ヨハン・セバスティアン・バッハ
In his day, Johann Sebastian Bach was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer. His sacred music, organ and choral works, and other instrumental music had an enthusiasm and seeming freedom that concealed immense rigor. Bach's use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style -- which often included religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special codes -- still amaze musicians today. Many consider him the greatest composer of all time.
Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. He was taught to play the violin and harpsichord by his father, Johann Ambrosius, a court trumpeter in the service of the Duke of Eisenach. Young Johann was not yet ten when his father died, leaving him orphaned. He was taken in by his recently married oldest brother, Johann Christoph, who lived in Ohrdruf. Because of his excellent singing voice, Bach attained a position at the Michaelis monastery at Lüneberg in 1700. His voice changed a short while later, but he stayed on as an instrumentalist. After taking a short-lived post in Weimar in 1703 as a violinist, Bach became organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt (1703-1707). His relationship with the church council was tenuous as the young musician often shirked his responsibilities, preferring to practice the organ. One account describes a four-month leave granted Bach to travel to Lubeck, where he would familiarize himself with the music of Dietrich Buxtehude. He returned to Arnstadt long after he was expected and much to the dismay of the council. He then briefly served at St. Blasius in Mühlhausen as organist, beginning in June 1707, and married his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, that fall. Bach composed his famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) and his first cantatas while in Mühlhausen, but quickly outgrew the musical resources of the town. He next took a post for the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar in 1708, serving as court organist and playing in the orchestra, eventually becoming its leader in 1714. He wrote many organ compositions during this period, including his Orgel-Büchlein, and also began writing the preludes and fugues that would become Das wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Klavier). Owing to politics between the Duke and his officials, Bach left Weimar and secured a post in December 1717 as Kapellmeister at Köthen. In 1720, Bach's wife suddenly died, leaving him with four children (three others had died in infancy). A short while later, he met his second wife, soprano Anna Magdalena Wilcke, whom he married in December 1721. She would bear 13 children, though only five would survive childhood. The six Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046-51), among many other secular works, date from his Köthen years. Bach became Kantor of the Thomas School in Leipzig in May 1723 (after the post was turned down by Georg Philipp Telemann) and held the position until his death. It was in Leipzig that he composed the bulk of his religious and secular cantatas. Bach eventually became dissatisfied with this post, not only because of its meager financial rewards, but also because of onerous duties and inadequate facilities. Thus he took on other projects, chief among which was the directorship of the city's Collegium Musicum, an ensemble of professional and amateur musicians who gave weekly concerts, in 1729. He also became music director at the Dresden Court in 1736, in the service of Frederick Augustus II; though his duties were vague and apparently few, they allowed him the freedom to compose what he wanted. Bach began making trips to Berlin in the 1740s, not least because his son Carl Philipp Emanuel served as a court musician there. The Goldberg Variations, one of the few pieces by Bach to be published in his lifetime, appeared in 1741. In May 1747, the composer was warmly received by King Frederick II of Prussia, for whom he wrote the gloriously abstruse Musical Offering (BWV 1079). Among Bach's last works was his 1749 Mass in B minor. Besieged by diabetes, he died on July 28, 1750.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
類似のアーティスト
-
Bach: Partitas | Sonatas BWV 1001 — 1006
Classical - Delphian Records 発売日 2023/07/28
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Six Concertos for the Margrave of Brandenburg
Trevor Pinnock, European Brandenburg Ensemble
Classical - AVIE Records 発売日 2007/12/18
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Passionsoratorium, BWV Anh. 169 (Reconstructed by Alexander Grychtolik)
Daniel Johannsen, William Shelton, Miriam Feuersinger
Classical - Passacaille 発売日 2024/03/22
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D-minor
Johann Sebastian Bach, Carlos Paterson
Classical - EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE 発売日 2023/02/27
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oeuvres pour orgue (Édition 5.1) (Johann Sebastian Bach)
Classical - Aeolus 発売日 2012/10/23
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Multicanal 5.1 -
Bach: The Orchestral Suites
Symphonies - Berlin Classics 発売日 2010/10/29
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas, BWV 35 & 169
Leo van Doeselaar, Alex Potter, Il Gardellino
Classical - Passacaille 発売日 2023/02/24
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245
Gli Angeli Genève, Stephan MacLeod, Werner Güra
Classical - Claves Records 発売日 2023/04/07
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Variations Goldberg
Collectif Manyways, Johann Sebastian Bach
Classical - Fonograf 発売日 2023/12/01
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Violin Concertos BWV 1041, 1042, 1052, 1056
Thomas Zehetmair, Amsterdam Bach Soloists
Classical - Berlin Classics 発売日 2008/10/31
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2
Classical - AVIE Records 発売日 2013/12/02
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cello Suite No.1
Đinh Hoài Xuân, Johann Sebastian Bach
Classical - Cello Fundamento 発売日 2021/12/17
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1
Classical - Signum Records 発売日 2008/01/07
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Partita No. 1 for solo violin in B Minor, BWV 1002: IV. Double II (Presto)
Classical - Delphian Records 発売日 2023/07/07
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Missae breves BWV 234 & 235
Laurent Gendre, Ensemble Orlando Fribourg, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel
Classical - Claves Records 発売日 2009/11/01
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Das wohltemperierte Klavier, Book 1 & 2
Classical - Naxos Sweden - HvB 発売日 2015/10/02
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba & Harpsichord
Jonathan Manson, Trevor Pinnock
Classical - AVIE Records 発売日 2006/06/05
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cantata "Geist und Seele wird verwirret", BWV 35: No. 1. Sinfonia (Concerto)
Leo van Doeselaar, Alex Potter, Il Gardellino
Classical - Passacaille 発売日 2023/02/03
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
-
Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Classical - Audiofonic Records 発売日 2018/10/28
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Suites for Violoncello Solo Nos. 1-2-3 (Original Version)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Jo-Chan Lin (林若禪)
Classical - BIG Music Classic 発売日 2022/07/29
16-Bit CD音質 44.1 kHz - Stereo