review.

The outstanding German composer, organist and harpsichordist Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. He belonged to a ramified German family, most of whom had been professional musicians in Germany for three centuries. Johann Sebastian received his primary musical education (playing the violin and harpsichord) under the guidance of his father, a court musician.

In 1695, after the death of his father (his mother died earlier), the boy was taken into the family of his older brother Johann Christoph, who served as a church organist at St. Michaelis Church in Ohrdruf.

In the years 1700-1703, Johann Sebastian studied at the school of church singers in Lüneburg. During his studies, he visited Hamburg, Celle and Lübeck to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of his time, new French music. In the same years he wrote his first works for organ and clavier.

In 1703 Bach worked in Weimar as a court violinist, in 1703-1707 as a church organist in Arnstadt, then from 1707 to 1708 in the Mühlhasen church. His creative interests were then mainly focused on music for organ and clavier.

In 1708-1717, Johann Sebastian Bach served as court musician to the Duke of Weimar in Weimar. During this period, he created numerous choral preludes, an organ toccata and a fugue in D minor, a passacaglia in C minor. The composer wrote music for the clavier, more than 20 spiritual cantatas.

In 1717-1723, Bach served with Leopold, Duke of Anhalt-Köthen, in Köthen. Three sonatas and three partitas for violin solo, six suites for cello solo, English and French suites for clavier, six Brandenburg concertos for orchestra were written here. Of particular interest is the collection "The Well-Tempered Clavier" - 24 preludes and fugues, written in all keys and in practice proving the advantages of a tempered musical system, around the approval of which there were heated debates. Subsequently, Bach created the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier, also consisting of 24 preludes and fugues in all keys.

In Köthen, the "Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach" was started, which includes, along with pieces by various authors, five of the six "French Suites". In the same years, "Little Preludes and Fughettas. English Suites, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" and other clavier compositions were created. During this period, the composer wrote a number of secular cantatas, most of them not preserved and received a second life with a new, spiritual text.

In 1723, his "Passion according to John" (a vocal-dramatic work based on gospel texts) was performed at the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig.

In the same year, Bach received the position of cantor (regent and teacher) in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig and the school attached to this church.

In 1736, Bach received from the Dresden court the title of Royal Polish and Saxon Electoral Court Composer.

During this period, the composer reached the pinnacle of mastery, creating magnificent examples in various genres - sacred music: cantatas (about 200 have survived), "Magnificat" (1723), masses, including the immortal "High Mass" in B minor (1733), "St. Matthew Passion" (1729); dozens of secular cantatas (among them - the comic "Coffee" and "Peasant"); works for organ, orchestra, harpsichord, among the latter - "Aria with 30 variations" ("Goldberg Variations", 1742). In 1747, Bach wrote a cycle of plays "Musical Offerings" dedicated to the Prussian King Frederick II. The last work of the composer was the work "The Art of the Fugue" (1749-1750) - 14 fugues and four canons on one theme.

Johann Sebastian Bach is the largest figure in the world musical culture, his work is one of the pinnacles of philosophical thought in music. Freely crossing the features of not only different genres, but also national schools, Bach created immortal masterpieces that stand above time.

In the late 1740s, Bach's health deteriorated, with a sudden loss of sight particularly worrying. Two unsuccessful cataract surgeries resulted in complete blindness.

He spent the last months of his life in a darkened room, where he composed the last chorale "I stand before Thy throne", dictating it to his son-in-law, the organist Altnikol.

On July 28, 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig. He was buried in the cemetery near the church of St. John. Due to the lack of a monument, his grave was soon lost. In 1894, the remains were found and reburied in a stone sarcophagus in the church of St. John. After the church was destroyed by bombing during World War II, his ashes were preserved and reburied in 1949 in the altar of St. Thomas Church.

During his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach enjoyed fame, but after the death of the composer, his name and music were forgotten. Interest in Bach's work arose only at the end of the 1820s, in 1829 the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy organized a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in Berlin. In 1850, the Bach Society was created, which sought to identify and publish all the composer's manuscripts - 46 volumes were published in half a century.

With the mediation of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in 1842 in Leipzig, the first monument to Bach was erected in front of the building of the old school at the Church of St. Thomas.

In 1907, the Bach Museum was opened in Eisenach, where the composer was born, in 1985 - in Leipzig, where he died.

Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice. In 1707 he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. After her death in 1720, in 1721 the composer married Anna Magdalena Wilcken. Bach had 20 children, but only nine of them survived their father. Four sons became composers - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach (1714-1788), Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), Johann Christoph Bach (1732-1795).

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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

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

Johann Sebastian Bach. short biography

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

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

Childhood (1685 - 1703)

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

Arnstadt, Weimar and Mühlhausen (1703 - 1717)

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

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

Köthen (1717 - 1723)

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

Leipzig (1723 - 1750)

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

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

The Death of Bach (1750)

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

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

Organ creativity

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

Other works for clavier

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

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

Orchestral and chamber music

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

Vocal and choral compositions

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

musical style

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

Execution

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

Born (21) March 31, 1685 in the city of Eisenach. In little Bach, a passion for music was originally laid down, because his ancestors were professional musicians.

Music training

At the age of ten, after the death of his parents, Johann Bach was taken in by his brother Johann Christoph. He taught the future composer to play the clavier and organ.

At the age of 15, Bach entered the vocal school named after St. Michael, in the city of Lüneburg. There he gets acquainted with the work of modern musicians, develops comprehensively. During 1700-1703 the musical biography of Johann Sebastian Bach begins. He wrote the first organ music.

In service

After graduation, Johann Sebastian was sent to Duke Ernst as a musician at the court. Dissatisfaction with a dependent position forces him to change jobs. In 1704, Bach received the post of organist of the New Church in Arndstadt. The brief content of the article does not make it possible to dwell in detail on the work of the great composer, but it was at this time that he created many talented works. Collaboration with the poet Christian Friedrich Heinrici, court musician Telemachus enriched the music with new motives. In 1707 Bach moved to Mühlhusen, continued to work as a church musician and engage in creativity. The authorities are satisfied with his work, the composer receives a reward.

Personal life

In 1707 Bach married his cousin Maria Barbara. He again decided to change jobs, this time becoming court organist in Weimar. In this city, six children are born in the musician's family. Three died in infancy, and three become well-known musicians in the future.

In 1720, Bach's wife died, but a year later the composer married again, now to the famous singer Anna Magdalena Wilhelm. The happy family had 13 children.

Continuation of the creative path

In 1717, Bach entered the service of the Duke of Anhalt - Köthen, who highly appreciated his talent. During the period from 1717 to 1723, Bach's magnificent suites appeared (for orchestra, cello, clavier).

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, English and French suites were written in Köthen.

In 1723, the musician received the position of cantor and teacher of music and Latin in the Church of St. Thomas, then became musical director in Leipzig. Johann Sebastian Bach's wide repertoire included both secular and brass music. During his life, Johann Sebastian Bach managed to visit the head of the music college. Several cycles of the composer Bach used all kinds of instruments ("Musical Offering", "The Art of the Fugue")

last years of life

In the last years of his life, Bach was rapidly losing his sight. His music was then considered unfashionable, outdated. Despite this, the composer continued to work. In 1747, he created a cycle of plays called "Music of the Offering", dedicated to the Prussian King Frederick II. The last work was the collection of works "The Art of the Fugue", which included 14 fugues and 4 canons.

Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, but his musical legacy remains immortal.

A brief biography of Bach does not give a complete picture of the complex life path of the composer, of his personality. You can get acquainted with his fate and work in detail by reading the books of Johann Forkel, Robert Franz, Albert Schweitzer.