JS Bach 🎼🎶🇩🇪

Marking the 335th anniversary of Johan Sebastian Bach’s birth in 1685

Johan Sebastian Bach is widely considered to be one of the greatest geniuses in the history of music. His works are remarkable for intellectual depth, mastery of technical and expressive means and for artistic beauty. Born in a family of musicians in 1685, in what is now Central Germany, the young Johan Sebastian was exposed to music making and music playing since his tender age and naturally absorbed the essential skills of a musician and a composer. His family was traditionally enaged in the art of music for generations and, also after Johan Sebastian, this dedication remained within the family stretching over seven generations. For this reason the many members of the Bach family are identified by the initials of thier given names, in the case of Johan Sebastian, as JS Bach.

Score of one of JS Bach’s most famous compositions

Bach’s music is characterised by the complexity of composition and harmony of the contrapuntal invention. Basically, independent melodic lines are merged into a new poliphonic musical effect generated by the complex layers of music with their own identity of execution. Bach’s musical production showed growing ability in organizing complex works based on the models of the German style and the works of the Italian composers of the time.

There are several more specific characteristics of Bach’s style. In the Baroque period, composers who composed according to Italian taste, often wrote simple melodic lines, which were subsequently enriched by the performers with embellishments and improvised passages. On the contrary, Bach used an extremely detailed and flowery form of musical writing, which leaves a small space for the possibility of the performers to add arbitrary passages.

Of the many existing portraits of JS Bach only few have an clear linkage to the composer. The oil painting to the right is by Elias Gottlob Hausssmann, a contemporary painter of JS Bach who probably produced this portrait oupon commission by the Bach’s family in 1748 and represents the composer towards the end of his life.

Below you can find a YouTube video with one of my favourite pieces by JS Bach: the third movementnt of his 5th Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1050, composed in 1720-21, played by the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, directed by Jeannette Sorrell.