Bach :: essays research papers

The Baroque ripenJohann Sebastian liveBorn Eisenach, March 21, 1685Died Leipzig, July 28, 1750Regarded as perhaps the sterling(prenominal) composer of whole time, bach was known during his lifetime primarily as an outstanding organ player and technician. The youngest of eight children born to unisonal parents, Johann Sebastian was destined to become a medicineian. While still young, he had mastered the organ and violin, and was also an smooth singer. At the age of ten, both of his parents died within a year of to each one other. Young Sebastian was fortunate to be taken in by an sometime(a) brother, Johann Christoph, who just about likely continued his musical training. At the age of fifteen, Bach secured his first position in the choir of St. Michaels School in Lneburg. He travelled little, never leaving Germany once in his life, provided held various postitions during his career in churches and in the service of the taps throughout the country. In 1703 he went to Arnst adt to take the position of organist at the St. Boniface Church. It was during his tenure at that place that Bach took a months leave of absence to make the journey to Lbeck (some 200 miles away, a journey he made on foot) to catch the great organist Dietrich Buxtehude. One month turned into five, and Bach was obliged to start out a new position at Mlhausen in 1706. In that year he also married his cousin, Maria Barbara. Bach remained at Mlhausen for only a year before taking up a post as organist and concertmaster at the court of the Duke of Weimar.In 1717, Bach moved on to another post, this time as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen. During the years Bach was in the service of the courts, he was obliged to compose a great deal of instrumental music hundreds of pieces for solo keyboard, orchestral dance suites, trio sonatas for various instruments, and concertos for various instruments and orchestra. Of these, the most famous are the six concerti grossi composed for the Duke of Brandenburg in 1721, and the Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 exemplifies the style of the concerto grosso in which a small group of instruments (in this case a small ensemble of strings) is set in concert with an orchestra of strings and continuo. Of Bachs music for solo instruments, the six Suites for violoncello and the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are among the greatest for those instruments.