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Beginning with Bach
Sometimes people just don’t understand. It has probably
been like that since the beginning of time. Certainly, it
was true several hundred years ago when Johann Sebastian
Bach was struggling to sell his compositions. He found it
very difficult to sell his work. The technical and
emotional works were not understood by the people of his
time.
Fortunately, Bach was not just a composer, but was also an
organist of great repute. His father (Johann Ambrosius
Bach), was a string player, a town piper and a court
trumpeter. Bach’s mother (Elisabeth Lammerhirt) was also
from a family of musicians. In a time where musical
heritage was passed down through families, the eighth
child, Johann Sebastian Bach, stood out. He is especially
known for his church music and for the fact that he wrote
all for the glory of God. If truth be known, however,
Bach’s life was full of politics, associating with the
“right” people and composing “for the glory of God” as
long as a good salary was involved.
 Johann
was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685. One of his
biographers, Malcolm Boyd, divided Bach’s years as a
composer into three separate periods of differentiating
style. Up until 1713, he was an apprentice learning the
craft. From 1713 to 1739 and 40, Bach was a master. The
remainder of his life was a time of completion.
He
was a very stubborn and determined man who had little fear
of authority. Johann was also open minded and was often
influenced by the most current style of music. His music
was constantly evolving along with the times even in his
later years.
When
Johann was 9 years old, both of his parents died. He went
to live with an older brother who was an organist. Most
people believe that it was this brother who gave Bach his
first piano lessons. Johann was also gifted with a
beautiful voice. He was able to join the choir of St.
Michael’s and paid for the costs of his schooling with his
involvement in the choir. This school enveloped him in
music and started him off on his musical career.
Sometimes in this modern world, our impression of Bach is
that of a conventional man associated with old church
music. After studying Bach, I think that he would be very
amused by this observation. He was actually a
non-conformist, a man with a mind of his own (often to the
chagrin of his employers).
By
the end of his schooling, Bach was getting a name for
himself as an incredible organist. When he got a job as
organist in Neue-Kirche, he received twice the salary as
the man before him. It sounds like an ideal job for him,
but Bach’s natural temperament had some real issues with
it. He wanted to focus entirely on the organ and playing
music. His bosses wanted him to work with the church’s
boys choir. Bach refused.
In
1705, Bach received permission to take a four week
vacation in October. He did not return to his job until
the middle of the following January. It is rumored that
during his vacation, he had walked to Lubek (200 miles)
and had been greatly influenced by the music there. When
he did finally return in January, Bach had changed the
musical style of his church music without warning. This
apparently greatly distressed the congregation.
 Bach
held a variety of jobs in his lifetime, including
composing and playing music for a prince. Since organs
were his passion, he was continuously trying to improve
them. In addition to his duties as choirmaster and
organist, Johann also made a living by renting out his
house for music practice, dealing music and books, renting
out instruments and selling Silbermann fortepianos.
Selling his compositions was a great desire for Bach, but
unfortunately the world was not ready for the technical
pieces. Most of his work was published after his death.
Here
are some activities that will help us understand Bach’s
life a bit more.
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Get
books of pianos and organs (or look them up in an
encyclopedia). Make a chart comparing and contrasting
the instruments. (Visual graphs are great pre-math
skills).
-
Talk about how a pipe organ works. Experiment with the
children by using different size bottles and blowing
across the top of them. What different sounds do you
hear?
-
Take a long walk with the children and talk about
distance. Tell the children about Bach’s 200 mile walk
and ask the children what they think about hiking that
far.
-
Make up a song as a group. Take turns leading the other
children in the “choir” that sings the song.
-
Ask
the children, “If you were going to compose a piece of
music for a prince, what kind of music would you write
and why?”.
Johann Sebastian Bach continued writing his music right up
to his death on July 28, 1750. He was almost blind from
cataracts, had been to a doctor for a stroke and,
according to recent research, eventually died of diabetes
mellitus. Several of his children followed his footsteps
into the music world. His son, Johann Christian, was
actually pretty famous and had an impact of Mozart.
Bach’s world was not ready for the publications of his
compositions. Fortunately, his works were appreciated more
as time went on. Today his name is known in most
households and his music is still heard throughout the
world.
Sources
for this article:
http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo7/boydbach.htm
http://www.jsbach.org/biography.html
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