Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period, born on March 31, 1685 (O.S. March 21), in Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies (now Germany). He passed away on July 28, 1750, in Leipzig.
Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest and most prolific composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St John and St Matthew Passions, the Christmas Oratorio and more than 300 cantatas (although only around 200 are extant. He numerous other masterpieces of church and instrumental music.
Bach’s abilities as an organist were highly respected throughout his lifetime, although he was not widely recognized as a great composer until after his death. Today, he is considered to be the master of fugue, the inventor of the solo keyboard concerto, and the greatest composer of the Baroque era.
His compositions include a wide variety of music such as orchestral music (e.g., the Brandenburg Concertos), solo instrumental works (e.g., the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin), keyboard works (e.g., the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier), organ works (e.g., the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor), and choral works (e.g., the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B Minor).
Bach came from a highly musical family and was the last child of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, and continued his musical education in Lüneburg. His career included working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and at courts in Weimar and Köthen before becoming Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas’s) in Leipzig.
In Leipzig, he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and for its university’s student ensemble Collegium Musicum. Despite difficult relations with his employer, Bach’s music flourished, and he enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic, and motivic organization, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France.
Bach’s legacy is immense, having enriched the German musical tradition and set a precedent in composition that would influence subsequent generations of composers.
Is it Bach or isn’t it? And if so, which Bach? After the sonata was temporarily moved to the appendix of the BWV, it is…
Is it Bach or isn’t it? And if so, which Bach? After the sonata was temporarily moved to the appendix of the BWV, it is now “rehabilitated” in the new BWV3.
Barthold Kuijken sets out all the arguments on this crucial question with impressive expertise in his afterword. “In summary”, writes the author, “BWV 1031 is untypical of C. P. E. Bach (and W. F. Bach), too thin for J. S. Bach and too good for Quantz. […] In the end, we can comfort ourselves with the thought that in spite of all these considerations, the piece remains the same […].”
“I am very, very impressed by the Breitkopf / Kuijken edition of Bach’s flute sonatas that I bought yet another copy when I discovered to my horror that I was en route to a recital abroad without my music. Breitkopf (make sure it’s the new edition by Barthold Kuijken you buy) publish each sonata separately, which inevitably works out more expensive, but with the amount of extra information and inclusion of flute and bass parts together this is a bargain. Everyone should have these, even if they already possess other editions.” (Pan Magazine)
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