Johann sebastian bach composer biography paper

His older brother Johann Christoph, a church organist in Ohrdruf, took him in. Johann Christoph provided some further musical instruction for his younger brother and enrolled him in a local school. Bach stayed with his brother's family until he was Sometime after his arrival, his voice changed and Bach switched to playing the violin and the harpsichord.

Inhe landed his first job as a musician at the court of Duke Johann Ernst in Weimar. There he was a jack-of-all-trades, serving as a violinist and at times, filling in for the official organist. Bach had a growing reputation as a great performer, and it was his great technical skill that landed him the position of organist at the New Church in Arnstadt.

He was responsible for providing music for religious services and special events as well as giving music instruction. An independent and sometimes arrogant young man, Bach did not get along well with his students and was scolded by church officials for not rehearsing them frequently enough. Bach did not help his situation when he disappeared for several months in InBach was glad to leave Arnstadt for an organist position at the Church of St.

This move, however, did not turn out as well as he had planned. Bach's musical style clashed with the church's pastor. Bach created complex arrangements and had a fondness for weaving together different melodic lines. His pastor believed that church music needed to be simple. One of Bach's most famous works from this time is the cantata "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit," also known as "Actus Tragicus.

He wrote many church cantatas and some of his best compositions for the organ while working for the duke. But Duke Wilhelm Ernst had no interest in letting Bach go and even imprisoned him for several weeks when he tried to leave. Prince Leopold had a passion for music. He played the violin and often bought musical scores while traveling abroad.

He also wrote pieces for solo instruments, including some of his finest violin works. His secular compositions still reflected his deep commitment to his faith with Bach often writing the initials I. After Bach no longer concentrated so completely on composing sacred vocal music. For services, he re-used his own substantial repertory of cantatas, and turned increasingly to the music of his contemporaries.

In andhe was director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, an organization which had been founded by Telemann in This group of professional musicians and university students performed weekly concerts out-of-doors in the summer, and at Zimmerman's coffee-house in the winter. In the s, he also showed considerable interest in the royal court at Dresden, and was named "Hofkomponist" court-composer" in Dresden in Brief Biography.

During Bach's last decade the she completed or revised several large-scale projects which he had started earlier.

Johann sebastian bach composer biography paper

The Well-Tempered ClavierVol. II; a manuscript collection of chorale preludes known as the "Leipzig 18", comprising revisions of Weimar piecesand the B minor Mass. While awaiting the completion of the organ at Arnstadt, Sebastian was offered, and accepted the post of violinist in the small chamber orchestra of Duke Johann Ernst, the younger brother of the Duke of Weimar.

Here at Weimar he now came into contact with Italian instrumental music, and acted as deputy to the aging Court Organist, Effler, an old johann sebastian bach composer biography paper of the Bach family, thus having a chance to keep his organ playing in practice. His stay here was short, but he was to return later. In July the Arnstadt Town Council invited young Bach to try out the newly finished organ in the 'New Church', so called as it had been almost totally rebuilt having been seriously damaged by fire.

He so impressed the people of Arnstadt with his brilliant playing at the dedication that he was immediately offered the post of organist on very favorable terms. Return to top of page ARNSTADT: At the end ofyear-old Sebastian took up his post at the small town of Arnstadt, no doubt thrilled at having his own relatively large organ of two manuals and 23 speaking stops, and the responsibility of providing music for his own congregation.

Though the present organ is not "Bach's", the original manuals, stops and pedals of Bach's organ are displayed in the Palm Haus Museum of this quiet historic little town, where the house in which Bach lodged can also be seen. The congregation however was completely surprised and bewildered by his new musical ideas: there was considerable confusion during the singing of the chorales, caused by his "surprising variations and irrelevant ornaments which obliterate the melody and confuse the congregation".

Bach did not attempt to justify himself before what must have seemed to him a group of narrow minded and conservative old gentlemen; yet the Council, knowing how skilled his playing was, decided to treat their young and impetuous organist with leniency. However, new conflicts soon arose when Bach, citing a clause in his contract, refused to work any longer with the undisciplined boys' choir which he had been required to train for the sake of Council economy.

For this the Council further reprimanded him and also added the complaint that he had been "entertaining a strange damsel" to music in organ loft of the church. The young lady was probably his cousin, Maria Barbara, whom he was later to marry. Thus, what had been an exciting and promising start at Arnstadt, had now turned into recriminations and disputes; Bach no doubt decided it would be better to look around for somewhere new.

Unfortunately, a quarter of the whole town had recently been devastated by fire; it was difficult for him to find suitable dwellings, and he was thus forced to pay a high rent. Nevertheless, shortly after his arrival, he brought his cousin Maria Barbara from Arnstadt, and on October 17th he married her at the small church in the picturesque little village of Dornheim.

Maria Barbara came of a branch of the musical Bach family, her father being organist at Gehren. This success gave Bach the courage to put in a long and detailed report, proposing a complete renovation and improvement of the organ in the St Blasiuskirche. The Council agreed to carry out the renovation and improvements, and Bach was given the task of supervising the work, for not only was he now a brilliant player, he had also become an expert on the construction of organs.

Bach was apprehensive of the latter's growing influence, in addition to the fact that his immediate superior was a Pietist. The Council had little option but to allow his departure. However, the situation was concluded quite amicably and Bach was asked that he should continue to supervise the rebuilding of the St Blasiuskirche organ.

This he did, and some time in he came over to inaugurate its first performance. Return to top of page WEIMAR second term : Weimar was quite a small town with only inhabitants; yet Bach was to meet some very cultured people here. Not least was his employer, the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar, one of the most distinguished and cultured nobles of his time.

Bach's two-fold position as member of the chamber orchestra and as Organist to the Court offered him many opportunities for improvement. The Court Orchestra consisted of about 22 players: a compact string ensemble, a bassoon player, 6 or 7 trumpeters and a timpanist. Bach's function in the orchestra was mainly as a violinist, however he also played the harpsichord and occasionally wrote or arranged some of the music.

As was the custom in most 18th century Courts, the musicians also spent some of their time employed in household and domestic duties. In Bach became the leader of the orchestra, and was now second only to the old and frail Capellmeister Johann Samuel Drese, whose duties he was gradually taking over. The organ was new and not quite as large as the one at Arnstadt.

After a few years, Bach declared that it was inadequate and should be rebuilt. It was in fact rebuilt at great expense according to his plans: proof of the high regard the Court had for his capabilities as organist and expert on organ construction. During this period he wrote profusely for the organ, and he was rapidly becoming known throughout the country as one of the greatest German organists.

Organ pupils came to him from far and wide, and he was asked to johann sebastian bach composer biography paper or dedicate many organs in various towns. His tests were extremely thorough and critical. He used to say for fun 'Above all I must know whether the organ has a good lung', and, pulling out all the stops he produced the largest sound possible, often making the organ builders go pale with fright.

He would usually complete his trial by improvising a prelude and fugue: the prelude to test the organ's power, the fugue to test its clarity for counterpoint. Constantin Bellermann describes his playing during a visit to Kassel in these words; 'His feet seemed to fly across the pedals as if they were winged, and mighty sounds filled the church'.

Mizler's 'Nekrolog' states: 'His fingers were all of equal strength, all equally able to play with the finest precision. He had invented so comfortable a fingering that he could master the most difficult parts with perfect ease using 5 fingers instead of the then normal 3. He was able to accomplish passages on the pedals with his feet which would have given trouble to the fingers of many a clever player on the keyboard'.

On a visit to Halle induring which he gave a trial cantata probably BWV 21he was invited to become organist in succession to Zachau, a composer well-known, and celebrated as Handel's early teacher. However, the conditions and salary were not sufficient for his growing family, so he was obliged to refuse the post. On a visit to Dresden, Bach was invited to compete in a contest with the visiting French organist, Louis Marchand, considered to be one of the best in Europe.

But, on the day appointed for the contest, Marchand decided to withdraw discreetly by taking the fastest coach available back to France. And so Bach gave an impressive solo performance before the assembled audience and referees, establishing himself as the finest organist of the day. Bach made some very good friends at Weimar, among whom was the eminent philologist and scholar Johann Matthias Gesner, who expressed with great eloquence his admiration for the composer's genius.

Here the interest was in the new Italian style of music which was then becoming the rage of Europe, one of the chief exponents being the Venetian composer Vivaldi. Bach and his cousin Johann Georg Walther transcribed some of the Italian instrumental concertos for keyboard instruments. Consequently musicians of the first household were forbidden to fraternize with those of the second.

Bach did his best to ignore what was, after all, merely an extension of a private quarrel. But the atmosphere was no longer so pleasant. Added to this, the ancient Capellmeister then died, and Bach was passed over for the post in favor of the late Capellmeister's mediocre son. At this, Bach was bitterly disappointed, for he had lately been doing most of the Capellmeister's work, and had confidently expected to be given the post.

This infuriated the Duke of Weimar, so that when Bach put in a polite request for his release, he was arrested and put in the local jail. However, after a month, he was released and given reluctant permission to resign his office. Prince Leopold had already spent three years doing the Grand Tour of Europe, first to Holland and England, through Germany to Italy, returning by way of Vienna.

So he would have been thoroughly familiar with the latest European fashions in music. The young Prince stretched the limited budget of his miniature Court to provide an orchestra of eighteen players, all chosen for their high musical standards from all over the country, some from as far afield as Berlin. He had well-developed musical tastes, having traveled widely, particularly to Italy, where he studied Italian secular music with great interest; he returned from Italy determined to raise the standard of German secular music to an equally high level.

Unlike most Princes of his time, he was a player of considerable proficiency on the harpsichord, the violin and the viola da gamba, and contrary to current Court etiquette he played quite freely and informally with his Court musicians, treating them entirely as his equals. He soon became very friendly with his new Capellmeister, having a high regard for him, and would often ask his advice on various matters.

During this period he wrote much of his chamber music; violin concertos, sonatas, keyboard music, etc. When the Prince traveled, Bach and some of the Court musicians together with instruments, including an ingenious folding-harpsichord would accompany him on his extensive journeys. Twice they visited Carlsbad, the meeting place of the European aristocracy, in and in the summer of It was on returning from this second visit that Bach received a serious shock; his wife, Maria Barbara, whom he had left in perfect health three months earlier, had died and been buried in his absence, leaving four motherless children.

Two months later he visited Hamburg and expressed an interest in the newly vacant post of organist in the Jakobskirche. This church contained the famous Arp Schnitger organ with four manuals and sixty stops. He was asked to compose and perform cantatas for the Prince's birthday and the New Year; two each time, one sacred and one secular. To perform these works there were singers under contract from nearby Courts, and one of these, Anna Magdalena, daughter of J.

In DecemberAnna Magdalena and Bach married, she at the age of 20, and he Anna Magdalena was very kind to Bach's children, a good housekeeper, and she took a lively interest in his work, often helping him by neatly copying out his manuscripts. In the twenty-eight years of happy marriage that followed, thirteen children were born to the Bach family though few of them survived through childhood.

A week after Bach's wedding, the Prince also married. But for Bach this was to be an unfortunate event, as the new Princess was not in favor of her husband's musical activities and managed, by exerting constant pressure as Bach wrote in a letterto 'Make the musical inclination of the said Prince somewhat luke-warm'. Bach also wrote to his old school-friend, Erdmann, 'There I had a gracious Prince as master, who knew music as well as he loved it, and I hoped to remain in his service until the end of my life'.

Michael's Church. After graduating, Bach's financial circumstances prevented him from pursuing university studies. Subsequently, Bach settled in Arnstadt, where he worked as a church organist from to Blasius Church. There, he composed cantatas and supplemented his income by repairing organs. The same year, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara, who bore him seven children.

Bach's career took a significant turn in when he became the court organist and composer in Weimar. This period marked the beginning of his compositional prowess, with numerous organ and harpsichord pieces emerging. His duties included accompanying the prince's singing and playing the harpsichord and viol da gamba, as well as directing a chapel of 18 musicians.

Bach and Marchand met and played together, but Marchand abruptly left Dresden, recognizing Bach's superior musicianship. InMaria Barbara passed away, leaving Bach a widower.