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Johann Sebastian Bach: Works
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Among the 13 children born to Anna Magdalena at Leipzig was Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian, in 1735. In 1744 Bach's second son, Emanuel, was married and three years later Bach visited the couple and their son (his first grandchild) at Potsdam, where Emanuel was employed as harpsichordist by Frederick the Great. At Potsdam Bach improvised on a theme given to him by the king, and this led to the composition of the Musical Offering, a compendium of fugue, canon and sonata based on the royal theme. Contrapuntal artifice predominates in the work of Bach's last decade, during which his membership (from 1747) of Lorenz Mizler's learned Society of Musical Sciences profoundly affected his musical thinking. The Canonic Variations for organ was one of the works Bach presented to the society, and the unfinished Art of Fugue may ... have been intended for distribution among its members.
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Sensing increasing political tensions in the ducal court of Weimar, Bach began once again to search out a more stable job that was conducive to his musical interests. Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music). Prince Leopold, himself a musician, appreciated Bach’s talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. However, the prince was Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; ... most of Bach’s work from this period was secular, including the Orchestral suites, the Six suites for solo cello and the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. The well-known Brandenburg concertos date from this period. The sound clip is from the opening of the Presto from the fourth Brandenburg concerto, for solo violin, two solo flutes, strings and harpsichord continuo.
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At the age of 18, Bach became the organist at Arnstadt and began his work in musical composition. After a short period of time, he moved to Muhlhausen where he married his cousin, Maria Bach. At Muhlhausen he began to experiment with changes in the music used in the church services of the German Protestant Church. It was ... during this time that he began to become somewhat well known. It was this that gained for him the position as court organist and violinist to the duke at Weimar, where he remained for about nine years.
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At Cöthen Bach worked for Prince Leopold. The Prince was very musical and a nice man to work for. Bach was Kapellmeister (Director of Music) and was treated well. The organ was not very good and it was not used much, so Bach did not write any organ music during this period. The Duke had an orchestra and Bach was in charge. Nearly all Bach’s orchestral works were written in Cöthen: the Brandenburg Concertos, the violin concertos, the orchestral suites, the solo music for violin and for cello, and a lot of keyboard music for harpsichord or clavichord.
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In 1747 Bach visited his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was in the service of Frederick the Great at Potsdam. Frederick had expressed the desire to meet the great Bach, and for the occasion Bach improvised a six-part fugue on a theme submitted by the King. Later Bach went home and completed the work, which he called a Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering). He dedicated it to Frederick with the words, "A sovereign admired in music as in all other sciences of war and peace." Bach's last work was the Art of the Fugue, in which he demonstrated the complete possibilities of the fugal and canonic forms.
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From Weimer, Bach went on to work for Prince Leopold at Cothen. His duties there were not only to play the organ but ... to direct the choir, a special treat for Bach, the singer. Prince Leopold particularly loved orchestral music, encouraging Bach to write original pieces for the Prince's orchestra. In fact, many of Bach's better-known orchestral works were composed during his tenure with the prince.
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