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Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced ) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, J.S. Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the keyboard suites and partitas, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, Sonatas and partitas for solo violin and a large number of cantatas, of which about 220 survive. An example of some of these stylistic traits appears below, in the chorus Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe from the Christmas Oratorio, written in 1734 during his mature period. Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end

Works

J.S. Bach’s works are indexed with BWV numbers, an initialism for Bach Werke Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue). The catalogue, published in 1950, was compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue is organised thematically, rather than chronologically: BWV 1–224 are cantatas, BWV 225–249 the large-scale choral works, BWV 250–524 chorales and sacred songs, BWV 525–748 organ works, BWV 772–994 other keyboard works, BWV 995–1000 lute music, BWV 1001–40 chamber music, BWV 1041–71 orchestral music, and BWV 1072–1126 canons and fugues. In compiling the catalogue, Schmieder largely followed the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe, a comprehensive edition of the composer's works that was produced between 1850 and 1905. For a list of works catalogued by BWV number, see List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Organ works

Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works both in the traditional German free genres such as preludes, fantasias, and toccatas, and stricter forms such as chorale preludes and fugues. He established a reputation at a young age for his great creativity and ability to integrate aspects of several different national styles into his organ works. A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Böhm, whom Bach came in contact with in Lüneburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck, whom the young organist visited in 1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt. Around this time Bach also copied the works of numerous French and Italian composers in order to gain insights into their compositional languages, and later even arranged several violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ. His most productive period (1708–14) saw not only the composition of several pairs of preludes and fugues and toccatas and fugues, but also the writing of the Orgelbüchlein ("Little Organ Book"), an unfinished collection of forty-nine short chorale preludes intended to demonstrate various compositional techniques that could be used in setting chorale tunes. After he left Weimar, Bach's output for organ fell off, although his most well-known works (the six trio sonatas, the Clavierübung III of 1739, and the "Great Eighteen" chorales, revised very late in his life) were all composed after this time. Bach was also extensively engaged later in his life in consulting on various organ projects, testing newly built organs, and dedicating organs in afternoon recitals.

Other keyboard works

Bach wrote many works for the harpsichord, some of which may also have been played on the clavichord. Many of his keyboard works are anthologies that show an eagerness to encompass whole theoretical systems in an encyclopaedic fashion, as it were.

• The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846–893). Each book comprises a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys (thus, the whole collection is often referred to as ‘the 48’). “Well-tempered” in the title refers to the temperament (system of tuning); many temperaments before Bach’s time were not flexible enough to allow compositions to move through more than just a few keys.
• The 15 Inventions and 15 Sinfonias (BWV 772–801). These are short two- and three-part contrapuntal works arranged in order of key signatures of increasing sharps and flats, omitting some of the less used ones. The pieces were intended by Bach for instructional purposes.
• Three collections of dance suites: the English Suites (BWV 806–811), the French Suites (BWV 812–817) and the Partitas for keyboard (BWV 825–830). Each collection contains six suites built on the standard model (Allemande–Courante–Sarabande–(optional movement)–Gigue). The English Suites closely follow the traditional model, adding a prelude before the allemande and including a single movement between the sarabande and the gigue. The French Suites omit preludes, but have multiple movements between the sarabande and the gigue. The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.
• The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), an aria with thirty variations. The collection has a complex and unconventional structure: the variations build on the bass line of the aria, rather than its melody, and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan. There are nine canons within the 30 variations, one placed every three variations between variations 3 and 27. These variations move in order from canon at the unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs (unison and octave, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon stands on its own due to compositional dissimilarities.
• Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style (French Overture, BWV 831) Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903), and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971).

Among Bach’s lesser known keyboard works are seven toccatas (BWV 910–916), four duets (BWV 802–805), sonatas for keyboard (BWV 963–967), the Six Little Preludes (BWV 933–938) and the Aria variata alla maniera italiana (BWV 989).

Orchestral and chamber music

Bach wrote music for single instruments, duets and small ensembles. Bach's works for solo instruments – the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV1001–1006), the six cello suites (BWV 1007–1012) and the Partita for solo flute (BWV1013) – may be listed among the most profound works in the repertoire. Bach has also composed a suite and several other works for solo lute. He wrote trio sonatas; solo sonatas (accompanied by continuo) for the flute and for the viola da gamba; and a large number of canons and ricercare, mostly for unspecified instrumentation. The most significant examples of the latter are contained in The Art of Fugue and The Musical Offering.

Bach's best-known orchestral works are the Brandenburg concertos, so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721. (His application was unsuccessful.) These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre. Other surviving works in the concerto form include two violin concertos; a concerto for two violins, often referred to as Bach’s "double" concerto; and concertos for one, two, three and even four harpsichords. It is widely accepted that many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works, but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments now lost. A number of violin, oboe and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these. In addition to concertos, Bach also wrote four orchestral suites, a series of stylised dances for orchestra. The work now known as the Air on the G string, for instance, is an arrangement for the violin made in the nineteenth century from the second movement of the Orchestral Suite No. 3.

Vocal and choral works

Bach performed a cantata every Sunday at the Thomaskirche, on a theme corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week. Although he performed cantatas by other composers, he also composed at least three entire sets of cantatas, one for each Sunday and holiday of the church year, at Leipzig, in addition to those composed at Mühlhausen and Weimar. In total he wrote more than 300 sacred cantatas, of which only about 195 survive.

His cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Some of them are only for a solo singer; some are single choruses; some are for grand orchestras, some only a few instruments. A very common format, however, includes a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets), and a concluding chorale. The recitative is part of the corresponding Bible reading for the week and the aria is a contemporary reflection on it. The concluding chorale often also appears as a chorale prelude in a central movement, and occasionally as a cantus firmus in the opening chorus as well. The best known of these cantatas are Cantata No. 4 ("Christ lag in Todesbanden"), Cantata No. 80 ("Ein' feste Burg"), Cantata No. 140 ("Wachet auf") and Cantata No. 147 ("Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben").

In addition, Bach wrote a number of secular cantatas, usually for civic events such as weddings. The two Wedding Cantatas and the Coffee Cantata, which concerns a girl whose father will not let her marry until she gives up her coffee addiction, are among the best known of these.

Bach’s large choral-orchestral works include the famous St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, both written for Holy Week services at the St Thomas’s Church, the Christmas Oratorio (a set of six cantatas for use in the Liturgical season of Christmas). The Magnificat in two versions (one in E-flat major, with extra movements interpolated among the movements of the Magnificat text, and the later and better-known version in D major) and the Easter Oratorio compare to large, elaborated cantatas, of a lesser extent than the Passions and the Christmas Oratorio.

Bach's other large work, the Mass in B minor, was assembled by Bach near the end of his life, mostly from pieces composed earlier (such as Cantata 191 and Cantata 12). It was never performed in Bach’s lifetime, or even after his death until the 19th century.

All of these works, unlike the motets, have substantial solo parts as well as choruses.

Performances

Present-day Bach performers largely divide into two camps: those who follow authentic performance practice, and those who use modern instruments and playing techniques and tend towards larger ensembles. In Bach’s time orchestras and choirs were usually smaller than those known to, for example, Brahms, and even Bach's most ambitious choral works, such as his Mass in B minor and Passions, are composed for relatively modest forces. Some of Bach's important chamber music does not indicate instrumentation, which gives even greater latitude for variety of ensemble.

"Easy listening" realisations of Bach's music and its use in advertising also contributed greatly to Bach's popularisation in the second half of the twentieth century. Among these were the Swingle Singers' versions of Bach pieces that are now well-known (for instance, the Air on the G string, or the Wachet Auf chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 recording Switched-On Bach using the then recently-invented Moog synthesizer. Jazz musicians have also adopted Bach's music, with Jacques Loussier and Uri Caine among those creating jazz versions of Bach works.

Legacy

In his later years and after his death, Bach's reputation as a composer declined; his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared to the emerging classical style. Initially he was remembered more as a player, teacher and as the father of his children, most notably C.P.E. Bach. During this time, his works for keyboard were those most appreciated and composers ever since have acknowledged his mastery of the genre. Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin were among his most prominent admirers. On a visit to the Thomasschule in Leipzig, for example, Mozart heard a performance of one of the motets (BWV 225) and exclaimed "Now, here is something one can learn from!"; on being given the motets' parts, "Mozart sat down, the parts all around him, held in both hands, on his knees, on the nearest chairs. Forgetting everything else, he did not stand up again until he had looked through all the music of Sebastian Bach". Beethoven was a devotee, learning the Well-Tempered Clavier as a child and later calling Bach the "Urvater der Harmonie" ("Original father of Harmony") and, in a pun on the literal meaning of Bach's name, "nicht Bach, sondern Meer" ("not a brook, but a sea"). Before performing, Chopin used to lock himself away before his concerts and play Bach's music. Several notable composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn began writing in a more contrapuntal style after being introduced to Bach's music.

Today the "Bach style" continues to influence musical composition, from hymns and religious works to pop and rock. Many of Bach’s themes—particularly the theme from Toccata and Fugue in D minor—have been used in rock songs repeatedly and have received notable popularity.

The revival in the composer’s reputation among the wider public was prompted in part by Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s 1802 biography, which was read by Beethoven. Goethe became acquainted with Bach's works relatively late in life, through a series of performances of keyboard and choral works at Bad Berka in 1814 and 1815; in a letter of 1827 he compared the experience of listening to Bach's music to "eternal harmony in dialogue with itself". But it was Felix Mendelssohn who did the most to revive Bach's reputation with his 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion. Hegel, who attended the performance, later called Bach a "grand, truly Protestant, robust and, so to speak, erudite genius which we have only recently learned again to appreciate at its full value". Mendelssohn's promotion of Bach, and the growth of the composer’s stature, continued in subsequent years. The Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded in 1850 to promote the works, publishing a comprehensive edition over the subsequent half century.

Thereafter Bach’s reputation has remained consistently high. During the twentieth century, the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works has continued, perhaps most notably in the promotion of the Cello Suites by Pablo Casals. Another development has been the growth of the "authentic" or period performance movement, which as far as possible attempts to present the music as the composer intended it. Examples include the playing of keyboard works on the harpsichord rather than a modern grand piano and the use of small choirs or single voices instead of the larger forces favoured by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century performers.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s contributions to music, or, to borrow a term popularised by his student Lorenz Christoph Mizler, his "musical science", are frequently bracketed with those by William Shakespeare in English literature and Isaac Newton in physics. Bach’s music was selected for inclusion on the Voyager Golden Records as an example of humanity's best achievements. Scientist and author Lewis Thomas once suggested how the people of Earth should communicate with the universe: "I would vote for Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again. We would be bragging of course, but it is surely excusable to put the best possible face on at the beginning of such an acquaintance. We can tell the harder truths later."

Some composers have paid tribute to Bach by setting his name in musical notes (B-flat, A, C, B-natural; B-natural is notated as "H" in German musical texts) or using contrapuntal derivatives. Liszt, for example, wrote a praeludium and fugue on this BACH motif. Bach himself set the precedent for this musical acronym, most notably in Contrapunctus XIV from the Art of Fugue. Whereas Bach conceived this cruciform melody as a compositional form of devotion to Christ and his cross, later composers have employed the BACH motif in homage to the composer himself.

Some of the greatest composers since Bach have written works which explicitly pay homage to him. For example Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues and Brahms's Cello Sonata in E, which is based on themes from the Art of Fugue

Media

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Eponyms

• The Bach Ice Shelf, on the Beethoven Peninsula of Alexander Island, in Antarctica.
• Bach crater on Mercury.

See also

• Bach family
• Category:Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
• List of compositions by J.S. Bach printed during his lifetime
• List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
• List of recordings of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
• List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

References

Modern scholarship

• Butt, John (ed). The Cambridge companion to Bach (Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 1997) ISBN 052145350X (hbk.) ISBN 0-521-58780-8 (pbk.) ; (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1997) ISBN 052145350X (hbk.) ISBN 0521459621 (pbk.).

A collection of writings on the historical context (society, beliefs and world view), profiles of his music, and influence and reception.

• David, Hans Theodore, and Arthur Mendel (eds), revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff. The new Bach reader (New York : Norton, 1999) 2d ed. ISBN 0-393-31956-3.

A significant repository of documentary evidence, including contemporary documents, some by Bach himself. This book includes an English translation of the biography of Bach by the early 19th-century German musicologist Forkel.

• Wolff, Christoph. Johann Sebastian Bach: the learned musician (New York : Norton, 2000) ISBN 039304825X (hbk.) ; (New York : Norton, 2001) ISBN 0-393-32256-4 (pbk.).

A comprehensive and engaging account of Bach's life.

• Williams, Peter. The life of Bach (Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 2004) ISBN 0521826365 (hbk.) ISBN 0521533740 (pbk.).

A shorter expose of the composer's life, using his obituary as the starting point; a valuable complement to Wolff's biography.

• Stauffer, George, and Ernest May. J. S. Bach as organist: his instruments, music, and performance practices (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1986) ISBN 0-253-33181-1 (hbk.), (Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-253-21386-X (pbk.).
• Boyd, Malcolm. Bach (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000) 3rd ed. ISBN 0195142225 (alk. paper), ISBN 0195142233 (pbk.).
• Deutsch, Wilhelm Otto. "Gesten der Annahme, der Verwandlung, der Verwandtschft: Ein Beitrag zur musikalischen Hermeneutik J. S. Bachs in der h-moll-Messe", in Musik und Kirche volume lxii, number 6 (1992), pages 321-327, ISSN 0027-4771 (in German).

Earlier scholarship

• Schweitzer, Albert. J. S. Bach (New York : Dover, 1966) 2 volumes, translated by Ernest Newman, ISBN 0-486-21631-4, reprint of (New York : Macmillan, 1950, 1955, 1962, 1966).
• Spitta, Philipp. Johann Sebastian Bach, his work and influence on the music of Germany, 1685-1750 (London : Novello, 1884) translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland; see also (New York : Dover, 1951).

An early, groundbreaking, three-volume study of Bach's life and music.

• Forkel, Johann Nicolaus. Johann Sebastian Bach; his life, art, and work (New York : Da Capo Press, 1970) Notes and appendices by Charles Sanford Terry, ISBN 0306700107, contains a translation of "Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke : Für patriotische Verehrer echter musikalischer Kunst : Mit Bachs bildness und kupfertafeln" (Leipzig : Hoffmeister und Kühnel, 1802).

An original biography of J.S. Bach written by a near-contemporary who was able to correspond with two of Bach's sons.

Other reading

• Rasmussen, Michelle (August, 2001) "Bach, Mozart, and the 'Musical Midwife'", The New Federalist
• Hofstadter D, Gödel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid

Explores cognition, formal methods, logic and mathematics—particularly Gödel's incompleteness theorem—in the music of Bach, the art of MC Escher and other sources.

Notes

1. Rasmussen.
2. "Bach, Mozart, and the 'Musical Midwife" by Michelle Rasmussen (2001).
3. http://www.bremen.de/web/owa/p_anz_presse_mitteilung?pi_mid=76241
4. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV244-Spering.htm

External links

General reference

• Bach-Leipzig.de, Bach-Archiv Leipzig
• The J.S. Bach Home Page - JSBach.org, by Jan Hanford - extensive information on Bach and his works; huge and growing database of user-contributed recordings and reviews
• Dave's J.S. Bach Page - JSBach.net, maintained by David J. Grossman - includes a catalog of works, images, MIDI files, audio, and electric bass arrangements
• J.S. Bach on Radio 3 - extensive resources on Bach, on occasion of BBC Radio 3's complete airing of Bach's works in Dec 2005
• J.S. Bach bibliography, by Yo Tomita of Queen's Belfast - especially useful to scholars
• Bach-Cantatas.com, by Aryeh Oron - information on the cantatas as well as other works
• Canons and Fugues, by Timothy A. Smith - various information on these contrapuntal works
• , Grove Encyclopaedia and Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on J.S. Bach
• Riemenschneider Bach Institute - includes partical catalog of works by Bach and his circle, information about the Bach Festival

Scores

• Piano Sheet Music of Compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach - Out of Copyright Editions
• IMSLP's ongoing project to sort and make freely available all of Bach's works from the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe.
• Free scores by Johann Sebastian Bach in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
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• Works by Johann Sebastian Bach at Project Gutenberg

Recordings

• Piano Society: J.S. Bach - A biography and various free recordings in MP3 format.
• Classical MIDI Connection: Free MIDI files
• Kunst der Fuge: MIDI files
• Bach cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara Library
• Johann Sebastian Bach discography at MusicBrainz
• MP3 files of arrangements for electric bass by David J. Grossman
• Works by J. S. Bach MP3 at Magnatune

Specific topics

• Bach manuscripts - video lectures by Christoph Wolff on the Bach family's hidden manuscripts archive
• Faces of Bach - Site discussing the portraits of J.S.Bach.
• Bach Tuning
• An article on Bach's tuning script from his manuscript of The Well Tempered Clavier
• J.S. Bach's work in films

Performance groups

• Bach Collegium - Fort Wayne Utlizing early instruments and techniques
• Washington Bach Consort
• The American Bach Society
• The Bach Choir of Bethlehem
• Oregon Bach Festival
• Bach Festival at Baldwin-Wallace College Oldest collegiate Bach Festival in the United States
• Bach Collegium Japan
• The Meistersingers from Tokyo on the conductor Masaaki Suzuki and his enchanting Japanese Bach Collegium in tour in Germany, by Wolfram Goertz at signandsight.com.
• Bach on the bus on the viola player Volker Hagedorn's tour at signandsight.com

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• Baroque composers
• German composers
• Bach family
• Composers for cello
• Composers for lute
• German organists
• People with absolute pitch
• German Lutherans
• Natives of Thuringia
• 1685 births
• 1750 deaths
• Organists and composers in the North German tradition