Life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach 3106-JSBMON

Johann Sebastian Bach’s works have been shown to be closely related to the composer’s post at the time of creation, be it church organist, Kapellmeister or cantor – which is why the course will follow the traditional chronological order. The subsequent stages of development of Bach’s musical language will be discussed against the backdrop of his life, the musical culture of the cities and regions where he stayed, the people he was in touch with, and the formal and informal tasks that were his responsibility to perform. The discussion will start with his birth in Eisenach and education in central and northern Germany as evidenced in written sources and the state of research on the education of musicians around the year 1700. It will then proceed to the particulars of Bach’s work in several towns and the pieces composed during that time, namely:
– Arnstadt and Weimar, as an organist (e.g. choral partitas, Orgelbüchlein, preludes, fantasias, toccatas, fugues, keyboard transcriptions of Italian and Italianate concertos),
– Weimar, as concertmaster (early cantatas),
– Köthen, as Kapellmeister (instrumental music, e.g. Brandenburg Concertos),
– Leipzig, as cantor (five church cantata cycles, passions, oratorios, Clavier-Übung cycle, so called Schübler Chorales and Leipzig Chorales), director of music for the town and leader of collegium musicum (chamber music, secular cantatas),
Bach’s pedagogical works (e.g. inventions and sinfonias, Das wohltemperierte Clavier, Clavierbüchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, trio sonatas) as well as his ties with Poland (e.g. Mass in B minor) will also be given due attention. Last but not least, the course will present Bach’s late, ‘speculative’ style, which does not directly relate to any of his posts and yet is an important part of his heritage.