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Johann Sebastian Bach: Works
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Johann Sebastian was made organist to the Duke of Weimar. At the Duke’s court there was a chapel with an organ. Bach composed many of his great organ works at this time. He became very famous as an organist as was invited to play in other big churches and to give advice on organ building. He was extremely good at improvisation. On one occasion he was in Dresden at the same time as a French organist named Louis Marchant.
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[D]uring his tenure at Weimar, Bach began work on the Orgelb�chlein for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. This "little book" of organ music contains traditional Lutheran church hymns harmonized by Bach and compiled in a way to be instructive to organ students. This incomplete work introduces two major themes into Bach's corpus: firstly, his dedication to teaching, and secondly, his love of the traditional chorale as a form and source of inspiration. Bach's dedication to teaching is especially remarkable. There was hardly any period in his life when he did not have a full-time apprentice studying with him, and there were always numerous private students studying in Bach's house, including such 18th century notables as Johann Friedrich Agricola. Still today, students of nearly every instrument encounter Bach's works early and revisit him throughout their careers.
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Bach's best-known orchestral works are the Brandenburg concertos, so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721; his application was unsuccessful. These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre. Other surviving works in the concerto form include two violin concertos (BWV 1041, and BWV 1042); a Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor (BWV 1043), often referred to as Bach’s "double" concerto; and concertos for one, two, three and even four harpsichords. It is widely accepted that many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works, but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments now lost. A number of violin, oboe and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these. In addition to concertos, Bach ... wrote four orchestral suites, a series of stylised dances for orchestra, each preceded by a French overture.
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Bach produced his greatest instrumental works during the Cöthen period. The Cöthen instrumental ensemble consisted of 16 skilled performers, and evidently the first-chair men were capable enough to cause Bach to write special music for them. He wrote unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas for Josephus Spiess, violinist, and six suites for unaccompanied cello for Ferdinand Abel, principal cellist. Bach's clavier music of the Cöthen period included English and French suites, the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier, inventions, and the two notebooks for Anna Magdalena Bach. Bach ... wrote his principal orchestral works during this period, such as the Overtures and the six Brandenburg Concertos. Interestingly, he wrote many of his keyboard works for the instruction of his own children.
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From mid-December 1717 in Cöthen Bach was completely absorbed in his new sphere of work as Capellmeister to the prince's court, under an intelligent ruler who was a musical enthusiast. The emphasis of his work lay in the instrumental field, now principally in the sector of orchestral and chamber music. For this he relied on a picked ensemble largely consisting of Berlin musicians, with which it was possible to play the finest and most difficult pieces. Early in 1719 he procured from Berlin a new large harpsichord, which then was presented at the court in the 5th Brandenburg Concerto. He produced concertos for all kinds of instrumentation, over and above the conventional, but ... accompanied and unaccompanied solo works, particularly for violin, violoncello and viola da gamba. In addition he composed two major keyboard works, the Inventionen und Sinfonien and the first part of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
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Bach arrived in Weimar, Germany, in 1708 as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst. His new position doubled his salary and allowed him to work in a stricter Lutheran environment. The years 1708 to 1710 saw an enormous output of original organ music by Bach. His reputation at the time... came mainly from his organ playing, not his compositions. Crown Prince Frederick of Sweden, who heard Bach play in 1714, was so astonished that he took a diamond ring from his finger and gave it to the organist.
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