The Bach Family

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Light, playful but soft baroque music, this is what the Bach family name is famous for today. But J.S. Bach wasn’t the only composer in the family, and his uncle, all his brothers, and his father shared his exact first and last name. It’s only the middle name that made J.S Bach unique in his family, but today, he is extraordinary in his music composition talent.

The Bach family was known for their musical positions in Thuringia. In the family there were organists, town instrumentalists, and Cantors. Cantors are “(In formal Christian worship) a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.” (Google 2017). But Johann Sebastian Bach would make the Bach name live on for centuries.

Bach was born on March …show more content…

Christoph played the organ in the finest most modern of music. Not only this, but he was an excellent teacher so all 5 of his sons were destined to become great in music.

J.S. Bach fit right in, he learned under the apprenticeship of his brother the organ and harpsichord. He quickly became an excellent player. Mastering every piece that was thrown at him. He now took on a new challenge in his life, which was to be the writing of music.

His brother would give him pieces to copy and write down. He would often be given music by German composers like Jakob Froberger, Johann Caspar Kerll and Pachelbel. He became very good at this. This is where he started composing music.

With his previous choral experience, J.S. Bach decided to join a choir. The choir was run by the wealthy Michaelis monastery at Lüneburg. He was known to give positions to poor children for free, and Bach’s excellent soprano voice earned him a nice spot in the choir. He set out on the journey to Lüneburg with his school friend Georg Erdmann. This was a very long 180 mile journey that he took on foot in the spring of …show more content…

He wrote a fairly large amount of pieces and Cantatas while working for the Duke, and one of his most famous pieces he wrote here was “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” He wrote other pieces here too, such as the cantata, "Herz und Mund und Tat," or Heart and Mouth and Deed.

In 1717 Bach was offered a position with with Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, in which he accepted. But the Duke didn’t want him to go quite yet. The Duke Arrested Bach and imprisoned him for weeks before Bach was released to go to Cöthen.

Here, in Cöthen, Bach composed many pieces for full orchestras and groups of instruments. The Brandenburg Concertos were composed here. These pieces are considered to be some of Bach’s greatest work. These are still played in orchestras worldwide, which makes Bach famous still today. Bach then decided to play the viola as he liked it because he considered it “in the middle of the harmony.” But his time here soon ended when the prince married. The princess didn’t like her husband’s musical interests, and so, Bach was neglected and sent off on his

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