Comparing The Differences Of Johann Sebastian Bach And Charles Ives?

Music is an art of sound. It expresses ideas and emotions in many significant forms. Many forms of music are in every culture around the world. Although music has evolved over time, it is a big part of people’s life. Whether it is from the past or present. There have been many great composers of all eras such as, Johann Sebastian Bach of the late Baroque period and Charles Ives in the 20th century. Can we compare the two, or are they just so different in retrospect to music? Bach and Ives came from families with musical backgrounds. According to the text book Listen, Bach’s family, was one of the largest throughout a region of Thuringia with numerous musicians for many generations. (127). As for Ives, his father was a Civil War bandmaster

An organist during that time did not mean you just played the organ, it also meant you were required to compose all the music for every church service. This is still somewhat a practice today in the Lutheran church, they have specific readings and hymns for each Sunday of the year as well as for special occasions. Bach composed over 200 secular church cantatas during his time. Even though Ives was an organist for such a short time before college, he did compose songs later for the church and choruses, and also incorporated favorite hymns into other pieces. Ives composing was not his main source of revenue. According to the textbook “Listen”, Ives got his B.A. and took a job as an insurance salesman, and as well as another church organist position, but then reduce music to part

Bach composed his works during the late Baroque period 1700-1750. During this period, it was time of absolutism. According to the textbook Discovering Humanities, absolutism is centralized monarchies exerting royal power on the grounds of divine right (314). This means that the right of kings was absolute and that they are chosen by “God.” Also during this time, music was changing, orchestras were getting bigger and works were being composed in different styles. Bach never changed in his way of composing music and was considered old fashioned to modern musicians (Listen, 127). After his passing, his works were well-regarded by Mozart and Beethoven (Listen, 127). When it comes to the era that Ives composed in, it was 20th century America. Ives was considered the first American Modernist composer. As stated by the textbook “Listen” America had no practice of classical music, and it was amazing that a major modernist composer should have emerged in the U.S. as early as 1900 (331). Being a modernist composer meant that he embraced radical changes in music form and experimented in change, a non-traditionalist. This is the complete opposite of Bach. In today’s music, Ives would definitely fit in, because self-expression is not looked down upon as it would have been in the early 20th century. Music is not set to one type or form. Anyone can listen to what ever