March 21, 1685 – July 28, 1750
Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer, harpsichordist and organist, was born in Eisenach on this day. Many people like to write and talk about the most important name of baroque music, a lot could be said about him, but here we will only briefly remember one of the most important creators of polyphonic, polyphonic music. He transformed his modesty, piety, meticulousness and generosity into works that were a model for many great composers of classical music, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann and many others. He passed on his love for music to his twenty children, of whom Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach remained notable. Thanks to them and his second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, as well as later and modern editions of his works, today we have preserved a large number of compositions and methodology of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. He highly respected and appreciated the work of his contemporaries, he admired Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Georg Friedrich Handel, whom he failed to meet in Germany, and he regretted it all his life. He has written over a thousand works, vocal and instrumental, the most famous of which are Toccata and Fugue in D minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier I and II books, Brandenburg Concertos, Suite in D major, Suite no. 3 for cello, Christmas oratorio, Goldberg variations… He said that he creates for the glory of God, so it is not surprising that his works exude purity, intellectual depth, precision and timeless melodies, which were an inspiration to many artists of later epochs.
Bach – Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 – 1. Allegro
Johann Sebastian Bach, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Translation: Jelena Čolović