Bach Essays

- Throughout history, there have been many significant composers who have left their mark on the musical world. From Mozart, to Beethoven, to Chopin, to Brahms, each famous composer has had an influence on the music we hear today. However, perhaps one of the most influential of all composers is Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s effect on music history can never be over-exaggerated. Bach played a crucial role in influencing many later composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, as well as many modern musicians, redefined polyphonic music and musical form, and created beautiful works of canonic music that still resonate with listeners today, over 250 years after his death.

Born in March of 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. His father, Johann Ambrosius, was the court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach and director of the musicians in the town of Eisenach in Thuringia. “For many years, members of the Bach family throughout Thuringia had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors, and the family name was never forgot even Johann sebastian bach's sons played an important role in the history of music. And not to forget Bachs Godfather was Georg Philipp Telemann.

- Sincere Instruction in which lovers of keyboard music, and especially those desiring to learn to play are shown a clear way not only to learn how to play cleanly in 2mparts but also after further progress to proceed correctly and well with thre obbligato parts, and at the same time not only to compose good inventions, but to proceed them well;

but most of all to achieve a cantabile style in playing, and to acquire for the elements of composition.

- J.S. Bach wrote in many styles, his strong belief in his religion's god, adds a good measure to the image of Bach as a composer of Christian music, not to say religious composer, and if not to such extent, then at least a spiritual composer, who took on spiritual and religious themes. To Goldberg Variations, many attach a spiritual domain, yet the piece was written essentially as a substitute for sleeping pill for a count, and Bach would have laughed probably at the idea of Goldberg Variations as being spiritual, given the purpose for which the music was written for. Yet in suite #1, after hearing the recording for many times, looking at the score, listening and thinking about the piece, I felt that the piece was telling me something more than chord progression, something about its form suggested something was hidden. Once I agreed to follow that way, the piece was much clearer and comprehensible. What I came across was the idea of god and man. In the Prelude the first statement in the bass, is god's statement, to which man has a longer statement. A chord is sustained and built from various points and over time, it has taken man all this time to achieve its `verticality' its `complete structures'. To me the most interesting of all was the meaning of the sixteenth note followed by the quarter note beginning of the Allemande. What could be the purpose of such a rhythm in the beginning of this movement. I could make no sense of it, especially as the texture becomes more and more complex, so much so, that the beginning of the Allemande, with its simple two note figure seems almost forgotten, unrelated, altogether a part of a different movement. Having the idea of god and man, the music became related to the beginning, if the sixteenth note represents god, and the quarter note represents man, this small note value, becomes the focal point, not merely a pick-up note, but rather as an entity which is established before all, it is the departure point of the movement, not just a weak note that is barely heard. Applying this (the idea of god being represented by a noted value) to the music of Bach, it seems to suggest something at least plausible in my view, and when looked with broader scope, this piece is the first in the suites, which makes its significance higher, and if Bach had such designs in his music, this seems as a good place for it to happen in.