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Johann Sebastian Bach: Organs
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THESE preoccupations led to recurrent conflicts in Bach's professional life. His contractual obligations became a contentious issue wherever he worked. In Arnstadt, as a 20-year-old organist, he was drawn into a fistfight with a student and was warned by superiors that he had to ''get along with the students'': ''Men must live among imperfecta.'' At Weimar, he had to deal with rivalrous dukes, and was again drawn into ''an emerging if not already boiling conflict about leadership responsibilities.'' He eventually violated propriety so dramatically that he was imprisoned for over a month (when, Wolff proposes, work on ''The Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I'' may have begun). And in Leipzig, the conflict between Phoebe and Pan was just the sprightly climax to two decades of documented complaint, conflict and appeal.
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At the age of 10, he went to live in the home of his brother Christoph, who taught Johann to play the harpsichord and the organ. It was ... at this time that Bach began school, where his boy-soprano voice was greatly admired and appreciated. When his voice changed, Bach concentrated on the violin; but the organ soon took his interest, and he decided to devote himself to church music.
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It was at Ohrdruf that Bach began to learn about organ building. The Ohrdruf church's instrument, it seems, was in constant need of minor repairs, and he was often sent into the belly of the old organ to tighten, adjust, or replace various parts. The church organ, with its moving bellows, manifold stops, and complicated mechanism, was the most complex machine in any European town. This practical experience with the innards of the instrument would provide a unique counterpoint to his unequalled skill in playing it; Bach was equally at home talking with organ builders and with performers.
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In his late Weimar years, especially beginning in 1716, Bach composed some of his grandest organ music. These compositions are not based upon a chorale but upon the architectonic nature of music itself. The brilliant preludes and fugues, with all their complexities, are miracles of tonal design. The great Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor came from this period.
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Of great significance for Bach was his encounter with the modern Italian style, to which the Weimar court orchestra began to adapt itself. In particular Vivaldi played a part in this, and Bach's involvement with his work (specifically with his 1712 collection of concertos L'estro armonico ) was immediately reflected in organ transcriptions. A thoroughly worked out setting for the outer voices with concise and unified thematic material and a clearly articulated plan of modulation, which is typical of Vivaldi, from then on remained an essential element in Bach's style of composition. This adoption was indeed coupled with complex counterpoint, distinct and lively texture of middle voices and harmonic finesse, and ... was elevated to a highly characteristic and idiosyncratic level.
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It was around the time of his Arnstadt appointment that Bach was embarking on the serious composition of organ preludes. These works, in the North German tradition of virtuosic, improvisatory preludes, showed tight motivic control (where a single, short music idea is explored cogently throughout a movement). However, these works were not as contrapuntal as some of his later works.
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