Mendelssohn has been credited with the revival of Bach’s music that came after a performance he conducted, of the St Matthew Passion in Berlin.
After his death Bach’s music all but vanished from the public ear, his work often being considered as overly protestant and old fashioned. Whilst in Leipzig, Bach composed a substantial quantity of the sacred music we are now familiar with including the St Mathew Passion, The Mass in B Minor and his final work (unfinished), The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst die Fuge).Įven though Bach sustained a reputation as a formidable organist and virtuoso Klavier player, his work as a composer was not so well recognised out of his small musical circle. His application was not successful although fortunately for Bach, the appointee withdrew and Bach was given the post. Increasingly Bach became restless with his job as Kapellmeister at Anhalt-Cöthen, prompting his application for a new position at St Thomas’s in Leipzig. In 1721 Bach married the now well-known Anna Magdelena Wilcken, to whom he dedicated his “Notebooks”. His working life began as Kapellmeister in 1717 at the court of Anhalt-Cöthen where he composed many of the best-loved of his instrumental works including The Brandenburg Concertos.įollowing the death of his first wife in 1720, Bach wasted little time in choosing another. In spite of Bach’s status as a composer these days, during his lifetime he was in no way so well-known. This is where Bach began to develop his formidable skills as a practical musician, especially on the organ and the Klavier. Orphaned at the age of ten, he went to live with his elder brother J C Bach who was largely responsible for the young Bach’s musical education.
He was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany the son of Johan Ambrosius Bach, also a fine musician. JS Bach came from a long line of established musicians. It is often quite challenging to take an unbiased view of two such eminent composers, but also informative and even inspirational. In this article, I am going to make a comparison between two extremely famous Baroque composers George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Johan Sebastian Bach(1685-1750).
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