Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach[n 1] (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German
composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a
variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo
instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works
such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler
Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion
and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one
of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.[2]

The Bach family already had several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child
of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius, in Eisenach. After being orphaned at age 10, he lived for five
years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, then continued his musical education in Lüneburg.
In 1703 he returned to Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and
Mühlhausen, and for longer periods at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory,
and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. In 1723 he was hired as
Thomaskantor (cantor at St Thomas's) in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal
Lutheran churches of the city and its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. In 1726 he
began publishing his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his
earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer. This situation was somewhat remedied
when his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland, granted him the title of court composer in 1736. In the
last decades of his life, Bach reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of
complications after a botched eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65.

Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and
motivic organisation,[3] and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly
Italy and France. His 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. Bach 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 use contrapuntal techniques like canon and fugue.

In the 18th century Bach was primarily known 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 significant 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 his oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.

Life
Childhood (1685–1703)
Johann Ambrosius Bach, 1685, Bach's father. Painting attributed to Johann David Herlicius [de]
Further information: Bach family
Johann Sebastian Bach[n 1] 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 eighth and
youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth
Lämmerhirt.[6][7][8] His father likely taught him violin and basic music theory. His uncles were all
professional musicians who worked as church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers.[9]
One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ,[10] and an older second cousin,
Johann Ludwig Bach, was a well-known composer and violinist.[9][n 2]

Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later.[11] The 10-year-old Bach moved
in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf,
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.[12] There he studied, performed, and copied music, including his brother's,
despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper
was costly.[13][14] He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the
clavichord. Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including
South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Johann Pachelbel (under
whom Johann Christoph had studied); North Germans;[15] Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully,
Louis Marchand, and Marin Marais;[16] and the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi.[17] He learned theology,
Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium.[18]

By 3 April 1700, Bach and his school friend Georg Erdmann—who was two years older than Bach
—studied at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, some two weeks' travel north of Ohrdruf.[19][20] Their
journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot.[20] His two years there were critical in exposing
Bach to a broader range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the
school's three-manual organ and harpsichords.[21] 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.[22]

Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen (1703–1708)

The Wender organ Bach played in Arnstadt

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's and being turned down for the post of
organist at Sangerhausen,[23] Bach was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann
Ernst III in Weimar.[24] 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 widely that he
was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church (now Bach
Church) in Arnstadt, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Weimar.[25] On 14 August 1703, he
became the organist at the New Church,[10] with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a new
organ tuned in a temperament that allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be played.[26]

Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between
Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach felt discontented by the calibre of
musicians he was collaborating with. He called one of them, Geyersbach, a "Zippel
Fagottist" (weenie bassoonist). Late one evening, 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 about the musical qualities he expected from his
students. Some months later, Bach upset his employer with a prolonged absence from Arnstadt:
after obtaining leave for four weeks, he was absent for around four months in 1705–1706 to take
lessons from the organist and composer Johann Adam Reincken and to hear him and Dieterich
Buxtehude play in the northern city of Lübeck. The visit to Buxtehude and Reincken involved a
450-kilometre (280 mi) journey each way, reportedly on foot.[27][28] Buxtehude probably introduced
Bach to his friend Reincken so that he could learn from his compositional technique (especially his
mastery of fugue), his organ playing and his skills with improvisation. Bach knew Reincken's music
very well; he copied Reincken's monumental An Wasserflüssen Babylon when he was 15 years old.
Bach later wrote several other works on the same theme. When Bach revisited Reincken in 1720
and showed him his improvisatory skills on the organ, Reincken reportedly remarked: "I thought
that this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you."[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] Bach's application was accepted a month later, 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 convinced 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.[21]

Return to Weimar (1708–1717)

Further information: Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172 § Background
Organ of the St. Paul's Church in Leipzig, tested by Bach in 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 could work with a large, well-
funded contingent of professional musicians.[21] Bach and his wife moved into a house near the
ducal palace.[33] Later that 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 she died 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—twins born in
1713 and a single birth; none survived past their first birthday.[34]

Bach's time in Weimar began 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 to a certain extent 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.[21] He also began to write the preludes and fugues that 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. In
Weimar Bach also started work on the Little Organ Book, 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 for Pentecost.[41] Bach's first
Christmas cantata, Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63, premiered in 1714 or 1715.[42][43]

In 1717, Bach 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 unfavorably dismissed: "On November 6, [1717,]
the quondam [former] 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 unfavorable discharge."[44]

Köthen (1717–1723)

Bach's autograph of the first movement of the first sonata for solo violin, BWV 1001 Duration: 4
minutes and 32 seconds.4:32
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach to serve as his Kapellmeister (director of music) in
1717. Himself a musician, Leopold appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him
considerable latitude in composing and performing. Leopold was a Calvinist and did not use
elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period is secular,[45]
including the orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the 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 to meet Handel, but Handel had left 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 Leopold, his wife, Maria Barbara Bach,
suddenly died.[50] The next year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, 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 director of church music in Leipzig. He had to direct
the St. Thomas School and provide four churches with music, the St. Thomas Church, the 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 Dresden.[54] Bach frequently disagreed
with his employer, Leipzig's city council, which he regarded as "penny-pinching".[55]

Appointment in Leipzig

St. Thomas Church and School, Leipzig in 1723

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 met on the occasion of the testing and inauguration of an
organ in Halle.[39]

The position was offered to Bach only after it had been offered to Georg Philipp Telemann and then
to Christoph Graupner, both of whom chose to stay where they were—Telemann in Hamburg and
Graupner in Darmstadt—after using the Leipzig offer to negotiate better terms of employment.[58][59]

Bach was required to instruct the Thomasschule students 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 composed within three years of his relocation
to Leipzig. He assumed the office of Thomaskantor on 30 May 1723, presenting the first new
cantata, Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after
Trinity.[61] Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Five are mentioned in obituaries, and three
are extant.[41] Of the more than 300 cantatas he composed in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to
posterity.[62] Most of these works expound on the Gospel readings prescribed for every Sunday and
feast day in the Lutheran year. Bach started a second annual cycle on the first Sunday after the
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; probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, he wrote at least six motets.[63]
As part of his regular church work, he performed other composers' motets, which served as formal
models for his own.[64]

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 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. In 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even for festal
services at St. Paul's Church and decided to appear there only on "special occasions".[65] The St.
Paul's Church had a much better and newer (1716) organ than the St. Thomas Church or the St.
Nicholas Church.[66] 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.[67]

Café Zimmermann, c. 1720

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 Telemann started. This
was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities established by
musically active university students; they 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".[68] Every week, the Collegium Musicum gave two-hour
performances, in winter at the Café Zimmermann, a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main
market square, and in summer in the proprietor's outdoor coffee garden just outside the town walls,
near the East Gate. The concerts, all free of charge, ended with Gottfried Zimmermann's death in
1741. Apart from showcasing his earlier orchestral repertoire, such as the Brandenburg Concertos
and orchestral suites, many of Bach's newly composed or reworked pieces were performed for these
venues, including parts of his Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice), his violin and keyboard
concertos, and the Coffee Cantata.[21][69]

Middle years of the Leipzig period (1730–1739)

Bach's seal (centre), used throughout his Leipzig years. It contains the superimposed letters J S B in
a mirror image topped with a crown. The flanking letters illustrate the arrangement on the seal.
In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor that he later incorporated in his Mass in
B minor. He presented the manuscript to the Elector in a successful bid to persuade the prince to
give him the title of Court Composer.[70] He later extended this work into a full mass by adding a
Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei, the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas and
partly original. Bach's appointment as Court Composer was an element of his long-term struggle to
achieve greater 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 preparing his first organ music publication, which was printed as the third
Clavier-Übung in 1739.[71] From around that year he started to compile and compose the set of
preludes and fugues for harpsichord that became the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier.[72]
He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736.[70][11]

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),[73] Kerll (BWV 241),[74]
Torri (BWV Anh. 30),[75] Bassani (BWV 1081),[76] Gasparini (Missa Canonica),[77] and Caldara
(BWV 1082).[78] Bach's 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.[79] His fourth and last
Clavier-Übung volume, the Goldberg Variations for two-manual harpsichord, contained nine
canons and was published in 1741.[80] During this period, Bach also continued to adapt music of
contemporaries such as Handel (BNB I/K/2)[81] and Stölzel (BWV 200),[82] and gave many of his
own earlier compositions, such as the St Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen
Chorale Preludes,[83] their final revisions. He also programmed and adapted music by composers of
a younger generation, including Pergolesi (BWV 1083),[84] and his own students, such as Goldberg
(BNB I/G/2).[85]

In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Society of Musical Sciences [de].[86]
To be admitted, he had to submit a composition. He chose his Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel
hoch da komm' ich her", and a portrait painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann that featured Bach's
Canon triplex á 6 Voc.[87] 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 it.
Bach obliged, playing a three-part fugue on one of Frederick's fortepianos,[88] 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 ("king's theme"). 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 written two decades earlier, were published
within a year.[89][90] Around the same time, the set of five canonic variations Bach had submitted
when entering Mizler's society in 1747 were also printed.[91]
Two large-scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach's last years. Beginning 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.[92][93] 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. The complete mass was not performed during his
lifetime. It is considered among the greatest choral works in history.[94]

In January 1749, Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann Christoph
Altnickol. Bach's health was declining. On 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl wrote to one of the Leipzig
burgomasters to request that his music director, Gottlob Harrer, fill the Thomaskantor and Director
musices posts "upon the eventual ... decease of Mr. Bach".[95] 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.[96] Bach died on
28 July 1750 from complications due to the unsuccessful treatment.[97][98][99]

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,
a spinet, and 52 "sacred books", including works by Martin Luther and Josephus.[100] C.P.E. Bach
saw to it that The Art of Fugue, though unfinished, was published in 1751.[101] Together with one of
J.S. Bach's former students, Johann Friedrich Agricola, C.P.E. Bach also wrote the obituary
("Nekrolog"), which was published in Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek [de], a periodical journal
produced by the Society of Musical Sciences, in 1754.[91]

Musical style
A handwritten note by Bach in his copy of the Calov Bible. The note next to 2 Chronicles 5:13
reads: "NB Bey einer andächtigen Musiq ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart" (N(ota)
B(ene) In a music of worship God is always present with his grace).
See also: List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
From an early age, Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period and
those of earlier generations, and those influences are reflected in his music.[102] Like his
contemporaries Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da
capo arias, and four-part choral music, and employed basso continuo. His music is harmonically
more innovative than his peers', employing surprisingly dissonant chords and progressions, often
extensively exploring harmonic possibilities within one piece.[103]

Bach's hundreds of sacred works are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but also a deep
faith in God.[104][105] He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig, and
some of his pieces represent it.[106] 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.[citation needed] The large-scale structure of
every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning to create 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.[107]

Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many collections of pieces that explored the
range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except opera.
For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two books, each of which presents a prelude
and fugue in every major and minor key, displaying a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal
and fugal techniques.[108]
Four-part harmony

"O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden": the four-part chorale setting as included in the St. Matthew
Passion
Four-part harmony predates Bach, but he lived during a time when modal music in Western
tradition was largely supplanted by the tonal system. In this system a piece of music progresses
from one chord to the next according to certain rules, with each chord characterised by four notes.
The principles of four-part harmony are found not only in Bach's four-part choral music; he also
prescribes it for instance in figured bass accompaniment.[109] The new system was at the core of
Bach's style, and his compositions are to a large extent considered to have laid down the rules for
the evolving scheme that dominated 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 in
the harmony, thus adapting the composition to four-part harmony.[110]
• 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 foreign-influenced
models, but such influence was deemed unavoidable.[111]
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 performed by Kevin MacLeod
1. Fantasia
Duration: 6 minutes and 42 seconds.6:42

2. Fugue
Duration: 5 minutes and 54 seconds.5:54
Bach re-interpreting older genres tied to the modal system
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 modes and genres. His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, emulating the chromatic fantasia
genre used by earlier composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck in D dorian mode (comparable to
D minor in the tonal system), is an example.

Modulation

Modulation, or changing key in the course of a piece, is another style characteristic where Bach
goes beyond the norm in his time. Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation possibilities:
keyboard instruments, before 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 singers, according to an
indictment he had to face in Arnstadt,[112] 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.[113] 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.[114]

The major development in Bach's time to which he contributed in no small way was a temperament
for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in every key (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 it has been compared to,[115]
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.[116]

Ornamentation

Bach's guide on ornaments as contained in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
Aria of the Goldberg Variations, showing Bach's use of ornamentsDuration: 5 minutes and 2
seconds.5:02
The second page of the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and
performance guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son when he was nine years old. Bach was
generally quite specific on ornamentation in his compositions (in his time, much ornamentation was
not written out by composers but rather considered a liberty of the performer),[117] and his
ornamentation was often quite elaborate. For instance, the "Aria" of the Goldberg Variations has
rich ornamentation in nearly every measure. Bach's approach to ornamentation can also be seen in a
keyboard arrangement he made of Marcello's Oboe Concerto: he added explicit ornamentation,
which centuries later is still played.[118]

Although Bach wrote no 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. Kuhnau had notoriously shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music.[119] Bach
was less moved. After a performance of his St Matthew Passion, someone said it all sounded much
like opera.[120]

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 a piece's
harmonic and rhythmic foundation. Beginning in the 1720s, Bach had the organ play concertante
(i.e., as a soloist) with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements,[121] a decade before Handel
published his first organ concertos.[122] 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,[123] 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 way, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard
concerto.[124]

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 violin, within reach of only accomplished players. The music fits the
instrument, using the full gamut of its possibilities and requiring virtuosity but without bravura.[125]
Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem inseparable, Bach transcribed some pieces
in this collection for other instruments. Similarly, the virtuoso cello suites seem tailored to the
instrument, the best of what is offered for it, but Bach arranged one of the suites for lute. The same
applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach exploited an instrument's capacities to
the fullest while keeping the core of the music independent of the instrument on which it is
performed.
In this sense, it is no surprise that Bach's music is easily and often performed on instruments it was
not written for, that it is transcribed so often, and that his melodies turn up in unexpected places,
such as jazz music. Apart from this, Bach left several compositions without specified
instrumentation: the canons BWV 1072–1078 are in that category, as is the bulk of the Musical
Offering and the Art of Fugue.[126]

Counterpoint

Analysis of the counterpoint of the chorale prelude Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', BWV 632
(Orgelbüchlein)
BWV 632 (extract) (0:48)

This video shows the intertwining of melodies and motives, including the melody of the chorale
"Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend".Duration: 47 seconds.0:47
Sonata No. 3 in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1029 performed by John Michel
1st movement
Duration: 5 minutes and 3 seconds.5:03

2nd movement
Duration: 6 minutes and 5 seconds.6:05

3rd movement
Duration: 3 minutes and 36 seconds.3:36
Continuo instruments moving to the front (here performed on cello and piano)
Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra
conducted by Simon Schindler with Johannes Volker Schmidt (piano)
1. Allegro
Duration: 7 minutes and 41 seconds.7:41

2. Adagio
Duration: 6 minutes and 38 seconds.6:38

3. Allegro
Duration: 8 minutes and 0 seconds.8:00
Keyboard concerto
Double Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1043 performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra with
David Perry and Roxana Pavel Goldstein (violins)
1. Vivace
Duration: 3 minutes and 50 seconds.3:50

2. Largo ma non tanto

Duration: 6 minutes and 42 seconds.6:42
3. Allegro
Duration: 4 minutes and 50 seconds.4:50
A strictly contrapuntal composition (the two violins playing in canon throughout) in the guise of an
Italian type of concerto
See also: List of fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach
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 the most characteristic of this style, which he did not invent but contributed to so
fundamentally that to a large extent he defined it. Fugues are as characteristic of Bach's style as, for
instance, sonata form is of the composers of the Classical period.[127]

These strictly contrapuntal compositions, and most of Bach's music in general, are characterised by
distinct melodic lines for each voice, 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. Suppose more parts are interwoven in the same free and independent manner. In that case,
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 1720, when he was thirty-five until he died in 1750, Bach's harmony consists of 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 harmonious and agreeable.[128]

Structure and lyrics

Bach devoted more attention than his contemporaries to his compositions' structure. This can be
seen in minor adjustments he made when adapting someone else's work, such as his earliest version
of the "Keiser" St Mark Passion, where he enhances scene transitions,[129] and in the architecture of
his own work, such as his Magnificat[114] and Leipzig Passions. In his last years, Bach revised
several of his compositions. Often, recasting such previously composed music in an enhanced
structure was the most salient 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 of these were later rejected, especially those that wandered into symbolism-ridden
hermeneutics.[130][131]
The librettos, or lyrics, of his vocal compositions played an essential 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 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.[132]

Compositions
See also: List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalogue of Bach's compositions called the
Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue).[133] 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.[134]

Original Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach Works Catalogue)

BWV Range Compositions
BWV 1–224 Cantatas
BWV 225–231 Motets
Liturgical compositions in
BWV 232–243
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–
Other chamber music
1040
BWV 1041–
Orchestral music
1071
BWV 1072–
Canons
1078
BWV 1079–
Late contrapuntal works
1080

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.[135][136][137]

Passions and oratorios

Bach's autograph of the recitative with the gospel text of Christ's death from St Matthew Passion
(Matthew 27:45–47a)
See also: List of masses, passions and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach § 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.[138][139][140] Shorter oratorios
include the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. With its double choir and orchestra, the St
Matthew Passion is one of Bach's most extended works. The St John Passion was the first passion
Bach composed during his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

Cantatas

Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 performed by the MIT Concert Choir conducted
by W. Cutter
1. Chorus "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"
Duration: 5 minutes and 48 seconds.5:48

2. Recitative "Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräut'gam kommt"

Duration: 1 minute and 8 seconds.1:08

3. Duet "Wenn kömmst du, mein Heil?"

Duration: 5 minutes and 56 seconds.5:56

4. Chorale "Zion hört die Wächter singen"

Duration: 4 minutes and 41 seconds.4:41

5. Recitative "So geh herein zu mir"

Duration: 1 minute and 6 seconds.1:06

6. Duet "Mein Freund ist mein!"

Duration: 5 minutes and 41 seconds.5:41

7. Chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen"

Duration: 1 minute and 39 seconds.1:39
Cantata text
See also: Bach cantata and List of Bach cantatas
According to his obituary, Bach would have composed five year-cycles of sacred cantatas and
additional church cantatas for weddings and funerals.[91] Approximately 200 of these sacred works
are extant, an estimated two-thirds of the total number of church cantatas he composed.[62][141] The
Bach Digital website lists 50 known secular cantatas by the composer,[142] about half of which are
extant or largely reconstructable.[143]

Church cantatas

See also: Church cantata (Bach)

Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and 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.[144]

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. Overall, the extant early works
show remarkable mastery and skill. Many feature an instrumental opening which displays effective
use of the limited instrumental forces available to Bach, whether it be in the subdued combination
of two recorders and two violas de gamba for BWV 106, or the independent bassoon in BWV 196.
Bach's compositional skills also manifest 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.[145]

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.[21] 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 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)[146] and Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140.[147] 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.[21]

Secular cantatas

See also: List of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for instance for members of the royal Polish and prince-electoral
Saxonian families (e.g. Trauer-Ode),[148] or other public or private occasions (e.g. Hunting Cantata).
[149] The text of these cantatas was occasionally in dialect (e.g. Peasant Cantata)[150] or Italian (e.g.

Amore traditore).[151] 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).[152]

Some of the surviving secular cantatas have a plot involving mythological figures of Greek
antiquity (e.g. Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan),[153] and others were almost miniature buffo
operas (e.g. Coffee Cantata).[154] Although Bach never expressed any interest in opera,[155] his secular
cantatas, or drammi per musica, would have allowed Leipzig audiences, deprived of opera since
1720, to experience musical performances comparable to the royal opera in Dresden. These were
not "poor or makeshift substitutes for real opera" but spectacles displaying "full mastery of the
dramatic genre and the proper pacing of the dialogues."[156]

A cappella music

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

Motets
Main article: Motets (Bach)
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.[157] 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.[158]

Chorale harmonisations

See also: List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach

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

Church music in Latin

See also: Bach's church music in Latin

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

Magnificat

See also: Magnificat (Bach)

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

from Mass in B minor

Agnus Dei
Duration: 4 minutes and 41 seconds.4:41
performed by Solomija Drozd (voice), Petro Titiajev (violin) and Ivan Ostapovych (organ)
See also: 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.[159][160]

Keyboard music

Bach wrote for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichord, clavichord and
lute-harpsichord.

Organ works

Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 performed by Robert Köbler on the Silbermann organ in
the village church of Großhartmannsdorf, Saxony
Prelude
Duration: 3 minutes and 18 seconds.3:18

Fugue
Duration: 6 minutes and 25 seconds.6:25

See also: List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

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).[21] At a young age, he established a reputation
for creativity and the 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 Orgelbüchlein or "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. Later in his life, Bach extensively
consulted on organ projects, tested new organs, and dedicated playing organs to afternoon recitals.
[161][162] 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

The Art of Fugue (title page) – performed by Mehmet Okonsar on organ and harpsichord
Duration: 39 minutes and 53 seconds.39:53
Nos. 1–12
Duration: 31 minutes and 2 seconds.31:02
Nos. 13–20
Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846 performed on harpsichord by Robert Schröter
Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846
Duration: 1 minute and 58 seconds.1:58

Italian Concerto BWV 971 performed by Martha Goldstein

1st movement
Duration: 4 minutes and 24 seconds.4:24

2nd movement
Duration: 5 minutes and 30 seconds.5:30

3rd movement
Duration: 3 minutes and 17 seconds.3:17

See also: List of solo keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach wrote many works for harpsichord, some of which may also have been played on the
clavichord or lute-harpsichord. Some of his more significant 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 Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846–893). Each book consists of a
prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, in chromatic order from C major
to B minor (thus, the whole collection is often referred to as "the 48"). "Well-tempered" in
the title 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 few keys.[163]
[164]

• 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
certain rarer keys. Bach intended these pieces for instructional purposes.[165]
• 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.[166] The French Suites omit preludes but have multiple movements between the
sarabande and gigue.[167] The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory
movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.[168]
• 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
nine canons within the 30 variations; every third variation is a canon.[169] 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

See also: List of chamber music works by Johann Sebastian Bach and List of orchestral works by
Johann Sebastian Bach
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.[170][125] 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 or combinations of instruments.[171][172]

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
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049
1. Allegro
Duration: 7 minutes and 18 seconds.7:18

2. Andante
Duration: 4 minutes and 36 seconds.4:36

3. Presto
Duration: 4 minutes and 17 seconds.4:17

Further information: 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.[21] These works are examples of
the concerto grosso genre.

Keyboard concertos

Further information: Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach

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 are now
lost.[173] Several violin, oboe, and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these.

Orchestral suites

Main article: Orchestral suites (Bach)

In addition to concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites, each suite being a series of stylised
dances for orchestra, preceded by a French overture.[174]

Copies, arrangements and uncertain attributions

Some of Bach's most popular melodies are, more often than not, heard in various arrangements:
Air on the G String (excerpt)
Duration: 2 minutes and 50 seconds.2:50
"Air", 2nd movement from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, performed in an Air on
the G String adaptation by Capella Istropolitana conducted by Oliver von Dohnányi (courtesy of
Naxos)

"Sheep May Safely Graze" (instrumental version)

Duration: 3 minutes and 58 seconds.3:58
The aria "Schafe können sicher weiden" (Sheep May Safely Graze), No. 9 from the Hunting
Cantata, BWV 208: composed for soprano, recorders, and continuo, the music of this movement
exists in a variety of instrumental arrangements.
See also: BWV Anh. and List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach
In his early youth, Bach copied pieces by other composers to learn from them.[175] 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. Although a score partially in Bach's handwriting exists, the work was later considered
spurious.[176] 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.[177]

Reception
Main article: Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's music
The church in Arnstadt where Bach had been the organist from 1703 to 1707. In 1935, the church
was renamed "Bachkirche".
In the 18th century, Bach's music was appreciated mostly by distinguished connoisseurs. The 19th
century started with the publication of the first biography of Bach and ended with the Bach
Gesellschaft's completion and publication of all his known works. Starting with the Bach Revival,
he began to be regarded as one of the greatest composers, a reputation he has maintained. The
BACH motif, which Bach occasionally used in his compositions, has been used in dozens of
tributes to him since the 19th century.

18th century

Painting of Johann Sebastian Bach by 'Gebel', before 1798

In his own time, Bach was highly regarded by his colleagues,[178] but his reputation outside this
small circle of connoisseurs was due not to his compositions (which had an extremely narrow
circulation),[10] but 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. This appreciation contrasted
with the humiliations he faced, for instance, in Leipzig.[179] Bach also had detractors in the
contemporary press (Johann Adolf Scheibe suggested he write less complex music) and supporters,
such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mizler.[180][181][182]

After his death, Bach's reputation as a composer initially declined: his work was regarded as old-
fashioned compared to the emerging galant style.[183] He was remembered more as a virtuoso organ
player and a teacher. The bulk of the music printed during his lifetime, at least the remembered
parts, was for organ or harpsichord. Thus his reputation as a composer was initially mostly limited
to his keyboard music, which was relatively limited in its value to music education.
Bach's surviving family members, who inherited many 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
helped preserve the bulk of his previously unpublished work.[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 work by J.S. Bach and his sons and was a "patron" of C.P.E. Bach.[191]

While Bach was in Leipzig, performances of his 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
who 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 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

See also: Bach Revival and St Matthew Passion § 19th century

Image of the Bach memorial [de] erected by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1843
In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work, the
first Bach biography, dedicated to van Swieten.[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 first publications of Bach's
music: Breitkopf started publishing chorale preludes,[204] Hoffmeister harpsichord music,[205] and the
Well-Tempered Clavier was printed concurrently by Simrock (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] Abraham's son Felix, aged 13, produced his first Magnificat setting in
1822, and it is clearly inspired by the then-unpublished D major version of Bach's Magnificat.[208]

Felix Mendelssohn's 1829 performance of the St Matthew Passion precipitated the Bach Revival.
The St John Passion saw its 19th-century premiere in 1833, and the first public performance of the
Mass in B minor followed in 1844. Besides these and other public performances and increased
coverage of the composer and his compositions in printed media, the 1830s and 1840s also saw the
first publication of more Bach vocal works: six cantatas, the St Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B
minor. A series of organ compositions were first published 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 his works. In 1854, Bach
was deemed one of the three Bs by Peter Cornelius, the others being Beethoven and Berlioz. (Hans
von Bülow replaced Berlioz with Brahms.) From 1873 to 1880, Philipp Spitta published Johann
Sebastian Bach, the standard work on Bach's life and music.[211] During 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 centers.[198]

In 19th-century Germany, Bach was coupled with nationalist feeling, and he was inscribed in a
religious revival. In England, Bach was coupled with a 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

1908 Statue of Bach in front of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig

28 July 1950: memorial service for Bach in Leipzig's Thomaskirche, on the 200th anniversary of the
composer's death
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 them.[212] Leading performers of classical music such as Willem Mengelberg,
Edwin Fischer, Georges Enescu, Herbert von Karajan, Helmut Walcha, Wanda Landowska, I
Musici, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded his music.[n 3]

A significant development in the later 20th century was historically informed performance practice,
with forerunners such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt acquiring prominence through their performances
of Bach's music. Bach's keyboard music was again performed on the harpsichord and other Baroque
instruments 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 not 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 the orchestrations of Leopold
Stokowski, whose interpretation of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor opened Walt Disney's
Fantasia, to jazzy interpretations such as those by The Swingle Singers on their album Jazz
Sebastian Bach and electronic performances such as Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach and The
Well-Tempered Synthesizer.

Bach's music has influenced other genres. Jazz musicians have adapted it, 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: there were the Bach
Jahrbuch publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft and various other biographies and studies by,
among others, Albert Schweitzer, Charles Sanford Terry, Alfred Dürr, Christoph Wolff, Peter
Williams, and John Butt,[n 4] and the 1950 first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. 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, and commented upon in the 1990s.[215] Around
2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, three record companies issued box sets of recordings
of his complete works.[216][217][218]

Three works by Bach are featured on the Voyager Golden Record, a gramophone record containing
a broad sample of the images, sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent into space with the two
Voyager probes: the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (conducted by Karl Richter),
the "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita for Violin No. 3 (played by Arthur Grumiaux), and the
Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier (played by Glenn Gould).[219]
20th-century tributes to Bach include statues erected in his honour and things such as streets and
space objects named after him.[220][221] A multitude of musical ensembles, such as the Bach Aria
Group, Deutsche Bachsolisten, Bachchor Stuttgart, and Bach Collegium Japan took 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 him. 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]