Johann Sebastian Bach wrote many amazing masterpieces, many still given life today through performance around the world. There are, however, many pieces that do not shine as brightly in the public eye. One of these pieces is Bach’s BWV 543, entitled “Prelude and Fugue in A minor” and otherwise nicknamed “The Great.” This music is said not to be a famous piece for organ but does itself justice when compared to his similar and more famous works. With its many musical structures weaving in and out of the piece and its highly virtuosic nature, after hearing the BWV 543 performed it is easy to understand why it is nicknamed as such. To begin to understand the nature of a piece, such as the “Prelude and Fugue in A Minor,” one must first understand Bach and the influences upon him. Before his knowledge on the fugue became famous and was used to educate future fugue composers, Bach was born into the Baroque era. He was constantly surrounded by war, chaos, and a strong urge for forward movement in religion, science, and art. The world had been through struggles over land, a movement to explore a new world, and people being executed under the pretense of being witches. The effects rang clear and true through all the people who lived in this era, including Bach. This chaotic world, along with the great influence from the exposure to the music of other parts of Germany, Italy, and France, produced a perfect climate for Bach’s brilliance. The music he produced had a lot of control with a lot of flair. He liked improvisation, but did not leave that up to the performer. Instead, he wrote very virtuosic passages for his pieces, with which the performer did not have much room for imaginative playing. Then there is his knowledge on how to writ... ... middle of paper ... ...ther with transposed subjects and countersubjects until the piece ends with a final cadence in the original key of a minor. Throughout the entire fugue there are many virtuosic passages that would befuddle the average musician. It is amazing that Bach was able to create such intensely dense music while following the strict guidelines for music of his time. Johann Sebastian Bach was known as a musical master wrote many amazing masterpieces. One of the lesser known pieces is Bach’s BWV 543, entitled “Prelude and Fugue in A minor” and otherwise nicknamed “The Great.” This music is said not to be a famous piece for organ but does itself justice when compared to his similar and more famous works. The tight structure of the piece intertwined with its highly virtuosic nature is a great example of the influence the Baroque era had on Bach and his musical thought process.
Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven both flourished in their compositions of classical music; however, their genre of music differed considerably. Bach was a German composer during the Baroque time era of western music which is estimated to have taken place during 1600 to 1750. It was during this time that he composed prolific church organ music which included such works as the Mass in B Minor, much scared choral music, and the St. Matthew Passion, as well as composing over a thousand works in nearly every musical genre except opera. On the other hand, Beethoven was a German composer whom began to emerge during the classical era of western music twenty years after Bach. This era took place throughout the years1750 and 1830. The large quantity of arrangements, over two hundred works in numerous musical genres composed by Beethoven was significantly influenced by his predecessors, onset of deafness, and his highly personal expression of intellectual depth. Such works include the first an...
Strip all the decorations and ornaments, and there is a straight-forward analysis. The piece begins and ends in D, cadencing to tonic. There is an A halfway in between, creating a half cadence. In order words, this can be easily be called a I-V-I, just like any other piece. That is fine. Because every song essentially is I to V to I, there must be something else that differentiates this piece from everything else. What makes this piece interesting? What makes tonic to dominant back to tonic worth listening for? To put it frankly, the notes in between the beginning, the middle, and the end, is what makes anything sound different. Bach devised some interesting ways to train our ears to listen to aesthetic notes when, in reality, it is D to A to D.
Bach used time and structure in his work to force his listeners to set themselves inside the narrative. So, while listening, as
The Mass in B minor (BWV 232) by Johann Sebastian Bach is a musical setting of the Latin Mass Ordinary. The piece is orchestrated for two flutes, two oboes d'amore, one natural horn (in D), three trumpets (in D), timpani, violins I and II, violas and basso continuo (cellos, basses, bassoons, organ and harpsichord). The work was one of Bach's last compositions, not completed until 1749, the year before his death. Much of the Mass gave new form to vocal music that Bach had composed throughout his career, dating back to 1714, but extensively revised. Bach's devout relationship with the Christian God in the Lutheran tradition and the high demand for religious music of his times placed sacred music at the centre of his repertory. The Lutheran chorale
Prelude and Fugue No. 17 BMW 862 is part of the book named The Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany. He grew up in a musical family; his father being the director of the musicians in his hometown and his uncles all skilled musicians. Respectively, his father and brother taught him the violin, harpsichord and clavichord. However, his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, was the one responsible for his introduction to contemporary music. Initially, he landed a position in a school in Luneburg due to his wonderful singing, but later, he switched to focusing on the violin and harpsichord. Throughout his childhood, he often looked up to the local organist, George Bohm, who later became his teacher. Subsequent to his
The fugue from Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B minor is a work that was composed in Bach’s later years. Bach composed this work during his tenure at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany. This work as a whole is a great example of Bach’s mature essays, which appeared in his later Weimar years. The fugue is very different from the prelude. None of the material from the prelude is introduces in the fugue. The subject is only two measures in length; the plain subject is boring by it self. But Bach turns that two measure subject into an eighty-eight-measure fugue. I will explore two different ideas that make up the majority of the fugue, melody and developmental form. I will also talk about how I would interpret this work when preforming it.
Classical Vault 2, dir. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G major, BWV 1048 Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. YouTube, 2013. Web. 21 Mar 2014. .
Between the 1600s and the 1700s, many would think more of Kings or Queens who ruled their vast kingdoms for years upon years rather than a great composer such as Johann Sebastian Bach, a man who greatly contributed to Germany and many other specific regions of Europe during his life. Born in 1685 Eisenach on March 21, Bach was a member of one of the most excellent musical families of all time as, for over 200 years, the Bach family had birthed some of the most superb composers and performers, many supported by churches, the government, and nobles for their extraordinary works ("Wikipedia"). However, having been orphaned so early on, Bach grew up in the home of his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, in Ohrdruf. During his early life, he attended schools of dance, acted as an organist on many occasions, particularly in Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar, as well as a court music director in Cöthen, and, later in his life, in 1723 to be precise, he became the grand choirmaster of St.Thomas in Leipzig for twenty-seven years and oversaw many events of the school, going so far as to divide the students into four individual choirs and recruiting the talents of the citys professional musicians and university students (pg 1 - 14, Eidam). He continued as a choirmaster until the end of his days, writing various and exquisite pieces that were preformed in front of many audiences, quite a few of which were preformed by those of the four individual choirs he created while he lead them through each piece (pg 1 - 14, Eidam). Though this may not seem as important as the rulings of Kings and Queens at the time, Bach's contribution to his homeland of Germany and its people was mostly certainly memorable and worth consideration. In fact, because of his contr...
This paper will explore the life of the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was considered one of the greatest composers of all time. He created amazing, famous compositions that made a big impact in today’s world. He went through rough times like many people do, the loss of his parents and finding a way back to the old routine was not an easy task. Bach came from generations of musicians and was given a religious education which is something that played a big role in his life when becoming a musician. We will analyze and learn the significance of some of his great compositions, the stories and what inspired him to compose music.
The first thing I will talk about is the type of music he is know for which gave him that name. Most people listen to the type of music he composed but next to none know who or how it was composed. There seems to be an abundance of music fans who know little or nothing about the origin of their music. By discussing what he has accomplished it will explain why he is considered to be so important to his type of music.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer, a musician, teacher, and organist who later became a specialist in construction of organs. Bach learnt to play the violin, the orchestra, and the organ from his father and his famous uncle and twin brother to the father, Johann Christoph at a young age. The organ was his chosen instrument. He also achieved success in the art of Fugue, choral polyphone, instrumental music and dance forms. In Eisenach he attended Old Latin Grammar School, the same school that Martin Luther had attended. He sang in the schools choir. His parents died before Bach was 10 years old. His mother died when Bach was nine years old, his father’s death followed nine months later (Sherrane, 2011). After the parents death Bach was taken in by his older brother Johann Christoph who had already established himself as an organist in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph had a great influence in Bach’s success in music as he taught him and encouraged him to study music composition. At the same time Bach was attending the Gymnasium grammar school in Ohrdruf where he studied theology, Latin...
Often identified as the summarizer of the Baroque-era, Johann Sebastian Bach contributed significantly to the practice and theoretical development of Western music. Having composed copious amounts of music, Bach’s output of vocal compositions exceeds 500 works that includes: sacred and secular cantatas, motets, masses, and passions. Among Bach’s substantial collection of cantatas, the majority date back to his post in Leipzig. Although Bach is considered to have written five cantata cycles, only the first three are virtually complete; the remaining two are either lost or unable of being attributed to Bach.
A sinfonia (Italian for symphony) broadly refers to a number of instrumental works from the Baroque period, including symphonies, sonatas, canzonas, concerti, and Italian opera overtures. Even J.S. Bach titles his “three-part” inventions for harpsichord “Sinfonia”. Torelli’s Sinfonia in D (G.8) is a four-movement “concerto” for trumpet, strings and harpsichord continuo. Unlike a concerto grosso, where a main theme is presented and then reappears in fragments, the main themes of Sinfonia in D are developed rather freely. The second movement (Adagio) is a very short, slow, interlude without trumpet that introduces the third movement (Allegro). Hence, the program shows these two movements as “adagio-allegro” joined together.
his music was not as widley known as other composers of the time. On traveling he never
The Classical Period brought forward new musical innovation. The sudden change in emotion and contrast in the music from the classical era is one of the many fascinating topics. However, the topic most talked about to this very day is Mozart’s Requiem. The mystery of which parts were composed by Mozart puzzles many. Even the rumor that surrounds Mozart’s cause of death is fascinating. Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus, added more controversy to this intriguing mystery.