|
A music critics views on Bach courtesy-(www.music.com)
|
FEATURE
JS Bach (1685-1750)
JS Bach was a natural, uncontestable genius. JS Bach's discovery of harmony and use of
counterpoint [the use of multiple lines or voices to create a musical texture] is the very
pinnacle of Baroque ideals. Before Bach, each of the twenty-four keys used their own
natural tuning system, making it difficult to transpose music. Bach cleared that up with his
composition of the two books of twenty-four Preludes & Fugues for the Well-Tempered
Clavier (highly recommended listening!).
Bach was a genius of acoustics and sound. He could walk into the newly constructed Berlin
Opera Hall and define the music ensemble perfectly suited for the acoustics of the space.
Carl Phillip Emanuel, one of Bach's twenty-six children, accompanied his father on this trip
in 1774. They walked into the Dining Hall of the Berlin opera space when his father made a
stunning assessment: it was 'the kind of space where if one person stood facing one of the
four corners and whispered to another person facing the corner diagonally across, they
could hear each other perfectly.' According to Carl Phillip, Bach could do this assessment
instantly with any space.
Besides his affinity to the relationship of sound and space as a basis for inspiration and
productivity, Bach was a prolific composer of sacred music. His career began and ended
with appointments as church organist and director in Arnstadt, M�lhausen, and finally,
Leipzig. Between 1723 and 1744, he was composing an average of one sacred Cantata a
month, totaling around 200. Most noteworthy of his sacred compositions include the St.
Matthew Passion, his Magnificat, and the B-Minor Mass.
In spite of Bach's prodigal productivity and family legacy of teaching, however, his music
wasn't recognized for 100 years after his death. At that point, Bach's music became a
foundation of developing compositional technique by all of the masters, including
Beethoven, Brahms and Bernstein.
|
|
|
|
