Great Composers - Johann Sebastian Bach - Full Documentary

Bach was born in the 17th century in 1685 in Iceland, a town made famous when Martin Luther hid there from his enemies in 1529. Bach's family had been professional musicians for generations without any real distinction. His father was a singer and also played the violin. Bach's parents both died by the time he was ten. He was sensitive with his brother, Johann Christoph, and put to school. Bach had a superb singing voice and was soon earning decent fees for performing at weddings. He was taught clavier by his brother and spent hours late at night copying out music from books in his brother's library. He was anxious to learn and remained so all his life. He was also a great reader. By the time he was eighteen, he took up the first of a series of posts that he was to hold as organist and director of music. He had three principal appointments in his life, at Weimar, Köthen, and at Leipzig. At Weimar, he composed some of his finest works for organ, including the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, as well as many of the great cantatas. He also found a wife, Maria Barbara. His move to Köthen brought about a change in his music, now much more secular. There was little time for religious music at the Calvinist court of Köthen. Here, where the Duke kept a decent-sized music establishment, were the instruments and the opportunity for Bach to develop his orchestral skills. Much of Bach's glittering legacy of orchestral music was written between 1717 and 1723. Prince Leopold was a skilled musician and encouraged his brilliant employee to greater heights. In 1721, Bach wrote the famous Brandenburg Concertos, and dedicated them to the Margrave of Brandenburg. In this, the fifth, and one of the most popular of the concertos, the sharp passion displayed in the violin compliments the soft, cushioned notes of the flute, the other soloist. Eventually, the third and final soloist is employed, and the unmistakable metallic tone of the harpsichord comes to the fore. As with all of Bach's orchestral pieces, the orchestra greatly supports the soloists. The Brandenburg Concertos are the true forerunners to the modern concerto. The dazzling harpsichord cadenza is a testament to Bach's own incredible virtuosity, as he promotes the instrument to principal soloist. Originally, the solo part of a concerto was intended as an opportunity for the soloist to improvise. Bach was among the first composers to change that practice, by writing the complete piece for the soloist. Here, Bach has emulated Vivaldi's model three-movement concerto. Two outer or fast movements are bold and strong, while the second, or slow movement, is carefully crafted and contrived. The name of Johann Sebastian Bach is synonymous with the ominous introduction to the toccata. It's fitting that he should nowadays be particularly associated with the organ. A fugue, by tradition, is a series of elaborations upon a theme developed in such a way that the whole piece is influenced by that one theme. This is no exception. This theme is dark, dramatic, and haunting. Thanks to the moods, today it is widely associated with horror films and vampires in large, dark castles. His passion for the church organ was reflected in his large output of works, and at any given opportunity, Bach played at great length with enthusiasm and gusto. This piece obviously would have afforded him ample opportunity to show off his great skills. When Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723, it was with a new wife, Anna Magdalena. His first wife died in 1720, leaving him with four children. He married his new wife in December 1721. She was a musician, and Johann Sebastian seems to have been devoted to her. They had thirteen children. In Leipzig, Bach held the post of cantor at the Church of St. Thomas and cantor of the Thomasschule. That is to say, he was director of music at the church, and also a master of the choir school. His appointment, in fact, made him musical director of all the churches in Leipzig. Mind you, he hadn't the best choice for a job. Two others were favoured before him, one of whom was Telemann, who, at the time, couldn't do a thing wrong, but his staff allowed him to. Today, his work is totally equipped by that of Bach. The first major work to be performed in Leipzig was the St. John Passion. It was, in fact, a commission work, and written for performance at St. Thomas' before Bach was appointed cantor of it. This work, together with the B Minor Mass and the St. Matthew Passion, are, of all Bach's core compositions, the most frequently performed today. They are his most mature masterpieces, and reveal the composer's deep religious faith. In the majestic and disturbed opening chorus of the St. Matthew Passion, the listener is aware that he is involved in the work of sublime tragedy, and in the various arias, choruses and chorales which together make up this mighty composition, Bach reveals himself not only as a great musician, but also as a great dramatic poet. The same skills are evident too in the B Minor Mass, of which the Sanctus can only be described as being some of the most noble music ever written. Bach continued to compose for the harpsichord, and produced during this time the Goldberg Variations, a brilliant work with canons at every interval interpolating variations on an original foot. It was commissioned by Count von Kaiserling, the Russian ambassador to the court of Dresden. He suffered from insomnia, and his harpsichordist, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, after whom the piece was named, used to play it to him during his sleepless nights. Now there's luxury. Bach received a payment of 100 Louis d'Or, equivalent to 200 pounds of English money, probably more than he received for the rest of his keyboard music, to go. Bach's approach to music, however, was far removed from making money, and much more so to the glory of God, and this aria from the St. Matthew Passion is a perfect example. Always maintained a clear vision of his purpose in life, he saw his mission as a composer of religious music. His church employment in Leipzig in 1723 meant he was able to create some of his most enduring masterpieces. Among them is the magnificent St. Matthew Passion. It tells the story of the betrayal, capture, and crucifixion of Christ. He's used every musical device available to make his work rich and exciting. Endless energy and vitality intertwined with the deeply religious aspect underlies this inspiring aria. After his death in 1750, most of Bach's music fell into neglect. The St. Matthew Passion, for example, was not performed for over a hundred years. It was revived in 1829 by the young Felix Mendelssohn, who was captivated by Bach's spell. Bach lived at the height of the Baroque era, a period of sublime elegance in music. This piece perfectly reflects the Baroque trend towards decoration and ornamentation. As a product of the Baroque age, music, as well as fashion and art, was very formal and elaborately conceived. Virtuosity, especially a great command of technique, was an essential requirement. Bach was gifted with an almost unbelievable manual dexterity, which allowed him to perform astonishing musical feats. His lasting legacy has been to stretch modern musicians to emulate his own brilliance. Bach was a staunch supporter of the Protestant faith. One avowed Protestant aim was the worship of God in the language of ordinary people. However, some composers, such as Bach, still enjoyed the older forms of Latin worship. Bach was therefore willing to use the old Latin forms of Mass within a Protestant framework. For much of the Mass in B minor, Bach chose suitable music to suit the theme of the text, and then adapted the music to the specifics of the text. A great deal of his output was composed in great haste for church festivals. Bach would usually write out the full score at speed, but the Mass in B minor took the best part of 25 years to complete. It was the usual practice that each of Bach's pieces was performed once, then discarded. So it was difficult to become familiar with his masterpieces. Perhaps this was why contemporary audiences found Bach's music so unremarkable. Only the advent of modern recording techniques has allowed us to become truly familiar with his prodigious output. It is one of the greatest pieces that Bach wrote, and if he'd written nothing else, his place in history would still be assured. Bach's appointment at St. Thomas' wasn't entirely without incident. There were many petty, niggling complaints over Bach's attitude toward the authorities. It seems that he was far from relentless, often writing letters of intemperate bluntness which increased the mutual animosity. Worse was to come when his compositions started to come into criticism. Of course, Bach's style rested on the foundation of 17th-century German polyphonic writing, notwithstanding his knowledge of the Italian style of Vivaldi, Pirelli and Toscavoli. He had taken the trouble to make manuscript copies of many of their works. He was aware of new developments, but nevertheless, he was considered outdated by some of his contemporaries. In 1749, Bach's health began to fail rapidly. It's possible that he had a stroke. His eyesight, never that good, failed, and an operation to restore his sight was unsuccessful. He died on July 28, 1750. Just ten days after, his sight was unexpectedly and suddenly restored. His post at St. Thomas' was filled immediately. The authorities remained unsympathetic, giving a faint praise for his years of dedication. Bach's influence cannot be precisely indicated, but he enriched the work of Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and, in the 20th century, Stravinsky with his Neo-Bach style. Bach's last work, The Art of Fugue, is a collection of movements of high ingenuity, a practical manual of the science of fugue construction, sometimes still considered the most arid of forms, but not so in the hands of the genius that left us such hauntingly beautiful melodies as, for example, they are on your screen today.