BACH, JOHANN SEBASTIAN. ( b. Eisenach, Germany, 1685 d. Leipzig 1750 )
Bach came from a musical family. Orphaned at 9, he was helped with his own musical studies by an elder brother. At 15 he was employed in a church choir where he subsequently played the violin. After a period as a church organist, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara. She died in 1720, leaving him with four children. His second wife sang and played the harpsichord; the book in which her husband wrote pieces for her still survives.
For the rest of his life Bach was organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas's Church, Leipzig.
Church music in Germany was elaborate and serious, with an orchestra and solo singers, as well as a choir. Bach's duties included composition. He wrote nearly 300 cantatas for St. Thomas's, assisted by his family, who would write out the vocal and instrumental parts.
As part of the Good Friday service, it was customary to perform a musical version of the Passion story. Narration was usually given to one voice, other soloists taking the words of the characters. Bach set the story several times. As well as soloists, his St. Matthew Passion uses two choirs, each with its own orchestra. This and his Mass in B minor, with its vast choruses and airs for solo voices, are amongst the world's greatest pieces of sacred music.
Besides church music, Bach wrote many pieces for the clavichord, harpsichord, violin and cello. During his lifetime he was chiefly known as an organist. As well as playing and composing for the organ, he was an acknowledged expert in its design.
Bach was a remarkable harmonist, as demonstrated by his four-part chorales, arrangements for chorus of contemporary Lutheran hymns. He was also unequalled in counterpoint, a style then used by nearly all composers. In it, instead of a melody with harmonic accompaniment, every part or voice is essentially important.
His interest in the mathematics of composition increased towards the end of his life, when his sight was failing. After two operations on his eyes, he died of a stroke, surrounded by his loving family.
After his death musical fashion changed and Bach was almost forgotten. It was nearly a hundred years before his work was published and took its true place in the history of music.
