![]() ![]() Even today with data for recording and concert ticket sales you would not be able to do more than make a super general estimate of listeners. Trying put an actual number on this would be absolute speculation. His compositions didn't start to take off and gain recognition until almost 80 years after his death when Mendelssohn performed the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Over a roughly 50 year active span it is likely that a few tens of thousands of attendees at those churches and courts heard his music.ĭespite being born in the same year as Handel about 130 km away they never met although Bach did make efforts to meet but Handel wasn't interested. So, during his lifetime his work was played mostly in the churches and courts where he was employed primarily to play the organ. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign, Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1736. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music. He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. ![]() Once he had heard the concert, he turned round and walked the same distance home again.From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. It is still disputed whether it was a botched eye operation or a stroke caused by pneumonia were to blame for his death.īach's popularity was decaying until 1829, when Mendelssohn performed the St Matthew Passion and rescued Bach from oblivion.īach once walked two hundred and thirteen miles to hear a performance by an organist whom he admired. With the notable exception of opera, Bach composed towering masterpieces in every major Baroque genre: sonatas, concertos, suites and cantatas, as well as innumerable keyboard, organ and choral works.īach died on July 28th 1750 in Leipzig. The Well Tempered Clavier, a quintessential student text, was finished in 1744 and comprised two volumes of piano music in every musical key. During the 1720s and 1730s when he was composing his most important works - the Passions and the Goldberg Variations among them - a new Italian style invaded Germany, making his work appear outdated. In his later years Bach faced harsh criticism. The Brandenburg Concertos were composed in 1721 as a sort-of musical job application for the Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg - it was unsuccessful. ![]() The young Bach was offered a choral scholarship to the prestigious St Michael's School in 1699.ġ703 saw Bach become the organist at St Boniface's Church in Arnstadt - a role that saw him on a regular salary and expanding his skills at the keyboard.īach composed the cantata Gott ist mein König in 1708 - he was paid handsomely, and it helped him cement his early career. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque Era. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was music's most sublime creative genius. ![]()
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