Transcript Bach Book - mshumanities

•Born in Germany in 1685
•Died in 1750
• Bach came from a family of musicians with more than
70 of his relatives being composers, musicians, or
choirmasters.
•Bach composed during the Baroque
time period when everything had a
grand, decorative feeling to it.
•Architecture was created to show off
palaces and homes of the wealthy.
•Music of this time also was decorative filled with sounds of
voices, violins, trumpets and flutes
•Wealthy would listen to their favorite music at royal court
gatherings, the opera or their local church.
•Bach’s father was a
town musician who
probably introduced
him to different
instruments
•Bach’s mother died
when he was only nine
years old.
•His father died only a
year later.
•A sad young
Sebastian Bach
moved in with
his brother,
Christoph who
was an excellent
church organist.
•He taught
Sebastian how to
tune and fix
broken organs.
•Sebastian traveled to different towns in Germany testing and
repairing organs.
•When he was 15, he left his brother’s house and
walked 200 miles to another town in Germany
looking for a music job.
•As he moved
from town to
town, he did
various music
jobs that
sometimes
included other
chores. He
was a violinist
for the royal
court when he
was 17, but he
also had to
take the slop
out of the
kitchen.
•Bach took many side
trips trying to listen to
well known organists
and composers.
•Eventually, his
listening caused him to
change his own music
to a more animated
style.
•One of Bach’s most famous organ compositions is
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor; it is filled with big,
powerful sounds which were unheard of before him.
•Bach was religious
and wrote many
musical pieces for the
church service called
cantatas. He wrote
hundreds of these.
•A cantata features voices mainly; it has a lead singer and a
choir accompanied by an orchestra. They are written for God.
•During the Baroque time period, church services could last for
four or five hours so they depended on cantatas to keep them
awake.
•Soon Bach become
well known for his
remarkable talent as
an organist and
composer of church
music.
•He married Maria
Bach, a distant cousin
and she and the kids
traveled with him.
•Sebastian was hired by Duke Wilhelm Ernst and wrote some of
his most important organ works there.
•However, when Sebastian decided to leave the Duke’s court, the
Duke threw him in jail for a whole month.
•Being in jail was depressing for
Sebastian and he wanted to start his
new job for Prince Leopold in
Germany.
•Bach wrote several keyboard books
which are still played by music
students today.
•After six happy years in Prince
Leopold’s court, things changed.
Maria died then the Prince married
and his new wife didn’t care for
Bach’s music.
•Soon Bach decided it was
time to move on.
•Before he left the Prince’s
court, he wrote the
Brandenburg Concertos,
some of his most popular
works.
•A concerto is a musical
piece where one
instrument, or a small
group of instruments
stands out from the rest of
the orchestra.
•The concertos are known
for their peaceful, relaxing
yet, lively style.
•Sebastian’s new position was director of music in Leipzig,
Germany.
•He was responsible for composing and directing music for four
churches, a school choir, a university choir and any music the
city might need for special events.
•Sebastian remarried in 1721. He and his new wife Anna Magdalena
had 13 children. He had four from his first marriage so he was busy
taking care of his large family.
•Each week Sebastian had to write down and make copies of the
music he had written for all the choir and orchestra members. It was
a boring job, but his family would often help out.
•Sebastian was a loving father and made sure all his children
got good grades, learned to play a musical instrument and
helped around the house. Four of his sons became famous
composers.
•Bach spent 29 years in Leipzig.
•Later in his life, musical tastes were changing from the
complicated big sounds of the Baroque, to simpler and lighter
music.
•Bach stuck with his style of
Baroque music and he was
constantly being given a hard time
by his bosses (he had 12 of them)
who didn’t understand music very
well.
•He didn’t get raises, he wasn’t
appreciated, yet he stood up for
his rights and ignored their
complaints.