Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of a family that had
for generations been occupied in music. His sons were
to continue the tradition, providing the foundation of
a new style of music that prevailed in the later part
of the eighteenth century. Johann Sebastian Bach
himself represented the end of an age, the culmination
of the Baroque in a magnificent synthesis of Italian
melodic invention, French rhythmic dance forms and
German contrapuntal mastery.
Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach was ...(+)
Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of a family that had
for generations been occupied in music. His sons were
to continue the tradition, providing the foundation of
a new style of music that prevailed in the later part
of the eighteenth century. Johann Sebastian Bach
himself represented the end of an age, the culmination
of the Baroque in a magnificent synthesis of Italian
melodic invention, French rhythmic dance forms and
German contrapuntal mastery.
Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach was educated largely by
his eldest brother, after the early death of his
parents. At the age of eighteen he embarked on his
career as a musician, serving first as a court musician
at Weimar, before appointment as organist at Arnstadt.
Four years later he moved to Mühlhausen as organist
and the following year became organist and chamber
musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. Securing his
release with difficulty, in 1717 he was appointed
Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and
remained at Cöthen until 1723, when he moved to
Leipzig as Cantor at the School of St.Thomas, with
responsibility for the music of the five principal city
churches. Bach was to remain in Leipzig until his death
in 1750.
As a craftsman obliged to fulfil the terms of his
employment, Bach provided music suited to his various
appointments. It was natural that his earlier work as
an organist and something of an expert on the
construction of organs, should result in music for that
instrument. At Cöthen, where the Pietist leanings of
the court made church music unnecessary, he provided a
quantity of instrumental music for the court orchestra
and its players. In Leipzig he began by composing
series of cantatas for the church year, later turning
his attention to instrumental music for the Collegium
musicum of the University, and to the collection and
ordering of his own compositions.
The so-called Kirnberger Collection (BWV 690-713), a
title now generally ignored in recent editions, is a
collection of music by Bach copied by or for his pupil
Johann Philipp Kirnberger. The latter was born in
Saalfeld in 1721 and educated in Coburg and Cotha,
before, in 1739, travelling to Leipzig for lessons in
composition and performance with Bach. After a period
spent in Poland, he returned to Dresden, moving then to
Berlin as a violinist in the Prussian royal service. In
1754 he entered the service of Prince Heinrich of
Prussia and four years later that of Princess Anna
Amalia, remaining in this last position until his death
in Berlin in 1783. Kirnberger had the highest regard
for Bach, and did his utmost to bring about the
posthumous publication of the latter's four-part
chorale settings.
This short piece, "Nun komm der Heiden Heiland" (Now
come, Savior of the World), is really a mini-fugue (or
fuguette) and is one of its less-obvious gems. Despite
its modest scope and one-and-a-quarter minute length,
this work offers quite substantial -- if not immediate
-- rewards to the listener. This chorale prelude opens
with barren sonorities, a single note sounding for a
moment, that is then followed by other lonely,
unaccompanied tones that go on to form the chorale
theme. Thereafter, textures grow a bit, but the writing
remains skeletal throughout. Still, Bach enriches this
quiet music with subtle contrapuntal activity and inner
voices alive with ideas, while the dark mood exhibits
many shades of gray with many rays of hope, the whole
producing a work whose expressive manner encompasses a
range broader than the ear first realizes.
PARTITION