Johann Sebastian Bach

 Leipzig (1723-1750)


This period saw Bach’s choral music flourish and includes several full year cycles of cantatas which he wrote for each Sunday. Prior to this, he had been employed for the post of cantor at St. Thomas’ School in Leipzig. It was a position which he considered as an opportunity for free educational opportunities for his numerous talented children. 

His duties at St. Thomas’ School were much and it included teaching in the school and also supervising the music in four Liepzig Churches to which the school furnished choristers. Amidst all these, he still found out the time to direct a local music society choir, the Collegium Musicum, for which he composed and arranged a number of concertos and other secular music. This period, however, produced some important keyboard works which include Part II Of The Well-Tempered Clavier and the remarkable Clavierubung(“Keyboard Studies”), a four-volume series.

At the end of his life, Bach’s eyesight completely failed. Nevertheless, he finished everything but the final fugue of his supreme contrapuntal work, the Art Of Fugue..

BACH’S PERSONALITY

Bach was probably one of the world’s music genius who led a completely normal and rather uneventful life. He was a bit too strict as a father but concerned about his children’s welfare nonetheless. Described also as a touchy colleague, he brought an enormous amount of energy which was disciplined  purely by a Lutheran conscience to all his tasks. His musical preferences were conservative and he showed little interest in the flamboyant operas of his day. He was distinctly different from his contemporaries like Handel. 

Apart from securing a decent living, Bach seems to have been less ambitious than most other musicians of his caliber and mostly viewed himself as a competent musician rather than a remarkable one. Through out his lifetime, he maintained a lively curiosity about music in general, evidenced by the several copies he made of other composer’s scores(works), and also had an open minded approach to teaching. Writings of his students mention his inflexible standards but also his emphasis on independence and originality.




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