Johann sebastian bach brief biography of martin
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Many of his works—such as the Well-Tempered Clavier and other keyboard works, most of his organ music, the Brandenburg Concertos, the unaccompanied solos for violin and cello, the cantatas, Passions, and oratorios, the Art of Fugue, and the Mass in B minor—became exemplary samples of their kind and have preserved their influence and legacy through the present day.
Early Years: Arnstadt and Mühlhausen
Johann Sebastian was born in Eisenach on March 21, 1685, as the youngest child to Johann Ambrosius Bach and his wife Maria Elisabeth, née Lämmerhirt.
Bach apparently gave virtuoso organ recitals in Leipzig and on various tours, although he had no official position as organist in Leipzig.
After 1729 Bach no longer concentrated so completely on composing sacred vocal music. There are six undoubted motets by Bach, a couple of others of doubtful authorship, and some works classified in the BWV as cantatas but considered by some scholars to be motets.
His keyboard works may have been intended for harpsichord or clavichord instead. But exceptions are some festive larger-scale works such as a Kyrie and Gloria (later to become part of the Mass in B minor), four shorter Kyrie-Gloria Masses, and the Christmas, Easter and Ascension Oratorios. Bach composed for every musical category of his time except for the genre of opera, and expanded musical composition in format, quality, and technical exactness through elevated harmonizations, fugues, and intricate melodies.
The Bach Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded in 1850 to promote the composer's works, over the next half century publishing a comprehensive edition. The ten-year-old orphan moved in with his elder brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at Ohrdruf, a nearby town. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, he married his cousin from Arnstadt, Anna Maria.
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. The catalogue, published in 1950, was compiled by Wolfgang Schmieder and is organized thematically, rather than chronologically: BWV 1–224 are cantatas, BWV 225–248 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 1001–1040 chamber music, BWV 1041–1071 orchestral music, and BWV 1072–1126 canons and fugues.
It was in Weimar that two sons were born—Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach—who both went on to become important composers themselves in the ornate rococo style that superseded the baroque. It was typical for him to supervise a full-time apprentice, and there were often numerous private students studying in Bach's house, including such notables as Johann Friedrich Agricola.
He wrote secular cantatas, orchestral suites, violin, keyboard, and other concertos, as well as chamber works to be featured there at the expense of further investments in church music. In addition to concertos, Bach also wrote four orchestral suites, a series of stylized dances for orchestra. In August 1703, he accepted the post of organist at that church, with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a new organ free of technical defects and tuned to a modern system that allowed a wide range of keys to be used.
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. Revised and expanded by C. Wolff. Although the piano ("Klavier" in German) was invented in Bach's lifetime, most scholars doubt he had one or intended any of his music for it.
The post involved the organization of secular music and participation in church music.