Classical Music Appreciation--Summary on J.S. Bach And Some His Music

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

--born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685

--became court musician at the ducal court at Weimar; most of his contrapuntal works     

    (1708-17) came out of his work in Weimar

---50 members of the Bach family were musicians

Example was Johann Christian Bach (1613-1661), who was an instrumentalist

---The rest of his work as composer was in Leipzig, and made friends with Georg

     Phillpp Telemann and George Frederic Handel.

---In 1733, he composed one of his biggest choral works—the Mass in B minor.

List of Some of the Important Bach Works

Air on a G String

---The famous music from his Orchestral Suite no. 3

----In the key of D major, the piece is so called because the violins play the notes on the

        G string, one of the four strings played on the violin

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor (c. 1720)

---the “fantasy” part is a free-fantasy, filled with runs, arpeggios and chromatic changes

---the fugue part is in 3 voices, in a ¾ meter

Partita in B-flat Major for Keyboard Alone (1726)

----composed as a suite of movements; the final movement, the Gigue, is very popular

     (it is a sort of keyboard exercise in crossover notes over accompanying triplets)

Italian Concerto in F major for Keyboard Alone (1735)

   ---almost in a form of a keyboard sonata since it has three movements

   ---the first movement is fast; the second, slower, and the third, even faster

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (1722)

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (1744)

---both collections contain 24 preludes and fugues in all the major and minor keys.

---in Book I, each prelude shows a different musical style in the Baroque period.

       For instance, Prelude #21 is an organ toccata; #9 is a 3-voice pastorale.

---Prelude and Fugue no. 6 in D minor from Book II

      The prelude is in a fast ¾ meter almost in a toccata with continuous sixteenth notes

      The fugue is in a slower 4/4 meter with a mixture of faster and slower notes, and

          …more smooth sounding than the prelude. Also more chromatics as well.

The Goldberg Variations (1741)

--an aria taken as a theme, followed by 30 variations.

--most of the variations are “canons” (imitative pieces almost similar to round songs like

    “Frere Jacques”), focusing on a different type of interval (such as 5^th, octave, etc.)

--takes about a little over 30 minutes to complete