Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. Johann sebastian bach short biography Bach biography for children
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Brief biography of Johann Bach
Bach Johann Sebastian is an outstanding composer who has written over one thousand pieces of music; a talented teacher and virtuoso organist; master of the polyphony genre. The future musician was born in Eisenach on March 31, 1685. His ancestors belonged to the category of professional musicians, so his early predisposition to music did not surprise anyone. The composer's father was the organizer of secular and church concerts. Bach was the youngest of eight children in the family.
Orphaned at an early age, the boy was given to be raised by his uncle, who worked as a professional organist. He easily entered the gymnasium, while studying to play the clavier and organ. At the age of 15, Johann entered the vocal school in Luneburg, where his musical career began. During his studies, he visited Lubeck, Celle, Hamburg to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of that period. From 1703 he worked as a court violinist, then as an organist. Many works were created during the period of work at the court of the Duke of Weimar.
It was then that I.S.Bach wrote dozens of spiritual cantatas for the clavier, a number of chorale preludes, organ toccata and other significant works. He had two sons in Weimar. In general, he and his wife Maria Barbara had six sons, three of whom did not survive. There he also met the famous violinist I.P. von Westhoff. Carried away by musical influences from other countries, he got acquainted with the work of Vivaldi and Corelli. By 1717, he was already an outstanding organist, with whom no one undertook to compete.
Soon he went into the service of the Duke of Anhalt-Kothensky, who highly appreciated his talent. In the next six years he lost his wife and wrote many orchestral and clavier suites. After the death of Maria Barbara, he remarried a famous singer, with whom they had 13 more children. For the last twenty-seven years, the musician has lived in Leipzig, where he worked first as an ordinary music teacher, and then was awarded the position of musical director. At the end of the 1740s. his eyesight began to deteriorate sharply. Despite this, he created a new cycle of musical pieces.
The great composer died in July 1750 and was buried in the courtyard of the Church of St. John. He entered the history of musical culture forever as one of the titans who created immortal masterpieces and creators of his philosophical thought in music.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Lived: 1685-1750
Bach was a genius of such magnitude that even today it seems an unsurpassed and exceptional phenomenon. His work is truly inexhaustible: after the "discovery" of Bach's music in the 19th century, interest in it steadily increased, Bach's works conquer an audience even among listeners who usually do not show interest in "serious" art.
Bach's work, on the one hand, was a kind of summing up. In his music, the composer relied on everything that was achieved and discovered in the art of music. before him... Bach had an excellent knowledge of German organ music, choral polyphony, and the peculiarities of the German and Italian violin styles. He not only got to know, but also rewrote the works of contemporary French harpsichordists (primarily Couperin), Italian violinists (Corelli, Vivaldi), the largest representatives of Italian opera. Possessing an amazing sensitivity to everything new, Bach developed and generalized the accumulated creative experience.
At the same time, he was a brilliant innovator, who opened up for the development of world musical culture new perspectives... His powerful influence was reflected in the works of the great composers of the 19th century (Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Glinka, Taneyev), and in the works of outstanding masters of the 20th century (Shostakovich, Honegger).
Bach's creative heritage is almost boundless, it includes more than 1000 works of various genres, and among them there are those whose scales are exceptional for their time (MP). Bach's works can be divided into three main genre groups:
- vocal and instrumental music;
- organ music,
- music for other instruments (clavier, violin, flute, etc.) and instrumental ensembles (including orchestral).
The works of each group are mainly associated with a certain period of Bach's creative biography. The most significant organ works were written in Weimar, the clavier and orchestral compositions mainly belong to the Köthen period, the vocal and instrumental compositions were mostly written in Leipzig.
The main genres in which Bach worked are traditional: masses and passions, cantatas and oratorios, choral arrangements, preludes and fugues, dance suites and concerts. Inheriting these genres from their predecessors, Bach gave them a scope that they did not know before. He updated them with new means of expressiveness, enriched them with features borrowed from other genres of musical creativity. A striking example is. Created for the clavier, it includes the expressive properties of large organ improvisations, as well as dramatic recitation of theatrical origin.
Bach's creativity, for all its versatility and all-embracing, "bypassed" one of the leading genres of its time - opera. At the same time, little distinguishes some of Bach's secular cantatas from the comedy sideshow, which was already reborn at that time in Italy in opera-buffa... The composer often called them, like the first Italian operas, "dramas on music." We can say that such works of Bach as "Coffee", "Peasant" cantatas, designed as witty genre scenes from everyday life, anticipated the German singspiel.
The circle of images and ideological content
The imaginative content of Bach's music is unlimited in its breadth. The majestic and the simple are equally accessible to him. Bach's art contains both deep sorrow, and simple-minded humor, sharpest drama and philosophical reflection. Like Handel, Bach reflected the essential aspects of his era - the first half of the 18th century, but others were not effective heroism, but religious and philosophical problems raised by the Reformation. In his music, he reflects on the most important, eternal questions of human life - on the purpose of man, on his moral duty, on life and death. These reflections are most often associated with religious themes, because Bach served at the church almost all his life, wrote a huge part of the music for the church, he himself was a deeply religious person who knew the Holy Scriptures perfectly. He observed church holidays, fasted, confessed, and took the sacrament a few days before his death. The Bible in two languages - German and Latin - was his reference book.
Bach's Jesus Christ is the protagonist and ideal. In this image, the composer saw the personification of the best human qualities: fortitude, loyalty to the chosen path, purity of thoughts. The most intimate in the history of Christ for Bach is Calvary and the cross, the sacrificial feat of Jesus for the salvation of mankind. This theme, being the most important in Bach's work, receives ethical, moral interpretation.
Musical symbolism
The complex world of Bach's works is revealed through the musical symbolism that has developed in the mainstream of the Baroque aesthetics. Bach's contemporaries, his music, including instrumental, "pure", was perceived as intelligible speech due to the presence in it of stable melodic phrases expressing certain concepts, emotions, ideas. By analogy with classical oratory, these sound formulas are called musical and rhetorical figures... Some rhetorical figures were of a pictorial nature (for example, anabasis - ascent, catabasis - descent, circulatio - rotation, fuga - running, tirata - arrow); others imitated the intonations of human speech (exclamatio - exclamation - ascending sixth); still others conveyed the affect (suspiratio - sigh, passus duriusculus - chromatic move used to express sorrow, suffering).
Thanks to stable semantics, musical figures have turned into "signs", emblems of certain feelings and concepts. For example, descending melodies (catadasis) were used to symbolize sadness, dying, and being placed in a coffin; ascending scales expressed the symbolism of the resurrection, etc.
Motifs-symbols are present in all works of Bach, and these are not only musical and rhetorical figures. Melodies are often used in a symbolic meaning. Protestant chants, their segments.
Bach was associated with the Protestant chorale throughout his life - both by religion and by the nature of his activities as a church musician. He constantly worked with chorale in various genres - organ choral preludes, cantatas, passions. It is quite natural that P.Kh. became an integral part of Bach's musical language.
Chorales were sung by the entire Protestant community, they entered the spiritual world of man as a natural, necessary element of the worldview. Choral melodies and the religious content associated with them were known to everyone, so people of Bach's time easily had associations with the meaning of the chorale, with a specific event in Holy Scripture. Permeating all the works of Bach, the melodies of P.H. fill its music, including instrumental, spiritual program that clarifies the content.
Symbols are also stable sound combinations with constant meanings. One of the most important symbols of Bach is cross symbol consisting of four multidirectional notes. If you graphically link the first with the third, and the second with the fourth, a cross pattern is formed. (It is curious that the surname BACH, when decoded in music, forms the same pattern. Probably, the composer perceived this as a certain finger of fate).
Finally, there are numerous connections between Bach's cantata-oratorio (i.e. textual) compositions and his instrumental music. Based on all the above connections and analysis of various rhetorical figures, a Bach's system of musical symbols... A. Schweitzer, F. Busoni, B. Yavorsky, M. Yudina made a huge contribution to its development.
"Second birth"
Bach's brilliant work was not truly appreciated by his contemporaries. Using his fame as an organist, he did not attract due attention as a composer during his lifetime. Not a single serious work has been written about his work, only an insignificant part of his works has been published. After the death of Bach, his manuscripts were gathering dust in the archives, many were irretrievably lost, and the composer's name was forgotten.
Genuine interest in Bach did not appear until the 19th century. It was started by F. Mendelssohn, who accidentally found the sheet music of "St. Matthew Passion" in the library. Under his direction, this work was performed in Leipzig. Most listeners, literally shocked by the music, have never heard the author's name. This was Bach's second birth.
On the centenary of his death (1850), Leipzig organized Bach society, which set the goal of publishing all the surviving manuscripts of the composer in the form of a complete collection of works (46 volumes).
Several of Bach's sons became prominent musicians: Philip Emmanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann (Dresden), Johann Christoph (Buckenburg), Johann Christian (the youngest, "London" Bach).
Bach biography
YEARS |
A LIFE |
CREATION |
Was born in Eisenach in the family of a hereditary musician. This profession was traditional for the entire Bach family: almost all of its representatives were musicians for several centuries. Johann Sebastian's first musical mentor was his father. In addition, with a beautiful voice, he sang in the choir. |
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At 9 years old |
He remained a complete orphan and was taken up in the family of his older brother, Johann Christoph, who served as organist in Ohrdrufe. |
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At the age of 15, he graduated with honors from the Ohrdruf Lyceum and moved to Luneburg, where he entered the Choir of the "Chosen Singers" (in the Michaelschule). By the age of 17, he owned a harpsichord, violin, viola, organ. |
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Over the next few years, he changes his place of residence several times, serving as a musician (violinist, organist) in small German cities: Weimar (1703), Arnstadt (1704), Mühlhausen(1707). The reason for the move is the same every time - dissatisfaction with the working conditions, dependent position. |
The first compositions appear - for organ, clavier ("Capriccio for the departure of a beloved brother"), the first spiritual cantatas. |
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WEIMAR PERIOD He entered the service of the Duke of Weimar as court organist and chamber musician in the chapel. |
The years of Bach's first composer's maturity, very fruitful in a creative sense. The culmination in organ art was reached - all the best that Bach created for this instrument appeared: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Prelude and Fugue in A minor, Prelude and Fugue in C minor, Toccata in C major, Passacaglia in C minor as well as the famous "Organ booklet". In parallel with organ works, he works on the cantata genre, on transcriptions for the clavier of Italian violin concertos (most of all Vivaldi). The Weimar years are also characterized by the first recourse to the genre of solo violin sonata and suite. |
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KYOTHEN PERIOD Becomes "director of chamber music", that is, the head of the entire court musical life at the court of the Kothenian prince. In an effort to give his sons a university education, he tries to move to a large city. |
Since Köthen lacked a good organ and a choir chapel, he focused on clavier (I volume of the "WTC", Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, French and English suites) and ensemble music (6 Brandenburg concertos, sonatas for solo violin). |
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LEIPZIG PERIOD Becomes cantor (choir director) in Tomashul - a school at the church of St. Thomas. In addition to the enormous creative work and service in the church school, he took an active part in the activities of the “Musical Collegium” of the city. It was a society of music lovers that organized concerts of secular music for the residents of the city. |
The time of the highest heyday of Bach's genius. The best works for choir and orchestra were created: Mass in B minor, Passion according to John and Passion according to St. Matthew, Christmas oratorio, most cantatas (about 300 - in the first three years). In the last decade, Bach has focused to the greatest extent on music that is free from any applied purpose. These are the II volume of "HTK" (1744), as well as partitas, "Italian Concerto. Organ Mass, Aria with Various Variations ”(named after Bach's death by Goldberg). |
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Recent years have been clouded by eye disease. After an unsuccessful operation, he became blind, but continued to compose. |
Two polyphonic cycles - "The Art of the Fugue" and "The Musical Offering". |
They fall into instrumental and vocal. The former include: for organ - sonatas, preludes, fugues, fantasies and toccatas, choral preludes; for piano - 15 inventions, 15 symphonies, French and English suites, “Klavierübung” in four movements (partitas, etc.), a number of toccatas and other works, as well as “Well-Tempered Clavier” (48 preludes and fugues in all keys); "Musical Offering" (a collection of fugues on the themes of Frederick the Great) and the cycle "The Art of the Fugue". In addition, Bach has sonatas and partitas for violin (among them the famous Chaconne), for flute, cello (gamba) with piano accompaniment, concerts for piano and orchestra, as well as for two or more pianos, etc., concerts, etc. suites for strings and wind instruments, as well as a suite for the five-string viola pomposa (middle instrument between viola and cello) invented by Bach.
Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach. Painter E. G. Haussmann, 1748
All these writings are characterized by a highly skilful polyphony, which did not occur in a similar form either before or after Bach. With amazing skill and perfection, Bach solves the most complex problems of contrapuntal technique, both in large and small forms. But it would be a mistake to deny that at the same time he has melodic ingenuity and expressiveness. Counterpoint was for Bach not something learned and difficult to use, but was his natural language and form of expression, the comprehension and understanding of which must be learned earlier in order for the manifestations of deep and versatile spiritual life expressed in this form to be fully understood and so that the gigantic the mood of his organ works, as well as the melodic charm and richness of changing moods in the fugues and piano suites were fully appreciated. Therefore, in most of the works related to this, especially in individual numbers from The Well-Tempered Clavier, we have, along with completeness of form, characteristic pieces of extremely varied content. It is this combination that determines their special and unique position in musical literature.
Despite all this, for a long time after his death, the works of Bach were known and appreciated only by a few experts, while the public almost forgot them. For a share Mendelssohn it fell, thanks to the performance in 1829 under his direction of Bach's Passion for (the Evangelist) Matthew, to re-awaken the general interest in the late composer and win his great vocal works a deserved place of honor in musical life - and not only in Germany.
Johann Sebastian Bach. The best works
These include primarily those intended for worship spiritual cantatas written by Bach (for all Sundays and holidays) in the amount of five complete annual cycles. Only about 226 cantatas have survived to us, quite authentic. Gospel texts served as the text. The cantatas are composed of recitatives, arias, polyphonic choirs and a chorale that concludes the entire piece.
This is followed by the "music of passions" ( Passions), of which Bach wrote five. Of these, unfortunately, only two have survived to us: Passion for John and Passion for Matthew; of these, the first was performed for the first time in 1724, the second in 1729. The credibility of the third - the Passion according to Luke - is subject to great doubt. Musically dramatic portrayal of the history of suffering Of Christ achieves in these works the highest completeness of forms, the greatest musical beauty and the power of expression. In a form mixed of epic, dramatic and lyrical elements, the story of Christ's sufferings plastically and convincingly passes before our eyes. The epic element appears in the person of the reciting evangelist, the dramatic element in the words interrupting the speech of biblical persons, especially Jesus himself, as well as in the lively choirs of the people, the lyric element in the arias and choirs of a contemplative nature, and the chorale opposed to the whole presentation indicates the direct relationship of the work to worship and hints at community involvement.
Bach. Passion for Matthew
A similar work, but in a lighter mood, is “ Christmas oratorio"(Weihnachtsoratorium), written in 1734. Has come down to us also" Easter oratorio". Along with these large works related to Protestant divine services, the processing of ancient Latin church texts is at the same height and just as perfect: Mass and five-part Magnificat... Among them, the first place is occupied by a large Mass in B minor(1703). Just as Bach delved deeply into the words of the Bible with faith, here with faith he took up the ancient words of the text of the Mass and depicted them in sounds with such a richness and variety of feelings, with such power of expression that they are still clothed in a strict polyphonic fabric. deeply gripping and deeply exciting. The choirs in this work are among the greatest ever created in the field of church music. The requirements for the choir here are extremely high.
(For biographies of other great musicians, see the "More on this topic ..." section below the text of the article.)
Outstanding German composer, organist and harpsichordist Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. He belonged to an extensive German family, most of which had been professional musicians in Germany for three centuries. Initial musical education (playing the violin and harpsichord) Johann Sebastian received under the guidance of his father, a court musician.
In 1695, after the death of his father (his mother had died earlier), the boy was taken into the family of his older brother Johann Christoph, who served as the church organist at St. Michaelis Church in Ohrdruf.
In the years 1700-1703, Johann Sebastian studied at the school of church singers in Lüneburg. During his studies, he visited Hamburg, Celle and Lubeck to get acquainted with the work of famous musicians of his time, new French music. During these years he wrote his first works for organ and clavier.
In 1703, Bach worked in Weimar as a court violinist, in 1703-1707 - as a church organist in Arnstadt, then from 1707 to 1708 - in the Mühlhasen church. His creative interests were then mainly focused on music for organ and clavier.
In 1708-1717, Johann Sebastian Bach served as court musician for the Duke of Weimar in Weimar. During this period, he created numerous choral preludes, organ toccata and fugue in D minor, Passacaglia in C minor. The composer wrote music for the clavier, more than 20 sacred cantatas.
In the years 1717-1723, Bach served with the Duke of Anhalt-Ketensky Leopold in Keten. There were written three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin, six suites for solo cello, English and French suites for clavier, six Brandenburg concertos for orchestra. Of particular interest is the collection "The Well-Tempered Clavier" - 24 preludes and fugues, written in all keys and in practice proving the advantages of the tempered musical system, around the approval of which there was heated debate. Subsequently, Bach created the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier, also consisting of 24 preludes and fugues in all keys.
The "Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach" was started in Keten, which includes, along with plays by different authors, five of the six "French suites". In the same years, "Small Preludes and Fuguettes. English Suites, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue" and other clavier works were created. During this period, the composer wrote a number of secular cantatas, most of which have not survived and received a second life with a new, spiritual text.
In 1723, the performance of his "Passion for John" (a vocal and dramatic work based on the Gospel texts) took place in the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig.
In the same year, Bach received the post of cantor (regent and teacher) in the church of St. Thomas in Leipzig and the school at this church.
In 1736, Bach received the title of Royal Polish and Saxon Elector Court Composer from the Dresden court.
During this period, the composer reached the heights of skill, creating magnificent examples in different genres - sacred music: cantatas (about 200 survived), "Magnificat" (1723), masses, including the immortal "High Mass" in B minor (1733), Passion according to Matthew (1729); dozens of secular cantatas (among them - the comic "Coffee" and "Peasant"); works for organ, orchestra, harpsichord, among the latter - "Aria with 30 Variations" ("Goldberg Variations", 1742). In 1747 Bach wrote a cycle of plays "Musical Offers", dedicated to the Prussian king Frederick II. The last work of the composer was The Art of the Fugue (1749-1750) - 14 fugues and four canons on one theme.
Johann Sebastian Bach is a major figure in world musical culture, his work is one of the heights of philosophical thought in music. Freely crossing the features not only of different genres, but also of national schools, Bach created immortal masterpieces that stand above time.
In the late 1740s, Bach's health deteriorated, especially with a sudden loss of vision. Two unsuccessful cataract surgeries resulted in complete blindness.
He spent the last months of his life in a darkened room, where he composed the last chant "Before Thy throne", dictating it to his son-in-law, the organist Altnikol.
On July 28, 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died in Leipzig. He was buried in the cemetery near St. John's Church. Due to the lack of a monument, his grave was soon lost. In 1894, the remains were found and reburied in a stone sarcophagus in the Church of St. John. After the destruction of the church by bombing during the Second World War, his remains were preserved and reburied in 1949 in the altar of the Church of St. Thomas.
During his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach was famous, but after the death of the composer, his name and music were forgotten. Interest in the work of Bach arose only in the late 1820s, in 1829 by the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Berlin, a performance of St. Matthew Passion was organized. In 1850, the Bach Society was created, which sought to identify and publish all the composer's manuscripts - 46 volumes were published in half a century.
With the mediation of Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in 1842 in Leipzig, the first monument to Bach was erected in front of the building of the old school at the Church of St. Thomas.
In 1907, the Bach Museum was opened in Eisenach, where the composer was born, in 1985 - in Leipzig, where he died.
Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice. In 1707, he married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. After her death in 1720, in 1721 the composer married Anna Magdalena Wilcken. Bach had 20 children, but only nine of them survived their father. Four sons became composers - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), Johann Christoph Bach (1732-1795).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Biography and episodes of life Johann Sebastian Bach. When born and died Johann Sebastian Bach, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Quotes from a composer and a musician, images and videos.
Johann Sebastian Bach's life years:
born March 21, 1685, died July 28, 1750
Epitaph
“They say when Orpheus touched the strings of his lute,
Animals came running from the forest to her sounds.
But Bach's art is rightfully considered superior,
Because the whole world marveled at him. "
From a poem by the poet Kittel-Mikrander dedicated to Bach
Biography
He was a great composer, a virtuoso musician and a talented teacher, but until the end of his life, Johann Bach believed that his merit was only in hard work, and his talent belonged to God.
He was born into a well-to-do family, his father was in charge of all musical events in the city. But little Johann's parents died when he was still a child, so the boy was raised by his older brother. Johann studied at the gymnasium, studied music, and then graduated from the vocal school. Immediately after school, the young musician received a court position in Weimar, and soon the whole city knew about the wonderful young performer. Bach had no shortage of work - at first he worked as an organist in the church of St. Boniface, then moved on to the position of organist in Mühlhausen, where he was highly regarded and paid a high salary. But the heyday of Bach's creativity was the period when he returned to Weimar and took the place of the court organist, and was also responsible for organizing palace concerts. The prince of Anhalt-Ketensky gave Bach complete freedom in his work, who invited the composer to work for him as a conductor. When Bach performed his "Passion for John" in one of the main churches in Leipzig, he was appointed chief musical director of all the churches in the city.
It is not known how many more great works Johann Sebastian Bach would have created, how many more brilliant students he would have gifted to the world if not for the illness that tormented him in the last years of his life. In the 1730s, his eyesight began to decline. He continued to write, dictating new works to his students for recording. Finally, I decided on an operation, then on another, but, alas, none of the surgical interventions could save the composer's eyesight. On July 28, 1750, Johann Sebastian Bach died, the cause of Bach's death was complications after the operations he underwent. Bach's funeral was held with great honors. At first, the composer was buried near the Church of St. John, but then Bach's grave was lost, years later his remains were found and reburied. During the Second World War, the church was destroyed, today the remains of Bach are kept in the church of St. Thomas, where Bach worked.
Life line
March 21, 1865 Date of birth of Johann Sebastian Bach.
1700-1703 Studying at the vocal school of St. Michael in Lüneburg.
1703-1707 Work as an organist in the Arnstadt church.
October 17, 1707 Marriage to Maria Barbara.
1708 g. Court Kapellmeister in Keten.
1720 g. Death of Bach's wife, Maria.
December 3, 1721 Marriage to Anna Magdalene Wilke.
1722 g. Bach wrote the first volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
1723 g. Church Music Director in Leipzig.
1724 g. Bach's writing of The Passion for John.
1727 g. Bach's writing of St. Matthew Passion.
1729 g. Head of the Collegium of Music.
1744 g. Publication of the second volume of The Well-Tempered Clavier.
July 28, 1750 Date of Bach's death.
July 31, 1750 Bach's funeral.
Memorable places
1. Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where the remains of Bach are today.
2. Church of St. Nicholas in Leipzig, where Bach first performed his "Christmas Oratorio".
3. Monument to Bach in Leipzig.
4. House-Museum of Bach in Eisenach, next to which there is a monument to Bach.
5. House-Museum of Bach in Leipzig.
6. Leipzig School of Music Johann Sebastian Bach, where the composer served as cantor of the choir.
Episodes of life
Bach's ancestors and descendants were musicians, except for Feith Bach, the "founder" of the dynasty. He was a baker, he kept a mill, but he was very fond of music and played some kind of stringed instrument. But already both grandfather and father, grandfather, brothers, children of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as his grandson and great-grandson were musicians. At the end of his life, Johann Bach said that all his music belongs to God and all his abilities are intended for him.
Johann Sebastian Bach had one quirk. He disguised himself as if he were a poor schoolteacher, came to the village church and asked permission to play the organ. When he started playing, everyone present was simply amazed. Some even ran out of the church in fright, believing that an ordinary person could not play like that and the devil himself was probably sitting at the organ.
Johann Sebastian Bach was modest and did not like praise. Once he played his prelude to the students. When one of them began to admire the work and play of the teacher, he interrupted him: “This is not surprising! You just need to know which keys and when to press, and the organ will do the rest. "
Covenant
“I had to work hard. Anyone who is just as hardworking will achieve the same success. "
Biography of Johann Sebastian Bach
Condolences
"Bach is not new, not old, it is much more - it is eternal."
Robert Schumann, German composer, music critic
“Don't be a stream! "The sea should be his name."
Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer, pianist