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88-717: In German-speaking countries during the approximate period 1500–1800, the word Kapellmeister often designated the director of music for a monarch or nobleman. For English speakers, it is this sense of the term that is most often encountered, since it appears frequently in biographical writing about composers who worked in German-speaking countries. During that period, in Italy, the position (Italian: maestro di capella ) largely referred to directors of music assigned to cathedrals and sacred institutions rather than those under royal or aristocratic patronage. A Kapellmeister position

176-416: A Konzertmeister held a somewhat less senior position. Equivalent positions existed in other European countries and were referred to with equivalent names. In Finnish kapellimestari is still the primary word used of conductors. (listed chronologically by date of birth) In contemporary German, the term "Kapellmeister" has become less common than Dirigent (conductor). When used today it designates

264-536: A Kapellmeister but was supported by a somewhat unreliable combination of noble patronage, publication, and concert income. Mozart never was a Kapellmeister in the sense given above. In 1787, he was given a paid position in the court of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II as Kammercompositeur (chamber composer), but authority in matters musical at the court was exercised primarily by Antonio Salieri . In reviews, diaries, and advertising, Mozart

352-440: A broader range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichords . He also came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter-Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines. In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's and being turned down for the post of organist at Sangerhausen , Bach

440-486: A cantata, BWV 191 from his 1733 Kyrie-Gloria Mass for the Dresden court in the mid-1740s, Bach expanded that setting into his Mass in B minor in the last years of his life. The complete mass was not performed during his lifetime. It is considered among the greatest choral works in history. In January 1749, Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann Christoph Altnickol . Bach's health

528-560: A charlatan and believed to have blinded hundreds of people. Bach died on 28 July 1750 from complications due to the unsuccessful treatment. An inventory drawn up a few months after Bach's death shows that his estate included five harpsichords , two lute-harpsichords , three violins , three violas , two cellos , a viola da gamba , a lute , a spinet , and 52 "sacred books", including works by Martin Luther and Josephus . C.P.E. Bach saw to it that The Art of Fugue , though unfinished,

616-679: A church cantata monthly in the castle church. The first three cantatas in the new series Bach composed in Weimar were Himmelskönig, sei willkommen , BWV 182 , for Palm Sunday , which coincided with the Annunciation that year; Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen , BWV 12 , for Jubilate Sunday ; and Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!   BWV 172 for Pentecost . Bach's first Christmas cantata, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag , BWV 63 , premiered in 1714 or 1715. In 1717, Bach fell out of favour in Weimar and, according to

704-495: A composition. He chose his Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" , and a portrait painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann that featured Bach's Canon triplex á 6 Voc . In May 1747, Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam . The king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on it. Bach obliged, playing a three-part fugue on one of Frederick's fortepianos ,

792-457: A festive cantata for the inauguration of the new council , which was published at the council's expense. Bach left Mühlhausen in 1708, returning to Weimar this time as organist and from 1714 Konzertmeister (director of music) at the ducal court, where he could work with a large, well-funded contingent of professional musicians. Bach and his wife moved into a house near the ducal palace. Later that year, their first child, Catharina Dorothea,

880-608: A large extent he defined it. Fugues are as characteristic of Bach's style as, for instance, sonata form is of the composers of the Classical period . These strictly contrapuntal compositions, and most of Bach's music in general, are characterised by distinct melodic lines for each voice, where the chords formed by the notes sounding at a given point follow the rules of four-part harmony. Johann Nikolaus Forkel , Bach's first biographer, gives this description of this feature of Bach's music, which sets it apart from most other music: If

968-608: A much better and newer (1716) organ than the St. Thomas Church or the St. Nicholas Church. Bach was not required to play any organ in his official duties, but it is believed he liked to play on the St. Paul's Church organ for his own pleasure. Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over, in March 1729, the directorship of the Collegium Musicum , a secular performance ensemble Telemann started. This

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1056-501: A musician, Leopold appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. Leopold was a Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period is secular, including the orchestral suites , cello suites , sonatas and partitas for solo violin , and the Brandenburg Concertos . Bach also composed secular cantatas for

1144-479: A new type of instrument at the time. Upon his return to Leipzig he composed a set of fugues and canons and a trio sonata based on the Thema Regium ("king's theme"). Within a few weeks this music was published as The Musical Offering and dedicated to Frederick. The Schübler Chorales , a set of six chorale preludes transcribed from cantata movements Bach had written two decades earlier, were published within

1232-704: A prelude and fugue in every major and minor key, displaying a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques. Four-part harmony predates Bach, but he lived during a time when modal music in Western tradition was largely supplanted by the tonal system . In this system a piece of music progresses from one chord to the next according to certain rules, with each chord characterised by four notes. The principles of four-part harmony are found not only in Bach's four-part choral music; he also prescribes it for instance in figured bass accompaniment. The new system

1320-699: A prolonged absence from Arnstadt: after obtaining leave for four weeks, he was absent for around four months in 1705–1706 to take lessons from the organist and composer Johann Adam Reincken and to hear him and Dieterich Buxtehude play in the northern city of Lübeck . The visit to Buxtehude and Reincken involved a 450-kilometre (280 mi) journey each way, reportedly on foot. Buxtehude probably introduced Bach to his friend Reincken so that he could learn from his compositional technique (especially his mastery of fugue ), his organ playing and his skills with improvisation. Bach knew Reincken's music very well; he copied Reincken's monumental An Wasserflüssen Babylon when he

1408-401: A sense of routine or failure to project glamour: "a Kapellmeister now describes a pale, meek figure beating time. A policeman on duty at the podium directing the musical traffic, no more." In fact, Thielemann, who is fully aware of the historical usage of the term, would himself prefer to be called a "Kapellmeister": "it implies such virtues as knowledge of a work, great ability, and dedication to

1496-523: A soloist) with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements, a decade before Handel published his first organ concertos. Apart from the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and the Triple Concerto , which already had harpsichord soloists in the 1720s, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s, and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord neither instrument plays a continuo part: they are treated as equal soloists, far beyond

1584-548: A sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works. He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi , Corelli , and Torelli . Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects to a certain extent by transcribing Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these transcribed works are still regularly performed. Bach

1672-573: A translation of the court secretary's report, was jailed for almost a month before being unfavorably dismissed: "On November 6, [1717,] the quondam [former] concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavorable discharge." Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen , hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music) in 1717. Himself

1760-418: A year. Around the same time, the set of five canonic variations Bach had submitted when entering Mizler's society in 1747 were also printed. Two large-scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach's last years. Beginning around 1742, he wrote and revised the various canons and fugues of The Art of Fugue , which he continued to prepare for publication until shortly before his death. After extracting

1848-461: Is a very different thing when two melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a footing of pleasant equality. In the first case, the accompaniment is subordinate and serves merely to support the first or principal part. In the second case, the two parts are not similarly related. New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving, out of which new forms of musical expression emerge. Suppose more parts are interwoven in

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1936-595: Is harmonically more innovative than his peers', employing surprisingly dissonant chords and progressions, often extensively exploring harmonic possibilities within one piece. Bach's hundreds of sacred works are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but also a deep faith in God. He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and some of his pieces represent it. The Lutheran chorale

2024-459: Is still played. Although Bach wrote no operas, he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal style. In church music, Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as the Neapolitan mass . In Protestant surroundings, there was more reluctance to adopt such a style for liturgical music. Kuhnau had notoriously shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music. Bach

2112-518: Is the interweaving of several melodies, which emerge now in the upper, now in the middle, and now in the lower parts. From 1720, when he was thirty-five until he died in 1750, Bach's harmony consists of this melodic interweaving of independent melodies, so perfect in their union that each part seems to constitute the true melody. Herein, Bach excels all the composers in the world. At least, I have found no one to equal him in music known to me. Even in his four-part writing, we can, not infrequently, leave out

2200-547: The Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements , including the Air on the G String and " Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring ", and of recordings, such as three different box sets with complete performances of his oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death. Johann Sebastian Bach

2288-579: The Little Organ Book , containing traditional Lutheran chorale tunes set in complex textures. In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady . In the spring of 1714, Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister , an honour that entailed performing

2376-805: The Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor ; and choral works such as the St ;Matthew Passion and the Mass in B ;minor . Since the 19th century Bach Revival , he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius , in Eisenach . After being orphaned at

2464-567: The organ , and an older second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach , was a well-known composer and violinist. Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later. The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach , the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf , Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg . There he studied, performed, and copied music, including his brother's, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper

2552-540: The Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites, many of Bach's newly composed or reworked pieces were performed for these venues, including parts of his Clavier-Übung ( Keyboard Practice ), his violin and keyboard concertos , and the Coffee Cantata . In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor that he later incorporated in his Mass in B minor. He presented the manuscript to

2640-523: The Collegium Musicum gave two-hour performances, in winter at the Café Zimmermann , a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main market square, and in summer in the proprietor's outdoor coffee garden just outside the town walls, near the East Gate. The concerts, all free of charge, ended with Gottfried Zimmermann's death in 1741. Apart from showcasing his earlier orchestral repertoire, such as

2728-599: The Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales, but in crafting this work, Bach created an overall experience that has been found over the intervening centuries to be both musically thrilling and spiritually profound. Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many collections of pieces that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except opera . For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two books, each of which presents

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2816-583: The St Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes , their final revisions. He also programmed and adapted music by composers of a younger generation, including Pergolesi ( BWV 1083 ), and his own students, such as Goldberg ( BNB I/G/2 ). In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler 's Society of Musical Sciences  [ de ] . To be admitted, he had to submit

2904-436: The liturgical year . Bach usually led performances of his cantatas , most composed within three years of his relocation to Leipzig. He assumed the office of Thomaskantor on 30 May 1723, presenting the first new cantata, Die Elenden sollen essen , BWV 75 , in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity . Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Five are mentioned in obituaries, and three are extant. Of

2992-477: The 18th century, Bach was primarily valued as an organist , while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier , was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some significant Bach biographies , and by the end of that century, all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him and other publications such as

3080-781: The Bach family in Leipzig, but the visit did not take place. On 7 July 1720, while Bach was away in Carlsbad with Leopold, his wife, Maria Barbara Bach , suddenly died. The next year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke , a young, gifted soprano 16 years his junior, who performed at the court in Köthen; they married on 3 December 1721. Together they had 13 children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich ; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781); Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian , who both, especially Johann Christian, became significant musicians; Johanna Carolina (1737–1781); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809). In 1723, Bach

3168-538: The Elector in a successful bid to persuade the prince to give him the title of Court Composer. He later extended this work into a full mass by adding a Credo , Sanctus , and Agnus Dei , the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas and partly original. Bach's appointment as Court Composer was an element of his long-term struggle to achieve greater bargaining power with the Leipzig council. Between 1737 and 1739, Bach's former pupil Carl Gotthelf Gerlach held

3256-540: The Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi . He learned theology , Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium . By 3 April 1700, Bach and his school friend Georg Erdmann—who was two years older than Bach—studied at St. Michael 's School in Lüneburg , some two weeks' travel north of Ohrdruf. Their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to

3344-509: The Leipzig offer to negotiate better terms of employment. Bach was required to instruct the Thomasschule students in singing and provide church music for the main churches in Leipzig. He was also assigned to teach Latin but was allowed to employ four "prefects" (deputies) to do this instead. The prefects also aided with musical instruction. A cantata was required for the church services on Sundays and additional church holidays during

3432-525: The St. Paul's Church, the church of Leipzig University . But when Bach was installed as cantor in 1723, he was put in charge only of music for festal (church holiday) services at St. Paul's Church; his petition to also provide music for regular Sunday services there (for a corresponding salary increase) went all the way to the Elector but was denied. In 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even for festal services at St. Paul's Church and decided to appear there only on "special occasions". The St. Paul's Church had

3520-532: The age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph , after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg . In 1703 he returned to Thuringia , working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer periods, at courts in Weimar , where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen , where he was mostly engaged with chamber music . In 1723, he

3608-545: The canons BWV 1072–1078 are in that category, as is the bulk of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue . Another characteristic of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint , as opposed to the homophony used in his four-part chorale settings, for example. Bach's canons, and especially his fugues, are the most characteristic of this style, which he did not invent but contributed to so fundamentally that to

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3696-446: The cause of music". The term "Kapellmeister Tradition" is commonly used to describe these qualities, as exemplified by such historically important conductors as Otto Klemperer , Clemens Krauss , and Erich Kleiber , in the sense that they have "paid their dues" on their way to international fame. Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [ O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750)

3784-419: The course of a piece, is another style characteristic where Bach goes beyond the norm in his time. Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation possibilities: keyboard instruments, before a workable system of temperament , limited the keys that could be modulated to, and wind instruments, especially brass instruments such as trumpets and horns , about a century before they were fitted with valves, were tied to

3872-425: The court, such as Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht , BWV 134a . Despite being born in the same year and only about 130 kilometres (80 mi) apart, Bach and Handel never met. In 1719, Bach made the 35-kilometre (22 mi) journey from Köthen to Halle with the intention to meet Handel, but Handel had left town. In 1730, Bach's oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, travelled to Halle to invite Handel to visit

3960-542: The courts of Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as that of the Elector Frederick Augustus (who was also King of Poland ) in Dresden . Bach frequently disagreed with his employer, Leipzig's city council, which he regarded as "penny-pinching". Johann Kuhnau had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1701 until his death on 5 June 1722. Bach had visited Leipzig during Kuhnau's tenure: in 1714, he attended

4048-500: The director of music for a church. Thus, Georg Reutter was the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna , where his young choristers included both Joseph and Michael Haydn . Becoming a Kapellmeister was a mark of success for professional musicians. For instance, Joseph Haydn once remarked that he was glad his father (a wheelwright ) had lived long enough to see his son become a Kapellmeister. The term also implied

4136-503: The director or chief conductor of an orchestra or choir. It suggests involvement in orchestra or choir policy (for example, selecting repertoire, concert schedules, and guest conductors) as well as conducting. In military settings it refers to a bandmaster . The music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra traditionally holds the old-fashioned title Gewandhauskapellmeister . In other German opera houses,

4224-849: The directorship of the Collegium Musicum. In 1735, Bach started preparing his first organ music publication, which was printed as the third Clavier-Übung in 1739. From around that year he started to compile and compose the set of preludes and fugues for harpsichord that became the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier . He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736. From 1740 to 1748 Bach copied, transcribed, expanded or programmed music in an older polyphonic style ( stile antico ) by, among others, Palestrina ( BNB I/P/2 ), Kerll ( BWV 241 ), Torri ( BWV Anh. 30 ), Bassani ( BWV 1081 ), Gasparini ( Missa Canonica ), and Caldara ( BWV 1082 ). Bach's style shifted in

4312-412: The end of the 18th century, many of the nobility had declined in their economic power relative to the newly prosperous middle class. Eventually, the maintenance of a Kapelle became too expensive for most nobles, which led to a decline in the number of Kapellmeister positions. A well-known instance occurred in 1790, when Prince Anton Esterházy succeeded his father Nikolaus and dismissed almost all of

4400-418: The figured bass. In this way, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto. Bach wrote virtuoso music for specific instruments as well as music independent of instrumentation. For instance, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin are considered the pinnacle of what has been written for violin, within reach of only accomplished players. The music fits the instrument, using

4488-609: The full expansion came with the Well-Tempered Clavier , using all keys, which Bach apparently had been developing since around 1720, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach being one of its earliest examples. The second page of the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and performance guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son when he was nine years old. Bach

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4576-484: The full gamut of its possibilities and requiring virtuosity but without bravura . Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem inseparable, Bach transcribed some pieces in this collection for other instruments. Similarly, the virtuoso cello suites seem tailored to the instrument, the best of what is offered for it, but Bach arranged one of the suites for lute. The same applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach exploited an instrument's capacities to

4664-415: The fullest while keeping the core of the music independent of the instrument on which it is performed. In this sense, it is no surprise that Bach's music is easily and often performed on instruments it was not written for, that it is transcribed so often, and that his melodies turn up in unexpected places, such as jazz music. Apart from this, Bach left several compositions without specified instrumentation:

4752-442: The genres associated with it: more than his contemporaries (who had "moved on" to the tonal system without much exception), Bach often returned to the then-antiquated modes and genres. His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue , emulating the chromatic fantasia genre used by earlier composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck in D dorian mode (comparable to D minor in the tonal system), is an example. Modulation , or changing key in

4840-462: The key of their tuning. Bach pushed the limits: he added "strange tones" in his organ playing, confusing the singers, according to an indictment he had to face in Arnstadt, and Louis Marchand , another early experimenter with modulation, seems to have avoided confrontation with Bach because the latter went further than anyone had done before. In the "Suscepit Israel" of his 1723 Magnificat , he had

4928-459: The language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line, a simple sequence of musical notes, it can justly be accused of poverty. The addition of a Bass puts it upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it but defines rather than gives it added richness. A melody so accompanied—even though all the notes are not those of the true Bass—or treated with simple embellishments in the upper parts or with simple chords used to be called "homophony". But it

5016-557: The last decade of his life, showing an increased integration of polyphonic structures and canons and other elements of the stile antico . His fourth and last Clavier-Übung volume, the Goldberg Variations for two-manual harpsichord, contained nine canons and was published in 1741. During this period, Bach also continued to adapt music of contemporaries such as Handel ( BNB I/K/2 ) and Stölzel ( BWV 200 ), and gave many of his own earlier compositions, such as

5104-430: The latter's extensive musical establishment. But Prince Anton was hardly alone in doing this; during this same period, "the steady decline in the number of orchestras supported by aristocratic families represented a ... change that affected all composers and their works." This was a difficult time for musicians, who needed to find new ways to support themselves. For instance, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) never worked as

5192-744: The more than 300 cantatas he composed in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to posterity. Most of these works expound on the Gospel readings prescribed for every Sunday and feast day in the Lutheran year. Bach started a second annual cycle on the first Sunday after the Trinity of 1724 and composed only chorale cantatas , each based on a single church hymn. These include O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort , BWV 20 , Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme , BWV 140 , Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland , BWV 62 , and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern , BWV 1 . Bach drew

5280-458: The organist at the New Church, with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a new organ tuned in a temperament that allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be played. Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach felt discontented by the calibre of musicians he

5368-408: The possession of considerable musical skill. When the 18th-century actor and musician Joachim Daniel Preisler heard the famous soprano Aloysia Weber ( Mozart 's sister-in-law) perform in her home, he paid her the following compliment in his diary: The well-known Mozardt is her brother-in-law and has taught her so well that she accompanies from a score and plays interludes like a Kapellmeister. By

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5456-441: The same free and independent manner. In that case, the apparatus of language is correspondingly enlarged and becomes practically inexhaustible if, in addition, varieties of form and rhythm are introduced. Hence, harmony becomes no longer a mere accompaniment of melody but rather a potent agency for augmenting the richness and expressiveness of musical conversation. To serve that end, a simple accompaniment will not suffice. True harmony

5544-674: The service at the St. Thomas Church on the first Sunday of Advent, and in 1717 he had tested the organ of the St. Paul's Church . In 1716, Bach and Kuhnau met on the occasion of the testing and inauguration of an organ in Halle. The position was offered to Bach only after it had been offered to Georg Philipp Telemann and then to Christoph Graupner , both of whom chose to stay where they were—Telemann in Hamburg and Graupner in Darmstadt—after using

5632-477: The soprano and alto choristers from the school and the tenors and basses from the school and elsewhere in Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income for these groups; probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, he wrote at least six motets . As part of his regular church work, he performed other composers' motets, which served as formal models for his own. Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, had also been music director for

5720-608: The term generally refers to a deputy conductor reporting to the Generalmusikdirektor (general music director, usually also the chief conductor). An opera company may have several Kapellmeister, ranked as Erste Kapellmeister (First...), Zweite Kapellmeister (Second...), etc. The conductor Christian Thielemann has offered a nuanced account of the Dirigent / Kapellmeister distinction in contemporary usage. He suggests that "Kapellmeister" has unfairly acquired

5808-466: The then-ailing incumbent, Leopold Hofmann . This never took place, since Mozart died (December 1791) before Hofmann did (1793). Variant spellings capellmeister and capelle , to refer to the orchestra or choir, are sometimes encountered in English language works about composers who held the title. The word Hofkapellmeister specified that the Kapellmeister worked at a nobleman's court ( Hof );

5896-1014: The title of court composer in 1736. In the last decades of his life, Bach reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after a botched eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint , harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. His compositions include hundreds of cantatas , both sacred and secular . He composed Latin church music , Passions , oratorios , and motets . He often adopted Lutheran hymns , not only in his larger vocal works but, for instance, also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs . Bach wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments . He composed concertos , for instance for violin and for harpsichord , and suites , as chamber music as well as for orchestra . Many of his works employ contrapuntal techniques like canon and fugue . In

5984-513: The trumpets in E-flat play a melody in the enharmonic scale of C minor. The major development in Bach's time to which he contributed in no small way was a temperament for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in every key (12 major and 12 minor) and also modulation without retuning. His Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother , a very early work, showed a gusto for modulation unlike any contemporary work it has been compared to, but

6072-704: Was 15 years old. Bach later wrote several other works on the same theme. When Bach revisited Reincken in 1720 and showed him his improvisatory skills on the organ, Reincken reportedly remarked: "I thought that this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you." In 1706, Bach applied for a post as organist at the Blasius Church in Mühlhausen . As part of his application, he had a cantata performed on Easter, 24 April 1707, likely an early version of his Christ lag in Todes Banden . Bach's application

6160-410: Was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period . He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos ; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin ; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier ; organ works such as

6248-587: Was a senior one and involved supervision of other musicians. Johann Sebastian Bach worked from 1717 to 1723 as Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen . Joseph Haydn worked for many years as Kapellmeister for the Esterházy family, a high-ranking noble family of the Habsburg monarchy . George Frideric Handel served as Kapellmeister for George, Elector of Hanover (who eventually became King George I of Great Britain ). A Kapellmeister might also be

6336-598: Was accepted a month later, and he took up the post in July. The position included significantly higher remuneration, improved conditions, and a better choir. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria Barbara Bach , his second cousin. Bach convinced the church and town government at Mühlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church. In 1708, Bach wrote Gott ist mein König ,

6424-690: Was appointed Thomaskantor director of church music in Leipzig. He had to direct the St. Thomas School and provide four churches with music, the St. Thomas Church , the St. Nicholas Church , and to a lesser extent, the New Church and St. Peter's Church . This was "the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany", located in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony , which he held for 27 years, until his death. During that time he gained further prestige through honorary appointments at

6512-471: Was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar . His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboardist spread so widely that he was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church (now Bach Church ) in Arnstadt , about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Weimar. On 14 August 1703, he became

6600-404: Was at the core of Bach's style, and his compositions are to a large extent considered to have laid down the rules for the evolving scheme that dominated musical expression in the next centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence: Bach's insistence on the tonal system and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at ease with the older modal system and

6688-512: Was born in Eisenach , the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach , in present-day Germany, on 21 March 1685 O.S. (31 March 1685 N.S. ). He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach , the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt . His father likely taught him violin and basic music theory . His uncles were all professional musicians who worked as church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach , introduced him to

6776-495: Was born, and Maria Barbara's elder, unmarried sister joined them. She remained to help run the household until she died in 1729. Three sons were also born in Weimar: Wilhelm Friedemann , Carl Philipp Emanuel , and Johann Gottfried Bernhard . Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children—twins born in 1713 and a single birth; none survived past their first birthday. Bach's time in Weimar began

6864-420: Was collaborating with. He called one of them, Geyersbach, a "Zippel Fagottist" ( weenie bassoonist ). Late one evening, Geyersbach went after Bach with a stick. Bach filed a complaint against Geyersbach with the authorities. They acquitted Geyersbach with a minor reprimand and ordered Bach to be more moderate about the musical qualities he expected from his students. Some months later, Bach upset his employer with

6952-467: Was commonly referred to as (Herr) Kapellmeister Mozart . It seems that Mozart's prestige, along with the fact that he frequently appeared in public directing other musicians, led to the use of "Kapellmeister" as a term of respect. In April 1791, Mozart applied to become the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's Cathedral and was designated by the City Council to take over this job following the death of

7040-474: Was costly. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord . Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll , Johann Jakob Froberger , and Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied); North Germans; Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully , Louis Marchand , and Marin Marais ; and

7128-506: Was declining. On 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director, Gottlob Harrer , fill the Thomaskantor and Director musices posts "upon the eventual ... decease of Mr. Bach". Becoming blind, Bach underwent eye surgery in March 1750 and again in April by the British eye surgeon John Taylor , a man widely understood today as

7216-576: Was generally quite specific on ornamentation in his compositions (in his time, much ornamentation was not written out by composers but rather considered a liberty of the performer), and his ornamentation was often quite elaborate. For instance, the "Aria" of the Goldberg Variations has rich ornamentation in nearly every measure. Bach's approach to ornamentation can also be seen in a keyboard arrangement he made of Marcello 's Oboe Concerto : he added explicit ornamentation, which centuries later

7304-532: Was hired as Thomaskantor ( cantor at St Thomas's ) in Leipzig . There, he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum . In 1726, he began publishing his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer. This situation was somewhat remedied when his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland , granted him

7392-409: Was less moved. After a performance of his St Matthew Passion , someone said it all sounded much like opera. In concerted playing in Bach's time, the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as organ, viola da gamba , or harpsichord, usually had the role of accompaniment, providing a piece's harmonic and rhythmic foundation. Beginning in the 1720s, Bach had the organ play concertante (i.e., as

7480-437: Was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities established by musically active university students; they had become increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city. In the words of Christoph Wolff , assuming the directorship was a shrewd move that "consolidated Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's principal musical institutions". Every week,

7568-650: Was particularly attracted to the Italian style, in which one or more solo instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement . In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for the organ and perform concert music with the duke's ensemble. He also began to write the preludes and fugues that were later assembled into his monumental work The Well-Tempered Clavier ("clavier" meaning clavichord or harpsichord), consisting of two books, each containing 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key. In Weimar Bach also started work on

7656-843: Was published in 1751. Together with one of J.S. Bach's former students, Johann Friedrich Agricola , C.P.E. Bach also wrote the obituary (" Nekrolog "), which was published in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek  [ de ] , a periodical journal produced by the Society of Musical Sciences, in 1754. From an early age, Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period and those of earlier generations, and those influences are reflected in his music. Like his contemporaries Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da capo arias , and four-part choral music, and employed basso continuo . His music

7744-503: Was the basis of much of his work. In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes, he wrote more cogent and tightly integrated works than most, even when they were massive and lengthy. The large-scale structure of every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning to create religiously and musically powerful expression. For example, the St Matthew Passion , like other works of its kind, illustrated

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