The Baroque Period was a very unique time period when the arts flourished, especially music. New techniques and ideas began to become more prominent during this time and changed the rules of how music was being written. Also, new composers appeared and gave their own input and style to Baroque music. However, one of the most prolific and well known composer during this time was Johann Sebastian Bach. It is also no surprise that he was an excellent musician and composer. Bach was born into a life of music. Musicians had been in his family for generations and continued with him, his siblings, and his children. However, he was one of the more well-known musicians in his family. His music became very prominent and defined an era. People from all …show more content…
In Leipzig, Bach was chosen to be the cantor and musical director for the city of Leipzig. Bach was also in charge of organizing music and choirs at four churches which were the Thomaskirche, the Nikolaikirche, the Petrikirche, and the Neuekirche. He also had other responsibilities such as being the cantor for the school at Thomaskirche. Bach spent a lot of time and lived at St. Thomas Church where he did most of composition work. He composed several cantatas and church music during this time which would be performed occasionally at the churches. He also composed several major works during this time such as the “Magnificat” and “St. John Passion”. While composing and performing music at churches, Bach also held regular concerts at Zimmerman’s Coffee House amongst other places. In 1729 while still living in Leipzig, Bach became appointed the Court Composer of the Dresden Court. This helped Bach spread his music which helped Bach become more famous. Because of this, Bach became busier and worked more frequently. However he sometimes left his work to interns and assistants which left him in trouble with the Council of the Dresden Court. Later, Bach developed a relationship with the Collegia Musica which were secular music organizations that were run by the students of the nearby universities. Bach eventually became the director of the Collegia Musica. Bach continued to compose several works both secular and non-secular. His compositions included cantatas, oratorios, masses, and concertos. These forms of music flourished during the Baroque Period and became widely popular throughout Europe. He also held concerts of two different forms: ordinaire and extraordinaire. The ordinaire concerts were just standard and regular concerts while the extrordinaire concerts were for special events. In 1744, Bach started to enter his later years. He still continued to
His death marked the end of Baroque music. Bach left a music legacy. His music has been studied and continues to be studied by several generations of composers and musicians.
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
1709, Cristofori had demonstrated harpsichords built with hammer mechanisms that were capable of producing piano and forte effects. A few of these instruments even made their way into Germany the following years. Bach however, did not come into physical contact with such instruments until around 1740-a considerable length of time after the earliest pianofortes were being made. Gottfried Silbermann made the instrument that Bach came into contact with, and he was enthusiastic to receive Bach’s acclaim. Bach’s response however, was of initial disappointment: “…he spoke enthusiastically of the instrument’s tone and possibilities, but criticized its heavy touch and
The truth can sometimes depend on the circumstance and the person who states it. When confronted with conflicting accounts or questionable details, a judge within the court of law must decide the sentence of an individual with these obstacles in place. In this case, the defendant Dannie McGrew has been charged with the murder of Barney Quill, but claims that it was self-defense. The following contains a thorough explanation as to how the judge decided upon the verdict of acquittal.
The Mass in B minor (BWV 232) by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the Latin Mass Ordinary. The piece is orchestrated for two flutes, two oboes d'amore, one natural horn (in D), three trumpets (in D), timpani, violins I and II, violas and basso continuo (cellos, basses, bassoons, organ and harpsichord). The work was one of Bach's last compositions, not completed until 1749, the year before his death. Much of the Mass gave new form to vocal music that Bach had composed throughout his career, dating back to 1714, but extensively revised. Bach's devout relationship with the Christian God in the Lutheran tradition and the high demand for religious music of his times placed sacred music at the centre of his repertory. The Lutheran chorale
He is known for his mastery of different forms of music. One of the ways that Bach structured his music was through the use of counterpoints. Having a counterpoint in your music is when multiple melodies come together forming the piece. Counterpoints were important at the time since composers did not think about harmony and a result of a counterpoint was a harmony. They would not think about the harmony at all is it just appeared as a result of the counterpoint. Bach mastered the counterpoint and had many works containing them. Michael Hammer from Piano Noise wrote about Bach’s mastery with the counterpoint and said, “It is, then, a bit ironic, that the universally acknowledged master of counterpoint lived during the Baroque period. His name, of course, was J. S. Bach” (Hammer). This quote from Mister Hammer shows that in classical music and composition Bach is considered the master of the counterpoint. A prime example of his counterpoint is Air on the G String. Bach wrote this piece for a chamber orchestra and there are multiple melodies flowing within the piece. The first violin, second violin, and the contrabass, all get the melody. Not all of them are heard equally, but they are still prominent in the piece. Bach mastered the use of these counterpoints allowing his music to move freely with more complexity. These counterpoints influenced other composers of his time and composers of later centuries. According
Some of these are a result of building on what was begun in the previous era. Both the Baroque era and the Classical era wrote choral music of a sacred nature, and moved from the acapella choirs of the past eras. Prominent composers such as Bach in the Baroque era wrote cantatas for the Lutheran service, and Handel wrote oratorios for the Catholic Church. These were performed with SATB voices with instrumental accompaniment. As was the style of Baroque composers they were dramatic, used imitative polyphony, moved to major and minor scales, and had a type of base line. The basso continuo was very much present in Baroque music. Classical era composers such as Haydn and Mozart wrote oratorios and music for the Mass, and Mozart wrote most of his own Requiem. These works were different in that they were on a much larger scale with the use of more instruments, and were mostly
While he was taking lessons with Zachau at the Halle Cathedral, Handel became his assistant organist. He followed his father’s wish for him to study law, however after his father died, Handel quit his unwanted pursuit of the career, and eventually moved to Hamburg, Germany which was a major music...
The Baroque period was filled with the new idea that every issue had two sides. Great thinkers and masterminds left behind the idea that the world was either god- influenced or science-influenced. Most people embraced this notion, with the exception of a few. Johann Sebastian Bach was one of these few people. Bach, although the greatest composer of the Baroque period, led a life based on tradition and past influence, which left him virtually ignored for many years after his death.
Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven both flourished in their compositions of classical music; however, their genre of music differed considerably. Bach was a German composer during the Baroque time era of western music which is estimated to have taken place during 1600 to 1750. It was during this time that he composed prolific church organ music which included such works as the Mass in B Minor, much scared choral music, and the St. Matthew Passion, as well as composing over a thousand works in nearly every musical genre except opera. On the other hand, Beethoven was a German composer whom began to emerge during the classical era of western music twenty years after Bach. This era took place throughout the years1750 and 1830. The large quantity of arrangements, over two hundred works in numerous musical genres composed by Beethoven was significantly influenced by his predecessors, onset of deafness, and his highly personal expression of intellectual depth. Such works include the first an...
Baroque era covers the period between 1600 and 1750 beginning with Monte Verdi (birth of opera) and ended with deaths of Bach and Handel. The term baroque music is borrowed from the art history. It follows the Renaissance era (1400-1600). It was initially considered to be a corrupt way of Renaissance by conservatives. The dominant trends in Baroque music correspond to those in Baroque art and literature. Some features of Baroque art included a sense of movement, energy, and tension (whether real or implied). Strong contrasts of light and shadow enhance the effects of paintings and sculptures. Opera is one of the types of music in the Baroque era. It represented melodic freedom. Baroque era was usually referred to as the thorough-bass period. In early Baroque era no tonal direction existed, but experiments in pre-tonal harmony led to the creation of tonality. [1] Baroque genre included instrumental suite, ritornello, Concerto grosso and chant. There were important composers of the Baroque period such as Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi William Byrd Henry Purcell and George Phillip Telemann. Starting in northern Italy, the hierarchical state -- led by either the urban bourgeoisie or despotic nobles -- replaced the fluid and chaotic feudal system of the middle Ages. [2] For this reason, some historians refer to the Renaissance as the Early Modern Era. Sculptors, building on the techniques of artists such as Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680), found ways to create the illusion of energetic and even violent movement in their works. Painters created larger and more crowded canvases. Virtuosity was used in all the arts. The arts became an important measure of learning and culture. Music moved from the science of number to an expressive art viewed as an equal to rhetoric.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born at Eisenach, in the region of Thuringia, Germany, in 1685. He was a composer and musician of the Baroque period. Bach was born in a family of long musical tradition as his antecessors had been professional musicians for several generations. Johann Sebastian grew under a strictly musical environment. All of his closest relatives were musicians, and by being surrounded by these influences, the young Johann Sebastian developed his musical and instrumental skills. Bach 's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. Thus, at age 10, he had to move in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach , who was an organist
Besides composing, he also worked as a conductor in Düsseldorf (1833-35) and Leipzig (1835-40). And in 1843, he established a new conservatory in Leipzig. Up to this point, Mendelssohn was already a well-known pianist, composer and conductor.
During Bach’s time, people were writing mostly in a classical style, however Bach loved composing in the Baroque genre. This is why people said that when Bach died, so did the Baroque genre.