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:Johann Sebastian Bach

{{Short description|German composer (1685–1750)}}

{{Redirect|Bach|other uses|Bach (disambiguation)|and|Johann Sebastian Bach (disambiguation)}}

{{Pp-semi-indef}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2012}}

{{Infobox classical composer

| name = Johann Sebastian Bach

| image = Johann Sebastian Bach.jpg

| caption = 1748 portrait of Bach, showing him holding a copy of the six-part canon BWV 1076{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|2001|loc="10. Iconography"}}

| birth_date = 21 March 1685 (O.S.)
{{birth-date|31 March 1685}} (N.S.)

| birth_place = Eisenach

| death_date = {{death date and age|1750|7|28|1685|3|31|df=y}}

| death_place = Leipzig

| notable_family = Bach family

| signature = Johann Sebastian Bach signature.svg

| signature_size = 180px

| works = List of compositions

}}

Johann Sebastian Bach{{refn|name=IPA|group=n}} ({{OldStyleDate|31 March|1685|21 March}} – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.{{sfn|Crist|Stauff|2011}}

The Bach family already had several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius, in Eisenach. After being orphaned at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, then continued his musical education in Lüneburg. In 1703 he returned to Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, and for longer periods at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. In 1723 he was hired as Thomaskantor (cantor at St Thomas's) in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. In 1726 he began publishing his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer. This situation was somewhat remedied when his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland, granted him the title of court composer in 1736. In the last decades of his life, Bach reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after a botched eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Bach had 20 children with his two wives, Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena, 10 of whom survived into adulthood. Four of his children, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian, became composers.

Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation,{{cite book |last=Blanning |first=T. C. W. |author-link=T. C. W. Blanning |year=2008 |title=The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians and Their Art |publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6RptffQRvEEC&pg=PA272 272] |isbn=978-0-674-03104-3 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=6RptffQRvEEC}} |quote=And of course the greatest master of harmony and counterpoint of all time was Johann Sebastian Bach, 'the Homer of music'. }} and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. His compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works but, for instance, also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs. Bach wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works use contrapuntal techniques like canon and fugue.

In the 18th century Bach was primarily known as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some significant Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him and other publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including the Air on the G String and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and of recordings such as three different box sets with complete performances of his oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.

{{TOC limit|3}}

Life

=Childhood (1685–1703)=

File:Johann Ambrosius Bach.jpg, 1685, Bach's father. Painting attributed to {{ill|Johann David Herlicius|de}}]]

{{Further|Bach family}}

Johann Sebastian Bach{{refn|name=IPA|German: {{IPA|de|ˈjoːhan zeˈbasti̯a(ː)n ˈbax||De-Johann Sebastian Bach.ogg}}. The surname appears in English as {{IPAc-en|b|ɑː|x}} {{respell|BAHKH}} on Lexico{{cite web |title=Bach, Johann Sebastian |publisher=Lexico |url=https://www.lexico.com/definition/bach_johann_sebastian |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511060103/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bach-johann-sebastian |archive-date=11 May 2016 |access-date=3 May 2016 }} and in Dictionary.com.{{cite web |title=Bach |publisher=Dictionary.com |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/johann-sebastian-bach |access-date=3 May 2016 |archive-date=26 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326122332/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/johann-sebastian-bach |url-status=dead }}|group=n}} was born in Eisenach, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, in present-day Germany, on 21 March 1685 O.S. (31 March 1685 N.S.). He was the eighth and youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, the director of the town musicians, and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt.{{sfn|Jones|2007|p=3}}{{sfn|Geck|2003|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=N1zSVDYTCXgC&pg=PA2 2], [https://books.google.com/books?id=N1zSVDYTCXgC&pg=PA156 156]}}{{sfn|Boyd|2000|p=6}} His father likely taught him violin and basic music theory. His uncles were all professional musicians who worked as church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers.{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|Wollny|Leisinger|2018|loc=II. List of all family members alphabetically by first name}} One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, introduced him to the organ,{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|2001}} and an older second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach, was a well-known composer and violinist.{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|Wollny|Leisinger|2018|loc=II. List of all family members alphabetically by first name}}{{refn|Johann Sebastian Bach drafted a genealogy around 1735, titled "Origin of the musical Bach family", printed in translation in {{harvnb|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=283}}.|group=n}}

Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father died eight months later.{{sfn|Miles|1962|pp=86–87}} The 10-year-old Bach moved in with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at St. Michael's Church in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.{{sfn|Boyd|2000|pp=7–8}} There he studied, performed, and copied music, including his brother's, despite being forbidden to do so because scores were so valuable and private and blank ledger paper was costly.{{sfn|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=299}}{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=45}} He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord. Johann Christoph exposed him to the works of great composers of the day, including South Germans such as Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied); North Germans;{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=19, 46}} Frenchmen such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand, and Marin Marais;{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=73}} and the Italian Girolamo Frescobaldi.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=170}} He learned theology, Latin and Greek at the local gymnasium.{{sfn|Spitta|1899a|pp=186–187}}

By 3 April 1700, Bach and his school friend Georg Erdmann—who was two years older than Bach—studied at St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, some two weeks' travel north of Ohrdruf.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=41–43}}{{harvnb|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. I}} Their journey was probably undertaken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing Bach to a broader range of European culture. In addition to singing in the choir, he played the school's three-manual organ and harpsichords.{{cite web|url=http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html|title=Johann Sebastian Bach: a detailed informative biography|work=The Baroque Music Site|access-date=19 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220080633/http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html|archive-date=20 February 2012}} He also came into contact with sons of aristocrats from northern Germany who had been sent to the nearby Ritter-Academie to prepare for careers in other disciplines.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=55–56}}

=Weimar, Arnstadt, and Mühlhausen (1703–1708)=

File:Arnstadt Bachkirche Wender-Orgel.jpg organ Bach played in Arnstadt]]

In January 1703, shortly after graduating from St. Michael's and being turned down for the post of organist at Sangerhausen,{{sfn|Rich|1995|p=27}} Bach was appointed court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst III in Weimar.{{sfn|Boyd|2000|pp=15–16}} His role there is unclear, but it probably included menial, non-musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboardist spread so widely that he was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church (now Bach Church) in Arnstadt, about {{convert|30|km|}} southwest of Weimar.{{sfn|Chiapusso|1968|p=62}} On 14 August 1703, he became the organist at the New Church,{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|2001}} with light duties, a relatively generous salary, and a new organ tuned in a temperament that allowed music written in a wider range of keys to be played.{{sfn|Williams|2003a|p=40}}

Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach felt discontented by the calibre of musicians he was collaborating with. He called one of them, Geyersbach, a "Zippel Fagottist" (weenie bassoonist). Late one evening, Geyersbach went after Bach with a stick. Bach filed a complaint against Geyersbach with the authorities. They acquitted Geyersbach with a minor reprimand and ordered Bach to be more moderate about the musical qualities he expected from his students. Some months later, Bach upset his employer with a prolonged absence from Arnstadt: after obtaining leave for four weeks, he was absent for around four months in 1705–1706 to take lessons from the organist and composer Johann Adam Reincken and to hear him and Dieterich Buxtehude play in the northern city of Lübeck. The visit to Buxtehude and Reincken involved a {{convert|450|km|adj=on}} journey each way, reportedly on foot.{{harvnb|Wolff| author-link=Christoph Wolff| 2000|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YtJVFiHnepcC&pg=PA83 83ff]}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSXGOoambNcC&pg=PA104|title=Dieterich Buxtehude: Organist in Lübeck|year=2007|edition=2nd|first=Kerala J.|last=Snyder|pages=104–106|publisher=University Rochester Press |isbn=978-1-58046-253-2|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928212929/https://books.google.com/books?id=qSXGOoambNcC&pg=PA104|archive-date=28 September 2015}} Buxtehude probably introduced Bach to his friend Reincken so that he could learn from his compositional technique (especially his mastery of fugue), his organ playing and his skills with improvisation. Bach knew Reincken's music very well; he copied Reincken's monumental An Wasserflüssen Babylon when he was 15 years old. Bach later wrote several other works on the same theme. When Bach revisited Reincken in 1720 and showed him his improvisatory skills on the organ, Reincken reportedly remarked: "I thought that this art was dead, but I see that it lives in you."[http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/reincken.html Sojourn: Jan Adams Reincken] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060522010526/http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/reincken.html |date=22 May 2006 }}, by Timothy A. Smith

In 1706, Bach applied for a post as organist at the Blasius Church in Mühlhausen.{{harvnb|Wolff|2000|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YtJVFiHnepcC&pg=PA102 102–104]}}{{sfn|Williams|2003a|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wX-rF2_k_S8C&pg=PA38 38–39]}} As part of his application, he had a cantata performed on Easter, 24 April 1707, likely an early version of his {{lang|de|Christ lag in Todes Banden}}.Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0005}} at {{url|www.bach-digital.de}} Bach's application was accepted a month later, and he took up the post in July. The position included significantly higher remuneration, improved conditions, and a better choir. Four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, Bach married Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin. Bach convinced the church and town government at Mühlhausen to fund an expensive renovation of the organ at the Blasius Church. In 1708, Bach wrote {{lang|de|Gott ist mein König}}, a festive cantata for the inauguration of the new council, which was published at the council's expense. This was the only Bach cantata published in his lifetime.

=Return to Weimar (1708–1717)=

{{Further|Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! BWV 172#Background}}

File:Leipzig Paulinerkirche Scheibe-Orgel um 1720.jpg, tested by Bach in 1717]]

Bach left Mühlhausen in 1708, returning to Weimar this time as organist and from 1714 {{lang|de|Konzertmeister}} (director of music) at the ducal court, where he could work with a large, well-funded contingent of professional musicians. Bach and his wife moved into a house near the ducal palace.{{cite web|title=History of the Bach House|url=http://www.bachhausweimar.de/en/arguments/history-of-the-bach-house/then-and-now.html|website=Bach House Weimar|access-date=10 August 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126011612/http://www.bachhausweimar.de/en/arguments/history-of-the-bach-house/then-and-now.html|archive-date=26 November 2015}} Later that year, their first child, Catharina Dorothea, was born, and Maria Barbara's elder, unmarried sister joined them. She remained to help run the household until she died in 1729. Three sons were also born in Weimar: Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara had three more children—twins born in 1713 and a single birth; none survived past their first birthday.{{sfn|Forkel|1920|loc=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n358/mode/1up Table VII, p. 309]}}

Bach's time in Weimar began a sustained period of composing keyboard and orchestral works. He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and Torelli. Bach absorbed these stylistic aspects to a certain extent by transcribing Vivaldi's string and wind concertos for harpsichord and organ; many of these transcribed works are still regularly performed. Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style, in which one or more solo instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement.{{cite web|url=http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M345/Baroque_Music1.html |title=Baroque Music – Part One |last=Thornburgh |first=Elaine |author-link=Elaine Thornburgh |work=Music in Our World |publisher=San Diego State University |access-date=24 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905175129/http://trumpet.sdsu.edu/M345/Baroque_Music1.html |archive-date= 5 September 2015 }}

In Weimar, Bach continued to play and compose for the organ and perform concert music with the duke's ensemble. He also began to write the preludes and fugues that were later assembled into his monumental work The Well-Tempered Clavier ("clavier" meaning clavichord or harpsichord),{{sfn|Chiapusso|1968|p=168}} consisting of two books,{{sfn|Schweitzer|1923|p=331}} each containing 24 preludes and fugues in every major and minor key. In Weimar Bach also started work on the Little Organ Book, containing traditional Lutheran chorale tunes set in complex textures. In 1713, Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady.{{cite web|last=Koster|first=Jan|title=Weimar (II) 1708–1717|url=http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/weimar2.html|work=J. S. Bach Archive and Bibliography|access-date=11 April 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328175204/http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/weimar2.html|archive-date=28 March 2014}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ip6voIceW0AC&pg=PA205|title=Companion to Baroque Music|year=1998|editor-first=Julie Anne|editor-last=Sadie|editor-link=Julie Anne Sadie|page=205|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-21414-9|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514185450/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ip6voIceW0AC&pg=PA205|archive-date=14 May 2015}}

In the spring of 1714, Bach was promoted to {{lang|de|Konzertmeister}}, an honour that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the castle church.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=147, 156}} The first three cantatas in the new series Bach composed in Weimar were {{lang|de|Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182|italic=unset}}, for Palm Sunday, which coincided with the Annunciation that year; {{lang|de|Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12|italic=unset}}, for Jubilate Sunday; and {{lang|de|Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten!  BWV 172|italic=unset}} for Pentecost.{{harvnb|Wolff|1991|p=30}} Bach's first Christmas cantata, {{lang|de|Christen, ätzet diesen Tag, BWV 63|italic=unset}}, premiered in 1714 or 1715.{{cite web|last=Gardiner|first=John Eliot|author-link=John Eliot Gardiner|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Rec-BIG/Gardiner-P18c%5Bsdg174_gb%5D.pdf|title=Cantatas for Christmas Day: Herderkirche, Weimar|pages=1–2|year=2010|access-date=27 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924043302/http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Rec-BIG/Gardiner-P18c%5Bsdg174_gb%5D.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015}}{{cite web|last=Wolff|first=Christoph|author-link=Christoph Wolff|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Rec-BIG/Koopman-C03-1c%5BErato-3CD%5D.pdf|title=From konzertmeister to thomaskantor: Bach's cantata production 1713–1723|year=1996|pages=15–16|access-date=27 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924043330/http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Pic-Rec-BIG/Koopman-C03-1c%5BErato-3CD%5D.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015}}

In 1717, Bach fell out of favour in Weimar and, according to a translation of the court secretary's report, was jailed for almost a month before being unfavorably dismissed: "On November 6, [1717,] the quondam [former] concertmaster and organist Bach was confined to the County Judge's place of detention for too stubbornly forcing the issue of his dismissal and finally on December 2 was freed from arrest with notice of his unfavorable discharge."{{sfn|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=80}}

=Köthen (1717–1723)=

File:BWV1001-cropped.jpg File:J. S. Bach – Violin Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001, I. Adagio.ogg]]

Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, hired Bach to serve as his {{lang|de|Kapellmeister}} (director of music) in 1717. Himself a musician, Leopold appreciated Bach's talents, paid him well, and gave him considerable latitude in composing and performing. Leopold was a Calvinist and did not use elaborate music in his worship; accordingly, most of Bach's work from this period is secular,{{sfn|Miles|1962|p=57}} including the orchestral suites, cello suites, sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the Brandenburg Concertos.{{sfn|Boyd|2000|p=74}} Bach also composed secular cantatas for the court, such as {{lang|de|Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a|italic=unset}}.

Despite being born in the same year and only about {{convert|130|km|round=5}} apart, Bach and Handel never met. In 1719, Bach made the {{convert|35|km|adj=on}} journey from Köthen to Halle with the intention to meet Handel, but Handel had left town.{{sfn|Van Til|2007|pp=69, 372}}{{sfn|Dent|2004|p=23}} In 1730, Bach's oldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, travelled to Halle to invite Handel to visit the Bach family in Leipzig, but the visit did not take place.{{sfn|Spaeth|1937|p=37}}

On 7 July 1720, while Bach was away in Carlsbad with Leopold, his wife, Maria Barbara Bach, suddenly died.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|p=11}} The next year, he met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a young, gifted soprano 16 years his junior, who performed at the court in Köthen; they married on 3 December 1721.{{sfn|Geiringer|1966|p=50}} Together they had 13 children, six of whom survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781); Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian, who both, especially Johann Christian, became significant musicians; Johanna Carolina (1737–1781); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).{{sfn|Wolff|1983|pp=98, 111}}

=Leipzig (1723–1750)=

In 1723, Bach was appointed Thomaskantor director of church music in Leipzig. He had to direct the St. Thomas School and provide four churches with music, the St. Thomas Church, the St. Nicholas Church, and to a lesser extent, the New Church and St. Peter's Church.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb02spituoft#page/192/mode/2up 192–193]}} This was "the leading cantorate in Protestant Germany",{{harvnb|Wolff|2013|p=253}} located in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony, which he held for 27 years, until his death. During that time he gained further prestige through honorary appointments at the courts of Köthen and Weissenfels, as well as that of the Elector Frederick Augustus (who was also King of Poland) in Dresden. Bach frequently disagreed with his employer, Leipzig's city council, which he regarded as "penny-pinching".{{sfn|Wolff|2013|p=345}}

==Appointment in Leipzig==

File:Thomaskirche und -schule 1723.jpg and School, Leipzig in 1723]]

Johann Kuhnau had been Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1701 until his death on 5 June 1722. Bach had visited Leipzig during Kuhnau's tenure: in 1714, he attended the service at the St. Thomas Church on the first Sunday of Advent,{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb02spituoft#page/265/mode/1up 265]}} and in 1717 he had tested the organ of the St. Paul's Church.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb02spituoft#page/184/mode/1up 184]}} In 1716, Bach and Kuhnau met on the occasion of the testing and inauguration of an organ in Halle.

The position was offered to Bach only after it had been offered to Georg Philipp Telemann and then to Christoph Graupner, both of whom chose to stay where they were—Telemann in Hamburg and Graupner in Darmstadt—after using the Leipzig offer to negotiate better terms of employment.{{cite web |title=Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) |publisher=British Library: Online Gallery |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/musicmanu/bach/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129085658/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/musicmanu/bach/ |archive-date=29 January 2016 |access-date=16 June 2021 }}{{sfn|Wolff|2013|p=348}}

Bach was required to instruct the {{lang|de|Thomasschule}} students in singing and provide church music for the main churches in Leipzig. He was also assigned to teach Latin but was allowed to employ four "prefects" (deputies) to do this instead. The prefects also aided with musical instruction.{{sfn|Wolff|2013|p=349}} A cantata was required for the church services on Sundays and additional church holidays during the liturgical year.

==Cantata cycle years (1723–1729)==

Bach usually led performances of his cantatas, most composed within three years of his relocation to Leipzig. He assumed the office of Thomaskantor on 30 May 1723, presenting the first new cantata, {{lang|de|Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75|italic=unset}}, in the St. Nicholas Church on the first Sunday after Trinity.{{sfn|Dürr|Jones|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=m9JuwslMcq4C&pg=PA384 384]}} Bach collected his cantatas in annual cycles. Five are mentioned in obituaries, and three are extant. Of the more than 300 cantatas he composed in Leipzig, over 100 have been lost to posterity.{{harvnb|Wolff|1997|p=5}} Most of these works expound on the Gospel readings prescribed for every Sunday and feast day in the Lutheran year. Bach started a second annual cycle on the first Sunday after the Trinity of 1724 and composed only chorale cantatas, each based on a single church hymn. These include {{lang|de|O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20|italic=unset}}, {{lang|de|Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140|italic=unset}}, {{lang|de|Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 62|italic=unset}}, and {{lang|de|Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1|italic=unset}}.

Bach drew the soprano and alto choristers from the school and the tenors and basses from the school and elsewhere in Leipzig. Performing at weddings and funerals provided extra income for these groups; probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, he wrote at least six motets.{{cite web|title=Motets BWV 225–231|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV225-231.htm|work=Bach Cantatas Website|access-date=31 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224194441/http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV225-231.htm|archive-date=24 February 2015}} As part of his regular church work, he performed other composers' motets, which served as formal models for his own.{{cite web|title=Works of Other Composers performed by J.S. Bach|url=http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Other/Work-Perform.htm|work=Bach Cantatas Website|access-date=31 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717213208/http://bach-cantatas.com/Other/Work-Perform.htm|archive-date=17 July 2014}}

Bach's predecessor as cantor, Johann Kuhnau, had also been music director for the St. Paul's Church, the church of Leipzig University. But when Bach was installed as cantor in 1723, he was put in charge only of music for festal (church holiday) services at St. Paul's Church; his petition to also provide music for regular Sunday services there (for a corresponding salary increase) went all the way to the Elector but was denied. In 1725, Bach "lost interest" in working even for festal services at St. Paul's Church and decided to appear there only on "special occasions".{{sfn|Boyd|2000|pp=112–113}} The St. Paul's Church had a much better and newer (1716) organ than the St. Thomas Church or the St. Nicholas Church.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|pp=288–290}} Bach was not required to play any organ in his official duties, but it is believed he liked to play on the St. Paul's Church organ for his own pleasure.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|pp=281, 287}}

File:Zimmermannsches Caffeehaus.jpg, {{circa|1720}}]]

Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over, in March 1729, the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble Telemann started. This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities established by musically active university students; they had become increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city. In the words of Christoph Wolff, assuming the directorship was a shrewd move that "consolidated Bach's firm grip on Leipzig's principal musical institutions".{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=341}} Every week, the Collegium Musicum gave two-hour performances, in winter at the Café Zimmermann, a coffeehouse on Catherine Street off the main market square, and in summer in the proprietor's outdoor coffee garden just outside the town walls, near the East Gate. The concerts, all free of charge, ended with Gottfried Zimmermann's death in 1741. Apart from showcasing his earlier orchestral repertoire, such as the Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites, many of Bach's newly composed or reworked pieces were performed for these venues, including parts of his {{lang|de|Clavier-Übung}} (Keyboard Practice), his violin and keyboard concertos, and the Coffee Cantata.{{harvnb|Stauffer|2008}}

==Middle years of the Leipzig period (1730–1739)==

File:Bach Seal.svg

In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass in B minor that he later incorporated in his Mass in B minor. He presented the manuscript to the Elector in a successful bid to persuade the prince to give him the title of Court Composer. He later extended this work into a full mass by adding a {{lang|la|Credo|italic=unset}}, {{lang|la|Sanctus|italic=unset}}, and {{lang|la|Agnus Dei|italic=unset}}, the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas and partly original. Bach's appointment as Court Composer was an element of his long-term struggle to achieve greater bargaining power with the Leipzig council. Between 1737 and 1739, Bach's former pupil Carl Gotthelf Gerlach held the directorship of the Collegium Musicum.

In 1735, Bach started preparing his first organ music publication, which was printed as the third Clavier-Übung in 1739.[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00024100 {{nowrap|US-PRu M 3.1. B2 C5. 1739q}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162156/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00024100 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website From around that year he started to compile and compose the set of preludes and fugues for harpsichord that became the second book of The Well-Tempered Clavier.[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003694 {{nowrap|GB-Lbl Add. MS. 35021}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204325/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003694 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736.{{cite web|title=Bach Mass in B Minor BWV 232|url=http://www.baroquemusic.org/bminormass.html|work=The Baroque Music Site|access-date=21 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307222443/http://www.baroquemusic.org/bminormass.html|archive-date=7 March 2012}}{{sfn|Miles|1962|pp=86–87}}

==Final years and death (1740–1750)==

From 1740 to 1748 Bach copied, transcribed, expanded or programmed music in an older polyphonic style (stile antico) by, among others, Palestrina (BNB I/P/2),[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000660 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. 16714}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911161956/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000660 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website Kerll (BWV 241),{{nowrap|D-Cv A.V,1109,(1),}} [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002705 1a] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118074821/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002705 |date=18 November 2016 }} and [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002706 1b] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118074830/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002706 |date=18 November 2016 }} at Bach Digital website Torri (BWV Anh. 30),[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001067 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 195}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118074815/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001067 |date=18 November 2016 }} at Bach Digital website Bassani (BWV 1081),[http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00018332 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. 1160}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072916/http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00018332 |date=4 March 2016 }} at Bach Digital website Gasparini (Missa Canonica),[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00022815 {{nowrap|D-WFe 191}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204322/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00022815 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website ({{RISM|250000899}}) and Caldara (BWV 1082).{{nowrap|D-Bsa SA 301,}} [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002281 Fascicle 1] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118074832/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00002281 |date=18 November 2016 }} and [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00018891 Fascicle 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118074828/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00018891 |date=18 November 2016 }} at Bach Digital website Bach's style shifted in the last decade of his life, showing an increased integration of polyphonic structures and canons and other elements of the stile antico.[https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/neuaufgefundenes_bach_autograph_in_weissenfels?nav_id=4421 Neuaufgefundenes Bach-Autograph in Weißenfels] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911161832/https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/neuaufgefundenes_bach_autograph_in_weissenfels?nav_id=4421 |date=11 September 2017 }} at {{url|lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de}} His fourth and last Clavier-Übung volume, the Goldberg Variations for two-manual harpsichord, contained nine canons and was published in 1741.[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003647 {{nowrap|F-Pn Ms. 17669}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162246/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00003647 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website During this period, Bach also continued to adapt music of contemporaries such as Handel (BNB I/K/2)[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000763 {{nowrap|D-B N. Mus. ms. 468}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162223/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000763 |date=11 September 2017 }} and [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004039 {{nowrap|Privatbesitz C. Thiele, BWV deest (NBA Serie II:5)}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204514/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004039 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website and Stölzel (BWV 200),[http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000756 {{nowrap|D-B N. Mus. ms. 307}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208134212/http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000756 |date=8 December 2015 }} at Bach Digital website and gave many of his own earlier compositions, such as the St Matthew and St John Passions and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes,[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001203 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 271,}} Fascicle 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162108/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00001203 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website their final revisions. He also programmed and adapted music by composers of a younger generation, including Pergolesi (BWV 1083),[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000690 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. 30199,}} Fascicle 14] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162140/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000690 |date=11 September 2017 }} and [https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000661 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. 17155/16}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162134/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000661 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website and his own students, such as Goldberg (BNB I/G/2).[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00019289 {{nowrap|D-B Mus. ms. 7918}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204444/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00019289 |date=11 September 2017 }} at Bach Digital website

In 1746 Bach was preparing to enter Lorenz Christoph Mizler's {{ill|Correspondierende Societät der musicalischen Wissenschaften|de|lt=Society of Musical Sciences}}.{{Lang|de|Musikalische Bibliothek}}, [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10599088?page=411 III.2 [1746], 353] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116112815/http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10599088_00411.html |date=16 January 2013 }}, Felbick 2012, 284. In 1746, Mizler announced the membership of three famous members, {{Lang|de|Musikalische Bibliothek}}, [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10599088?page=415 III.2 [1746], 357] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116112902/http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10599088_00415.html |date=16 January 2013 }}. To be admitted, he had to submit a composition. He chose his Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", and a portrait painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann that featured Bach's Canon triplex á 6 Voc.Musikalische Bibliothek, IV.1 [1754], 108 and Tab. IV, fig. 16 [https://archive.org/stream/MusikalischeBibliothek4.band1754/MizlerMusikalischeBibliothekBd41754#page/n109/mode/2up (Source online)]; letter of Mizler to Spieß, 29 June 1748, in: Hans Rudolf Jung and Hans-Eberhard Dentler: Briefe von Lorenz Mizler und Zeitgenossen an Meinrad Spieß, in: Studi musicali 2003, Nr. 32, 115. In May 1747, Bach visited the court of King Frederick II of Prussia in Potsdam. The king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on it. Bach obliged, playing a three-part fugue on one of Frederick's fortepianos,{{sfn|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|page=224}} a new type of instrument at the time. Upon his return to Leipzig he composed a set of fugues and canons and a trio sonata based on the Thema Regium ("King's Theme"). Within a few weeks this music was published as The Musical Offering and dedicated to Frederick. The Schübler Chorales, a set of six chorale preludes transcribed from cantata movements Bach had written two decades earlier, were published within a year.[https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004346 US-PRscheide BWV 645–650] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911204617/https://www.bach-digital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004346 |date=11 September 2017 }} (original print of the Schübler Chorales with Bach's handwritten corrections and additions from before August 1748 – description at Bach Digital website)Breig, Werner (2010). "[https://www.breitkopf.com/assets/pdf/15009_EB8806_PDF_EB8806_Einl.pdf Introduction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222093423/https://www.breitkopf.com/assets/pdf/15009_EB8806_PDF_EB8806_Einl.pdf |date=22 February 2018 }}" (pp. 14, 17–18) in [https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795/15009 Vol. 6: Clavierübung III, Schübler-Chorales, Canonische Veränderungen] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911162246/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795/15009 |date=11 September 2017 }} of [https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795 Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Organ Works.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905110155/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795 |date=5 September 2015 }} Breitkopf. Around the same time, the set of five canonic variations Bach had submitted when entering Mizler's society in 1747 were also printed.

Two large-scale compositions occupied a central place in Bach's last years. Beginning around 1742, he wrote and revised the various canons and fugues of The Art of Fugue, which he continued to prepare for publication until shortly before his death.Hans Gunter Hoke: "Neue Studien zur Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080", in: Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 17 (1975), 95–115; Hans-Eberhard Dentler: "Johann Sebastian Bachs Kunst der Fuge – Ein pythagoreisches Werk und seine Verwirklichung", Mainz 2004; Hans-Eberhard Dentler: "Johann Sebastian Bachs Musicalisches Opfer – Musik als Abbild der Sphärenharmonie", Mainz 2008.{{sfn|Chiapusso|1968|p=277}} After extracting a cantata, BWV 191 from his 1733 Kyrie-Gloria Mass for the Dresden court in the mid-1740s, Bach expanded that setting into his Mass in B minor in the last years of his life. The complete mass was not performed during his lifetime. It is considered among the greatest choral works in history.{{cite conference|title=Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor: The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People|first=Markus|last=Rathey|event=The Tangeman Lecture|location=New Haven|date=18 April 2003|url=http://ism.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715154931/http://ism.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach.pdf|archive-date=15 July 2014}}

In January 1749, Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica married his pupil Johann Christoph Altnickol. Bach's health was declining. On 2 June, Heinrich von Brühl wrote to one of the Leipzig burgomasters to request that his music director, Gottlob Harrer, fill the {{lang|de|Thomaskantor}} and {{lang|la|Director musices}} posts "upon the eventual ... decease of Mr. Bach".{{harvnb|Wolff|2000|p=442}}, from {{harvnb|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998}} Becoming blind, Bach underwent eye surgery in March 1750 and again in April by the British eye surgeon John Taylor, a man widely understood today as a charlatan and believed to have blinded hundreds of people.{{cite journal|last1=Zegers|first1=Richard H.C.|title=The Eyes of Johann Sebastian Bach|journal=Archives of Ophthalmology|date=2005|volume=123|issue=10|pages=1427–1430|doi=10.1001/archopht.123.10.1427|pmid=16219736|doi-access=|issn=0003-9950 }} Bach died on 28 July 1750 from complications due to the unsuccessful treatment.{{cite web|last=Hanford|first=Jan|title=J.S. Bach: Timeline of His Life|url=http://www.jsbach.org/timeline.html|work=J.S. Bach Home Page|access-date=8 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226083800/http://www.jsbach.org/timeline.html|archive-date=26 February 2012}}{{sfn|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=188}}{{sfn|Spitta|1899c|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb03spituoft#page/274/mode/1up 274]}}

An inventory drawn up a few months after Bach's death shows that his estate included five harpsichords, two lute-harpsichords, three violins, three violas, two cellos, a viola da gamba, a lute, a spinet, and 52 "sacred books", including works by Martin Luther and Josephus.{{sfn|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|pp=191–197}} C.P.E. Bach saw to it that The Art of Fugue, though unfinished, was published in 1751.{{cite web|title=Did Bach really leave Art of Fugue unfinished?|url=http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/articles/artoffugue/unfinished.shtml|work=The Art of Fugue|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=28 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208064050/http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/articles/artoffugue/unfinished.shtml|archive-date=8 December 2013}} Together with one of J.S. Bach's former students, Johann Friedrich Agricola, C.P.E. Bach also wrote the obituary ("Nekrolog"), which was published in Mizler's {{ill|Musikalische Bibliothek|de|lt=Musikalische Bibliothek}}, a periodical journal produced by the Society of Musical Sciences, in 1754.{{cite journal|last1=Bach|first1=Carl Philipp Emanuel|last2=Agricola|first2=Johann Friedrich|author-link1=Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach|author-link2=Johann Friedrich Agricola|title=Nekrolog|journal={{ill|Musikalische Bibliothek|de}}|location=Leipzig|language=de|publisher=Mizlerischer Bücherverlag|volume=IV.1|pages=158–173|year=1754|title-link=Bach's Nekrolog}} Printed in translation in {{harvnb|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=299}}.

Musical style

File:Bach Calov-Bibel 2 Chr 5,13.jpg. The note next to {{Sourcetext|source=Bible|version=King James|book=2 Chronicles|chapter=5|verse=13}} reads: "NB Bey einer andächtigen Musiq ist allezeit Gott mit seiner Gnaden Gegenwart" (Nota bene In a music of worship God is always present with his grace).]]

{{See also|List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

From an early age, Bach studied the works of his musical contemporaries of the Baroque period and those of earlier generations, and those influences are reflected in his music.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=166}} Like his contemporaries Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi, Bach composed concertos, suites, recitatives, da capo arias, and four-part choral music, and employed basso continuo. His music is harmonically more innovative than his peers', employing surprisingly dissonant chords and progressions, often extensively exploring harmonic possibilities within one piece.{{Cite web |title=Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) |publisher=British Library |url=https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/musicmanu/bach/ |access-date=23 June 2021 |archive-date=2 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802172724/https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/musicmanu/bach/ |url-status=dead }}

Bach's hundreds of sacred works are usually seen as manifesting not just his craft but also a deep faith in God.{{sfn|Herl|2004|p=123}}{{cite encyclopedia|editor-first=J. A.|editor-last=Fuller Maitland|editor-link=John Alexander Fuller Maitland|title=Johann Sebastian Bach|encyclopedia=Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians|volume=1|url=https://archive.org/details/grovesdictionar02boydgoog|year=1911|publisher=Macmillan Publishers|location=New York|page=154}} He had taught Luther's Small Catechism as the {{lang|de|Thomaskantor}} in Leipzig, and some of his pieces represent it.{{sfn|Leaver|2007|pp=280, 289–291}} The Lutheran chorale was the basis of much of his work. In elaborating these hymns into his chorale preludes, he wrote more cogent and tightly integrated works than most, even when they were massive and lengthy.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} The large-scale structure of every major Bach sacred vocal work is evidence of subtle, elaborate planning to create religiously and musically powerful expression. For example, the St Matthew Passion, like other works of its kind, illustrated the Passion with Bible text reflected in recitatives, arias, choruses, and chorales, but in crafting this work, Bach created an overall experience that has been found over the intervening centuries to be both musically thrilling and spiritually profound.{{cite news|last=Huizenga|first=Tom|title=A Visitor's Guide to the St. Matthew Passion|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88203558|work=NPR Music|publisher=National Public Radio|access-date=25 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227102340/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88203558|archive-date=27 February 2012}}

Bach published or carefully compiled in manuscript many collections of pieces that explored the range of artistic and technical possibilities inherent in almost every genre of his time except opera. For example, The Well-Tempered Clavier comprises two books, each of which presents a prelude and fugue in every major and minor key, displaying a dizzying variety of structural, contrapuntal and fugal techniques.{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=The Well Tempered Clavier BWV 846–869|url=http://bach.org/bach101/instrumental/clavier.html|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702125746/http://bach.org/bach101/instrumental/clavier.html|archive-date=2 July 2013|access-date=23 December 2014}}

=Four-part harmony=

File:Bach Matthäuspassion O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.jpg": the four-part chorale setting as included in the St. Matthew Passion]]

Four-part harmony predates Bach, but he lived during a time when modal music in Western tradition was largely supplanted by the tonal system. In this system a piece of music progresses from one chord to the next according to certain rules, with each chord characterised by four notes. The principles of four-part harmony are found not only in Bach's four-part choral music; he also prescribes it for instance in figured bass accompaniment.{{sfn|Spitta|1899c|loc=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb03spituoft#page/315/mode/1up vol. 3, appendix XII, p. 315]}} The new system was at the core of Bach's style, and his compositions are to a large extent considered to have laid down the rules for the evolving scheme that dominated musical expression in the next centuries. Some examples of this characteristic of Bach's style and its influence:

  • When in the 1740s Bach staged his arrangement of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, he upgraded the viola part (which in the original composition plays in unison with the bass part) to fill in the harmony, thus adapting the composition to four-part harmony.Clemens Romijn. Liner notes for Tilge, Höchster, meine Sünden, BWV 1083 (after Pergolesi's Stabat Mater). Brilliant Classics, 2000. (2014 reissue: J.S. Bach Complete Edition. [http://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1119359/94940-JS-Bach-Complete-Edition-Liner-Notes-Sung-Text-download.pdf "Liner notes"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122020149/http://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1119359/94940-JS-Bach-Complete-Edition-Liner-Notes-Sung-Text-download.pdf |date=22 November 2015 }} p. 54)
  • When, starting in the 19th century in Russia, there was a discussion about the authenticity of four-part court chant settings compared to earlier Russian traditions, Bach's four-part chorale settings, such as those ending his Chorale cantatas, were considered foreign-influenced models, but such influence was deemed unavoidable.Jopi Harri. [http://ecmr.fi/Scanned_Books_etc/AnnalesB340Harri.pdf St. Petersburg Court Chant and the Tradition of Eastern Slavic Church Singing.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220202804/http://ecmr.fi/Scanned_Books_etc/AnnalesB340Harri.pdf |date=20 February 2016 }} Finland: University of Turku (2011), p. 24

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 performed by Kevin MacLeod |filename=Chromatic Fantasia (Bach BWV 903).ogg|title=1. Fantasia|description=

|filename2=Chromatic Fuge (Bach BWV 903).ogg|title2=2. Fugue|description2=Bach re-interpreting older genres tied to the modal system

}}

Bach's insistence on the tonal system and contribution to shaping it did not imply he was less at ease with the older modal system and the genres associated with it: more than his contemporaries (who had "moved on" to the tonal system without much exception), Bach often returned to the then-antiquated modes and genres. His Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, emulating the chromatic fantasia genre used by earlier composers such as Dowland and Sweelinck in D dorian mode (comparable to D minor in the tonal system), is an example.

=Modulation=

Modulation, or changing key in the course of a piece, is another style characteristic where Bach goes beyond the norm in his time. Baroque instruments vastly limited modulation possibilities: keyboard instruments, before a workable system of temperament, limited the keys that could be modulated to, and wind instruments, especially brass instruments such as trumpets and horns, about a century before they were fitted with valves, were tied to the key of their tuning. Bach pushed the limits: he added "strange tones" in his organ playing, confusing the singers, according to an indictment he had to face in Arnstadt,{{sfn|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. IV}} and Louis Marchand, another early experimenter with modulation, seems to have avoided confrontation with Bach because the latter went further than anyone had done before.{{sfn|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. IX}} In the "Suscepit Israel" of his 1723 Magnificat, he had the trumpets in E-flat play a melody in the enharmonic scale of C minor.{{cite book|editor-first=Don O.|editor-last=Franklin|first=Robert L.|last=Marshall|title=On the Origin of Bach's Magnificat: a Lutheran composer's challenge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lT09AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3|volume=Bach Studies|year=1989|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-34105-9|pages=3–17|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429141836/https://books.google.com/books?id=lT09AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3|archive-date=29 April 2016}}

The major development in Bach's time to which he contributed in no small way was a temperament for keyboard instruments that allowed their use in every key (12 major and 12 minor) and also modulation without retuning. His Capriccio on the departure of a beloved brother, a very early work, showed a gusto for modulation unlike any contemporary work it has been compared to,{{sfn|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. III}} but the full expansion came with the Well-Tempered Clavier, using all keys, which Bach apparently had been developing since around 1720, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach being one of its earliest examples.[http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004312 Klavierbüchlein für W. F. Bach] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118093144/http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00004312 |date=18 November 2015 }} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}}

=Ornamentation=

File:Bach-ornamentguide.jpg as contained in the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach]]

File:Goldberg Variations - Aria - 1st edition (BnF).png, showing Bach's use of ornamentsFile:Bach.Aria.Goldberg-Variationen.WerckmeisterIII.Harpsichord.ogg]]

The second page of the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach is an ornament notation and performance guide that Bach wrote for his eldest son when he was nine years old. Bach was generally quite specific on ornamentation in his compositions (in his time, much ornamentation was not written out by composers but rather considered a liberty of the performer),{{sfn|Donington|1982|p=91}} and his ornamentation was often quite elaborate. For instance, the "Aria" of the Goldberg Variations has rich ornamentation in nearly every measure. Bach's approach to ornamentation can also be seen in a keyboard arrangement he made of Marcello's Oboe Concerto: he added explicit ornamentation, which centuries later is still played.{{cite web |title=Concerto in d minor |url=https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-974 |website=Netherlands Bach Society}}

Although Bach wrote no operas, he was not averse to the genre or its ornamented vocal style. In church music, Italian composers had imitated the operatic vocal style in genres such as the Neapolitan mass. In Protestant surroundings, there was more reluctance to adopt such a style for liturgical music. Kuhnau had notoriously shunned opera and Italian virtuoso vocal music.{{citation| first= Johann |last= Kuhnau| author-link=Johann Kuhnau| title=Der musicalische Quack-Salber| location=Dresden |year= 1700}} Bach was less moved. After a performance of his St Matthew Passion, someone said it all sounded much like opera.{{sfn|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. XVIII}}

=Continuo instruments solos=

In concerted playing in Bach's time, the basso continuo, consisting of instruments such as organ, viola da gamba, or harpsichord, usually had the role of accompaniment, providing a piece's harmonic and rhythmic foundation. Beginning in the 1720s, Bach had the organ play concertante (i.e., as a soloist) with the orchestra in instrumental cantata movements,André Isoir (organ) and Le Parlement de Musique conducted by Martin Gester. Johann Sebastian Bach: L'oeuvre pour orgue et orchestre. Calliope 1993. Liner notes by Gilles Cantagrel. a decade before Handel published his first organ concertos.George Frideric Handel. 6 Organ Concertos, Op. 4 at IMSLP website Apart from the 5th Brandenburg Concerto and the Triple Concerto, which already had harpsichord soloists in the 1720s, Bach wrote and arranged his harpsichord concertos in the 1730s,Peter Wollny, [http://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art33/4951433-c30ca2-3149020218129_01.pdf "Harpsichord Concertos,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922030721/http://www.eclassical.com/shop/17115/art33/4951433-c30ca2-3149020218129_01.pdf |date=22 September 2015 }} booklet notes for Andreas Staier's 2015 recording of the concertos, Harmonia mundi HMC 902181.82 and in his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord neither instrument plays a continuo part: they are treated as equal soloists, far beyond the figured bass. In this way, Bach played a key role in the development of genres such as the keyboard concerto.{{sfn|Schulenberg|2006|pp=1–2}}

=Instrumentation=

Bach wrote virtuoso music for specific instruments as well as music independent of instrumentation. For instance, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin are considered the pinnacle of what has been written for violin, within reach of only accomplished players. The music fits the instrument, using the full gamut of its possibilities and requiring virtuosity but without bravura.{{harvnb|Lester|1999|pages=3–24}} Notwithstanding that the music and the instrument seem inseparable, Bach transcribed some pieces in this collection for other instruments. Similarly, the virtuoso cello suites seem tailored to the instrument, the best of what is offered for it, but Bach arranged one of the suites for lute. The same applies to much of his most virtuoso keyboard music. Bach exploited an instrument's capacities to the fullest while keeping the core of the music independent of the instrument on which it is performed.

In this sense, it is no surprise that Bach's music is easily and often performed on instruments it was not written for, that it is transcribed so often, and that his melodies turn up in unexpected places, such as jazz music. Apart from this, Bach left several compositions without specified instrumentation: the canons BWV 1072–1078 are in that category, as is the bulk of the Musical Offering and the Art of Fugue.{{cite web|title=Did Bach intend Art of Fugue to be performed?|url=http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/articles/artoffugue/performed.shtml|work=The Art of Fugue|publisher=American Public Media|access-date=28 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203045552/http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/articles/artoffugue/performed.shtml|archive-date=3 December 2013}}

=Counterpoint=

{{Listen

| image = none

| help = no

| header = Analysis of the counterpoint of the chorale prelude Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend', BWV 632 (Orgelbüchlein)

| filename = Anàlisi contrapuntística fragment BWV 632 Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend'.ogv

| alt = BWV 632 (extract)

| title = BWV 632 (extract)

| description = This video shows the intertwining of melodies and motives, including the melody of the chorale "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend".File:Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend.mid

}}

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Sonata No. 3 in G minor for viola da gamba and harpsichord BWV 1029 performed by John Michel

| filename =CELLO_LIVE_PERFORMANCES_JOHN_MICHEL-J_S_Bach_Gamba_Sonata_in_g_1st_mvt.ogg

| title = 1st movement

| description =

| filename2 =CELLO_LIVE_PERFORMANCES_JOHN_MICHEL-J_S_Bach_Gamba_Sonata_in_g_2nd_mvt.ogg

| title2 = 2nd movement

| description2 =

| filename3 =CELLO_LIVE_PERFORMANCES_JOHN_MICHEL-J_S_Bach_Gamba_Sonata_in_g_3rd_mvt.ogg

| title3 = 3rd movement

| description3 =Continuo instruments moving to the front (here performed on cello and piano)

}}

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Keyboard Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Schindler with Johannes Volker Schmidt (piano)

| filename = Johann Sebastian Bach - Klavierkonzert d-moll - 1. Allegro.ogg

| title = 1. Allegro

| description =

| filename2 = Johann Sebastian Bach - Klavierkonzert d-moll - 2. Adagio.ogg

| title2 = 2. Adagio

| description2 =

| filename3 = Johann Sebastian Bach - Klavierkonzert d-moll - 3. Allegro.ogg

| title3 = 3. Allegro

| description3 = Keyboard concerto

}}

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Double Violin Concerto in D minor BWV 1043 performed by the Advent Chamber Orchestra with David Perry and Roxana Pavel Goldstein (violins)

|filename=Johann Sebastian Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor - 1. Vivace.ogg

|title=1. Vivace

|description=

|filename2=Johann Sebastian Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor - 2. Largo ma non tanto.ogg

|title2=2. Largo ma non tanto

|description2=

|filename3=Johann Sebastian Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor - 3. Allegro.ogg

|title3=3. Allegro

|description3=A strictly contrapuntal composition (the two violins playing in canon throughout) in the guise of an Italian type of concerto

}}

{{See also|List of fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Another characteristic of Bach's style is his extensive use of counterpoint, as opposed to the homophony used in his four-part chorale settings, for example. Bach's canons, and especially his fugues, are the most characteristic of this style, which he did not invent but contributed to so fundamentally that to a large extent he defined it. Fugues are as characteristic of Bach's style as, for instance, sonata form is of the composers of the Classical period.{{sfn|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. XXX}}

These strictly contrapuntal compositions, and most of Bach's music in general, are characterised by distinct melodic lines for each voice, where the chords formed by the notes sounding at a given point follow the rules of four-part harmony. Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach's first biographer, gives this description of this feature of Bach's music, which sets it apart from most other music:

{{Blockquote|If the language of music is merely the utterance of a melodic line, a simple sequence of musical notes, it can justly be accused of poverty. The addition of a Bass puts it upon a harmonic foundation and clarifies it but defines rather than gives it added richness. A melody so accompanied—even though all the notes are not those of the true Bass—or treated with simple embellishments in the upper parts or with simple chords used to be called "homophony". But it is a very different thing when two melodies are so interwoven that they converse together like two persons upon a footing of pleasant equality. In the first case, the accompaniment is subordinate and serves merely to support the first or principal part. In the second case, the two parts are not similarly related. New melodic combinations spring from their interweaving, out of which new forms of musical expression emerge. Suppose more parts are interwoven in the same free and independent manner. In that case, the apparatus of language is correspondingly enlarged and becomes practically inexhaustible if, in addition, varieties of form and rhythm are introduced. Hence, harmony becomes no longer a mere accompaniment of melody but rather a potent agency for augmenting the richness and expressiveness of musical conversation. To serve that end, a simple accompaniment will not suffice. True harmony is the interweaving of several melodies, which emerge now in the upper, now in the middle, and now in the lower parts.{{clear}}

From 1720, when he was thirty-five until he died in 1750, Bach's harmony consists of this melodic interweaving of independent melodies, so perfect in their union that each part seems to constitute the true melody. Herein, Bach excels all the composers in the world. At least, I have found no one to equal him in music known to me. Even in his four-part writing, we can, not infrequently, leave out the upper and lower parts and still find the middle parts harmonious and agreeable.{{sfn|Forkel|1920|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb00forkuoft#page/73/mode/1up 73–74]}}}}

=Structure and lyrics=

Bach devoted more attention than his contemporaries to his compositions' structure. This can be seen in minor adjustments he made when adapting someone else's work, such as his earliest version of the "Keiser" St Mark Passion, where he enhances scene transitions,Bach Digital Work {{BDW|1677}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} and in the architecture of his own work, such as his Magnificat and Leipzig Passions. In his last years, Bach revised several of his compositions. Often, recasting such previously composed music in an enhanced structure was the most salient change, as in the Mass in B minor. Bach's known preoccupation with structure led (peaking around the 1970s) to various numerological analyses of his compositions, although many of these were later rejected, especially those that wandered into symbolism-ridden hermeneutics.{{harvnb|Williams|1980|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=JfE6AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA217 217]}}{{cite book|last=Basso|first=Alberto|title=Frau Musika: La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach|publisher=EDT|year=1979|isbn=978-88-7063-011-4|volume=1|location=Turin|page=493|language=it|author-link=Alberto Basso}}

The librettos, or lyrics, of his vocal compositions played an essential role for Bach. He sought collaboration with various text authors for his cantatas and major vocal compositions, possibly writing or adapting such texts himself to make them fit the structure of the composition when he could not rely on the talents of other text authors. His collaboration with Picander for the St Matthew Passion libretto is best known, but there was a similar process in achieving a multi-layered structure for his St John Passion libretto a few years earlier.Don O. Franklin. [http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00010567.pdf "The Libretto of Bach's John Passion and the Doctrine of Reconciliation: An Historical Perspective", pp. 179–203] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131040840/http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00010567.pdf |date=31 January 2016 }} in Proceedings of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Vol. 143 edited by A. A. Clement, 1995.

Compositions

{{See also|List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

In 1950, Wolfgang Schmieder published a thematic catalogue of Bach's compositions called the {{lang|de|Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis}} (Bach Works Catalogue).{{cite web|title=Bach Works Catalogue|url=http://www.bach-digital.de/content/help.xml?lang=en#works|work=Bach Digital|access-date=29 September 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930081612/http://www.bach-digital.de/content/help.xml?lang=en#works|archive-date=30 September 2015}} Schmieder largely followed the {{lang|de|Bach-Gesellschaft-Ausgabe}}, a comprehensive edition of the composer's works that was produced between 1850 and 1900. The first edition of the catalogue listed 1,080 surviving compositions indisputably composed by Bach.Wolfgang Schmieder (editor). Thematisch-systematisches Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1950. It was unaltered through its eighth printing in 1986.

class="wikitable"

|+ Original {{lang|de|Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis}} (Bach Works Catalogue)

scope="col" | BWV Rangescope="col" | Compositions
BWV 1–224Cantatas
BWV 225–231Motets
BWV 232–243Liturgical compositions in Latin
BWV 244–249Passions and oratorios
BWV 250–438Four-part chorales
BWV 439–524Small vocal works
BWV 525–771Organ compositions
BWV 772–994Other keyboard works
BWV 995–1000Lute compositions
BWV 1001–1040Other chamber music
BWV 1041–1071Orchestral music
BWV 1072–1078Canons
BWV 1079–1080Late contrapuntal works

BWV 1081–1126 were added to the catalogue in the second half of the 20th century, and BWV 1127 and higher are 21st-century additions.{{cite book |editor-last1=Schmieder |editor-first1=Wolfgang |editor-link1=Wolfgang Schmieder |editor-first2=Dürr |editor-last2=Alfred |editor-link2=Alfred Dürr |editor-last3=Kobayashi |editor-first3=Yoshitake |year=1998 |title=Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis: Kleine Ausgabe (BWV2a) |publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel |location=Wiesbaden |language=de |isbn=978-3-7651-0249-3 |url=https://www.breitkopf.com/work/78/636 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031211814/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/78/636 |archive-date=31 October 2016 }}Bach Digital Work {{BDW|1307}}Joel H. Kuznik. [https://www.thediapason.com/bwv-1128-recently-discovered-bach-organ-work "BWV 1128: A recently discovered Bach organ work" pp. 22–23] in The Diapason, Vol. 99 No. 22. December 2008. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110721145157/http://thediapason.com/BWV-1128-A-recently-discovered-Bach-organ-work--article9863 archived 21 July 2011])

=Passions and oratorios=

File:Lama asabthani.tif

{{See also|List of masses, passions and oratorios by Johann Sebastian Bach#Passions and oratorios}}

Bach composed Passions for Good Friday services and oratorios such as the Christmas Oratorio, which is a set of six cantatas for use in the liturgical season of Christmas.{{sfn|Leaver|2007|p=430}}{{sfn|Williams|2003a|p=114}}{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=The Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248|url=http://www.bach.org/bwv248.php|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|access-date=29 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407074223/http://www.bach.org/bwv248.php|archive-date=7 April 2014}} Shorter oratorios include the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. With its double choir and orchestra, the St Matthew Passion is one of Bach's most extended works. The St John Passion was the first passion Bach composed during his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig.

=Cantatas=

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 performed by the MIT Concert Choir conducted by W. Cutter

| filename =Bach - cantata 140. 1. chorus.ogg

| title =1. Chorus "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"

| alt =1. Chorus "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"

| description =

| filename2 =Bach - cantata 140. 2. recitative.ogg

| title2 =2. Recitative "Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräut'gam kommt"

| alt2 =2. Recitative "Er kommt, er kommt, der Bräut'gam kommt"

| description2 =

| filename3 =Bach - cantata 140. 3. duet.ogg

| title3 =3. Duet "Wenn kömmst du, mein Heil?"

| alt3 =3. Duet "Wenn kömmst du, mein Heil?"

| description3 =

| filename4 =Bach - cantata 140. 4. chorale.ogg

| title4 =4. Chorale "Zion hört die Wächter singen"

| alt4 =4. Chorale "Zion hört die Wächter singen"

| description4 =

| filename5 =Bach - cantata 140. 5. recitative.ogg

| title5 =5. Recitative "So geh herein zu mir"

| alt5 =5. Recitative "So geh herein zu mir"

| description5 =

| filename6 =Bach - cantata 140. 6. duet.ogg

| title6 =6. Duet "Mein Freund ist mein!"

| alt6 =6. Duet "Mein Freund ist mein!"

| description6 =

| filename7 =Bach - cantata 140. 7. chorale.ogg

| title7 =7. Chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen"

| alt7 =7. Chorale "Gloria sei dir gesungen"

| description7 = [http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalWork_work_00000172?XSL.Style=detail&lang=en Cantata text]

}}

{{See also|Bach cantata|List of Bach cantatas}}

According to his obituary, Bach would have composed five year-cycles of sacred cantatas and additional church cantatas for weddings and funerals. Approximately 200 of these sacred works are extant, an estimated two-thirds of the total number of church cantatas he composed.{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=Bach, Master of the Cantata|url=http://www.bach.org/bach101/about_bach/master_cantata.html|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702091306/http://www.bach.org/bach101/about_bach/master_cantata.html|archive-date=2 July 2013|access-date=24 December 2014}} The Bach Digital website lists 50 known secular cantatas by the composer,Bach's secular cantatas in BWV order, each followed by a link to the Bach Digital Work (BDW) page of the cantata at the Bach-Digital website: {{flatlist|

  1. {{nobreak|BWV 30a (BDW {{BDW|0039}})}}
  2. {{nobreak|BWV 36a (BDW {{BDW|0049}})}}
  3. {{nobreak|BWV 36b (BDW {{BDW|0050}})}}
  4. {{nobreak|BWV 36c (BDW {{BDW|0051}})}}
  5. {{nobreak|BWV 66a (BDW {{BDW|0083}})}}
  6. {{nobreak|BWV 134a (BDW {{BDW|0166}})}}
  7. {{nobreak|BWV 173a (BDW {{BDW|0211}})}}
  8. {{nobreak|BWV 184a (BDW {{BDW|0223}})}}
  9. {{nobreak|BWV 193a (BDW {{BDW|0235}})}}
  10. {{nobreak|BWV 194a (BDW {{BDW|0239}})}}
  11. {{nobreak|BWV 198 (BDW {{BDW|0246}})}}
  12. {{nobreak|BWV 201 (BDW {{BDW|0251}})}}
  13. {{nobreak|BWV 202 (BDW {{BDW|0252}})}}
  14. {{nobreak|BWV 203 (BDW {{BDW|0253}})}}
  15. {{nobreak|BWV 204 (BDW {{BDW|0254}})}}
  16. {{nobreak|BWV 205 (BDW {{BDW|0255}})}}
  17. {{nobreak|BWV 205a (BDW {{BDW|0256}})}}
  18. {{nobreak|BWV 206, first version (BDW {{BDW|0257}})}}
  19. {{nobreak|BWV 206, second version (BDW {{BDW|0258}})}}
  20. {{nobreak|BWV 207 (BDW {{BDW|0259}})}}
  21. {{nobreak|BWV 207a (BDW {{BDW|0260}})}}
  22. {{nobreak|BWV 208, first version (BDW {{BDW|0261}})}}
  23. {{nobreak|BWV 208, second version (BDW {{BDW|0262}})}}
  24. {{nobreak|BWV 208a (BDW {{BDW|0263}})}}
  25. {{nobreak|BWV 209 (BDW {{BDW|0264}})}}
  26. {{nobreak|BWV 210 (BDW {{BDW|0265}})}}
  27. {{nobreak|BWV 210a (BDW {{BDW|0266}})}}
  28. {{nobreak|BWV 211 (BDW {{BDW|0267}})}}
  29. {{nobreak|BWV 212 (BDW {{BDW|0268}})}}
  30. {{nobreak|BWV 213 (BDW {{BDW|0269}})}}
  31. {{nobreak|BWV 214 (BDW {{BDW|0270}})}}
  32. {{nobreak|BWV 215 (BDW {{BDW|0271}})}}
  33. {{nobreak|BWV 216 (BDW {{BDW|0272}})}}
  34. {{nobreak|BWV 216a (BDW {{BDW|0273}})}}
  35. {{nobreak|BWV 249a (BDW {{BDW|0318}})}}
  36. {{nobreak|BWV 249b (BDW {{BDW|0319}})}}
  37. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 6 (BDW {{BDW|1314}})}}
  38. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 7 (BDW {{BDW|1315}})}}
  39. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 8 (BDW {{BDW|1316}})}}
  40. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 9 (BDW {{BDW|1317}})}}
  41. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 10 (BDW {{BDW|1318}})}}
  42. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 11 (BDW {{BDW|1319}})}}
  43. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 12 (BDW {{BDW|1320}})}}
  44. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 13 (BDW {{BDW|1321}})}}
  45. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 18 (BDW {{BDW|1326}})}}
  46. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 19 (BDW {{BDW|1327}})}}
  47. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 20 (BDW {{BDW|1328}})}}
  48. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 195 (BDW {{BDW|1506}})}}
  49. {{nobreak|BWV Anh. 196 (BDW {{BDW|1507}})}}
  50. {{nobreak|BWV deest (BDW {{BDW|1536}})}}

}} about half of which are extant or largely reconstructable.For instance, [http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=109332&album_group=14 Helmut Rilling's box set of the complete secular cantatas] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819222030/http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=109332&album_group=14 |date=19 August 2016 }} contains 22 works

==Church cantatas==

{{See also|Church cantata (Bach)}}

Bach's cantatas vary greatly in form and instrumentation. Many consist of a large opening chorus followed by one or more recitative-aria pairs for soloists (or duets) and a concluding chorale. The melody of the concluding chorale often appears as a cantus firmus in the opening movement.{{Cite web |title=J. S. Bach: His Works {{!}} Music Appreciation |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/rangercollege-musicappreciation/chapter/j-s-bach-his-works/ |access-date=15 May 2023 |website=courses.lumenlearning.com}}

Bach's earliest cantatas date from his years in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. The earliest surviving work in the genre is {{lang|de|Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150|italic=unset}}. Overall, the extant early works show remarkable mastery and skill. Many feature an instrumental opening which displays effective use of the limited instrumental forces available to Bach, whether it be in the subdued combination of two recorders and two violas de gamba for BWV 106, or the independent bassoon in BWV 196. Bach's compositional skills also manifest through his daring harmonies and advanced, unprecedented chord progressions. According to Christoph Wolff, Bach's early cantatas are impressive evidence of how the modest means at his disposal did not restrain the composer in the slightest, and they compare favourably with compositions by the most talented composers from the beginning of the 18th century, such as Krieger, Kuhnau or Zachow.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=100–101}}

After taking up his office as {{lang|de|Thomaskantor}} in late May 1723, Bach performed a cantata each Sunday and feast day, corresponding to the lectionary readings of the week. His first cantata cycle ran from the first Sunday after Trinity of 1723 to Trinity Sunday the next year. For instance, the Visitation cantata {{lang|de|Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147|italic=unset}}, containing the chorale that is known in English as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", belongs to this first cycle. The cantata cycle of his second year in Leipzig is called the chorale cantata cycle as it consists mainly of works in the chorale cantata format. His third cantata cycle was developed over several years, followed by the Picander cycle of 1728–29.

Later church cantatas include the chorale cantatas {{lang|de|Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80|italic=unset}} (final version)"Especially in its opening chorus, it is one of Bach's contrapuntal masterpieces": Robin A. Leaver in {{harvnb|Boyd|1999}}. and {{lang|de|Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140|italic=unset}}."one of Bach's best-known church works" wrote David Schulenberg in {{harvnb|Boyd|1999}}. Only the first three Leipzig cycles are more or less completely extant. Apart from his own work, Bach also performed cantatas by Telemann and by his distant relative Johann Ludwig Bach.

==Secular cantatas==

{{See also|List of secular cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach also wrote secular cantatas, for instance for members of the royal Polish and prince-electoral Saxonian families (e.g. Trauer-Ode),Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0246}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} or other public or private occasions (e.g. Hunting Cantata).Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0261}}, {{BDW|0262}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} The text of these cantatas was occasionally in dialect (e.g. Peasant Cantata)Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0268}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} or Italian (e.g. Amore traditore).Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0253}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} Many of the secular cantatas were lost, but for some of them, the text and occasion are known. For instance, when Picander later published their librettos (e.g. BWV Anh. 11–12).Bach Digital Work {{BDW|1319}}, {{BDW|1320}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}}

Some of the surviving secular cantatas have a plot involving mythological figures of Greek antiquity (e.g. Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan),Bach Digital Work {{BDW|0251}} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} and others were almost miniature buffo operas (e.g. Coffee Cantata).{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=Cantata BWV 211, Coffee Cantata|url=http://www.bach.org/bwv211.php|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|access-date=31 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427095632/http://www.bach.org/bwv211.php|archive-date=27 April 2015}} Although Bach never expressed any interest in opera,{{harvnb|Wolff|2000|p=65}} his secular cantatas, or drammi per musica, would have allowed Leipzig audiences, deprived of opera since 1720, to experience musical performances comparable to the royal opera in Dresden. These were not "poor or makeshift substitutes for real opera" but spectacles displaying "full mastery of the dramatic genre and the proper pacing of the dialogues."{{sfn|Wolff|2000|p=363}}

=A cappella music=

Bach's a cappella music includes motets and chorale harmonisations.

==Motets==

{{Main|Motets (Bach)}}

Bach's motets (BWV 225–231) are pieces on sacred themes for choir and continuo, with instruments playing colla parte. Several of them were composed for funerals.{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=Choral Works|url=http://www.bach.org/choral.php|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|access-date=31 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330021530/http://www.bach.org/choral.php|archive-date=30 March 2014}} The six motets definitely composed by Bach are {{lang|de|Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied}}, {{lang|de|Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf}}, {{lang|de|Jesu, meine Freude}}, {{lang|de|Fürchte dich nicht}}, {{lang|de|Komm, Jesu, komm}}, and {{lang|de|Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden}}. The motet {{lang|de|Sei Lob und Preis mit Ehren}} (BWV 231) is part of the composite motet {{lang|de|Jauchzet dem Herrn, alle Welt}} (BWV Anh. 160), other parts of which may be based on work by Telemann.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JDlBMqI628UC&pg=PA90|title=J. S. Bach and the German Motet|year=1995|first=Daniel R.|last=Melamed|pages=90–94|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-41864-5|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515122654/https://books.google.com/books?id=JDlBMqI628UC&pg=PA90|archive-date=15 May 2015}}

==Chorale harmonisations==

{{See also|List of chorale harmonisations by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach wrote hundreds of four-part harmonisations of Lutheran chorales.

=Church music in Latin=

{{See also|Bach's church music in Latin}}

Bach's church music in Latin includes the Magnificat, four Kyrie–Gloria Masses, and the Mass in B minor.

==Magnificat==

{{See also|Magnificat (Bach)}}

The first version of Bach's Magnificat dates from 1723, but the work is best known in its D major version of 1733.

==Mass in B minor==

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=from Mass in B minor

| filename =Johann Sebastian Bach - Mass in B minor - Agnus Dei.ogg

| title =Agnus Dei

| alt =Agnus Dei

| description =performed by Solomija Drozd (voice), Petro Titiajev (violin) and Ivan Ostapovych (organ)

}}

{{See also|Mass in B minor}}

In 1733, Bach composed a Kyrie–Gloria Mass for the Dresden court. Near the end of his life, around 1748–1749, he expanded this composition into the large-scale Mass in B minor. The work was never performed in full during Bach's lifetime.{{cite web|title=The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232|url=http://www.bach.org/mass.php|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|access-date=29 March 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330161348/http://www.bach.org/mass.php|archive-date=30 March 2014}}{{sfn|Herz|1985|p=187}}

=Keyboard music=

Bach wrote for organ and for stringed keyboard instruments such as harpsichord, clavichord and lute-harpsichord.

==Organ works==

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543 performed by Robert Köbler on the Silbermann organ in the village church of Großhartmannsdorf, Saxony

| filename =Johann Sebastian Bach Prelude in A minor BWV 543 Robert Köbler Silbermann-Organ.mp3

| title =Prelude

| alt =Prelude

| filename2 = Johann Sebastian Bach Fugue in A minor BWV 543 Robert Köbler Silbermann-Organ.mp3

| title2 =Fugue

| alt2 =Fugue

| description2 =

}}

{{See also|List of organ compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach was best known during his lifetime as an organist, organ consultant, and composer of organ works in both the traditional German free genres (such as preludes, fantasias, and toccatas) and stricter forms (such as chorale preludes and fugues). At a young age, he established a reputation for creativity and the ability to integrate foreign styles into his organ works. A decidedly North German influence was exerted by Georg Böhm, with whom Bach came into contact in Lüneburg, and Dieterich Buxtehude, whom the young organist visited in Lübeck in 1704 on an extended leave of absence from his job in Arnstadt. Around this time, Bach copied the works of numerous French and Italian composers to gain insights into their compositional languages and later arranged violin concertos by Vivaldi and others for organ and harpsichord. During his most productive period (1708–1714), he composed about a dozen pairs of preludes and fugues, five toccatas and fugues, and the Orgelbüchlein or "Little Organ Book", an unfinished collection of 46 short chorale preludes that demonstrate compositional techniques in the setting of chorale tunes. After leaving Weimar, Bach wrote less for organ, although some of his best-known works (the six Organ Sonatas, the German Organ Mass in Clavier-Übung III from 1739, and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, revised late in his life) were composed after leaving Weimar. Later in his life, Bach extensively consulted on organ projects, tested new organs, and dedicated playing organs to afternoon recitals.{{cite web|access-date=19 May 2008 |url=http://classicalplus.gmn.com/composers/composer.asp?id=2 |title=Bach, Johann Sebastian |work=GMN ClassicalPlus |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080619044736/http://classicalplus.gmn.com/composers/composer.asp?id=2 |archive-date=19 June 2008 }}{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Timothy A.|title=Arnstadt (1703–1707)|url=http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/arnstadt.html|work=The Canons and Fugues of J. S. Bach|access-date=11 April 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140205032125/http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/arnstadt.html|archive-date=5 February 2014}} The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her" and the Schübler Chorales are organ works Bach published in the last years of his life.

==Harpsichord and other stringed keyboard instruments==

[[File:Title page of The Art of Fugue.jpg|thumb|The Art of Fugue (title page) – performed by Mehmet Okonsar on organ and harpsichord

File:ArtofFugue-Part1of2-1to12.ogg

File:ArtofFugue-Part2of2-13to20.ogg]]

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846 performed on harpsichord by Robert Schröter

| filename = Bach C Major Prelude Werckmeister.ogg

| title = Prelude No. 1 in C major BWV 846

}}

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header= Italian Concerto BWV 971 performed by Martha Goldstein

| filename = Johann Sebastian Bach - Italian Concerto - F Major - 1st movement.ogg

| title = 1st movement

| description =

| filename2 = Johann Sebastian Bach - Italian Concerto - F Major - Andante.ogg

| title2 = 2nd movement

| description2 =

| filename3 = Johann Sebastian Bach - Italian Concerto - F Major - Presto.ogg

| title3 = 3rd movement

| description3 =

}}

{{See also|List of solo keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach wrote many works for harpsichord, some of which may also have been played on the clavichord or lute-harpsichord. Some of his more significant works, such as Clavier-Übung II and IV, are intended for a harpsichord with two manuals: performing them on a keyboard instrument with a single manual (like a piano) may present technical difficulties for the crossing of hands.

  • The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2 (BWV 846–893). Each book consists of a prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys, in chromatic order from C major to B minor (thus, the whole collection is often referred to as "the 48"). "Well-tempered" in the title refers to the temperament (system of tuning); many temperaments before Bach's time were not flexible enough to allow compositions to utilise more than just a few keys.{{sfn|Schweitzer|1923|p=333}}{{cite web|last1=Kroesbergen|first1=Willem|author1-link=Willem Kroesbergen|last2=Cruickshank|first2=Andrew|title=18th Century Quotations Relating to J. S. Bach's Temperament|url=https://www.academia.edu/5210832|publisher=Academia.edu|date=October 2015|edition=2nd|orig-date=November 2013}}
  • The Inventions and Sinfonias (BWV 772–801). These short two- and three-part contrapuntal works are arranged in the same chromatic order as The Well-Tempered Clavier, omitting certain rarer keys. Bach intended these pieces for instructional purposes.{{cite web|last=Tomita|first=Yo|title=J. S. Bach: Inventions and Sinfonias|url=http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/essay/inventions.html|access-date=22 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120123509/http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/tomita/essay/inventions.html|archive-date=20 January 2012}}
  • Three collections of dance suites: the English Suites (BWV 806–811), French Suites (BWV 812–817), and Partitas for keyboard ({{lang|de|Clavier-Übung I}}, BWV 825–830). Each collection contains six suites built on the standard model ({{lang|fr|allemande}}–{{lang|fr|courante}}–{{lang|fr|sarabande}}–(optional movement)–{{lang|fr|gigue}}). The English Suites closely follow the traditional model, adding a prelude before the {{lang|fr|allemande}} and including a single movement between the {{lang|fr|sarabande}} and {{lang|fr|gigue}}.{{cite web|last=McComb|first=Todd M.|title=Bach: English Suites|url=http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/maa777.htm|work=Early Music FAQ|access-date=10 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227104315/http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/maa777.htm|archive-date=27 February 2014}} The French Suites omit preludes but have multiple movements between the {{lang|fr|sarabande}} and {{lang|fr|gigue}}.{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=French Suites 1–6|url=http://www.bach.org/bach101/instrumental/frenchsuites_intro.html|work=Bach 101|publisher=The Bach Choir of Bethlehem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702114830/http://www.bach.org/bach101/instrumental/frenchsuites_intro.html|archive-date=2 July 2013|access-date=23 December 2014}} The partitas expand the model further with elaborate introductory movements and miscellaneous movements between the basic elements of the model.{{cite web|last=McComb|first=Todd M.|title=Bach: Partitas, BWV 825–30|url=http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/lol40217.htm|work=Early Music FAQ|access-date=10 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222223615/http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/lol40217.htm|archive-date=22 February 2014}}
  • The Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), an aria with 30 variations. The collection has a complex and unconventional structure: the variations build on the bass line of the aria rather than its melody, and musical canons are interpolated according to a grand plan. There are nine canons within the 30 variations; every third variation is a canon.{{cite news|last=Libbey|first=Ted|title=Gold Standard for Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/07/18/111427254/gold-standard-for-bachs-goldberg-variations|work=NPR Music|publisher=National Public Radio|access-date=22 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219175113/http://www.npr.org/2011/07/18/111427254/gold-standard-for-bachs-goldberg-variations|archive-date=19 February 2012}} These variations move in order from canon at unison to canon at the ninth. The first eight are in pairs (unison and octave, second and seventh, third and sixth, fourth and fifth). The ninth canon stands on its own due to compositional dissimilarities. The final variation, instead of being the expected canon at the tenth, is a quodlibet.
  • Miscellaneous pieces such as the Overture in the French Style (French Overture, BWV 831) and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971) (published together as {{lang|de|Clavier-Übung II}}), and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903).

Among Bach's lesser known keyboard works are seven toccatas (BWV 910–916), four duets (BWV 802–805), sonatas for keyboard (BWV 963–967), the Six Little Preludes (BWV 933–938), and the {{lang|it|Aria variata alla maniera italiana}} (BWV 989).

=Orchestral and chamber music=

{{See also|List of chamber music works by Johann Sebastian Bach|List of orchestral works by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach wrote for single instruments, duets, and small ensembles. Many of his solo works, such as the six sonatas and partitas for violin (BWV 1001–1006) and the six cello suites (BWV 1007–1012), are widely considered to be among the most profound in the repertoire.{{cite web |last=Bratman |first=David |author-link=David Bratman |title=Shaham: Bold, Brilliant, All-Bach |url=https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/stanford-lively-arts/shaham-bold-brilliant-all-bach |work=San Francisco Classical Voice |access-date=23 February 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211090632/http://www.sfcv.org/reviews/stanford-lively-arts/shaham-bold-brilliant-all-bach |archive-date=11 February 2012}} He wrote sonatas for a solo instrument such as the viola de gamba accompanied by harpsichord or continuo, as well as trio sonatas (two instruments and continuo).

The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue are late contrapuntal works containing pieces for unspecified or combinations of instruments.{{sfn|Wolff|1991|p=111}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Schwarm |first=Betsy |date=19 April 2019 |title=The Art of Fugue | History, Description & Facts | Britannica |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |location=Chicago |access-date=22 August 2021 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Art-of-Fugue }}

==Violin concertos==

Surviving works in the concerto form include two violin concertos (BWV 1041 in A minor and BWV 1042 in E major) and a concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043, often referred to as Bach's "double concerto".

==''Brandenburg Concertos''==

{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header= Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, BWV 1049

|filename=Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 (ISRC USUAN1100303).oga|title=1. Allegro

|filename2=Bach - Brandenburg ConcertoNo. 4 in G Major- II. Andante.ogg|title2=2. Andante

|filename3=Bach - Brandenburg Concerto.No.4 in G Major- III. Presto.ogg|title3=3. Presto

}}

{{Further|Brandenburg Concertos}}

Bach's best-known orchestral works are the Brandenburg Concertos, so named because he submitted them in the hope of gaining employment from Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721; his application was unsuccessful. These works are examples of the concerto grosso genre.

==Keyboard concertos==

{{Further|Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Bach composed and transcribed concertos for one to four harpsichords. Many of the harpsichord concertos were not original works, but arrangements of his concertos for other instruments are now lost.{{cite web|title=Baroque Music |url=http://www.baroque.org/baroque/whatis.shtml |work=Music of the Baroque |access-date=27 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227172446/http://www.baroque.org/baroque/whatis.shtml |archive-date=27 December 2014 }} Several violin, oboe, and flute concertos have been reconstructed from these.

==Orchestral suites==

{{Main|Orchestral suites (Bach)}}

In addition to concertos, Bach wrote four orchestral suites, each suite being a series of stylised dances for orchestra, preceded by a French overture.{{cite web|last=Traupman-Carr|first=Carol|title=A compendium of works performed by the Bach Choir|url=http://www.bach.org/bach101/bach101_home.html|work=Bach 101|publisher=Bach Choir of Bethlehem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719021226/http://www.bach.org/bach101/bach101_home.html|archive-date=19 July 2013|access-date=23 December 2014}}

=Copies, arrangements and uncertain attributions=

{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|header=Some of Bach's most popular melodies are, more often than not, heard in various arrangements:

| filename =Wiki naxos 8.550194 01 13.ogg

| title =Air on the G String (excerpt)

| description ="Air", 2nd movement from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, performed in an Air on the G String adaptation by Capella Istropolitana conducted by Oliver von Dohnányi (courtesy of Naxos)

| filename2 =Sheep May Safely Graze BWV 208.ogg

| title2 ="Sheep May Safely Graze" (instrumental version)

| description2 =The aria "Schafe können sicher weiden" (Sheep May Safely Graze), No. 9 from the Hunting Cantata, BWV 208: composed for soprano, recorders, and continuo, the music of this movement exists in a variety of instrumental arrangements.

}}

{{See also|BWV Anh.|List of transcriptions of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach}}

In his early youth, Bach copied pieces by other composers to learn from them.{{sfn|Forkel|1920|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n49/mode/2up 10–11]}} Later, he copied and arranged music for performance or as study material for his pupils. Some of these pieces, like "Bist du bei mir" (copied not by Bach but by Anna Magdalena), became famous before being dissociated with Bach. Bach copied and arranged Italian masters such as Vivaldi (e.g. BWV 1065), Pergolesi (BWV 1083) and Palestrina (Missa Sine nomine), French masters such as François Couperin (BWV Anh. 183), and, closer to home, various German masters including Telemann (e.g. BWV 824=TWV 32:14) and Handel (arias from Brockes Passion), and music from members of his own family. He also often copied and arranged his own music (e.g. movements from cantatas for his short masses BWV 233–236), as his music was likewise copied and arranged by others. Some of these arrangements, like the late 19th-century "Air on the G String", helped to popularise Bach's music.

Sometimes, "who copied whom" is not clear. For instance, Forkel mentions a Mass for double chorus among the works composed by Bach. The work was published and performed in the early 19th century. Although a score partially in Bach's handwriting exists, the work was later considered spurious.{{sfn|Forkel|1920|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n187/mode/2up 140–141]}} In 1950, the design of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis was to keep such works out of the main catalogue: if there was a strong association with Bach they could be listed in its appendix (German: Anhang, abbreviated as Anh.). Thus, for instance, the aforementioned Mass for double chorus became BWV Anh. 167. But this was far from the end of the attribution issues. For instance, Schlage doch, gewünschte Stunde, BWV 53, was later attributed to Melchior Hoffmann. For other works, Bach's authorship was put in doubt without a generally accepted answer to the question of whether or not he composed it: the best-known organ composition in the BWV catalogue, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, was indicated as one of these uncertain works in the late 20th century.Zehnder, Jean-Claude (2011) [https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795/15014 Toccatas and Fugues / Individual Works.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123133749/https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8795/15014 |date=23 November 2015 }} Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel. Introduction p. 20.

Reception

{{Main|Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's music}}

File:Arnstadt Bachkirche außen Chor 03.jpg

In the 18th century, Bach's music was appreciated mostly by distinguished connoisseurs. The 19th century started with the publication of the first biography of Bach and ended with the Bach Gesellschaft's completion and publication of all his known works. Starting with the Bach Revival, he began to be regarded as one of the greatest composers, a reputation he has maintained. The BACH motif, which Bach occasionally used in his compositions, has been used in dozens of tributes to him since the 19th century.

=18th century=

File:17b Bach-Bild von 'Gebel', vor 1798.jpg

In his own time, Bach was highly regarded by his colleagues,{{sfn|Geck|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=N1zSVDYTCXgC&pg=PA141 141]}} but his reputation outside this small circle of connoisseurs was due not to his compositions (which had an extremely narrow circulation),{{sfn|Wolff|Emery|2001}} but to his virtuosic abilities. Nevertheless, during his life, Bach received public recognition, such as the title of court composer by Augustus III of Poland and the appreciation he was shown by Frederick the Great and Hermann Karl von Keyserling. This appreciation contrasted with the humiliations he faced, for instance, in Leipzig.Johann Sebastian Bach. Letter to Augustus III of Poland. 27 July 1733; Quoted in Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. W. W. Norton, 1945, p. 128; Quoted in {{harvnb|David|Mendel|Wolff|1998|p=158}}. Bach also had detractors in the contemporary press (Johann Adolf Scheibe suggested he write less complex music) and supporters, such as Johann Mattheson and Lorenz Christoph Mizler.Johann Adolf Scheibe. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_KVpDAAAAcAAJ#page/n86/mode/1up pp. 46–47] in Critischer Musicus VI, 14 May 1737. Quoted in {{harvnb|Eidam|2001|loc=Ch. XXII}}.Johann Mattheson. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_4CVDAAAAcAAJ#page/n259/mode/1up Das Beschützte Orchestre, oder desselben Zweyte Eröffnung, footnote p. 222] Hamburg: Schiller, 1717.Lorenz Christoph Mizler. [https://archive.org/stream/MusikalischeBibliothek1.band1736-38/MizlerMusikalischeBibliothekBd11736-39#page/n314/mode/1up Musikalische Bibliothek. Volume I, Part 4, pp. 61–73.] Leipzig, April 1738. Includes a reprint of Johann Abraham Birnbaum's [http://www.koelnklavier.de/quellen/scheibe-birnb/_index.html Unpartheyische Anmerckungen über eine bedenckliche stelle in dem Sechsten stück des Critischen Musicus.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201213832/http://www.koelnklavier.de/quellen/scheibe-birnb/_index.html |date=1 February 2014 }} published early January of the same year.

After his death, Bach's reputation as a composer initially declined: his work was regarded as old-fashioned compared to the emerging galant style.Bach was regarded as "passé even in his own lifetime". ({{harvnb|Morris|2005|p=2}}) He was remembered more as a virtuoso organ player and a teacher. The bulk of the music printed during his lifetime, at least the remembered parts, was for organ or harpsichord. Thus his reputation as a composer was initially mostly limited to his keyboard music, which was relatively limited in its value to music education.

Bach's surviving family members, who inherited many of his manuscripts, were not all equally concerned with preserving them, leading to considerable losses.{{sfn|Wolff|2000|pp=456–461}} Carl Philipp Emanuel, his second-eldest son, was most active in safeguarding his father's legacy: he co-authored his father's obituary, contributed to the publication of his four-part chorales,{{sfn|Forkel|1920|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n130/mode/1up 85–86]}} staged some of his works, and helped preserve the bulk of his previously unpublished work.[http://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/MCRSearchServlet?mode=results&id=exhhx1msnjhcif500so9&numPerPage=25&mask=search_form_sources.xed&query=(objectType%20=%20%22source%22)%20AND%20(source43%20=%20%220001%22)%20AND%20(source14%20contains%20%22C.%22)%20AND%20(source14%20contains%20%22P.%22)%20AND%20(source14%20contains%20%22E.%22)%20AND%20(source14%20contains%20%22Bach%22)&maxResults=0 Listing of manuscripts of Bach compositions once in the possession of C. P. E. Bach]{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} at {{url|www.bach-digital.de}} Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest son, performed several of his father's cantatas in Halle, but after becoming unemployed sold part of the large collection of his father's works he owned.Peter Wollny. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ixadkfy40bwC&pg=PA202 "Chapter twelve: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Halle performances of cantatas by his father", pp. 202–228] in [https://books.google.com/books?id=ixadkfy40bwC Bach Studies 2] edited by Daniel R. Melamed. Cambridge University Press 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-521-02891-2}}{{sfn|Forkel|1920|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n186/mode/1up 139]}}{{sfn|Wolff|2013|p=459}} Several students of the old master, such as his son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnickol, Johann Friedrich Agricola, Johann Kirnberger, and Johann Ludwig Krebs, contributed to the dissemination of his legacy. The early devotees were not all musicians; for example, in Berlin, Daniel Itzig, a high official of Frederick the Great's court, venerated Bach.Christoph Wolff. [http://amacad.org/publications/bulletin/spring2005/wolff.pdf "A Bach Cult in Late-Eighteenth-Century Berlin: Sara Levy's Musical Salon"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032959/http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/spring2005/wolff.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }} in Bulletin of the American Academy. Spring 2005. pp. 26–31. His eldest daughters took lessons from Kirnberger and their sister Sara from Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who was in Berlin from 1774 to 1784.{{harvnb|Applegate|2005|p=14}} Sara Itzig Levy became an avid collector of work by J.S. Bach and his sons and was a "patron" of C.P.E. Bach.

While Bach was in Leipzig, performances of his church music were limited to some of his motets, and, under cantor Doles, some of his Passions.{{sfn|Spitta|1899b|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb02spituoft#page/518/mode/2up 518–519], [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb02spituoft#page/611/mode/1up 611]}} A new generation of Bach aficionados emerged who studiously collected and copied his music, including some of his large-scale works such as the Mass in B minor, and performed it privately. One was Gottfried van Swieten, a high-ranking Austrian official who was instrumental in passing Bach's legacy on to the composers of the Viennese school. Haydn owned manuscript copies of The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Mass in B minor and was influenced by Bach's music. Mozart owned a copy of one of Bach's motets,[http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000066 A-Wgm A 169 b (III 31685)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208153544/http://www.bachdigital.de/receive/BachDigitalSource_source_00000066 |date=8 December 2015 }} at {{url|www.bachdigital.de}} transcribed some of his instrumental works (K. 404a, 405),{{IMSLP2|work=Preludes and Fugues, K.404a (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)|cname=Preludes and Fugues, K.404a}}{{cite book |publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel |last=Köchel |first=Ludwig Ritter von |author-link=Ludwig Ritter von Köchel |title=Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichniss sämmtlicher Tonwerke Wolfgang Amade Mozart's |location=Leipzig |year=1862 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kV4VAAAAYAAJ |oclc=3309798 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429105456/https://books.google.com/books?id=kV4VAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=29 April 2016 |language=de |url-status=live}}, [https://archive.org/stream/chronologischth01kcgoog#page/n355/mode/2up No. 405, pp. 328–329] and wrote contrapuntal music influenced by his style.{{cite web|url=http://www.schillerinstitut.dk/bach.html|title=Bach, Mozart and the 'Musical Midwife'|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104145350/http://www.schillerinstitut.dk/bach.html|archive-date=4 November 2015}}Brown, A. Peter, The Symphonic Repertoire (Volume 2). Indiana University Press ({{ISBN|978-0-253-33487-9}}), pp. 423–432 (2002). Beethoven played the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by the time he was 11 and described Bach as {{lang|de|Urvater der Harmonie}} (progenitor of harmony).McKay, Cory. [http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~cmckay/papers/musicology/BachReception.pdf "The Bach Reception in the 18th and 19th century"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202025624/http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~cmckay/papers/musicology/BachReception.pdf |date=2 February 2010 }} at {{url|www.music.mcgill.ca}}{{harvnb|Schenk|Winston|Winston|1959|p=452}}Daniel Heartz. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0wp2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA678 Mozart, Haydn and Early Beethoven: 1781–1802, p. 678.] W. W. Norton, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-393-28578-9}}{{sfn|Kerst|1904|p=101}}Edward Noel Green. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_UK4g0hzm4wC&pg=PA273 Chromatic Completion in the Late Vocal Music of Haydn and Mozart: A Technical, Philosophic, and Historical Study, p. 273]{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} New York University. {{ISBN|978-0-549-79451-6}}

=19th century=

{{See also|Bach Revival|St Matthew Passion#19th century}}

File:Altes Bachdenkmal (Leipzig) - Holzstich.jpg

In 1802, Johann Nikolaus Forkel published Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work, the first Bach biography, dedicated to van Swieten.{{sfn|Geck|2006|pp=9–10}} In 1805, Abraham Mendelssohn, who had married one of Itzig's granddaughters, bought a substantial collection of Bach manuscripts that had come down from C.P.E. Bach, and donated it to the Berlin Sing-Akademie. The Sing-Akademie occasionally performed Bach's works in public concerts, for instance, his first keyboard concerto, with Sara Itzig Levy at the piano.

The first decades of the 19th century saw an increasing number of first publications of Bach's music: Breitkopf started publishing chorale preludes,{{sfn|Schneider|1907|p=[https://archive.org/stream/Bach-jahrbuch03.jg1906/BachJahrbuch1906#page/n99/mode/1up 94]}} Hoffmeister harpsichord music,{{sfn|Schneider|1907|pp=[https://archive.org/stream/Bach-jahrbuch03.jg1906/BachJahrbuch1906#page/n101/mode/1up 96–97]}} and the Well-Tempered Clavier was printed concurrently by Simrock (Germany), Nägeli (Switzerland) and Hoffmeister (Germany and Austria) in 1801.{{sfn|Schneider|1907|p=[https://archive.org/stream/Bach-jahrbuch03.jg1906/BachJahrbuch1906#page/n105/mode/1up 100]}} Vocal music was also published: motets in 1802 and 1803, followed by the E{{flat}} major version of the Magnificat, the Kyrie-Gloria Mass in A major, and the cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (BWV 80).{{sfn|Forkel|1920|p=[https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n22/mode/1up xvii]}} In 1818, Hans Georg Nägeli called the Mass in B minor the greatest composition ever. Bach's influence was felt in the next generation of early Romantic composers. Abraham's son Felix, aged 13, produced his first Magnificat setting in 1822, and it is clearly inspired by the then-unpublished D major version of Bach's Magnificat.Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Magnificat, MWV A2 edited by Pietro Zappalà. Carus, 1996. Foreword, p. VI

Felix Mendelssohn's 1829 performance of the St Matthew Passion precipitated the Bach Revival. The St John Passion saw its 19th-century premiere in 1833, and the first public performance of the Mass in B minor followed in 1844. Besides these and other public performances and increased coverage of the composer and his compositions in printed media, the 1830s and 1840s also saw the first publication of more Bach vocal works: six cantatas, the St Matthew Passion, and the Mass in B minor. A series of organ compositions were first published in 1833.Johann Sebastian Bach's noch wenig bekannte Orgelcompositionen (auch am Pianoforte von einem oder zwei Spielern ausführbar), three volumes, edited by Adolph Bernhard Marx. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1833 Chopin started composing his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, inspired by the Well-Tempered Clavier, in 1835, and Schumann published his Sechs Fugen über den Namen B-A-C-H in 1845. Bach's music was transcribed and arranged to suit contemporary tastes and performance practice by composers such as Carl Friedrich Zelter, Robert Franz, and Franz Liszt, or combined with new music such as the melody line of Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria".{{sfn|Kupferberg|1985|p=126}} Brahms, Bruckner, and Wagner were among the composers who promoted Bach's music or wrote glowingly about it.

In 1850, the {{lang|de|Bach-Gesellschaft}} (Bach Society) was founded to promote Bach's music. In the second half of the 19th century, the Society published a comprehensive edition of his works. In 1854, Bach was deemed one of the Three Bs by Peter Cornelius, the others being Beethoven and Berlioz. (Hans von Bülow replaced Berlioz with Brahms.) From 1873 to 1880, Philipp Spitta published Johann Sebastian Bach, the standard work on Bach's life and music.Spitta #{{harvid, #{{harvid, #{{harvid (first publication in German, in two volumes: Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel 1873 and 1880) During the 19th century, 200 books were published on Bach. By the end of the century, local Bach societies were established in several cities, and his music had been performed in all major musical centers.

In 19th-century Germany, Bach was coupled with nationalist feeling, and he was inscribed in a religious revival. In England, Bach was coupled with a revival of religious and baroque music. By the end of the century, Bach was firmly established as one of the greatest composers, recognised for both his instrumental and his vocal music.

=20th century=

File:Statue of J.S. Bach in Leipzig.jpg

File:Fotothek df roe-neg 0002806 004 Besucher der Messe in der Thomaskirche zu Ehren Bachs.jpg

During the 20th century, the process of recognising the musical as well as the pedagogic value of some of the works continued, as in the promotion of the cello suites by Pablo Casals, the first major performer to record them.{{cite news|title=Robert Johnson and Pablo Casals' Game Changers Turn 70|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/11/23/142700464/robert-johnson-and-pablo-casals-game-changers-turn-75|work=NPR Music|publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=22 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224050857/http://www.npr.org/2011/11/23/142700464/robert-johnson-and-pablo-casals-game-changers-turn-75|archive-date=24 February 2012}} Leading performers of classical music such as Willem Mengelberg, Edwin Fischer, Georges Enescu, Herbert von Karajan, Helmut Walcha, Wanda Landowska, I Musici, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded his music.{{refn|For more information, please click the articles on performers; see also reviews and listings in Gramophone, Diapason, YouTube, Discogs and Muziekweb.|group=n}}

Glenn Gould's debut 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations transformed the work from an obscure piece often considered "esoteric" to one that is now part of the standard piano repertoire.

{{cite journal|title=Glenn Gould and the Interpreter's Prerogative|author=Siepmann, Jeremy|journal=The Musical Times|volume=131|issue=1763|date=Jan 1990|pages=25–27|doi=10.2307/965621|publisher=The Musical Times, Vol. 131, No. 1763|jstor=965621}}

The album had "astonishing" sales for a classical work and is now one of the most well known piano recordings.

{{cite journal|author=Fleming, Colin|title= Reissues: Glenn Gould – 'A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations 1955 & 1981' [review]|journal=Goldmine|volume=29|issue=24|date=November 28, 2003|pages=63}} This article may be found online as {{cite web|url= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=14121|title= A State of Wonder: The Complete Goldberg Variations 1955 & 1981|author= Fleming, Colin|work= All About Jazz: Beyond Jazz|date= July 12, 2004}}

A significant development in the later 20th century was historically informed performance practice, with forerunners such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt acquiring prominence through their performances of Bach's music. Bach's keyboard music was again performed on the harpsichord and other Baroque instruments rather than on modern pianos and 19th-century romantic organs. Ensembles playing and singing Bach's music not only kept to the instruments and the performance style of his day but were also reduced to the size of the groups Bach used for his performances.{{cite web|last=McComb|first=Todd M.|title=What is Early Music?–Historically Informed Performance|url=http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htm#hip|work=Early Music FAQ|access-date=2 January 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106133856/http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/whatis.htm#hip|archive-date=6 January 2015}} But that was not the only way Bach's music came to the forefront in the 20th century: his music was heard in versions ranging from Ferruccio Busoni's late romantic piano transcriptions to the orchestrations of Leopold Stokowski, whose interpretation of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor opened Walt Disney's Fantasia, to jazzy interpretations such as those by The Swingle Singers on their album Jazz Sebastian Bach and electronic performances such as Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer.

Bach's music has influenced other genres. Jazz musicians have adapted it, with Jacques Loussier, Ian Anderson, Uri Caine, and the Modern Jazz Quartet among those creating jazz versions of his works.{{cite web|last=Shipton|first=Alyn|author-link=Alyn Shipton|title=Bach and Jazz|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/bach/bachatozj.shtml|work=A Bach Christmas|publisher=BBC Radio 3|access-date=27 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924034912/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/bach/bachatozj.shtml|archive-date=24 September 2013}} Several 20th-century composers referred to Bach or his music, for example Eugène Ysaÿe in Six Sonatas for solo violin, Dmitri Shostakovich in 24 Preludes and Fugues, and Heitor Villa-Lobos in Bachianas Brasileiras. All kinds of publications involved Bach: there were the Bach Jahrbuch publications of the Neue Bachgesellschaft and various other biographies and studies by, among others, Albert Schweitzer, Charles Sanford Terry, Alfred Dürr, Christoph Wolff, Peter Williams, and John Butt,{{refn|See

  • {{harvnb|Schweitzer|1911}} (1905 and 1908 editions)
  • {{harvnb|Terry|1928}}
  • {{harvnb|Dürr|1981}}
  • {{harvnb|Dürr|Jones|2006}} (English translation)
  • {{harvnb|Wolff|1991}}
  • {{harvnb|Wolff|2000}}
  • {{harvnb|Williams|1980}}
  • {{harvnb|Butt|1997}}|group=n}} and the 1950 first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. Books such as Gödel, Escher, Bach put the composer's art in a wider perspective. Bach's music was extensively listened to, performed, broadcast, arranged, adapted, and commented upon in the 1990s.Rokus de Groot (2000). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/939103 "And Nowhere Bach. Bach Reception in a Late Twentieth-Century Dutch Composition by Elmer Schönberger"] pp. 145–158 in Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, volume 50, no. 1/2. Around 2000, the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, three record companies issued box sets of recordings of his complete works.[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Dec01/BrilliantBach.htm "Bach Edition"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110120315/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Dec01/BrilliantBach.htm |date=10 November 2016 }} at {{url|http://www.musicweb-international.com}} 1 December 2001Teldec's 1999 [https://www.amazon.com/Bach-2000-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00001IV8B Bach 2000 Box set, Limited Edition] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012031531/https://www.amazon.com/Bach-2000-Johann-Sebastian/dp/B00001IV8B |date=12 October 2016 }} at {{url|www.amazon.com}}[http://www.haenssler-classic.de/en/series-and-editions/johann-sebastian-bach-edition/the-complete-works/the-complete-cd-edition.html Bach-Edition: The Complete Works (172 CDs & CDR)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929224617/http://www.haenssler-classic.de/en/series-and-editions/johann-sebastian-bach-edition/the-complete-works/the-complete-cd-edition.html |date=29 September 2015 }} at the Hänssler Classic website

Three works by Bach are featured on the Voyager Golden Record, a gramophone record containing a broad sample of the images, sounds, languages, and music of Earth, sent into space with the two Voyager probes: the first movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 (conducted by Karl Richter), the "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita for Violin No. 3 (played by Arthur Grumiaux), and the Prelude and Fugue No. 1 in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier (played by Glenn Gould).{{cite web|url=http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html|title=Golden Record: Music from Earth|access-date=26 July 2012|publisher=NASA|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701054325/http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/music.html|archive-date=1 July 2013}} 20th-century tributes to Bach include statues erected in his honour and things such as streets and space objects named after him.[http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/537 Bach] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111023211415/http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/537 |date=23 October 2011 }}, USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature{{cite web|url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1814+Bach|title=JPL Small-Body Database Browser|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224022624/http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1814+Bach|archive-date=24 February 2017}} A multitude of musical ensembles, such as the Bach Aria Group, Deutsche Bachsolisten, Bachchor Stuttgart, and Bach Collegium Japan took the composer's name. Bach festivals were held on several continents, and competitions and prizes such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize were named after him. While by the end of the 19th century, Bach had been inscribed in nationalism and religious revival, the late 20th century saw Bach as the subject of a secularised art-as-religion ({{lang|de|Kunstreligion}}).

=21st century=

In the 21st century, Bach's compositions have become available online, for instance at the International Music Score Library Project.List of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Category:Bach, Johann Sebastian at IMSLP website High-resolution facsimiles of Bach's autographs became available at the Bach Digital website.{{cite web |title=Bach Digital |website=bach-digital.de |publisher=Bach Digital |url=https://www.bach-digital.de/content/project.xml?XSL.lastPage.SESSION=/content/project.xml |access-date=16 June 2021}} 21st-century biographers include Christoph Wolff, Peter Williams, and John Eliot Gardiner.{{refn|See

  • {{harvnb|Wolff|2000}}
  • {{harvnb|Williams|2003a}}
  • {{harvnb|Williams|2007}}
  • {{harvnb|Williams|2016}}
  • {{harvnb|Gardiner|2013}}|group=n}}

In 2015, Bach's handwritten personal copy of the Mass in B minor, held by the Berlin State Library, was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register,{{cite web

|url= https://en.unesco.org/memoryoftheworld/registry/351

|title= Autograph of h-Moll-Messe (Mass in B minor) by Johann Sebastian Bach

|date= 2015

|website= UNESCO

|access-date= 31 January 2022}} a program intended to protect culturally significant manuscripts.

Alex Ross writes, "Bach became an absolute master of his art by never ceasing to be a student of it. His most exalted sacred works—the two extant Passions, from the seventeen-twenties, and the Mass in B Minor, completed not long before his death in 1750—are feats of synthesis, mobilizing secular devices to spiritual ends. They are rooted in archaic chants, hymns, and chorales. They honor, with consummate skill, the scholastic discipline of canon and fugue. They make expert use of the word-painting techniques of the Renaissance madrigal and Baroque opera. They absorb such stock scenes as the lament, the pastoral, the lullaby, the rage aria, the tempest. They allude to courtly French dances, Italian love songs, [and] the polonaise. Their furious development of brief motifs anticipates Beethoven, who worshipped Bach when he was young. And their most daring harmonic adventures—for example, the otherworldly modulations in the 'Confiteor' of the B-Minor Mass—look ahead to Wagner, even to Schoenberg."{{cite magazine |last=Ross| first=Alex| author-link=Alex Ross| title=Bach's Holy Dread| date=25 December 2016| magazine=The New Yorker| url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/bachs-holy-dread}}

The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church remembers Bach with a feast day on 28 July;{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bEq7DwAAQBAJ |title=Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018 |date=17 December 2019 |publisher=Church Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-1-64065-235-4 |language=en}} on the same day, the Calendar of Saints of some Lutheran churches, such as the ELCA, remembers Bach, Handel, and Heinrich Schütz.{{cite web |title=Church Music Sunday |url=https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/What_is_Church_Music_Sunday.pdf |publisher=Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|date=2013}}

In 2019, Bach was honored with an interactive Google Doodle; it used machine learning to harmonize a melody into Bach's signature style.{{Cite web|title=Celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach/|url-status=live|access-date=July 26, 2021|website=www.google.com|archive-date=January 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123154956/https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach}}

=Burial site=

Bach was originally buried at Old St. John's Cemetery in Leipzig. His grave went unmarked for nearly 150 years, but in 1894 his remains were found and moved to a vault in St. John's Church. This building was destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II, and in 1950, Bach's remains were taken to their present grave in St. Thomas Church. Later research has called into question whether the remains in the grave are actually Bach's.{{cite journal| title= Are the alleged remains of Johann Sebastian Bach authentic?| last1= Zegers| first1= Richard H.C.| last2= Maas| first2= Mario| last3= Koopman| first3= A.G.| last4= Maat| first4= George J.R.| author-link3= Ton Koopman| name-list-style= amp| journal= The Medical Journal of Australia| year= 2009| volume= 190| issue= 4| pages= 213–216| url= https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/190_04_160209/zeg10393_fm.pdf| url-status=live| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131202222952/https://www.mja.com.au/system/files/issues/190_04_160209/zeg10393_fm.pdf| archive-date= 2 December 2013| df= dmy-all| doi= 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02354.x| pmid= 19220191| s2cid= 7925258}}

See also

References

=Notes=

{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=30em}}

=Citations=

{{Reflist}}

=Works cited=

==Biographies==

{{See also|Biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach}}

{{div col|colwidth=45em}}

  • {{cite book |last=Boyd |first=Malcolm |year=2000 |title=Bach |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-514222-8}}
  • {{cite book|last1=David|first1=Hans T.|author1-link=:de:Hans Theodor David|last2=Mendel|first2=Arthur|author2-link=Arthur Mendel|last3=Wolff|first3=Christoph|author3-link=Christoph Wolff|year=1998|title=The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents|publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-31956-9|oclc=37801400}}
  • {{cite book|last=Eidam|first=Klaus|author-link=:de:Klaus Eidam|year=2001|title=The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach|publisher=Basic Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-465-01861-1}}
  • {{cite book |last=Forkel |first=Johann Nikolaus |author-link=Johann Nikolaus Forkel |year=1920 |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work |translator=Charles Sanford Terry |translator-link=Charles Sanford Terry (historian) |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Howe; Constable|location=New York; London}}
  • {{cite book |last=Gardiner |first=John Eliot |author-link=John Eliot Gardiner |year=2013 |title=Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach |publisher=Allen Lane |location=London |isbn=978-0-7139-9662-3}}
  • {{cite book |last=Geck |first=Martin|translator=Anthea Bell |year=2003 |title=Bach |publisher=Haus Publishing |location=London |isbn=978-1-904341-16-1 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=N1zSVDYTCXgC}} }} {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170224001736/https://books.google.com/books?id=N1zSVDYTCXgC&pg=PA141|date=24 February 2017}}
  • {{cite book |last=Geck |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Geck |year=2006 |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work |publisher=Harcourt |location=Orlando |isbn=978-0-15-100648-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb00geck }}
  • {{cite book |last=Geiringer |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Geiringer |year=1966 |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of an Era |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-500554-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb0000geir }}
  • {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Schweitzer |translator=Ernest Newman |year=1911 |title=J. S. Bach |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |location=New York }}, first published in French in 1905 and in German in 1908.([https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc01schwuoft Vol. 1], [https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc02schwuoft Vol. 2])
  • {{cite book |last=Schweitzer |first=Albert|translator=Ernest Newman |year=1923 |orig-year=1905 |title=J. S. Bach |volume=1 |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc01schwuoft }}
  • {{cite book |last=Spitta |first=Philipp |author-link=Philipp Spitta |translator1=Clara Bell |translator2=J. A. Fuller Maitland |year=1899a |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 |volume=1 |publisher=Novello & Co |location=London |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kZM5AAAAIAAJ}} }}
  • {{cite book |last=Spitta |first=Philipp|translator1=Clara Bell|translator2=J. A. Fuller Maitland|year=1899b |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 |volume=2 |publisher=Novello & Co |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb02spituoft }}
  • {{cite book |last=Spitta |first=Philipp|translator1=Clara Bell|translator2=J. A. Fuller Maitland|year=1899c |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 |volume=3 |publisher=Novello & Co |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb03spituoft }}
  • {{cite book |last=Terry |first=Charles Sanford |author-link=Charles Sanford Terry (historian) |year=1928 |title=Bach: A Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford }}
  • {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Williams |author-link=Peter Williams (musicologist) |year=2003a |title=The Life of Bach |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-53374-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofbach0000will}}
  • {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Williams|year=2007 |title=Bach: A Life in Music |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-87074-0 }}
  • {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Williams|year=2016 |title=Bach: A Musical Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-107-13925-1 }}
  • {{cite book |last=Wolff |first=Christoph |author-link=Christoph Wolff |year=1991 |title=Bach: Essays on his Life and Music |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-05926-9 }}
  • {{cite book |last=Wolff |first=Christoph|year=2000 |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-816534-7}} {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Wolff|2013}}|reference=Second edition, 2013, W. W. Norton, New York and London, {{ISBN|978-0-393-32256-9}} pbk.}}
  • {{Cite Grove |last1=Wolff |first1=Christoph|last2=Emery |first2=Walter |date=20 January 2001 |title=Bach, Johann Sebastian |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.6002278195}} {{Grove Music subscription}}

{{div col end}}

==Other==

{{div col|colwidth=45em}}

  • {{cite book|last=Applegate|first=Celia|author-link=Celia Applegate|title=Bach in Berlin: Nation and Culture in Mendelssohn's revival of the St. Matthew Passion|location=Ithaca, New York|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=2005|isbn=9780801443893}}
  • {{cite book|editor-last=Boyd|editor-first=Malcolm|series=Oxford Composer Companions|title=J. S. Bach|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999}}
  • {{cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Bach|editor-first=John|editor-last=Butt|editor-link=John Butt (musician)|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-58780-8}}
  • {{cite book |title=Bach's World |first=Jan |last=Chiapusso |author-link=Jan Chiapusso |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Scarborough, Ontario |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-253-10520-2}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Crist |first1=Stephen A. |last2=Stauff |first2=Derek |year=2011 |encyclopedia=Oxford Bibliographies: Music |title=Johann Sebastian Bach |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/OBO/9780199757824-0043 |url=https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0043.xml |url-access=subscription}} {{subscription required}}
  • {{cite book |last=Dent |first=Edward Joseph |author-link=Edward Joseph Dent |year=2004 |title=Handel |publisher=R A Kessinger Publishing |isbn=1-4191-2275-4}}
  • {{cite book |last=Donington |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Donington |title=Baroque Music: Style and Performance: A Handbook |year=1982 |publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-30052-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/baroquemusicstyl00robe }}
  • {{cite book| last = Dürr| first = Alfred| author-link = Alfred Dürr| title = Die Kantaten von Johann Sebastian Bach| year = 1981

| publisher = Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag| isbn = 978-3-423-04080-8| edition = 4| language = de}}

  • {{citation|last1=Dürr |first1=Alfred |last2=Jones|first2= Richard D. P.|author-link=Alfred Dürr |author-link2=Richard D. P. Jones|title=The Cantatas of J.S. Bach|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-929776-4}}
  • {{cite book|last=Herl|first=Joseph|title=Worship Wars in Early Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515439-9}}
  • {{cite book|last=Herz|first=Gerhard|year=1985|title=Essays on J. S. Bach|location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-8357-1989-6}}
  • {{cite book |last=Jones |first=Richard |author-link=Richard D. P. Jones |title=The Creative Development of Johann Sebastian Bach |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-816440-1}}
  • {{cite book |title=Beethoven im eigenen Wort |last=Kerst |first=Friedrich |language=de |year=1904 |url=https://archive.org/details/beethovenimeige01kersgoog |publisher=Schuster & Loeffler |location=Berlin}}
  • {{cite book|last=Kupferberg|first=Herbert|title=Basically Bach: A 300th Birthday Celebration|location=New York|publisher=McGraw-Hill|year=1985|isbn=978-0-07-035646-7|url=https://archive.org/details/basicallybach3000000kupf}}
  • {{cite book |title=Luther's Liturgical Music |first=Robin A. |last=Leaver |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8028-3221-4}}
  • {{cite book|last=Lester|first=Joel|title=Bach's Works for Solo Violin: Style, Structure, Performance|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-512097-4|year=1999}}
  • {{cite book|last=Miles|first=Russell H.|title=Johann Sebastian Bach: An Introduction to His Life and Works|location=Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey|publisher=Prentice Hall|year=1962|oclc=600065}}
  • {{cite book|last=Morris|first=Edmund|author-link=Edmund Morris (writer)|title=Beethoven: the Universal Composer|year=2005|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-075974-2}}
  • {{cite book |last=Rich |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Rich |title=Johann Sebastian Bach: Play by Play |location=San Francisco |publisher=HarperCollins|year=1995 |isbn=978-0-06-263547-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb00rich}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Schenk|first1=Erich|author1-link=Erich Schenk|last2=Winston|first2=Richard|author2-link=Richard and Clara Winston|last3=Winston|first3=Clara|author3-link=Richard and Clara Winston|title=Mozart and His Times|location=New York|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=1959|oclc=602180}}
  • {{cite journal|last=Schneider|first=Max|author-link=Max Schneider (music historian)|year=1907|url=https://archive.org/stream/Bach-jahrbuch03.jg1906/BachJahrbuch1906#page/n89/mode/1up|title=Verzeichnis der bis zum Jahre 1851 gedruckten (und der geschrieben im Handel gewesenen) Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach|pages=84–113|journal=Bach-Jahrbuch|publisher=Neue Bachgesellschaft|volume=VII|number=3}}
  • {{cite book|last=Schulenberg|first=David|title=The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach|location=New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-97400-4}}
  • {{cite book|last=Spaeth|first=Sigmund|author-link=Sigmund Spaeth|title=Stories Behind the World's Great Music|year=1937|url=https://archive.org/details/storiesbehindthe010040mbp|publisher=Whittlesey House|location=New York}}
  • {{cite book|editor1-last=Butler|editor1-first=Gregory G.|editor2-last=Stauffer|editor2-first=George B.|editor3-last=Greer|editor3-first=Mary Galton|title=About Bach| publisher= University of Illinois Press| year= 2008 | isbn = 978-0-252-03344-5 | author-first=George B.| author-last=Stauffer| chapter = Music for "Cavaliers et Dames": Bach and the Repertoire of His Collegium Musicum| pages = 135–156}}
  • {{cite book|last=Van Til|first=Marian|title=George Frideric Handel: A Music Lover's Guide to His Life, His Faith & the Development of Messiah and His Other Oratorios|year=2007|publisher=WordPower Publishing|location=Youngstown, New York|isbn=978-0-9794785-0-5}}
  • {{citation|first=Peter|last=Williams|author-link=Peter Williams (musicologist)|title=The Organ Music of J. S. Bach, Volume II: BWV 599–771, etc.|series=Cambridge Studies in Music|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1980|isbn=978-0-521-31700-9}}; {{citation|title=The Organ Music of J. S. Bach|first=Peter|last=Williams|edition=2nd|year=2003b|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-89115-8|ref=none}}
  • {{cite book|editor-last=Wolff|editor-first=Christoph|editor-link=Christoph Wolff|year=1983|title=The New Grove Bach Family|location=London|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-34350-0}}
  • {{cite book|editor-last=Wolff|editor-first=Christoph|year=1997|title=The World of the Bach Cantatas: Johann Sebastian Bach's Early Sacred Cantatas|location=New York|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-33674-0}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Wolff |first1=Christoph |author-link1=Christoph Wolff |last2=Emery |first2=Walter |last3=Wollny |first3=Peter |last4=Leisinger |first4=Ulrich |last5=Roe |first5=Stephen |date=17 January 2018 |orig-year=2001 |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |title=Bach family |publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40023 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040023 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}

{{div col end}}

Further reading

  • See {{harvnb|Crist|Stauff|2011}}, for an extensive bibliography.
  • {{cite book |last=Baron |first=Carol K. |title=Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community |location=Rochester, New York|publisher=University of Rochester Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-58046-190-0|ref=none}}
  • {{cite book |last=Dörffel |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Dörffel |title=Thematisches Verzeichnis der Instrumentalwerke von Joh. Seb. Bach |language=de |location=Leipzig |publisher=C. F. Peters |year=1882 |url=https://archive.org/details/thematischesverz00dr|ref=none}} N.B.: First published in 1867; superseded, for scholarly purposes, by Wolfgang Schmieder's complete thematic catalogue, but useful as a handy reference tool for only the instrumental works of Bach and as a partial alternative to Schmieder's work.
  • {{cite book|last=Hofstadter|first=Douglas|author-link=Douglas Hofstadter|title=Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid|location=New York|publisher=Basic Books|year=1999|isbn=978-0-465-02656-2|title-link=Gödel, Escher, Bach|ref=none}}
  • {{citation|last=Leaver|first=Robin A.|title=The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach|year=2016|isbn=978-0-367-58143-5|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315452814|publisher=Routledge|ref=none}}
  • {{cite book|last=Pirro|first=André|author-link=André Pirro|title=The Aesthetic of Johann Sebastian Bach|orig-year=1907|year=2014|location=Lanham, Maryland|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-3290-7|ref=none}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Stauffer|first1=George B.|last2=May|first2=Ernest|title=J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music, and Performance Practices|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-253-33181-6|ref=none}}

External links

{{Sister project links|author=yes|wikt=no|b=no|n=no|v=no}}

{{Wikisourcelang|de|Johann Sebastian Bach|Johann Sebastian Bach}}

  • [https://archive.org/details/bach.-a.-passionate.-life Bach: A Passionate Life]. BBC Two.
  • {{BBC composer page|bach|Bach}}
  • [https://www.bach-leipzig.de/en/neutral/about-us bach-leipzig website] of the Bach Archive.
  • [http://homepages.bw.edu/bachbib/ Yo Tomita's Bach Bibliography (23 March 2012)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316150719/http://homepages.bw.edu/bachbib/ |date=16 March 2021 }}, mirror at the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.
  • {{Internet Archive author|sname=Johann Sebastian Bach}}.

Scores

  • {{Musopen|johann-sebastian-bach}}.
  • {{IMSLP|id=Bach, Johann Sebastian|cname=Johann Sebastian Bach}}.
  • [https://www.bach-digital.de/servlets/solr/select?q=%2BobjectType%3A%22source%22+%2Bcategory%3A%22BachDigital_class_00000006%5C%3A0001%22+%2Bmusicrepo_imagesource%3A%22true%22&fl=id%2CreturnId%2CobjectType&sort=musicrepo_sourcesort01+asc&rows=25&version=4.5&mask=search_form_source.xed Music manuscripts and early prints] at Bach Digital website.

Recordings

{{Johann Sebastian Bach}}

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