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Today I visit the life and times of a composer who while alive was not considered to be one of the greats. But who today is internationally regarded as one of the masters. Today’s show is about Johann Sebastian Bach.

At the time of his passing in 1750, many people considered Bach to be an excellent teacher and someone who was a virtuoso on the organ, but who was not any type of ‘great composer’. This is in spite of him having written more than a thousand works. A century passed before Mendelssohn, rediscovered’  his music and helped lay the groundwork that would eventually lead to Bach being recognized as the great composer we think of today.

Who was Bach? He was born in 1685 in Eisenach in the German state of Thuringia to Johann Ambrosius and Maria Elisabeth into what historians refer to as the Bach clan. Why clan? There were at least 50 professional musicians in his extended family. In fact, the members of his family were so numerous that whenever musicians gathered in Thuringia, people would just say, ‘the Bach’s are here’.

One factor that influenced Bach was that his father passed away when Johann was 9. He was taken in and essentially raised by his older brother Johann Christoph. His brother also became his first serious teacher. According to legend, at night the young Bach would break into a cabinet and pilfer manuscripts that had been forbidden to him and then make copies using only the moonlight for illumination. Young Bach was both adventuresome and ambitious.

When he was 15, he wanted to study at the prestigious St. Michael’s School in Luneburg, so he walked. Now while I know some folks will think, so what, a lot of people walk to school, this isn’t that type of morning walk to school. In this case, the distance from his home in Eisenbach to Luneburg is about 335 kilometers OR 208 miles.  That’s dedication to an idea and a goal.

When he turned 18, he was hired at a church in Arnstadt as the organist. It was there that he developed a reputation, as being somewhat different, a little difficult, or maybe even a slight rebel. He was reprimanded by the church leaders for creating elaborate musical accompaniments to the hymns that often confused the congregation. As one point, he simply disappeared for a few months, turns out it was because he decided to take a pilgrimage to Lubeck to hear the Danish composer and organist Dieterich Buxtehdue.

In his 20s Bach entered into what are known as his Weimar Years. This took place from about 1708 until 1717. Bach served (was a member of or worked for) the ducal court of Weimar. He was successful and became the Konzertmeister (music director). It was here that he composed some of his most important organ works and church cantatas, including foundational pieces for the future composition, The Well-Tempered Clavier.

This time was characterized by strong artistic development, helped by his having a productive relationship with the supportive Duke Wilhelm Ernst, and the emergence of a unique synthesis of northern and southern German musical styles. Alas this was not to last, and he had a falling out with the Duke, and in 1717 he was actually put in jail for almost a month because he tried to leave his position. Like many creative people who find themselves sitting in a jail cell or isolated for any reason, he used this time to draft several future works in his head, and upon his release he committed them to paper.

After leaving the Duke’s court Bach served as The Kapellmeister of Köthen (the chapel master) for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen. It was during this time, from about 1718 until 1723, that Bach composed some of his most famous instrumental works. These included the Brandenburg Concertos, Cello Suites, and the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Two of those concertos number 3 and 6 are the background music you hear in this piece.

This was one of Bach’s happiest periods, because he was freed from church restrictions, because the Calvinist court at Köthen did not require extensive sacred music. This allowed Bach to focus on composing secular instrumental music for the prince and his musicians.  However, this wasn’t a complete fun time for Bach, in fact, he actually sent his Brandenburg Concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, (kind of like a job application), but the Margrave never even acknowledged them.

Bach eventually was hired as the cantor at St. Thomas School, primarily because German Baroque composers Telemann and Graupner turned down the job. He still made the most of his time there, and he produced multiple cantatas (a cantata is a musical composition for voice(s) and instruments, which quite often features soloists, a choir, and instrumental accompaniment, that almost always include a literary or religious text). He produced one every week for years, and it is estimated that over 200 of them survive to this day. Bach was not the students favorite leader or composer, and they often complained that the music he assigned them was so complex that it was basically unsingable. In fact, the Leipzig council suggested that he compose music that was easier for the schoolboys to perform.

Bach was married twice, the 1^st time was in 1707, (when he was during his Weimar years) to Maria Barbara. She passed away in 1720 when Bach was away from home. He remarried in 1721 to professional singer Anna Magdalena, and she helped him by copying much of his music by hand. Now most of us are familiar with the concept of a ‘mix-tape’ and apparently Bach made an 18th century one for Anna Magdalena. The “Notebook for Anna Magalena” was filled with keyboard pieces, popular tunes, and some family music-making. Speaking of family Bach fathered twenty children, including C.P.E. Bach who was an innovator in the classical style and J.C. Bach who influenced Mozart.

Bach’s final years weren’t exactly the stuff dreams are made of. He suffered from vision problems, in fact a botched surgery by “oculist” John Taylor, who also blinded Handel by a botched surgery may have contributed to his early death. I can identify with the botched surgery issue, the VA botched surgery on one of my eyes and I lost use of it, luckily though it hasn’t affected my overall health. Anyway…After his death, his music, which was already considered to be old-fashioned, had begun giving way to a lighter more gallant style.

After he passed away in 1750, he was essentially forgotten by most people, and his music was ignored. Then in 1829, Mendelssohn rediscovered him and in Berlin staged the St. Matthew Passion to great reviews. From that point on, Bach has been elevated to the top level of composers.  Albert Schweitzer called him “the Fifth Evangelist,” and even Einstein claimed to find God in Bach’s music.

Bach was one of the first to cipher his name, B-A-C-H (B-flat, A, C, B-natural), into his music. Bach uses his name as the final fugue subject in the last Contrapunctus of The Art of Fugue (fyoog) and the motive also appears in the Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor. Many composers in the 19th and 20th centuries also paid homage to J.S. Bach by using the B-A-C-H motive in their own music too.

Today he is considered one of the three “B’s” of classical music, Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms.

For his
Violin Concerto Violin Partita No 1

Violin Concerto in A minor