The music in these works is very similar to the traditional German folk arrangements. His organ works such as the Great Eighteen chorales and the six trio sonatas were well-received and still are today. A great catalog entitled Bach Works Catalogue was first published in 1950 and it is the seminal work listing all of his compositions. There are several amazing works and compositions that were created by Bach. Great critical acclaim also accompanied this work. While money may not have been the main motivating factor behind writing the composition, he earned a great deal from it. Blasius’s where he not only garnered a huge salary, he was also able to write a cantata- Gott ist mein König, BWV 71 as a celebration of the new council. Boniface’s where he received a much better salary and a more prestigious post.Ī tremendous job opportunity awaited him at St. Upon graduating, he took a rather menial job as a musician at the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Wiemar where he would spend the next seven months. Educational YearsĪt the age of 14, Bach enrolled in the famous St. His brother went on to become a great teacher and influence on young Bach and stimulated a desire to seek out a formal education. The young man went on and live with his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, who was the organist serving the Michaeliskirche in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. When he was ten, Bach’s parents both passed away. These instruments ranged from the violin to the clavichord. He learned various instruments from his father, uncles, and brothers. In many ways, this helped expose him to music at a very young age and started him down the path of becoming a great composer. Various members of Bach’s family were also involved with music. His beginnings were not what could be called humble since his family was affluent. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany. Interestingly, while Bach was known as a great organist in his lifetime, he was not regarded as a brilliant composer until many years after his passing. His skill helped establish a uniquely German style. Next to Mozart and Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach is among the most prominent of all composers in history. The intricacies and extremely confounding combinations of his work still posses the power to baffle many, his legacy is a permanent triumph for classical music and its disciples.Organist, harpsichordist, violist, violinist The excellence of his compositions was realized much later by composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig on July 28, 1750, in his lifetime and several years after his death he was mostly known as a gifted organist rather than revered as a composer. He also made several trips to Berlin where he was warmly welcomed by King Fredrick II of Prussia and for whom the ‘Musical Offering’ was composed. Becoming increasingly discontent with his job at the church, he continued the latter portion of his career taking up various positions such as directorship of the Collegium Musicum and Dresden court. Matthew’ and O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort or ‘O eternity, you word of thunder’. Several of these were composed while he was in Leipzig, such as Die Elenden sollen essen or ‘The miserable shall eat’, ‘Passion According to St. He is renowned for his vast collection of church music, pieces dedicated to the interpretation of the Bible or better known as his ‘Passions’, Lutheran chorales and cantatas. Bach not only inherited interest in music from his family but also their religion, which had a great impact on a majority of Bach’s works. As opposed to his time in Cothen, this period was dedicated on works that were more inclined towards religion. In 1723, Bach was accepted for the position of teacher and organist at St. His time in Cothen is also attributed for one of his most famed works, the Brandenburg Concertos a compilation of six concertos for a chamber orchestra, dedicated to Margrave, the Duke of Brandenburg. Due to the prevalent Calvinist beliefs in Cothen, his work in this period can be characterized as rather secular in nature his compositions for multiple and solo instruments, concertos and cantatas such as Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht or ‘Time, which day and year doth make’, were all intended for the court rather than the church. His time in Weimar was only the first of his experiences with royalty, after gaining permission to leave Weimar in 1717 he went to accompany Prince Leopold of Cothen. His first cantata Actus Tragicus was composed during his time there and the famous Toccata was composed around a year later in Duke Ernst’s court in Weimar. The uniqueness found in his work began to emerge early on in his career In 1707, he took the position of an organist at a church in Muhlhausen but soon left since his musical style and the brilliant complexity of his compositions was neither appreciated nor accepted. The early 18th century can be earmarked as the beginning of Bach’s career.