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5 interesting facts from the life of Bach. Eight stories from the life

Bach is a great German musician and composer who wrote over 1000 works in various genres. Interesting Facts about Bach will be discussed here.

1. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in March 1685 in big family- he was the eighth most youngest child. His father was a musician. It is worth noting that many of Bach's relatives were also associated with music.

2. The composer mastered several musical instruments among which were the accordion, harpsichord and organ.

3. Bach had a unique ear, because he could perform a piece he once heard without a single mistake.

4. Bach is also known as an outstanding music teacher. He often held classes for which he did not take.

5. The composer was a believer, he regularly went to church and read the Bible. When attending church, Bach could dress up as a teacher and give music lessons.

6. Thanks to Bach, women began to be allowed into church choirs. Previously, the Catholic Church did not allow females to sing in the choir. The composer was able to overcome this ban, and Bach's wife became the first female chorus girl.

Johann Sebastian Bach - great German composer, a virtuoso of playing the organ, a representative of the Baroque, a talented music teacher.

Biography

Childhood

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a fairly prosperous German family, in which he was the youngest of eight children. The father, Ambrosius Bach, was a musician and was responsible for the secular and spiritual musical events of the city. Mother, Elizabeth Lemmerhirt, was the daughter of a wealthy official, who gave her daughter a considerable dowry, thanks to which the family could exist comfortably. When Johann was 9 years old, Elizabeth died, and a year later Ambrosius died after her. The boy was raised by his older brother, Johann Christoph, who lived next door in Ohrdruf.

Education

In Ohrdruf, Bach studied at the gymnasium and enthusiastically studied music: he learned to play the organ and clavier. In 1700 future composer moved to Lüneburg, where he studied at the vocal school.

creative path

After graduating from the vocal school, Bach received a court position and entered the disposal of Johann Ernst, Duke of Weimar. In just a few months of work in this city, all of Weimar knew about Bach as an excellent performer. He was invited to work as an organist in the Arnstadt church of St. Boniface. During this period, Bach creates major organ works.

Bach did not have a relationship with the authorities, and he is forced to change his highly paid job. However, in a new place in the salary, he did not lose at all. In 1707, the composer got a job as an organist in Mühlhausen, in the church of St. Blaise. Here, the authorities highly appreciate him, satisfy any of his whims (for example, subject the organ system of the temple to a very expensive reconstruction) and pay him a high salary.

However, a year later he again leaves for Weimar to take the place of the court organist and organizer of palace concerts. Weimar period in the life of Bach (1708–1717) is considered the heyday of his work. Here he has open access to a beautiful organ, does not get tired of composing his musical masterpieces. He borrows a lot from Italian music (dynamic rhythms and harmonic schemes), writes most of his famous fugues.

In 1717, Bach left Weimar to work as a bandmaster for the prince of Anhalt-Köthen, who himself was a musician and knew how to appreciate the composer's talent. Here Bach, using absolute freedom and almost unlimited means, composed 6 suites for cello solo, suites for orchestra, English and French suites for clavier, 3 sonatas and 3 partitas for solo violin, Brandenburg concertos.

After Bach's John Passion was performed in one of the main churches in Leipzig, the composer was appointed chief musical director of all churches in Leipzig: he selected choirs, taught them and selected music. In Leipzig he composed mainly cantatas. Since 1729, Bach has headed the College of Music, which organized concerts in the famous Zimmermann coffee house.

By the end of the 1930s, Bach's eyesight began to fall sharply, but this did not stop the great composer from writing works: he dictated them to the record, unable to see the notes himself. In 1750, John Taylor, an English ophthalmologist, operated on Bach twice, both times unsuccessfully: Bach became blind.

Personal life

In 1707, the wife of the great composer Bach became his own cousin, Maria Barbara, whom he met in Arnstadt. Of the six children born to them in marriage, three died in infancy, and the three surviving brothers strengthened their father's musical fame and became composers. In 1720 family happiness abruptly ends with the death of Mary.

But already in next year Bach marries the young court singer Anna Magdalena Wilka.

Death

In 1750, after two unsuccessful eye surgeries, Bach died. His remains lie in the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig, where he once worked.

Bach's main achievements

The entire history of music is divided into two periods: pre-Bach and post-Bach.
He wrote more than 1000 works of all existing musical genres with the exception of opera.
Summarized all the music of the Baroque era.
Bach is considered the unsurpassed master of polyphony.
He had a huge influence on composers of all subsequent generations: many musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries are guided by the master in the world of music - Bach.

Important dates in Bach's biography

1685 - birth
1694 - mother's death
1695 - death of his father, moving to Ohrdruf to his older brother
1700–1703 - vocal school Lüneburg
1703–1707 - position of organist in the church of Arnstadt
1707 - marriage to Maria Barbara, work as an organist in the church of Mühlhausen
1708 - position of court organist in Weimar
1717 - court bandmaster in Köthen
1720 - death of the first wife
1721 - marriage to Anna Magdalena Wilke
1722 - Volume I of the Well-Tempered Clavier
1723 - position of church music director in Leipzig
1724 - "Passion according to John"
1727 - "Matthew Passion"
1729 - head of the College of Music
1734 - "Christmas Oratorio"
1741 - Goldberg Variations
1744 - Volume II of the Well-Tempered Clavier
1749 Mass in B minor
1750 - death

When Bach was court organist in Weimar, the famous french musician Louis Marchand. The composers agreed to arrange a kind of musical duel. However, on the night before the announced concert at which this unusual duel was to take place, Marchand secretly left the city, not wanting to compete with such a great musician as Bach.
Bach fell asleep only to the music. When the sons learned to play the harpsichord, they alternately daily put their father to sleep with chords on this instrument.
Bach was a deeply religious man and was for both wives a faithful spouse and a wonderful family man.
It was thanks to Bach that the temples sounded female voices: before him, only men were allowed to sing in the choirs. The first woman to sing in the church choir was his wife, Maria Barbara.
The great composer knew how to earn good money and was not wasteful. However, there was one thing that Bach always did for free: he never took money for private lessons.
A contemporary of Bach was Handel, who lived 50 km from Weimar. Both composers dreamed of meeting each other, but each time something prevented them. The meeting never took place, however, shortly before his death, both of them were operated on by John Taylor, whom many considered a simple charlatan, and not a doctor.
There is a legend, not documented, but mentioned by the first biographer of the composer: in order to hear the famous Dietrich Buxtehud, Bach walked on foot from Arnstadt to Lübeck, the distance between which is 300 km.

[bang angry]

Despite all the boundless kindness and innocence, Bach was sometimes grumpy and quick-tempered. Once, at a rehearsal, the second organist of St. Foma, while playing, made a small mistake... Getting angry and not finding at hand what to throw at the clumsy musician, Bach, in irritation, tore off his wig and threw it at the organist.
- You need to sew boots, not play the organ! shouted Johann Sebastian.

[bang and student]

Once Johann Sebastian Bach was playing one of his preludes in the presence of his students. One of the students began to admire the maestro's playing, but Bach interrupted him:
"There is nothing surprising in this! You just need to know which keys and when to press, and the organ will do the rest."

[harmony first! ]

None of the mortals could compare with Bach in the knowledge of harmony. Perhaps that is why he did not tolerate unresolved chords at all ... Fragments of a musical phrase tormented the ear of a genius, and, according to contemporaries, there was no surer means to piss him off. Once Bach entered some society where a very mediocre amateur played music. Seeing the great composer, he was so confused that he jumped up, interrupted the game and, to his misfortune, stopped at a dissonant chord. Greeting no one, not paying the slightest attention to the frightened performer, the angry Bach rushed to the instrument ... An angry lion attacking a gladiator, and he would look like a sheep compared to Johann Sebastian. Without even sitting down, he brought the damned chord to the proper cadence. He sighed, straightened his wig and went to greet the owner.

[and where is the opponent?..]

In 1717, the famous French organist Marchand arrived in Dresden. With his play, he turned everyone's heads, even the Elector King. According to everyone, Marchand decisively outshone all German performers. But the elector was told that the organist Bach lived in Weimar, whose art allowed no rivalry.
The competition between Marchand and Bach was arranged by the royal bandmaster Volumier. On the appointed day, in a large gathering, Marchand played a brilliant French aria, accompanying the melody with numerous embellishments and brilliant variations. When Marchand struck the last chord, the audience burst into loud applause. Following that, they asked to play Bach.
Johann Sebastian suddenly played the same aria that Marchand had just sung. Moreover, despite the fact that he had just heard it for the first time in his life, Bach unmistakably repeated all the variations, one after another, and played with the preservation of all the French virtuoso's ornaments, and then moved on to variations of his own invention, much more elegant, difficult and brilliant. .. When he finished and got up from the instrument, a deafening thunder of applause followed, which left no doubt who played better - the Frenchman or the German. However, it was decided that the musicians would meet again for a musical competition.
But Marchand did not appear on the appointed evening. Later it turned out that the Frenchman left the city in the morning, without even making farewell visits, that is, he simply ran away ...

[ prodigal son and music]

It is not clear why, but Bach liked to fall asleep to the music.
In the evening, when he went to bed, his three sons took turns playing the harpsichord for him. Such obligatory activities annoyed the children very much, and the sweetest sound for them was the melodious father's snoring. They noticed that he fell asleep the fastest to the game of Christian. Lucky! Having quickly put his father to sleep, he broke free.
Somehow it was Emmanuel's turn. He could not stand these evening exercises and, as soon as he heard the long-awaited whistling, he instantly ran away from the harpsichord, stopping the game right on the unresolved chord. Already immersed in a sweet slumber, Bach immediately woke up. The dissonance tortured his ears! The dissonance was killing his sleep. At first he thought that the child had gone to urinate and would be back soon. It wasn't there. Emmanuel did not return!
Bach tossed and turned in his warm bed for a long time, then with one jerk threw back the blanket, in total darkness, bumping into furniture and stuffing bumps, made his way to the instrument and resolved the chord.
A minute later, the composer was sleeping peacefully.

Johann Sebastian Bach

“... Bach's ancestors have long been famous for their musicality. It is known that the composer's great-great-grandfather, a baker by profession, played the zither. Flutists, trumpeters, organists, violinists came out of the Bach family. In the end, every musician in Germany began to be called Bach and every Bach a musician ... "

Young criminal

Bach's father died suddenly when Johann Sebastian was nine years old, and the boy was raised by his older brother, the organist of Ohrdruf, Johann Christoph Bach.

Christoph had a collection of works by then famous composers: Froberger, Pachelbel, Buxtehude. But this collection of ‘fashionable’ music was locked in a barred cabinet by the elder brother so that Johann Sebastian would not become corrupt and lose respect for generally accepted musical authorities.

However, at night, young Bach managed in some cunning way to pick up and pull out a music collection from behind the bars ... He secretly rewrote it for himself, but the whole difficulty lay in the fact that it was impossible to get candles and had to use only moonlight.

For six months, ten-year-old Johann Sebastian rewrote notes at night, but, alas ... When the heroic work was nearing completion, Johann Christoph caught his younger brother at the crime scene and took away both the original and the copy from the recalcitrant ...

Bach's grief knew no bounds, in tears he cried out:

- If so, I myself will write such music, I will write even better!

The brother laughed and said:

"Go to sleep, bastard."

But Johann Sebastian did not waste words and kept his childhood promise...

The mystery of the three herrings

Somehow, young Bach went from Lüneburg to Hamburg - to listen to the play of the then famous organist and composer I.A. Reinken. He was an ordinary schoolboy, with a skinny wallet and a good appetite. In the noisy and cheerful Hamburg, the money quickly ran out and Johann Sebastian set off on his way back, burdened with new musical impressions and a miserable handful of small coins.

Somewhere halfway between Hamburg and Lüneburg, the music of a hungry stomach already godlessly drowned out the work of I.A. Reinken. And then another inn on the road met. And the smells from there were so appetizing, so dizzying. Starved, Bach stood in front of this magnificent building and hopelessly sorted out a trifle. There was not enough money even for the most modest dinner.

Suddenly a window opened and someone's hand threw several herring heads into a pile of garbage. The future genius, without any hesitation, picked up the food that had fallen on him and was about to have a bite to eat. Biting the first herring head, he already imagined how to get rid of the second, and almost lost a tooth. There was a golden ducat hidden in the herring! The astonished Bach quickly gutted the second head - still golden! And the third head was just as admirably stuffed.

What did Johann Sebastian do? I had a hearty lunch and immediately went to Hamburg to listen to I.A. Reinken.

Well, where did the money in the herring heads come from, so far no one knows this.

Well, I don't care...

Contemporaries admired Bach's unsurpassed organ playing. However, constantly hearing rave reviews addressed to him, Bach invariably answered:

- My game does not deserve such lofty attention and praise, my lords! After all, all I need is just to hit the right keys with my fingers at a certain time - and then the instrument plays itself ...

Harmony first!

Where is the opponent?

The competition between Marchand and Bach was arranged by the royal bandmaster Volumier. On the appointed day, in a large gathering, Marchand played a brilliant French aria, accompanying the melody with numerous embellishments and brilliant variations. When Marchand struck the last chord, the audience burst into loud applause. Following that, they asked to play Bach.

Johann Sebastian suddenly played the same aria that Marchand had just sung. Moreover, despite the fact that he had just heard it for the first time in his life, Bach unmistakably repeated all the variations, one after another, and played with the preservation of all the decorations of the French virtuoso, and then moved on to variations of his own invention, much more elegant, difficult and brilliant ... When he finished and got up from behind the instrument, there was a deafening thunder of applause, which left no doubt who played better - the French or the German. However, it was decided that the musicians would meet again for a musical competition.

But Marchand did not appear on the appointed evening. Later it turned out that the Frenchman left the city in the morning, without even making farewell visits, that is, he simply ran away ...

Healthy air in Leipzig

Serving as cantor at St. Thomas, Bach received additional income from the performance of church services (weddings and funerals), which were well paid by the parishioners. One day, when all the citizens of the city for a long time were in perfect health and did not want to die, and therefore, Bach's income became miserable, his wife complained to him that soon they would have money in the house not only for stew, but also for bread ... Johann Sebastian spread his hands:

“My dear, the healthy air of Leipzig is to blame for everything, that’s why there are not enough dead people, and I, the living one, have nothing to live on ...

Bach gets angry

Despite all the boundless kindness and innocence, Bach was sometimes grumpy and quick-tempered. Once, at a rehearsal, the second organist of St. Foma, while playing, made a small mistake ... Getting angry and not finding at hand what to throw at the clumsy musician, Bach, in irritation, tore off his wig and threw it at the organist.

“You need to sew boots, not play the organ!” shouted Johann Sebastian.

Prodigal Son and Music

It is not clear why, but Bach liked to fall asleep to the music.

In the evening, when he went to bed, his three sons took turns playing the harpsichord for him. Such obligatory activities annoyed the children very much, and the sweetest sound for them was the melodious father's snoring. They noticed that he fell asleep the fastest to the game of Christian. Lucky! Having quickly put his father to sleep, he broke free.

Somehow it was Emmanuel's turn. He could not stand these evening exercises and, as soon as he heard the long-awaited whistling, he instantly ran away from the harpsichord, stopping the game right on the unresolved chord. Already immersed in a sweet slumber, Bach immediately woke up. The dissonance tortured his ears! The dissonance was killing his sleep. At first he thought that the child had gone to urinate and would be back soon. It wasn't there. Emmanuel did not return!

Bach tossed and turned in his warm bed for a long time, then with one jerk threw back the blanket, in total darkness, bumping into furniture and stuffing bumps, made his way to the instrument and resolved the chord.

A minute later, the composer was sleeping peacefully.

Joker

Bach liked to disguise himself as a poor school teacher and appear in this form in some provincial church. There he asked the church organist for permission to play the organ. Having received this, the great organist sat down at the instrument and ... Those present in the church were so amazed at the splendor and power of his playing that some, believing that ordinary person cannot play so well, they ran away in fright ... They thought that a devil in disguise looked into their church.

Dynasty

All Bachs were musicians, except for the 'founder' of the dynasty, Feit Bach, who lived in the 16th century, who was a baker and ran a mill. However, the legend says that he also played beautifully on some string instrument, resembling a guitar, and was very fond of music.

Father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, brothers, all the numerous sons, grandson and great-grandson of Johann Sebastian Bach were some organist, some church cantor, some bandmaster or accompanist in various German cities ...

Bach himself said at the end of his life:

- All my music belongs to God, and all my abilities are intended for Him.

Bach and student

Once Johann Sebastian Bach was playing one of his preludes in the presence of his students. One of the students began to admire the maestro's playing, but Bach interrupted him:

"There is nothing surprising! You just need to know which keys and when to press, and the organ will do the rest.

In Germany, every musician was called Bach, moreover, every Bach was called a musician. Because all the relatives of Johann Sebastian had musical skills, and each member of the family played some kind of instrument. worldwide famous composer, talented person But was his life so interesting?

Johann Bach is a criminal?!

Johann Sebastian was nine years old when he lost his father and went to be raised by his older brother. He then had one popular collection, consisting of compositions by such composers as Buxtehude, Pachelbel and Froberger, who were famous at that time. However, the older brother did not give these notes to the younger one, so as not to “corrupt” him with this music. But Bach nevertheless found a loophole to them, and stole them at night in order to rewrite them later.

Once, when Johann Sebastian had almost completed the census, his brother caught him. Of course, he took his notebook and the original note. Bach Jr. was so annoyed by his bad luck that he promised his brother to write more best music. And he kept his promise.

But one day something happened that could not be called otherwise than luck. Having gone to Hamburg to attend a concert of the famous Reinken, Johann Sebastian very soon "ate" all his savings and already in the middle of the road he did not have enough even for the simplest snack.

Accidentally or not - it is not known, but Bach nevertheless noticed how three heads from a herring fell out of the opened window, most likely destined street dogs. Of course, he picked them up to at least something to eat. Having bitten the first one, Johann Sebastian almost broke his tooth on ... a golden ducat!

Bach immediately began gutting the other two heads, where he found the same thing. It is not known where this came from, but the future composer ate plenty and went to the organist's concert satisfied.

Revealed Devil

Bach was sometimes regarded as such. Occasionally he would change into a schoolteacher's costume, find a small church, and ask the church organist to let him play. But because he played very well, people thought that an ordinary person could not have such talent, and they ran away, suspecting that he was a devil in disguise.

When those around him admired his game, he always answered: “Gentlemen! I just need to press certain keys, the organ does the rest.”

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