Category: Composer

Introduction

Johann Sebastian Bach is regarded as one of the most important organist and composer of the Baroque period (Boyd 3). He was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist who works formed a major part of the baroque” music (Eidam 2, par. 4). This paper seeks to describe Johann Sebastian Bach’s personal life and contribution to music.

Personal information

Johann Sebastian Bach “was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany” (Boyd 1, par. 1). He was the last born in the family of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a church organist, and Elizabeth Lammerhirt Bach (Boyd 1). He was born in a devoutly Lutheran musical family that had a musical tradition going back for as many as seven generations. Bach received his initial musical training from his father who taught him how to play the violin.

His good voice won him a chance to sing in the church choir. Bach’s father and mother passed away two moths apart in 1694. He was barely ten years old and thus he went to stay with his brother, Johann Christoph, who was an organist at St. Michael’s Church in Ohrdruf, Germany (Boyd 10). It was Christoph who first taught him how to play keyboard instruments.

In 1700, Bach was offered a chance to study at St. Michael’s School in Luneburg school because of his good voice (Eidam 25). He “would later be transferred to the orchestra to play the violin after a change in his voice” (Boyd 12, par. 3). During this “time he often travelled to Hamburg, Germany to hear other musicians” (Boyd Boyd 13, par. 1).

Late in 1707 Bach married his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach (Boyd 30). Maria died after 13 years of marriage and with seven surviving children. Later in 1721 Bach got married to Anna Magdalena Wulken who was a twenty year old singer at the time. She had to take over the role of a wife and a mother to his seven children (Eidam 54). In addition, during the next twenty years she presented Bach with thirteen more children (Boyd 67).

Bach “gradually lost his eyesight in his final years and was totally blind in the last year of his life”. He died on July 28, in 1750 following a stroke and high fever (Boyd 120, par. 1).

Musical carrier

Bach was introduced to music by his father who taught him how to play the violin from an early age. He began singing in the church at an early age because of his beautiful voice. After the death of his parents in 1694 Bach went to stay with his brother Johann Christoph who taught him how to play keyboard instruments. He later joined St. Michael’s school to where he first began to compose preludes.

In 1703 Bach was hired as an organist in a church in Arnstad, Germany and these gave him a chance to further practice and thus develop his talent (Eidam 33). In 1705 he was given a leave for one month to visit a church in Lubeck, Germany, to hear how Master Dieterich Buxtehude played the organ. Bach extended his visit by four months without informing the church he worked for in Arnstad. When he came back to Arnstad he began to compose long preludes and modifying hymns in a way that confused the church congregation.

In 1707 Bach transferred to a church in Muhlhausen, Germany (Boyd 60). His new “well ordered music” such as “God is my king” impressed people there but it conflicted with his pastor’s requirement that music should remain simple (Boyd 61, par. 5). Thus he left for Weimer in 1708 where he got a job as an organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernest (Eidam 45).

During the period 1708 to 1710 Bach produced original organ music that earned him fame. Bach transferred to Cothen in 1716 at the request of Prince Leopold where he was assigned the duty to conduct the court orchestra (Eidam 47). His best instrumental and orchestral works were produced during his stay in Cothen.

During this time Bach also produced keyboard music that he used to teach his children. After the marriage of the prince there was less work for Bach and therefore he transferred to “Leipzig, Germany where he was named the cantor to replace the deceased Johann Kuhnau” (Boyd 80, par. 3). In Leizperg Bach provided different services other than his traditional organ playing that he was revered for. Among other functions he taught music classes, gave private singing lessons and taught Latin (Boyd 80).

During the Baroque period, Bach was regarded as being at the extreme end of the spectrum (Eidam 96). His music was characterized with detailed melodic lines more cumulative contrapuntal textures and this made it stand out as compared to music by others such as Handel.

Bach’s reputation declined after his death as his music was slowly being gradually considered as old fashioned (Eidam 102). However, a renewed interest in his works was prompted by Felix Mendelssohn’s Berlin performance in 1829 (Eidam 102).

Works Cited

Boyd, Malcolm. johann Sebastian Bach. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.

Eidam, Klaus. The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach. New York: Basic Books, 2001. Print.

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)

Claude Debussy has earned the “impressionist” composer idiom for his exemplary mood evoking compositions based on tentative integration of harmonization and color tones in his styles. As opposed to romanticism with emotional ting and programmatic composition, Debussy embraced symbolist poets’ and impressionist painters’ composition styles in drawing his works. Such symbolism and impressions in his productions were aimed at creating exciting ambience and did expose him to new approaches of fine-tuning timbres and scales.

Debussy’s pioneering works in his treatment of the orchestra and use of harmony laid the foundation for the then upcoming composers like Alban Berg. Some of the major pieces of representative works done by Claude Debussy include Cinq poemes de Baudelaire, Fantaisie, La demoiselle elue, Prelude a Lapres-midi dun faune among others. Debussy’s other significant orchestral productions include Nocturnes, Revue blanche, and La mer.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Igor Stravinsky’s composition excels most of his contemporary composers to the extent that his flavor and style has revolutionized the universal manner in which the world listens to music. Stravinsky’s master piece compositions range from the then conventional classicism through neo-classicism to atonalism, forming a stage for the integration of his harmonics and rhythmic innovations in the universal music system. Stravinsky’s exemplary performance in revolutionizing the music industry of his day can be attributed to his consistency in maintaining a strong profile through his exposition of the underlying beauty of real classical music.

Stravinsky’s music composition style contravened the standard structure of melody, harmony and canons in that his on-set presentations were extremely dissonant that the audience would be revolted by the sound yet at the same time they were drawn by the inherent genius of his production. Although such an innovation shattered the imagination of many, it did reveal the originality and authenticity of music composition. Claude Debussy most greatly thrilled by Stravinsky’s ingenuity and gave him the right hand of partnership in creating an open platform of being heard.

Stravinsky’s music was so devastating original that it astounded the audience and awed his colleague composers. His trio of ballet is the highest praised piece of aesthetic work of any group today, characterizing the uniqueness of his unforgettable music. Although harsh dissonance is evident in most of his compositions, a colorful classic harmony bids the whole production creating a serene and beautiful mood.

Alban Berg (1885 – 1935)

Alban Berg compositions were mostly romantic, with some of his representative works being the atonal and 12- tone, orchestral music, chamber music, songs, and operas. Fastidious and perfectionist outlook characterized Berg’s compositions the better part of which was triggered by momentous inspiration, and thus Berg’s works were limited to his intrinsic drives.

Although Berg’s powerful and complex compositions harness a broad spectrum of musical resources, the success thereof is primarily depended on a few universal strategies; the integration of powerful chromatic expressionism, which partially contravenes, yet fulfils the conventional boundaries of tonality, the amendment to classical musical presentation to the inclusion of the atonal component, and a skillful structuring of the atonal compositions using the 12-tone strategy.

One such an integral part of Berg’s theatrical works in the atonal idiom is the Wozzeck, which created a platform of addressing social challenges through an opera, characterized by extensive use of symbolic and metaphorical literary devices.