Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach[n 2] (31 March [O.S. 21

March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and
Johann Sebastian Bach
musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his
orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos;
instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites;
keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The
Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler
Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal
music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in
B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been
generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the
history of Western music.[2][3]

The Bach family already counted several composers when

Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city
musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10,
he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Portrait of Bach
Christoph, after which he continued his musical formation by E. G. Haussmann, 1748[n 1]
in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working
21 March 1685 (O.S.)
as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Born
Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in 31 March 1685 (N.S.)
Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Eisenach
Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. Died 28 July 1750 (aged 65)
From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at Leipzig
St. Thomas) in Leipzig. He composed music for the
principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its Works List of compositions
university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From Signature
1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music.
In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier
positions, he had difficult relations with his employer, a
situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his
sovereign, Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1736. In the last decades of his
life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after
eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65.

Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and
motivic organisation,[4] and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad,
particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both
sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often
adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-
part chorales and his sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard
instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as
chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and
fugue.
Throughout the 18th century, Bach was primarily valued as an organist, while his keyboard
music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th
century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all
of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued
through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him, and other publications
such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new
critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of
arrangements, including, the Air on the G String and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and of
recordings, such as three different box sets with complete performances of the composer's
oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.

Contents
Life
Childhood (1685–1703)
Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen (1703–1708)
Return to Weimar (1708–1717)
Köthen (1717–1723)
Leipzig (1723–1750)
Musical style
Four-part harmony
Modulation
Ornamentation
Continuo instruments solos
Instrumentation
Counterpoint
Structure and lyrics
Compositions
Passions and oratorios
Cantatas
A cappella music
Church music in Latin
Keyboard music
Orchestral and chamber music
Copies, arrangements and uncertain attributions
Bach and opera
Reception
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
Burial site
References
Notes
Citations
Works cited
Further reading
External links

Life

Childhood (1685–1703)

Johann Sebastian Bach[n 2] was born in Eisenach, the capital of the

duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on 21 March
1685 O.S. (31 March 1685 N.S.). He was the son of Johann
Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria
Elisabeth Lämmerhirt.[7] He was the eighth and youngest child of
Johann Ambrosius,[8] who likely taught him violin and basic music
theory.[9] His uncles were all professional musicians, whose posts
included church organists, court chamber musicians, and
composers.[10] One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach (1645–1693),
introduced him to the organ,[11] and an older second cousin,
Johann Ludwig Bach (1677–1731), was a well-known composer and
violinist.[10][n 3]
Johann Ambrosius Bach,
Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months 1685, Bach's father. Painting
later.[12] The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, attributed to Johann David
Herlicius
Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), the organist at St. Michael's
Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.[13] There he studied,
performed, and copied music, including his own brother's, despite being forbidden to do so
because scores were so valuable and private, and blank ledger paper of that type was
costly.[14][15] He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the
clavichord. J. C. Bach exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including South
German composers such as Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Jakob Froberger and Johann
Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied); North German composers;[16]
Frenchmen, such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand, and Marin Marais;[17] and the Italian
clavierist Girolamo Frescobaldi.[18] Also during this time, he was taught primarily theology,
Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium.[19]

By 3 April 1700, Bach and his schoolfriend Georg Erdmann—who was two years Bach's elder—
were enrolled in the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, some two weeks' travel north
of Ohrdruf.[20][21] Their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot.[21] His two years
there were critical in exposing Bach to a wider range of European culture. In addition to singing
in the choir, he played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichords.[22] He also came into
contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter-
Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines.[23]

Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen (1703–1708)

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's
and being turned down for the post of organist at
Sangerhausen,[24] Bach was appointed court musician in the
chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar.[25] His role
there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-
musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar,
his reputation as a keyboardist spread so much that he was
invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural
recital at the New Church (now Bach Church) in Arnstadt,
located about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of
Weimar.[26] On 14 August 1703, he became the organist at
the New Church,[11] with light duties, a relatively generous
The Wender organ Bach played in
salary, and a new organ tuned in a temperament that Arnstadt
allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be
played.[27]

Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up
between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the
standard of singers in the choir. He called one of them a "Zippel Fagottist" (weenie bassoon
player). Late one evening this student, named Geyersbach, went after Bach with a stick. Bach
filed a complaint against Geyersbach with the authorities. They acquitted Geyersbach with a
minor reprimand and ordered Bach to be more moderate regarding the musical qualities he
expected from his students. Some months later Bach upset his employer by a prolonged absence
from Arnstadt: after obtaining leave for four weeks, he was absent for around four months in
1705–1706 to visit the organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude in the northern city of
Lübeck. The visit to Buxtehude involved a 450-kilometre (280 mi) journey each way, reportedly
on foot.[28][29]

In 1706, Bach applied for a post as organist at the Blasius Church in Mühlhausen.[30][31] As part
of his application, he had a cantata performed on Easter, 24 April 1707, likely an early version of
his Christ lag in Todes Banden.[32] A month later Bach's application was accepted and he took
up the post in July.[30] The position included significantly higher remuneration, improved
conditions, and a better choir. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria
Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Bach was able to convince the church and town government at
Mühlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church. In 1708 Bach
wrote Gott ist mein König, a festive cantata for the inauguration of the new council, which was
published at the council's expense.[22]

Return to Weimar (1708–1717)

Bach left Mühlhausen in 1708, returning to Weimar this time as organist and from 1714
Konzertmeister (director of music) at the ducal court, where he had an opportunity to work
with a large, well-funded contingent of professional musicians.[22] Bach and his wife moved into
a house close to the ducal palace.[33] Later the same year, their first child, Catharina Dorothea,
was born, and Maria Barbara's elder, unmarried sister joined them. She remained to help run
the household until her death in 1729. Three sons were also born in Weimar: Wilhelm
Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. Johann Sebastian and
Maria Barbara had three more children, who however did not live to their first birthday,
including twins born in 1713.[34]
Bach's time in Weimar was the start of a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral
works. He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and
include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic
rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and
Torelli. Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects in part by transcribing Vivaldi's string and wind
concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these transcribed works are still regularly
performed. Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style, in which one or more solo
instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement.[35]

In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for the organ and perform concert music with
the duke's ensemble.[22] He also began to write the preludes and
fugues which were later assembled into his monumental work The
Well-Tempered Clavier ("clavier" meaning clavichord or
harpsichord),[36] consisting of two books,[37] each containing 24
preludes and fugues in every major and minor key. Bach also
started work on the Little Organ Book in Weimar, containing
traditional Lutheran chorale tunes set in complex textures. In 1713,
Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities
during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the
west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady.[38][39]

In the spring of 1714, Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister, an

honour that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the
castle church.[40] The first three cantatas in the new series Bach
composed in Weimar were Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV
182, for Palm Sunday, which coincided with the Annunciation that
year; Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, for Jubilate
Sunday; and Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172
Organ of the St. Paul's for Pentecost.[41] Bach's first Christmas cantata, Christen, ätzet
Church in Leipzig, tested by diesen Tag, BWV 63, was premiered in 1714 or 1715.[42][43]
Bach in 1717.
In 1717, Bach eventually fell out of favour in Weimar and, according
to a translation of the court secretary's report, was jailed for almost
a month before being unfavourably dismissed: "On November 6, [1717], the quondam
concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too
stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest
with notice of his unfavourable discharge."[44]

Köthen (1717–1723)
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music)
in 1717. Prince Leopold, himself a musician, appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well and gave
him considerable latitude in composing and performing. The prince was a Calvinist and did not
use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period was
secular,[45] including the orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and
Brandenburg Concertos.[46] Bach also composed secular cantatas for the court, such as Die
Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a.
Despite being born in the same year and only about 130 kilometres (80 mi) apart, Bach and
Handel never met. In 1719, Bach made the 35-kilometre (22 mi) journey from Köthen to Halle
with the intention of meeting Handel; however, Handel had left the town.[47][48] In 1730, Bach's
oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, travelled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in
Leipzig, but the visit did not take place.[49]

On 7 July 1720, while Bach was away in Carlsbad with Prince Leopold, Bach's wife suddenly
died.[50] The following year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, highly gifted soprano 16
years his junior, who performed at the court in Köthen; they married on 3 December 1721.[51]
Together they had 13 children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich;
Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781); Johann Christoph
Friedrich and Johann Christian, who both, especially
Johann Christian, became significant musicians; Johanna
Carolina (1737–1781); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).[52]

Leipzig (1723–1750)
In 1723, Bach was appointed Thomaskantor, Cantor of the
St. Thomas School at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig,
which provided music for four churches in the city: the St.
Thomas Church and St. Nicholas Church and to a lesser
extent the New Church and St. Peter's Church.[53] This was
"the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany",[54] located
in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony, which he
held for 27 years until his death. During that time he gained
further prestige through honorary appointments at the
courts of Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as that of the
Elector Frederick Augustus (who was also King of Poland) in Bach's autograph of the first
Dresden.[54] Bach frequently disagreed with his employer, movement of the first sonata for solo
Leipzig's city council, which he regarded as "penny- violin, BWV 1001
pinching".[55] 0:00 MENU

Appointment in Leipzig

Johann Kuhnau had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1701 until his death on 5 June 1722.
Bach had visited Leipzig during Kuhnau's tenure: in 1714 he attended the service at the
St. Thomas Church on the first Sunday of Advent,[56] and in 1717 he had tested the organ of the
St. Paul's Church.[57] In 1716 Bach and Kuhnau had met on the occasion of the testing and
inauguration of an organ in Halle.[39]

After being offered the position, Bach was invited to Leipzig only after Georg Philipp Telemann
indicated that he would not be interested in relocating to Leipzig.[58] Telemann went to
Hamburg, where he "had his own struggles with the city's senate".[59]

Bach was required to instruct the students of the Thomasschule in singing and provide church
music for the main churches in Leipzig. He was also assigned to teach Latin but was allowed to
employ four "prefects" (deputies) to do this instead. The prefects also aided with musical
instruction.[60] A cantata was required for the church
services on Sundays and additional church holidays during
the liturgical year.

Cantata cycle years (1723–1729)

Bach usually led performances of his cantatas, most of

which were composed within three years of his relocation to
Leipzig. The first was Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75,
performed in the St. Nicholas Church on 30 May 1723, the
first Sunday after Trinity. Bach collected his cantatas in
annual cycles. Five are mentioned in obituaries, three are
extant.[41] Of the more than 300 cantatas which Bach
composed in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to
St. Thomas Church and School,
posterity.[61] Most of these works expound on the Gospel
Leipzig in 1723
readings prescribed for every Sunday and feast day in the
Lutheran year. Bach started a second annual cycle the first
Sunday after Trinity of 1724 and composed only chorale cantatas, each based on a single church
hymn. These include O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,
BWV 140, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62, and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern,
BWV 1.

Bach drew the soprano and alto choristers from the school and the tenors and basses from the
school and elsewhere in Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income
for these groups; it was probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, that he wrote at
least six motets.[62] As part of his regular church work, he performed other composers' motets,
which served as formal models for his own.[63]

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, had also been music director for the St. Paul's
Church, the church of Leipzig University. But when Bach was installed as cantor in 1723, he was
put in charge only of music for festal (church holiday) services at the St. Paul's Church; his
petition to also provide music for regular Sunday services there (for a corresponding salary
increase) went all the way to the Elector but was denied. After this, in 1725, Bach "lost interest"
in working even for festal services at the St. Paul's Church and appeared there only on "special
occasions".[64] The St. Paul's Church had a much better and newer (1716) organ than did the St.
Thomas Church or the St. Nicholas Church.[65] Bach was not required to play any organ in his
official duties, but it is believed he liked to play on the St. Paul's Church organ "for his own
pleasure".[66]

Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over, in March
1729, the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble started by
Telemann. This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities
that were established by musically active university students; these societies had become
increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent
professionals in a city. In the words of Christoph Wolff, assuming the directorship was a shrewd
move that "consolidated Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's principal musical institutions".[67] Year
round, Leipzig's Collegium Musicum performed regularly in venues such as the Café
Zimmermann, a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main market square. Many of Bach's
works during the 1730s and 1740s were written for and performed by the Collegium Musicum;
among these were parts of his Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) and many of his violin and
keyboard concertos.[22]

Middle years of the Leipzig period (1730–1739)

In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in

B minor which he later incorporated in his Mass in B
minor. He presented the manuscript to the Elector in
an eventually successful bid to persuade the prince to
give him the title of Court Composer.[68] He later
extended this work into a full mass by adding a Credo,
Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, the music for which was Bach's seal (centre), used throughout his
partly based on his own cantatas and partly original. Leipzig years. It contains the superimposed
Bach's appointment as Court Composer was an letters J S B in mirror image topped with a
element of his long-term struggle to achieve greater crown. The flanking letters illustrate the
arrangement on the seal.
bargaining power with the Leipzig council. Between
1737 and 1739, Bach's former pupil Carl Gotthelf
Gerlach held the directorship of the Collegium
Musicum.

In 1735 Bach started to prepare his first publication of organ music, which was printed as the
third Clavier-Übung in 1739.[69] From around that year he started to compile and compose the
set of preludes and fugues for harpsichord that would become his second book of The Well-
Tempered Clavier.[70] He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in
1736.[68][12]

Final years and death (1740–1750)

From 1740 to 1748 Bach copied, transcribed, expanded or programmed music in an older
polyphonic style (stile antico) by, among others, Palestrina (BNB I/P/2),[71] Kerll
(BWV 241),[72] Torri (BWV Anh. 30),[73] Bassani (BWV 1081),[74] Gasparini (Missa
Canonica)[75] and Caldara (BWV 1082).[76] Bach's own style shifted in the last decade of his life,
showing an increased integration of polyphonic structures and canons and other elements of the
stile antico.[77] His fourth and last Clavier-Übung volume, the Goldberg Variations, for two-
manual harpsichord, contained nine canons and was published in 1741.[78] Throughout this
period, Bach also continued to adopt music of contemporaries such as Handel (BNB I/K/2)[79]
and Stölzel (BWV 200),[80] and gave many of his own earlier compositions, such as the St
Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes,[81] their final
revisions. He also programmed and adapted music by composers of a younger generation,
including Pergolesi (BWV 1083)[82] and his own students such as Goldberg (BNB I/G/2).[83]

In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Society of Musical Sciences.[84]
In order to be admitted Bach had to submit a composition, for which he chose his Canonic
Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", and a portrait, which was painted by Elias
Gottlob Haussmann and featured Bach's Canon triplex á 6 Voc.[85] In May 1747, Bach visited
the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. The king played a theme for Bach and
challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme. Bach obliged, playing a three-part
fugue on one of Frederick's fortepianos by Gottfried Silbermann,[86] which was a new type of
instrument at the time. Upon his return to Leipzig he composed a set of fugues and canons, and
a trio sonata, based on the Thema Regium (theme of the king). Within a few weeks this music
was published as The Musical Offering and dedicated to Frederick. The Schübler Chorales, a set
of six chorale preludes transcribed from cantata movements Bach had composed some two
decades earlier, were published within a year.[87][88] Around the same time, the set of five
canonic variations which Bach had submitted when entering Mizler's society in 1747 were also
printed.[89]

Two large-scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach's last years. From around 1742 he
wrote and revised the various canons and fugues of The Art of Fugue, which he continued to
prepare for publication until shortly before his death.[90][91] After extracting a cantata, BWV 191
from his 1733 Kyrie-Gloria Mass for the Dresden court in the mid 1740s, Bach expanded that
setting into his Mass in B minor in the last years of his life. Although the complete mass was
never performed during the composer's lifetime, it is considered to be among the greatest choral
works in history.[92]

In January 1749, Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann
Christoph Altnickol. Bach's health was, however, declining. On 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl
wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director, Johann Gottlob
Harrer, fill the Thomaskantor and Director musices posts "upon the eventual ... decease of Mr.
Bach".[93] Becoming blind, Bach underwent eye surgery, in March 1750 and again in April, by
the British eye surgeon John Taylor, a man widely understood today as a charlatan and believed
to have blinded hundreds of people.[94] Bach died on 28 July 1750 from complications due to
the unsuccessful treatment.[95][96][97]

An inventory drawn up a few months after Bach's death shows that his estate included five
harpsichords, two lute-harpsichords, three violins, three violas, two cellos, a viola da gamba, a
lute and a spinet, along with 52 "sacred books", including works by Martin Luther and
Josephus.[98] The composer's son Carl Philipp Emanuel saw to it that The Art of Fugue,
although still unfinished, was published in 1751.[99] Together with one of the composer's former
students, Johann Friedrich Agricola, the son also wrote the obituary ("Nekrolog"), which was
published in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek, the organ of the Society of Musical Sciences, in
1754.[89]

Musical style
From an early age, Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period
and those of prior generations, and those influences were reflected in his music.[100] Like his
contemporaries Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da
capo arias, and four-part choral music and employed basso continuo. Bach's music was
harmonically more innovative than his peer composers, employing surprisingly dissonant
chords and progressions, often with extensive exploration of harmonic possibilities within one
piece.[101]

The hundreds of sacred works Bach created are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but
also a truly devout relationship with God.[102][103] He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as
the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and some of his pieces represent it.[104] The Lutheran chorale
was the basis of much of his work. In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes, he
wrote more cogent and tightly integrated works than most, even
when they were massive and lengthy. The large-scale structure of
every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate
planning to create a religiously and musically powerful expression.
For example, the St Matthew Passion, like other works of its kind,
illustrated the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias,
choruses, and chorales, but in crafting this work, Bach created an
overall experience that has been found over the intervening
centuries to be both musically thrilling and spiritually
profound.[105]

Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many

collections of pieces that explored the range of artistic and technical A handwritten note by Bach
possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except in his copy of the Calov
opera. For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two Bible. The note next to
books, each of which presents a prelude and fugue in every major 2 Chronicles 5:13 reads:
"NB Bey einer andächtigen
and minor key, displaying a dizzying variety of structural,
Musiq ist allezeit Gott mit
contrapuntal and fugal techniques.[106]
seiner Gnaden Gegenwart"
(N(ota) B(ene) In a music of
worship God is always
Four-part harmony present with his grace).

Four-part harmonies predate

Bach, but he lived during a time when modal music in
Western tradition was largely supplanted in favour of the
tonal system. In this system a piece of music progresses
from one chord to the next according to certain rules, each
chord being characterised by four notes. The principles of
four-part harmony are found not only in Bach's four-part
"O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden": the choral music: he also prescribes it for instance for the
four-part chorale setting as included figured bass accompaniment.[107] The new system was at
in the St. Matthew Passion
the core of Bach's style, and his compositions are to a large
extent considered as laying down the rules for the evolving
scheme that would dominate musical expression in the next
centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence:

When in the 1740s Bach staged his arrangement of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, he upgraded
the viola part (which in the original composition plays in unison with the bass part) to fill out
the harmony, thus adapting the composition to his four-part harmony style.[108]
When, starting in the 19th century in Russia, there was a discussion about the authenticity
of four-part court chant settings compared to earlier Russian traditions, Bach's four-part
chorale settings, such as those ending his Chorale cantatas, were considered as foreign-
influenced models. Such influence was deemed unavoidable, however.[109]

Bach's insistence on the tonal system and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at
ease with the older modal system and the genres associated with it: more than his
contemporaries (who had "moved on" to the tonal system without much exception), Bach often
returned to the then-antiquated modi and genres. His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue,
emulating the chromatic fantasia genre as used by earlier composers such as Dowland and
Sweelinck in D dorian mode (comparable to D minor in the tonal system), is an example of this.
Modulation
Modulation, or changing key in the course of a piece, is another style characteristic where Bach
goes beyond what was usual in his time. Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation
possibilities: keyboard instruments, prior to a workable system of temperament, limited the
keys that could be modulated to, and wind instruments, especially brass instruments such as
trumpets and horns, about a century before they were fitted with valves, were tied to the key of
their tuning. Bach pushed the limits: he added "strange tones" in his organ playing, confusing
the singing, according to an indictment he had to face in Arnstadt,[110] and Louis Marchand,
another early experimenter with modulation, seems to have avoided confrontation with Bach
because the latter went further than anyone had done before.[111] In the "Suscepit Israel" of his
1723 Magnificat, he had the trumpets in E-flat play a melody in the enharmonic scale of C
minor.[112]

The major development taking place in Bach's time, and to which he contributed in no small
way, was a temperament for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in all available keys
(12 major and 12 minor) and also modulation without retuning. His Capriccio on the departure
of a beloved brother, a very early work, showed a gusto for modulation unlike any
contemporary work this composition has been compared to,[113] but the full expansion came
with the Well-Tempered Clavier, using all keys, which Bach apparently had been developing
since around 1720, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach being one of its earliest
examples.[114]

Ornamentation
The second page of the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm
Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and performance
guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son, who was nine years
old at the time. Bach was generally quite specific on
ornamentation in his compositions (where in his time much
of the ornamentation was not written out by composers but
rather considered a liberty of the performer),[115] and his
Bach's guide on ornaments as
ornamentation was often quite elaborate. For instance, the contained in the Klavierbüchlein für
"Aria" of the Goldberg Variations has rich ornamentation in Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
nearly every measure. Bach's dealing with ornamentation
can also be seen in a keyboard arrangement he made of
Marcello's Oboe Concerto: he added explicit ornamentation, which some centuries later is
played by oboists when performing the concerto.

Although Bach did not write any operas, he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal
style. In church music, Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as
the Neapolitan mass. In Protestant surroundings, there was more reluctance to adopt such a
style for liturgical music. For instance, Kuhnau, Bach's predecessor in Leipzig, had notoriously
shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music.[116] Bach was less moved. One of the comments
after a performance of his St Matthew Passion was that it all sounded much like opera.[117]

Continuo instruments solos

In concerted playing in Bach's time the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as organ,
viola da gamba or harpsichord, usually had the role of accompaniment, providing the harmonic
and rhythmic foundation of a piece. From the late 1720s, Bach had the organ play concertante
(i.e. as a soloist) with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements,[118] a decade before
Handel published his first organ concertos.[119] Apart from the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and
the Triple Concerto, which already had harpsichord soloists in the 1720s, Bach wrote and
arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s,[120] and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and
harpsichord neither instrument plays a continuo part: they are treated as equal soloists, far
beyond the figured bass. In this sense, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such
as the keyboard concerto.[121]

Instrumentation
Bach wrote virtuoso music for specific instruments as well
as music independent of instrumentation. For instance, the
sonatas and partitas for solo violin are considered the
pinnacle of what has been written for this instrument, only
within reach of accomplished players. The music fits the
instrument, pushing it to the full scale of its possibilities and
requiring virtuosity of the player but without bravura.[122]
Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem
inseparable, Bach made transcriptions for other instruments
of some pieces of this collection. Similarly, for the cello
suites, the virtuoso music seems tailored for the instrument,
the best of what is offered for it, yet Bach made an
arrangement for lute of one of these suites. The same applies
to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach
exploited the capabilities of an instrument to the fullest
while keeping the core of such music independent of the
instrument on which it is performed.

In this sense, it is no surprise that Bach's music is easily and "Aria" of the Goldberg Variations,
often performed on instruments it was not necessarily showing Bach's use of ornaments
written for, that it is transcribed so often, and that his 0:00 MENU
melodies turn up in unexpected places such as jazz music.
Apart from this, Bach left a number of compositions without
specified instrumentation: the canons BWV 1072–1078 fall in that category, as well as the bulk
of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue.[123]

Counterpoint
Another characteristic of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint, as opposed to the
homophony used in his four-part Chorale settings, for example. Bach's canons, and especially
his fugues, are most characteristic of this style, which Bach did not invent but contributed to so
fundamentally that he defined it to a large extent. Fugues are as characteristic to Bach's style as,
for instance, the Sonata form is characteristic to the composers of the Classical period.[124]
These strictly contrapuntal compositions, and most of Bach's music in general, are
characterised by distinct melodic lines for each of the voices, where the chords formed by the
notes sounding at a given point follow the rules of four-part harmony. Johann Nikolaus Forkel,
Bach's first biographer, gives this description of this feature of Bach's music, which sets it apart
from most other music:

If the language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line, a simple sequence
of musical notes, it can justly be accused of poverty. The addition of a Bass puts it
upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it, but defines rather than gives it added
richness. A melody so accompanied—even though all the notes are not those of the
true Bass—or treated with simple embellishments in the upper parts, or with simple
chords, used to be called "homophony". But it is a very different thing when two
melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a
footing of pleasant equality. In the first case the accompaniment is subordinate, and
serves merely to support the first or principal part. In the second case the two parts
are not similarly related. New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving,
out of which new forms of musical expression emerge. If more parts are interwoven
in the same free and independent manner, the apparatus of language is
correspondingly enlarged, and becomes practically inexhaustible if, in addition,
varieties of form and rhythm are introduced. Hence harmony becomes no longer a
mere accompaniment of melody, but rather a potent agency for augmenting the
richness and expressiveness of musical conversation. To serve that end a simple
accompaniment will not suffice. True harmony is the interweaving of several
melodies, which emerge now in the upper, now in the middle, and now in the lower
parts.

From about the year 1720, when he was thirty-five, until his death in 1750, Bach's
harmony consists in this melodic interweaving of independent melodies, so perfect
in their union that each part seems to constitute the true melody. Herein Bach excels
all the composers in the world. At least, I have found no one to equal him in music
known to me. Even in his four-part writing we can, not infrequently, leave out the
upper and lower parts and still find the middle parts melodious and agreeable.[125]

Structure and lyrics

Bach devoted more attention than his contemporaries to the structure of compositions. This can
be seen in minor adjustments he made when adapting someone else's composition, such as his
earliest version of the "Keiser" St Mark Passion, where he enhances scene transitions,[126] and
in the architecture of his own compositions such as his Magnificat[112] and Leipzig Passions. In
the last years of his life, Bach revised several of his prior compositions. Often the recasting of
such previously composed music in an enhanced structure was the most visible change, as in the
Mass in B minor. Bach's known preoccupation with structure led (peaking around the 1970s) to
various numerological analyses of his compositions, although many such over-interpretations
were later rejected, especially when wandering off into symbolism-ridden
hermeneutics. [127][128]

The librettos, or lyrics, of his vocal compositions played an important role for Bach. He sought
collaboration with various text authors for his cantatas and major vocal compositions, possibly
writing or adapting such texts himself to make them fit the structure of the composition he was
designing when he could not rely on the talents of other text authors. His collaboration with
Picander for the St Matthew Passion libretto is best known, but there was a similar process in
achieving a multi-layered structure for his St John Passion libretto a few years earlier.[129]

Compositions
In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalogue of Bach's compositions called the
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue).[130] Schmieder largely followed the Bach-
Gesellschaft-Ausgabe, a comprehensive edition of the composer's works that was produced
between 1850 and 1900. The first edition of the catalogue listed 1,080 surviving compositions
indisputably composed by Bach.[131]

BWV Range Compositions

BWV 1–224 Cantatas

BWV 225–231 Motets

BWV 232–243 Liturgical compositions in Latin

BWV 244–249 Passions and oratorios

BWV 250–438 Four-part chorales

BWV 439–524 Small vocal works

BWV 525–771 Organ compositions

BWV 772–994 Other keyboard works

BWV 995–1000 Lute compositions

BWV 1001–1040 Other chamber music

BWV 1041–1071 Orchestral music

BWV 1072–1078 Canons

BWV 1079–1080 Late contrapuntal works

BWV 1081–1126 were added to the catalogue in the second half of the 20th century, and BWV
1127 and higher are 21st-century additions.[132][133][134]

Passions and oratorios

Bach composed Passions for Good Friday services and oratorios such as the Christmas
Oratorio, which is a set of six cantatas for use in the liturgical season of Christmas.[135][136][137]
Shorter oratorios are the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio.

St Matthew Passion

With its double choir and orchestra, the St Matthew Passion is one of Bach's most extended
works.

St John Passion
The St John Passion was the first Passion Bach composed during his tenure as Thomaskantor in
Leipzig.

Cantatas
According to his obituary, Bach would have
composed five year-cycles of sacred cantatas, and
additional church cantatas for weddings and
funerals, for example.[89] Approximately 200 of
these sacred works are extant, an estimated two
thirds of the total number of church cantatas he
composed.[61][138] The Bach Digital website lists
50 known secular cantatas by the composer,[139]
about half of which are extant or largely
reconstructable.[140]

Church cantatas Bach's autograph of the recitative with the gospel

text of Christ's death from St Matthew Passion
Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and (Matthew 27:45–47a)
instrumentation. Many consist of a large opening
chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria
pairs for soloists (or duets) and a concluding chorale. The melody of the concluding chorale
often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement.

Bach's earliest cantatas date from his years in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest surviving
work in the genre is Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150. As a whole, the extant early
works all show remarkable mastery and skill. Many feature an instrumental opening which
display effective use of the limited instrumental forces available to Bach, whether it be in the
subdued combination of two recorders and two viola de gamba for BWV 106, or the
independent bassoon in BWV 196. Bach's compositional skills are also manifested through his
daring harmonies and advanced, unprecedented chord progressions. According to Christoph
Wolff, Bach's early cantatas are impressive evidence of how the modest means at his disposal
did not restrain the composer in the slightest, and they compare favourably with compositions
by the most talented composers from the beginning of the 18th century, such as Krieger,
Kuhnau or Zachow.[141]

After taking up his office as Thomaskantor in late May 1723, Bach performed a cantata each
Sunday and feast day, corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week.[22] His first cantata
cycle ran from the first Sunday after Trinity of 1723 to Trinity Sunday the next year. For
instance, the Visitation cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147, containing the
chorale that is known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", belongs to this first cycle. The
cantata cycle of his second year in Leipzig is called the chorale cantata cycle as it consists mainly
of works in the chorale cantata format. His third cantata cycle was developed over a period of
several years, followed by the Picander cycle of 1728–29.

Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80 (final
version)[142] and Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140.[143] Only the first three Leipzig
cycles are more or less completely extant. Apart from his own work, Bach also performed
cantatas by Telemann and by his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach.[22]
Secular cantatas

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for instance for members of the royal Polish and prince-
electoral Saxonian families (e.g. Trauer-Ode),[144] or other public or private occasions (e.g.
Hunting Cantata).[145] The text of these cantatas was occasionally in dialect (e.g. Peasant
Cantata)[146] or Italian (e.g. Amore traditore).[147] Many of the secular cantatas were lost, but
for some of them the text and occasion are known, for instance when Picander later published
their librettos (e.g. BWV Anh. 11–12).[148] Some of the secular cantatas had a plot involving
mythological figures of Greek antiquity (e.g. Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan),[149] and
others were almost miniature buffo operas (e.g. Coffee Cantata).[150]

A cappella music
Bach's a cappella music includes motets and chorale harmonisations.

Motets

Bach's motets (BWV 225–231) are pieces on sacred themes for choir and continuo, with
instruments playing colla parte. Several of them were composed for funerals.[151] The six motets
definitely composed by Bach are Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, Der Geist hilft unser
Schwachheit auf, Jesu, meine Freude, Fürchte dich nicht, Komm, Jesu, komm, and Lobet den
Herrn, alle Heiden. The motet Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren (BWV 231) is part of the composite
motet Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt (BWV Anh. 160), other parts of which may be based on
work by Telemann.[152]

Chorale harmonisations

Bach wrote hundreds of four-part harmonisations of Lutheran chorales.

Church music in Latin

Bach's church music in Latin includes the Magnificat, four Kyrie–Gloria Masses, and the Mass
in B minor.

Magnificat

The first version of Bach's Magnificat dates from 1723, but the work is best known in its D major
version of 1733.

Mass in B minor

In 1733 Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for the Dresden court. Near the end of his life,
around 1748–1749, he expanded this composition into the large-scale Mass in B minor. The
work was never performed in full during Bach's lifetime.[153][154]
Keyboard music
Bach wrote for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichord, clavichord
and lute-harpsichord.

Organ works

Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of
organ works in both the traditional German free genres (such as preludes, fantasias, and
toccatas) and stricter forms (such as chorale preludes and fugues).[22] At a young age, he
established a reputation for creativity and ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works.
A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Böhm, with whom Bach came into
contact in Lüneburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in
1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach copied
the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insights into their compositional
languages, and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord.
During his most productive period (1708–1714) he composed about a dozen pairs of preludes
and fugues, five toccatas and fugues, and the Little Organ Book, an unfinished collection of 46
short chorale preludes that demonstrate compositional techniques in the setting of chorale
tunes. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for organ, although some of his best-known works
(the six Organ Sonatas, the German Organ Mass in Clavier-Übung III from 1739, and the Great
Eighteen Chorale Preludes, revised late in his life) were composed after leaving Weimar. Bach
was extensively engaged later in his life in consulting on organ projects, testing new organs and
dedicating organs in afternoon recitals.[155][156] The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch
da komm' ich her" and the Schübler Chorales are organ works Bach published in the last years
of his life.

Harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments

Bach wrote many works for harpsichord, some of which may

also have been played on the clavichord or lute-harpsichord.
Some of his larger works, such as Clavier-Übung II and IV,
are intended for a harpsichord with two manuals:
performing them on a keyboard instrument with a single
manual (like a piano) may present technical difficulties for
the crossing of hands.
The Art of Fugue (title page) –
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846– Performed by Mehmet Okonsar on
893). Each book consists of a prelude and fugue in each organ and harpsichord
of the 24 major and minor keys, in chromatic order from
0:00 MENU
C major to B minor (thus, the whole collection is often
referred to as "the 48"). "Well-tempered" in the title Nos. 1–12
refers to the temperament (system of tuning); many
temperaments before Bach's time were not flexible
enough to allow compositions to utilise more than just a 0:00 MENU

few keys. [157][158] Nos. 13–20

The Inventions and Sinfonias (BWV 772–801). These
short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are
arranged in the same chromatic order as The Well-
Tempered Clavier, omitting some of the rarer keys. These pieces were intended by Bach for
instructional purposes.[159]
Three collections of dance suites: the English Suites (BWV 806–811), French Suites (BWV
812–817), and Partitas for keyboard (Clavier-Übung I, BWV 825–830). Each collection
contains six suites built on the standard model (allemande–courante–sarabande–(optional
movement)–gigue). The English Suites closely follow the traditional model, adding a prelude
before the allemande and including a single movement between the sarabande and
gigue.[160] The French Suites omit preludes but have multiple movements between the
sarabande and gigue.[161] The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory
movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.[162]
The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), an aria with 30 variations. The collection has a
complex and unconventional structure: the variations build on the bass line of the aria rather
than its melody, and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan. There are 9
canons within the 30 variations; every third variation is a canon.[163] These variations move
in order from canon at unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs (unison and
octave, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon stands on its
own due to compositional dissimilarities. The final variation, instead of being the expected
canon at the tenth, is a quodlibet.
Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style (French Overture, BWV 831)
and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971) (published together as Clavier-Übung II), and the
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903).

Among Bach's lesser known keyboard works are seven toccatas (BWV 910–916), four duets
(BWV 802–805), sonatas for keyboard (BWV 963–967), the Six Little Preludes (BWV 933–
938), and the Aria variata alla maniera italiana (BWV 989).

Orchestral and chamber music

Bach wrote for single instruments, duets, and small ensembles. Many of his solo works, such as
the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV 1001–1006) and the six cello suites (BWV 1007–
1012), are widely considered to be among the most profound in the repertoire.[164][122] He
wrote sonatas for a solo instrument such as the viola de gamba accompanied by harpsichord or
continuo, as well as trio sonatas (two instruments and continuo).

The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue are late contrapuntal works containing pieces for
unspecified instruments or combinations of instruments.[165][166]

Violin concertos

Surviving works in the concerto form include two violin concertos (BWV 1041 in A minor and
BWV 1042 in E major) and a concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043, often referred to
as Bach's "double concerto".

Brandenburg Concertos

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.[22] These works are examples
of the concerto grosso genre.
Keyboard concertos

Bach composed and transcribed concertos for one to four harpsichords. Many of the
harpsichord concertos were not original works but arrangements of his concertos for other
instruments, now lost.[167] A number of violin, oboe, and flute concertos have been
reconstructed from these.

Orchestral suites

In addition to concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites, each suite being a series of stylised
dances for orchestra, preceded by a French overture.[168]

Copies, arrangements and uncertain attributions

In his early youth, Bach copied pieces by other composers to learn from them.[169] Later, he
copied and arranged music for performance or as study material for his pupils. Some of these
pieces, like "Bist du bei mir" (copied not by Bach but by Anna Magdalena), became famous
before being dissociated with Bach. Bach copied and arranged Italian masters such as Vivaldi
(e.g. BWV 1065), Pergolesi (BWV 1083) and Palestrina (Missa Sine nomine), French masters
such as François Couperin (BWV Anh. 183), and, closer to home, various German masters
including Telemann (e.g. BWV 824=TWV 32:14) and Handel (arias from Brockes Passion), and
music from members of his own family. He also often copied and arranged his own music (e.g.
movements from cantatas for his short masses BWV 233–236), as his music was likewise copied
and arranged by others. Some of these arrangements, like the late 19th-century "Air on the G
String", helped to popularise Bach's music.

Sometimes "who copied whom" is not clear. For instance, Forkel mentions a Mass for double
chorus among the works composed by Bach. The work was published and performed in the
early 19th century, and although a score partially in Bach's handwriting exists, the work was
later considered spurious.[170] In 1950, the design of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was to keep
such works out of the main catalogue: if there was a strong association with Bach they could be
listed in its appendix (German: Anhang, abbreviated as Anh.). Thus, for instance, the
aforementioned Mass for double chorus became BWV Anh. 167. But this was far from the end of
the attribution issues. For instance, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, BWV 53, was later
attributed to Melchior Hoffmann. For other works, Bach's authorship was put in doubt without
a generally accepted answer to the question of whether or not he composed it: the best known
organ composition in the BWV catalogue, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, was
indicated as one of these uncertain works in the late 20th century.[171]

Bach and opera

Despite his wide production of music, Bach never wrote an opera. It may be that the city of
Leipzig showed no particular interest for this genre (no operas were produced in Leipzig from
1720 to 1744), but the actual reason why Bach never composed an opera is unknown.[172]

According to Forkel, Bach used to travel to Dresden and attend the local opera performances,
usually with his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann:
Er hatte auf diese Weise immer eine ausgezeichnet ehrenvolle Aufnahme in
Dresden, und ging oft dahin, um die Oper zu hören. Sein ältester Sohn mußte ihn
gewöhnlich begleiten. Er pflegte dann einige Tage vor der Abreise im Scherz zu
sagen: "Friedemann, wollen wir nicht die schönen Dresdener Liederchen einmahl
wieder hören?"

Hence, in Dresden he was always received in the most respectful manner and often
visited the Opera, generally accompanied by his eldest son. When the time for their
journey approached, Bach would say in fun, "Well, Friedemann, shall we go to
Dresden to hear the pretty tunes again?"

— Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work, Ch.
VIII, p. 48 (transl. by Charles Sanford Terry, London 1920, p. 111)

Regarding the definition of "pretty tunes" (schönen Liederchen) for Dresden's opera
performances, Bach's rejection of opera was well known in his own time. In 1739, an
anonymous letter published in the periodical Der Critische Musikus,[173] then edited by Johann
Adolf Scheibe, attacked Bach, describing his music as "artificial" and "bombastic" and accusing
him of using the term "tune" for any piece of music of which he disapproved, as it was "not
written in an artificial and bombastic manner".[174]

Scholars have speculated about why Bach never composed operas. He may have thought that
the only opportunity to compose operas would be to move to Dresden, but Johann Adolph
Hasse, fourteen years younger than him and already a distinguished musician and composer
(Hasse earned nearly 12,000 thalers per year, the equivalent of fourteen years of salaries for
Bach) was already in Dresden. Bach may have felt that he already experimented with opera in
the secular cantatas (BWV 201–224) he wrote for private commitments and had no particular
interest in opera.[175]

Reception
Throughout the 18th century, the appreciation of Bach's
music was mostly limited to distinguished connoisseurs. The
19th century started with publication of the first biography
of the composer and ended with the completion of the
publication of all of Bach's known works by the Bach
Gesellschaft. A Bach Revival had started from
Mendelssohn's performance of the St Matthew Passion in
1829. Soon after that performance, Bach started to become
regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, if not
the greatest, a reputation he has retained ever since. A new
extensive Bach biography was published in the second half
of the 19th century.
The church in Arnstadt where Bach
In the 20th century, Bach's music was widely performed and
had been the organist from 1703 to
recorded, while the Neue Bachgesellschaft, among others,
1707. In 1935 the church was
published research on the composer. Modern adaptations of
renamed to "Bachkirche".
Bach's music contributed greatly to his popularisation in the
second half of the 20th century. Among these were the
Swingle Singers' versions of Bach pieces (for instance, the Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3, or
the Wachet auf... chorale prelude) and Wendy Carlos' 1968 Switched-On Bach, which used the
Moog electronic synthesiser.

By the end of the 20th century, more classical performers were gradually moving away from the
performance style and instrumentation that were established in the romantic era: they started
to perform Bach's music on period instruments of the baroque era, studied and practised
playing techniques and tempi as established in his time, and reduced the size of instrumental
ensembles and choirs to what he would have employed. The BACH motif, used by the composer
in his own compositions, was used in dozens of tributes to the composer from the 19th century
to the 21st. In the 21st century, the complete extant output of the composer became available
online, with several websites exclusively dedicated to him.

The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach annually with a feast day on 28
July, together with George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell;[176] on the same day, the
Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches, such as the ELCA, remembers Bach and Handel
with Heinrich Schütz.[177]

18th century
In his own time, Bach was highly regarded amongst his
colleagues,[178] although his reputation outside of this small
circle of connoisseurs was due not to his compositions
(which had an extremely narrow circulation),[11] but due to
his virtuosic abilities. Nevertheless, during his life, Bach
received public recognition, such as the title of court
composer by Augustus III of Poland and the appreciation he
was shown by Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von
Keyserling. Such highly placed appreciation contrasted with
the humiliations he had to cope with, for instance in
Leipzig.[179] Also in the contemporary press, Bach had his
detractors, such as Johann Adolf Scheibe, suggesting he
write less complex music, and his supporters, such as
Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph
Mizler.[180][181][182]
Painting of Johann Sebastian Bach
by 'Gebel', before 1798.
After his death, Bach's reputation as a composer at first
declined: his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared
to the emerging galant style.[183] Initially, he was remembered more as a virtuoso player of the
organ and as a teacher. The bulk of the music that had been printed during the composer's
lifetime, at least the part that was remembered, was for the organ and the harpsichord. Thus,
his reputation as a composer was initially mostly limited to his keyboard music, and that even
fairly limited to its value in music education.

Bach's surviving family members, who inherited a large part of his manuscripts, were not all
equally concerned with preserving them, leading to considerable losses.[184] Carl Philipp
Emanuel, his second eldest son, was most active in safeguarding his father's legacy: he co-
authored his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales,[185]
staged some of his works, and the bulk of previously unpublished works of his father were
preserved with his help.[186] Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest son, performed several of his
father's cantatas in Halle but after becoming unemployed sold part of the large collection of his
father's works he owned.[187][188][189] Several students of the old master, such as his son-in-law
Johann Christoph Altnickol, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Kirnberger, and Johann
Ludwig Krebs, contributed to the dissemination of his legacy. The early devotees were not all
musicians; for example, in Berlin, Daniel Itzig, a high official of Frederick the Great's court,
venerated Bach.[190] His eldest daughters took lessons from Kirnberger and their sister Sara
from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who was in Berlin from 1774 to 1784.[190][191] Sara Itzig Levy
became an avid collector of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons and was a "patron" of
CPE Bach.[191]

While in Leipzig, performances of Bach's church music were limited to some of his motets, and
under cantor Doles some of his Passions.[192] A new generation of Bach aficionados emerged:
they studiously collected and copied his music, including some of his large-scale works such as
the Mass in B minor and performed it privately. One such connoisseur was Gottfried van
Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who was instrumental in passing Bach's legacy on to
the composers of the Viennese school. Haydn owned manuscript copies of the Well-Tempered
Clavier and the Mass in B minor and was influenced by Bach's music. Mozart owned a copy of
one of Bach's motets,[193] transcribed some of his instrumental works (K. 404a, 405),[194][195]
and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style.[196][197] Beethoven played the entire
Well-Tempered Clavier by the time he was 11 and described Bach as Urvater der Harmonie
(progenitor of harmony).[198][199][200][201][202]

19th century
In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published Ueber Johann
Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke, the first biography
of the composer, which contributed to his becoming known to a
wider public.[203] In 1805, Abraham Mendelssohn, who had
married one of Itzig's granddaughters, bought a substantial
collection of Bach manuscripts that had come down from
C. P. E. Bach, and donated it to the Berlin Sing-Akademie.[190] The
Sing-Akademie occasionally performed Bach's works in public
concerts, for instance his first keyboard concerto, with Sara Itzig
Levy at the piano.[190]

The first decades of the 19th century saw an increasing number of

Image of the Bach memorial first publications of Bach's music: Breitkopf started publishing
erected by Felix chorale preludes,[204] Hoffmeister harpsichord music,[205] and the
Mendelssohn in Leipzig in Well-Tempered Clavier was printed concurrently by Simrock
1843 (Germany), Nägeli (Switzerland) and Hoffmeister (Germany and
Austria) in 1801.[206] Vocal music was also published: motets in
1802 and 1803, followed by the E! major version of the Magnificat,
the Kyrie-Gloria Mass in A major, and the cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 80).[207]
In 1818, Hans Georg Nägeli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition ever.[198]
Bach's influence was felt in the next generation of early Romantic composers.[199] When Felix
Mendelssohn, Abraham's son, aged 13, produced his first Magnificat setting in 1822, it is clear
that he had been inspired by the then unpublished D major version of Bach's Magnificat.[208]
Felix Mendelssohn significantly contributed to the renewed interest in Bach's work with his
1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion, which was instrumental in setting off what
has been called the Bach Revival. The St John Passion saw its 19th-century premiere in 1833,
and the first performance of the Mass in B minor followed in 1844. Besides these and other
public performances and an increased coverage on the composer and his compositions in
printed media, the 1830s and 1840s also saw the first publication of more vocal works by Bach:
six cantatas, the St Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B minor. A series of organ compositions
saw their first publication in 1833.[209] Chopin started composing his 24 Preludes, Op. 28,
inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, in 1835, and Schumann published his Sechs Fugen
über den Namen B-A-C-H in 1845. Bach's music was transcribed and arranged to suit
contemporary tastes and performance practice by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter,
Robert Franz, and Franz Liszt, or combined with new music such as the melody line of Charles
Gounod's Ave Maria.[198][210] Brahms, Bruckner, and Wagner were among the composers who
promoted Bach's music or wrote glowingly about it.

In 1850, the Bach-Gesellschaft (Bach Society) was founded to promote Bach's music. In the
second half of the 19th century, the Society published a comprehensive edition of the
composer's works. Also in the second half of the 19th century, Philipp Spitta published Johann
Sebastian Bach, the standard work on Bach's life and music.[211] By that time, Bach was known
as the first of the three Bs in music. Throughout the 19th century, 200 books were published on
Bach. By the end of the century, local Bach societies were established in several cities, and his
music had been performed in all major musical centres.[198]

In Germany all throughout the century, Bach was coupled to nationalist feelings, and the
composer was inscribed in a religious revival. In England, Bach was coupled to an existing
revival of religious and baroque music. By the end of the century, Bach was firmly established as
one of the greatest composers, recognised for both his instrumental and his vocal music.[198]

20th century
During the 20th century, the process of recognising the musical as
well as the pedagogic value of some of the works continued, as in
the promotion of the cello suites by Pablo Casals, the first major
performer to record these suites.[212] Leading performers of
classical music such as Willem Mengelberg, Edwin Fischer,
Georges Enescu, Leopold Stokowski, Herbert von Karajan, Arthur
Grumiaux, Helmut Walcha, Wanda Landowska, Karl Richter, I
Musici, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Glenn Gould recorded his
music.[n 4]

A significant development in the later part of the 20th century was

the momentum gained by the historically informed performance
practice, with forerunners such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt acquiring 1908 Statue of Bach in front
of the Thomaskirche in
prominence by their performances of Bach's music. His keyboard
Leipzig
music was again performed more on the instruments Bach was
familiar with, rather than on modern pianos and 19th-century
romantic organs. Ensembles playing and singing Bach's music not only kept to the instruments
and the performance style of his day but were also reduced to the size of the groups Bach used
for his performances.[213] But that was far from the only way Bach's music came to the forefront
in the 20th century: his music was heard in versions ranging from Ferruccio Busoni's late
romantic piano transcriptions to jazzy interpretations such as those by The Swingle Singers,
orchestrations like the one opening Walt Disney's Fantasia movie, and synthesiser
performances such as Wendy Carlos' Switched-On Bach recordings.

Bach's music has influenced other genres. For instance, jazz

musicians have adopted Bach's music, with Jacques Loussier, Ian
Anderson, Uri Caine, and the Modern Jazz Quartet among those
creating jazz versions of his works.[214] Several 20th-century
composers referred to Bach or his music, for example Eugène Ysaÿe
in Six Sonatas for solo violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in 24 Preludes
and Fugues and Heitor Villa-Lobos in Bachianas Brasileiras. All
kinds of publications involved Bach: not only were there the Bach
Jahrbuch publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft, various other
biographies and studies by among others Albert Schweitzer,
Charles Sanford Terry, Alfred Dürr, Christoph Wolff. Peter
Williams, John Butt,[n 5] and the 1950 first edition of the Bach-
Werke-Verzeichnis; but also books such as Gödel, Escher, Bach put
the composer's art in a wider perspective. Bach's music was
extensively listened to, performed, broadcast, arranged, adapted,
28 July 1950: memorial
and commented upon in the 1990s.[215] Around 2000, the 250th service for Bach in Leipzig's
anniversary of Bach's death, three record companies issued box sets Thomaskirche, on the 200th
with complete recordings of Bach's music.[216][217][218] anniversary of the
composer's death
Bach's music features three times—more than that of any other
composer—on the Voyager Golden Record, a gramophone record
containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent
into outer space with the two Voyager probes.[219] Tributes to Bach in the 20th century include
statues erected in his honour and a variety of things such as streets and space objects being
named after him.[220][221] Also, a multitude of musical ensembles such as the Bach Aria Group,
Deutsche Bachsolisten, Bachchor Stuttgart, and Bach Collegium Japan adopted the composer's
name. Bach festivals were held on several continents, and competitions and prizes such as the
International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize
were named after the composer. While by the end of the 19th century Bach had been inscribed
in nationalism and religious revival, the late 20th century saw Bach as the subject of a
secularised art-as-religion (Kunstreligion).[198][215]

21st century
In the 21st century, Bach's compositions have become available online, for instance at the
International Music Score Library Project.[222] High-resolution facsimiles of Bach's autographs
became available at the Bach Digital website.[223] 21st-century biographers include Christoph
Wolff, Peter Williams and John Eliot Gardiner.[n 6]

In 2019, Bach was named the greatest composer of all time in a poll conducted among 174 living
composers.[224]

Burial site
Bach was originally buried at Old St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig. His grave went unmarked for
nearly 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were located and moved to a vault in St. John's
Church. This building was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II, so in 1950 Bach's
remains were taken to their present grave in St. Thomas Church.[22] Later research has called
into question whether the remains in the grave are actually those of Bach.[225]

References

Notes
1. In the portrait, Bach holds a copy of the six-part canon BWV 1076[1]
2. German: [ˈjoːhan zeˈbastia(ː)n
̯ ˈbax] ( listen). The last name appears in English as /bɑːx/ on
Lexico and in Dictionary.com.[6]
[5]

3. Johann Sebastian Bach drafted a genealogy around 1735, titled "Origin of the musical Bach
family", printed in translation in David, Mendel & Wolff 1998, p. 283
4. For more information, please click the articles on performers; see also reviews and listings
in Gramophone, Diapason, YouTube, Discogs and Muziekweb.
5. See
Schweitzer 1911 (1905 and 1908 editions)
Terry 1928
Dürr 1981
Dürr & Jones 2006 (English translation)
Wolff 1991
Wolff 2000
Williams 1980
Butt 1997
6. See
Wolff 2000
Williams 2003a
Williams 2007
Williams 2016
Gardiner 2013

Citations
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org/stream/MusikalischeBibliothek4.band1754/MizlerMusikalischeBibliothekBd41754#page/
n109/mode/2up); letter of Mizler to Spieß, 29 June 1748, in: Hans Rudolf Jung and Hans-
Eberhard Dentler: Briefe von Lorenz Mizler und Zeitgenossen an Meinrad Spieß, in: Studi
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ce_00004346) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204617/https://www.bach-di
gital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004346) 11 September 2017 at the Wayback
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88. Breig, Werner (2010). "Introduction (https://www.breitkopf.com/assets/pdf/15009_EB8806_P
DF_EB8806_Einl.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180222093423/https://www.
breitkopf.com/assets/pdf/15009_EB8806_PDF_EB8806_Einl.pdf) 22 February 2018 at the
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web.archive.org/web/20170911162246/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795/15009) 11
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905110155/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795) 5 September 2015 at the Wayback
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Kunst der Fuge – Ein pythagoreisches Werk und seine Verwirklichung", Mainz 2004; Hans-
Eberhard Dentler: "Johann Sebastian Bachs Musicalisches Opfer – Musik als Abbild der
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s/story/story.php?storyId=88203558). NPR Music. National Public Radio. Archived (https://w
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108. Clemens Romijn. Liner notes for Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, BWV 1083 (after
Pergolesi's Stabat Mater). Brilliant Classics, 2000. (2014 reissue: J.S. Bach Complete
Edition. "Liner notes" (http://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1119359/94940-JS-Bach-Com
plete-Edition-Liner-Notes-Sung-Text-download.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0151122020149/http://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1119359/94940-JS-Bach-Complete-
Edition-Liner-Notes-Sung-Text-download.pdf) 22 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
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109. Jopi Harri. St. Petersburg Court Chant and the Tradition of Eastern Slavic Church Singing. (
http://ecmr.fi/Scanned_Books_etc/AnnalesB340Harri.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20160220202804/http://ecmr.fi/Scanned_Books_etc/AnnalesB340Harri.pdf) 20
February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Finland: University of Turku (2011), p. 24
110. Eidam 2001, Ch. IV.
111. Eidam 2001, Ch. IX.
112. Marshall, Robert L. (1989). Franklin, Don O. (ed.). On the Origin of Bach's Magnificat: a
Lutheran composer's challenge (https://books.google.com/books?id=lT09AAAAIAAJ&pg=P
A3). Vol. Bach Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–17. ISBN 978-0-
521-34105-9. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160429141836/https://books.google.
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113. Eidam 2001, Ch. III.
114. Klavierbüchlein für W. F. Bach (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source
_00004312) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20151118093144/http://www.bachdigital.
de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004312) 18 November 2015 at the Wayback
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115. Donington 1982, p. 91.
116. Kuhnau, Johann (1700), Der musicalische Quack-Salber, Dresden
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118. André Isoir (organ) and Le Parlement de Musique conducted by Martin Gester. Johann
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119. George Frideric Handel. 6 Organ Concertos, Op. 4 at IMSLP website
120. Peter Wollny, "Harpsichord Concertos," (http://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art33/49514
33-c30ca2-3149020218129_01.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2015092203072
1/http://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art33/4951433-c30ca2-3149020218129_01.pdf) 22
September 2015 at the Wayback Machine booklet notes for Andreas Staier's 2015
recording of the concertos, Harmonia mundi HMC 902181.82
121. Schulenberg 2006, pp. 1–2.
122. Lester 1999, pp. 3–24
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123. "Did Bach intend Art of Fugue to be performed?" (http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/articles/
artoffugue/performed.shtml). The Art of Fugue. American Public Media. Archived (https://we
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formed.shtml) from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
124. Eidam 2001, Ch. XXX.
125. Forkel 1920, pp. 73–74 (https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb00forkuoft#page/73/mo
de/1up).
126. Bach Digital Work 01677 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000016
77?lang=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
127. Williams 1980, p. 217 (https://books.google.com/books?id=JfE6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA217)
128. Basso, Alberto (1979). Frau Musika: La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach (in Italian). Vol. 1. Turin:
EDT. p. 493. ISBN 978-88-7063-011-4.
129. Don O. Franklin. "The Libretto of Bach's John Passion and the Doctrine of Reconciliation:
An Historical Perspective", pp. 179–203 (http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU000105
67.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160131040840/http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/
publications/PU00010567.pdf) 31 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine in Proceedings of
the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol. 143 edited by A. A. Clement,
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130. "Bach Works Catalogue" (http://www.bach-digital.de/content/help.xml?lang=en#works).
Bach Digital. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150930081612/http://www.bach-digita
l.de/content/help.xml?lang=en#works) from the original on 30 September 2015. Retrieved
29 September 2015.
131. Wolfgang Schmieder (editor). Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen
Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1950. Unaltered through its
eighth printing in 1986.
132. Schmieder, Wolfgang; Alfred, Dürr; Kobayashi, Yoshitake, eds. (1998). Bach-Werke-
Verzeichnis: Kleine Ausgabe (BWV2a) (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031211814/https:
//www.breitkopf.com/work/78/636) (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 978-3-
7651-0249-3. Archived from the original (https://www.breitkopf.com/work/78/636) on 31
October 2016.
133. Bach Digital Work 01307 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000013
07?lang=en)
134. Joel H. Kuznik. "BWV 1128: A recently discovered Bach organ work" pp. 22–23 (http://www.t
hediapason.com/sites/default/files/webDiapDec08p23-231.pdf) in The Diapason, Vol. 99 No.
22. December 2008. (archived 21 July 2011 (https://web.archive.org/web/20110721145157/
http://thediapason.com/BWV-1128-A-recently-discovered-Bach-organ-work--article9863))
135. Leaver 2007, p. 430.
136. Williams 2003a, p. 114.
137. Traupman-Carr, Carol. "The Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248" (http://www.bach.org/bwv248.ph
p). Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2014040707
4223/http://www.bach.org/bwv248.php) from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved
29 March 2014.
138. Traupman-Carr, Carol. "Bach, Master of the Cantata" (https://web.archive.org/web/2013070
2091306/http://www.bach.org/bach101/about_bach/master_cantata.html). Bach 101. Bach
Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original (http://www.bach.org/bach101/about_bach/m
aster_cantata.html) on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
139. Bach's secular cantatas in BWV order, each followed by a link to the Bach Digital Work
(BDW) page of the cantata at the Bach-Digital website:
1 BWV 30a (BDW 00039 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000039?la
·
2 BWV 36a (BDW 00049 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000049?la
2 BWV 36a (BDW 00049 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000049?la
·
3 BWV 36b (BDW 00050 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000050?la
·
4 BWV 36c (BDW 00051 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000051?la
·
5 BWV 66a (BDW 00083 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000083?la
·
6 BWV 134a (BDW 00166 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000166?l
·
7 BWV 173a (BDW 00211 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000211?la
·
8 BWV 184a (BDW 00223 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000223?l
·
9 BWV 193a (BDW 00235 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000235?l
·
10 BWV 194a (BDW 00239 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000239?
·
11 BWV 198 (BDW 00246 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000246?l
·
12 BWV 201 (BDW 00251 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000251?l
·
13 BWV 202 (BDW 00252 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000252?l
·
14 BWV 203 (BDW 00253 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000253?l
·
15 BWV 204 (BDW 00254 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000254?l
·
16 BWV 205 (BDW 00255 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000255?l
·
17 BWV 205a (BDW 00256 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000256?
·
18 BWV 206, first version (BDW 00257 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_
·
19 BWV 206, second version (BDW 00258 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_w
·
20 BWV 207 (BDW 00259 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000259?l
·
21 BWV 207a (BDW 00260 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000260?
·
22 BWV 208, first version (BDW 00261 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_
·
23 BWV 208, second version (BDW 00262 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_w
·
24 BWV 208a (BDW 00263 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000263?
·
25 BWV 209 (BDW 00264 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000264?l
·
26 BWV 210 (BDW 00265 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000265?l
·
27 BWV 210a (BDW 00266 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000266?
·
28 BWV 211 (BDW 00267 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000267?l
·
29 BWV 212 (BDW 00268 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000268?l
29 BWV 212 (BDW 00268 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000268?l
·
30 BWV 213 (BDW 00269 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000269?l
·
31 BWV 214 (BDW 00270 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000270?l
·
32 BWV 215 (BDW 00271 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000271?l
·
33 BWV 216 (BDW 00272 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000272?l
·
34 BWV 216a (BDW 00273 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000273?
·
35 BWV 249a (BDW 00318 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000318?
·
36 BWV 249b (BDW 00319 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000319?
·
37 BWV Anh. 6 (BDW 01314 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001314
·
38 BWV Anh. 7 (BDW 01315 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001315
·
39 BWV Anh. 8 (BDW 01316 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001316
·
40 BWV Anh. 9 (BDW 01317 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001317
·
41 BWV Anh. 10 (BDW 01318 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000131
·
42 BWV Anh. 11 (BDW 01319 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000131
·
43 BWV Anh. 12 (BDW 01320 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000132
·
44 BWV Anh. 13 (BDW 01321 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000132
·
45 BWV Anh. 18 (BDW 01326 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000132
·
46 BWV Anh. 19 (BDW 01327 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000132
·
47 BWV Anh. 20 (BDW 01328 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_0000132
·
48 BWV Anh. 195 (BDW 01506 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000015
·
49 BWV Anh. 196 (BDW 01507 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000015
·
50 BWV deest (BDW 01536 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001536
140. For instance, Helmut Rilling's box set of the complete secular cantatas (http://www.arkivmus
ic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=109332&album_group=14) Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20160819222030/http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=109
332&album_group=14) 19 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine contains 22 works
141. Wolff 2000, pp. 100–101.
142. "Especially in its opening chorus, it is one of Bach's contrapuntal masterpieces": Robin A.
Leaver in Boyd 1999.
143. "one of Bach's best-known church works" wrote David Schulenberg in Boyd 1999.
144. Bach Digital Work 00246 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
46?lang=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
145. Bach Digital Work 00261 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
145. Bach Digital Work 00261 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
61?lang=en), 00262 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000262?la
ng=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
146. Bach Digital Work 00268 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
68?lang=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
147. Bach Digital Work 00253 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
53?lang=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
148. Bach Digital Work 01319 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000013
19?lang=en), 01320 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00001320?la
ng=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
149. Bach Digital Work 00251 (http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_000002
51?lang=en) at www.bachdigital.de (http://www.bachdigital.de)
150. Traupman-Carr, Carol. "Cantata BWV 211, Coffee Cantata" (http://www.bach.org/bwv211.ph
p). Bach 101. Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2015042709
5632/http://www.bach.org/bwv211.php) from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved
31 March 2014.
151. Traupman-Carr, Carol. "Choral Works" (http://www.bach.org/choral.php). Bach 101. Bach
Choir of Bethlehem. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140330021530/http://www.bac
h.org/choral.php) from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
152. Melamed, Daniel R. (1995). J. S. Bach and the German Motet (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=JDlBMqI628UC&pg=PA90). pp. 90–94. ISBN 978-0-521-41864-5. Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20150515122654/https://books.google.com/books?id=JDlBMqI628UC
&pg=PA90) from the original on 15 May 2015.
153. "The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232" (http://www.bach.org/mass.php). Bach 101. Bach Choir of
Bethlehem. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140330161348/http://www.bach.org/m
ass.php) from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
154. Herz 1985, p. 187.
155. "Bach, Johann Sebastian" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080619044736/http://classicalplu
s.gmn.com/composers/composer.asp?id=2). GMN ClassicalPlus. Archived from the original
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156. Smith, Timothy A. "Arnstadt (1703–1707)" (http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/arnstadt.html). The
Canons and Fugues of J. S. Bach. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140205032125/
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11 April 2014.
157. Schweitzer 1923, p. 333.
158. Kroesbergen, Willem; Cruickshank, Andrew (November 2013). "18th Century Quotes on J.
S. Bach's Temperament" (https://www.academia.edu/5210832). Academia.edu. Archived (ht
tps://web.archive.org/web/20141109012752/http://www.academia.edu/5210832/18th_Centur
y_Quotes_on_J.S._Bach_s_Temperament) from the original on 9 November 2014.
159. Tomita, Yo. "J. S. Bach: Inventions and Sinfonias" (http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/essay
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22 February 2012.
160. McComb, Todd M. "Bach: English Suites"
(http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/maa777.htm). Early Music FAQ. Archived (https://web.a
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original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
161. Traupman-Carr, Carol. "French Suites 1–6" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130702114830/h
ttp://www.bach.org/bach101/instrumental/frenchsuites_intro.html). Bach 101. The Bach
Choir of Bethlehem. Archived from the original (http://www.bach.org/bach101/instrumental/fr
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217.htm). Early Music FAQ. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140222223615/http://w
ww.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/lol40217.htm) from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved
10 December 2014.
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Cambridge Studies in Music, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-31700-9;
Williams, Peter (2003b), The Organ Music of J. S. Bach (2nd ed.), Cambridge University
Press, ISBN 978-0-521-89115-8
Wolff, Christoph, ed. (1983). The New Grove Bach Family. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-
333-34350-0.
Wolff, Christoph, ed. (1997). The World of the Bach Cantatas: Johann Sebastian Bach's
Early Sacred Cantatas. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-33674-0.
Wolff, Christoph; Emery, Walter; Wollny, Peter; Leisinger, Ulrich; Roe, Stephen (17 January
2018) [2001]. "Bach family" (https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/g
mo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040023). Grove Music Online.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40023 (https://doi
.org/10.1093%2Fgmo%2F9781561592630.article.40023). ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
(subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/page/subscribe#publi
c) required)

Further reading
See Crist & Stauff 2011 for an extensive bibliography

Baron, Carol K. (2006). Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community. Rochester, New
York: University of Rochester Press. ISBN 978-1-58046-190-0.
Dörffel, Alfred (1882). Thematisches Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke von Joh. Seb. Bach
(https://archive.org/details/thematischesverz00dr) (in German). Leipzig: C. F. Peters. N.B.:
First published in 1867; superseded, for scholarly purposes, by Wolfgang Schmieder's
complete thematic catalog, but useful as a handy reference tool for only the instrumental
works of Bach and as a partial alternative to Schmieder's work.
Hofstadter, Douglas (1999). Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New York: Basic
Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02656-2.
Leaver, Robin A. (2016), The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (h
ttps://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315452814), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-367-58143-5
Pirro, André (2014) [1907]. The Aesthetic of Johann Sebastian Bach. Lanham, Maryland:
Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3290-7.
Stauffer, George B.; May, Ernest (1986). J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music,
and Performance Practices. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33181-
6.

External links
"Discovering Bach" (http://bbc.co.uk/bach). BBC Radio 3.
bach-leipzig website (https://www.bach-leipzig.de/en/neutral/about-us) of the Bach Archive.
Yo Tomita's Bach Bibliography (23 March 2012) (http://homepages.bw.edu/bachbib/), mirror
at the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.
Works by or about Johann Sebastian Bach (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28
subject%3A%22Bach%2C%20Johann%20Sebastian%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Bach
%2C%20Johann%20S%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Bach%2C%20J%2E%20S%2
E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%22%20OR%20subject
%3A%22Johann%20S%2E%20Bach%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22J%2E%20S%2E%20
Bach%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Bach%2C%20Johann%22%20OR%20subject%3A%
22Johann%20Bach%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%22%
20OR%20creator%3A%22Johann%20S%2E%20Bach%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22J%
2E%20S%2E%20Bach%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22J%2E%20Sebastian%20Bach%22
%20OR%20creator%3A%22Bach%2C%20Johann%20Sebastian%22%20OR%20creator%
3A%22Bach%2C%20Johann%20S%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Bach%2C%20J%
2E%20S%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Bach%2C%20J%2E%20Sebastian%22%20
OR%20creator%3A%22Johann%20Bach%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Bach%2C%20Jo
hann%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%22%20OR%20title%3A
%22Johann%20S%2E%20Bach%22%20OR%20title%3A%22J%2E%20S%2E%20Bach%2
2%20OR%20title%3A%22Johann%20Bach%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Johann%2
0Sebastian%20Bach%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Johann%20S%2E%20Bach%22
%20OR%20description%3A%22J%2E%20S%2E%20Bach%22%20OR%20description%3A
%22Bach%2C%20Johann%20Sebastian%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Bach%2C%2
0Johann%20S%2E%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Johann%20Bach%22%20OR%20d
escription%3A%22Bach%2C%20Johann%22%29%20OR%20%28%221685-1750%22%20
AND%20Bach%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at Internet Archive.

Scores

Johann Sebastian Bach (https://musopen.org/composer/johann-sebastian-bach/) at the

Musopen project.
Free scores by Johann Sebastian Bach at the International Music Score Library Project
(IMSLP).
Music manuscripts and early prints (https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?q=%2Bo
bjectType%3A%22source%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3
A0001%22+%2Bmusicrepo_imagesource%3A%22true%22&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectTy
pe&sort=musicrepo_sourcesort01+asc&rows=25&version=4.5&mask=search_form_source.
xed) at Bach Digital website.

Recordings

Johann Sebastian Bach recordings (https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102304) at the

Discography of American Historical Recordings.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) (https://www.muziekweb.nl/en/Link/M00000000271/C
LASSICAL/COMPOSER/) at Muziekweb website.
All of Bach (https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach) website of the Netherlands Bach
Society.

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