Johann sebastian bach brief biography of mozart

He was the Konzertmeister at Weimar for 9 years, although the first few years had been very creative for Bach, his relationship with the Duke of Weimar became sour for various reasons, so did decided to look elsewhere for work, and an offer soon came from Prince Leopold to be his Kapellmeister. Relations with his new employer were very good as the Prince was a musical young man, and he gave Bach encouragement to write all kinds of instrumental and secular vocal music.

After this, Bach spent 27 years as Kantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig. After looking at the lives of Bach and Mozart, there are many similarities between the paths the two composers have taken. Firstly, there were both brought up with music in their lives from a young age, although from different sources, and they showed promise musical talent when they were very young.

They also both married women who themselves were children of musical families. They both wrote masses of musical works in their lives which were very profound and made them both very famous. There are a lot more differences than they are similarities between the lives of Bach and Mozart. He learnt to discipline himself into being a great musician.

Mozart travelled all over Europe at an early age with his father, and again with his mother looking for work. He generally struggled to hold down a job, and turned to writing music and operas on his own. He also taught students. This is very different to Bach stayed within his home country, and did not travel around Europe like Mozart. The two composers also had very different education experiences.

In contrast, Mozart was educated very by his father until the education became better than that of a boys school. There are obviously lots of differences and similarities between the lives of Bach and Mozart. Bach was born at the very end of the Baroque era - , and his music was therefore very influenced by the characteristics of this era. Some of the characteristics of the Baroque era include a connection between music and other art forms such as architecture, and music that is written specifically to accompany a painting.

A change in tonality is also a characteristic of the Baroque era which included diatonic harmonies where major and minor replaces 7 modes, increased chromaticism, and well-tempered tuning. One of the most common known characteristics to come from the Baroque era would be This is a preview of the whole essay Bach was born at the very end of the Baroque era - , and his music was therefore very influenced by the characteristics of this era.

One of the most common known characteristics to come from the Baroque era would be basso continuo, which is a kind of continuous accompaniment notated with a new music notation system, , usually for a sustaining bass instrument and a keyboard instrument. The melodies and harmonies from this era were very textured and complex, making pieces harder for musicians to play.

The form of music written in the Baroque era had also changed. Forms such as concerto grosso, fugue, oratorio, suite, cantata, and opera were established. The orchestration in this era had also slightly changed - string instruments were introduced, along with the harpsichord. Orchestras in the Baroque era had a very small number of players in them.

The characteristics of the Baroque era share some similarities with the Classical period - , of which Mozart was born into; however, there are also many differences. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than music and is less complex. It is mainly — melody above chordal accompaniment but is still displayed, especially later in the period.

Variety and contrast within a piece became more pronounced than before. But Bach secured the job, which he took up in It is usually thought that he devoted almost all of his time in Leipzig to choral music. In fact, over half his cantatas and the original versions of both surviving Passions were written in the first seven years. This suggests he was trying to speed through his contractual obligations.

Nonetheless, the cantatas form a remarkable body of work. They are particularly notable for their use of obbligato instruments in the solo arias. Their melodies are often elaborated or extended in choruses and arias, and each cantata ends with a sublime harmonisation of the chorale on which it is based. As director of a student music-making body, Bach composed or re-wrote many violin and keyboard concertos for the group, which may also have performed earlier works such as the Brandenburg Concertos.

Bach also began taking a serious interest in the publication of his works. Bach uses this as an opportunity to showcase a wide range of keyboard styles and contrapuntal techniques, while exploring the newly available tonalities. He learned various instruments from his father, uncles, and brothers. These instruments ranged from the violin to the clavichord.

The young man went on and live with his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, who was the organist serving the Michaeliskirche in Ohrdruf, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. His brother went on to become a great teacher and influence on young Bach and stimulated a desire to seek out a formal education. At the age of 14, Bach enrolled in the famous St.

Upon graduating, he took a rather menial job as a musician at the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst in Wiemar where he would spend the next seven months. He moved on to a new job at St. A tremendous job opportunity awaited him at St. While money may not have been the main motivating factor behind writing the composition, he earned a great deal from it.

Great critical acclaim also accompanied this work. There are several amazing works and compositions that were created by Bach. Parents were unwilling to send their children to a school where illness amongst the pupils was so prevalent, and consequently, there were only 54 scholars out of a possible The Cantor's duties were to organize the music in the four principal churches of Leipzig, and to form choirs for these churches from the pupils of the Thomasschule.

He was also to instruct the more musically talented scholars in instrument playing so that they might be available for the church orchestra, and to teach the pupils Latin which Bach quickly delegated to a junior colleague. Out of the 54 boys at Bach's disposal for use in the different choirs, he stated, '17 are competent, 20 not yet fully, and 17 incapable'.

The best singers were selected to form the choir which sang the Sunday cantata; one week at the Thomaskirche, the other week at the Nikolaikirche. A 'second' choir, of the same size but less ability, would sing at the church without the cantata. The 'third' choir of even less ability at the Petrikirche, the 'fourth' at the Neuekirche.

The orchestra used for the cantatas consisted of up to 20 players. It may be assumed by the presence of the near-legendary Gottfried Reicha among them both as wind and string player, and after their "senior", that they were players of a high standard. Surprisingly perhaps to present-day readers, they were expected to be proficient in the violin, reed, flute and brass families.

They were under the control of the Thomaskantor. Bach would certainly have taken steps early on to ensure that the instruments used wee in top condition. We know that the stringed instruments used were maintained during the s, and several of them built, by the celebrated Leipzig instrument maker and Court Lute-maker J C Hoffmann Hoffmann's instruments are still in possession of and played in the Thomaskirche today.

Hoffmann incidentally also built a viola pomposa, a tenor of the violin family, to Bach's orders. Music-making was a popular pastime, and the regular concerts at Zimmerman's Coffee House and other musical venues would indicate that there were no doubt musicians in the town who could be invited to attend in the gallery for church performances.

Thus it may be assumed that Bach could count on a fairly professional orchestra. Bach's many arias featuring oboe obbligato attest to the presence of a good oboist among the town's wind players possibly Reicha himself? Viola and violin obbligati Bach would normally play himself. It is highly unlikely that there was either a chamber organ or a harpsichord in the gallery - the main organ being used exclusively.

The wealth and complexity of instrumentation in Bach's cantatas is evidence itself that musicianship of a high standard was not hard for him to obtain. His sons and pupils would also have participated, together with visiting musicians happy no doubt to have the honor of performing under the direction of the now famous Herr Bach.

Singing classes were held from 9 to 12 am on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Thursdays the Cantor was free, on Friday he taught in the morning. Rehearsals for the Sunday Cantatas took place on Saturday afternoons. The Sunday services began at 7a. The cantata, usually lasting about 20 minutes, preceded the hour-long sermon, or if the cantata was in two parts, it came before and after the sermon.

The main service finished at about mid-day, after which there followed a communion service. There were also week-day services for Bach to superintend at the four churches, also in one of the ancient hospitals and in a 'house of correction'. Although these services were simple and required only a few hymns, the Cantor had to organize a group of about nine singers to work on a rota system.

Apart from this, he had to attend and compose music for funerals and various other occasions. Bach also took a lively interest in the divine services at the University church, the Paulinerkirche. It was only after he had conducted eleven services up till Christmas , that he discovered that the Cantor of Leipzig was no longer officially director of music in the University church, this position being given to the moderately talented organist of the Nikolaikirche.

A long dispute between Bach and the authorities arose over this, and it was only after he had appealed to the Elector of Saxony at Dresden that a compromise was reached. Bach nonetheless performed his duties as required, pursuing during these early years his long-held objective of providing a complete set of cantatas for every Sunday corresponding to the liturgical year.

This self-imposed task was largely completed during his first 5 years, after which he produced cantatas with less regularity. It may sometimes appear to listeners enjoying Bach's cantatas today, that some of the arias are - well - perhaps a little less imaginative than might be expected from such a great master. That this is in fact the case may be explained by recalling the educational customs of Bach's time.

Much stress was placed on "learning by doing" - by copying or transcribing works of the masters, by copying part-scores for performances, by working out continuo parts It should also be recalled that any duties enumerated as part of a titular position were to be fulfilled, but not necessarily by the incumbent personally. Bach's position for example required him to provide instruction in Latin, which he did by delegation.

Johann sebastian bach brief biography of mozart

Delegation was an accepted means of fulfilling obligations, and was also seen as means of instructing the more gifted pupils. While Bach did in fact delegate the composition of some recitatives and arias to his pupils, he would always set the tone by composing an opening chorus reflecting the scriptural theme of the week. In the case of more important occasions he would compose the entire cantata himself.

The listener can usually be sure of Bach's personal authorship of a particular aria or recitative when it bears Bach's "signature" - accompaniment scored for strings, rather than simple figured bass. One particularly special performance of a work by Bach was recorded in some detail: the cantata known as the Trauerode, BWV In , the Elector Augustus of Saxony assumed the Polish crown, a step that obliged him to adopt the Roman Catholic faith.

His wife, Christiane Eberhardine, preferred her Lutheranism to her husband, however, so she renounced the throne and lived apart from him until her death on September 6th, , an event which was deeply mourned in strongly Lutheran Saxony. Two weeks later, one Hans von Kirchbach, a nobleman student at the University of Leipzig, proposed to organize a memorial service in the Paulinerkirche during which he would deliver a valedictory address.

Von Kirchbach commissioned a sometime librettist of Bach's, Johann Christoph Gottsched, to write verses for a mourning ode, and Bach to set these verses to music. Bach was then granted permission to compose the Ode, albeit with a reprimand that he was not thereafter "to assume the right to compose music for academic festivals. In any case, the score was finished on the15th, just two days before the performance.

A great catafalque bearing the Queen's emblems stood in the center of the crowded church, and the service began with the ringing of all the bells of the city. Kirchbach delivered his oration after the second chorus. According to the program, the Ode was "set by Herr Bach in the Italian style. When fuller, more detailed and more recent research is taken into account these records may perhaps give an unbalanced picture of Bach's life there at that time.

There is no doubt whatsoever that he was widely respected as a composer, musician, teacher, organist, and specialist in organ construction. This respect was to grow steadily, as Bach's reputation widened, and as he gained the official title of Court Composer to the Dresden Court - the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. This comfortable security of position combined with the fact that Bach had established, during his first six or seven years' tenure, a more than sufficient repertoire of cantatas it has been suggested that he composed in total some , allowed him to widen his musical scope of activity.

In particular, Bach had become famous, not only as an organist and improvisator, but as an expert in organ construction. As a result he was frequently asked to advise on new organ specifications and to test newly completed instruments with a thorough and detailed examination and report, as was the custom of the time. Bach developed a close working relationship with his contemporary, the celebrated Saxon organ-builder Gottfried Silbermann, who was also a personal friend of the Bach family and godfather to Carl Philipp Emmanuel.

Bach may well have played any number of Silbermann's instruments, almost all of which were located in Saxony. In Bach petitioned the Elector of Saxony in Dresden for an official title, enclosing copies of the Kyrie and Gloria from the b-minor Mass; though unsuccessful, Bach tried again this time with the backing of his Dresden patron Count von Keyserlingk.

Thereafter he received the title, and signed himself as Dresden Hofcompositeur. By way of acknowledgment Bach presented a two-hour recital on the new Silbermann organ in the Frauenkirche tragically destroyed in the Second World War and now being actively rebuilt. It is on record that the Council reprimanded Bach in August for leaving his teaching duties in the overworked hands of his junior colleague, Petzold; for not properly disciplining his choirs, and for his frequent unauthorized journeys away from Leipzig.

Bach did not try to justify himself, which further annoyed the Council, and so they attempted to diminish his income. This drove Bach to write to his school-friend Erdmann in Danzig, asking him to find him a 'convenient post' where he could escape the 'trouble, envy and persecution' which he had perpetually to face in Leipzig. The city would have lost Bach if his friend Gesner had not intervened on his behalf.

Gesner had just taken over the post of headmaster at the Thomasschule after the death in of the former headmaster, and he used his influence to settle the situation between Bach and the authorities, and to secure him better working conditions. The s was a great period of new building and urban improvement in Leipzig and between May and June alterations and improvements were made to the Thomasschule buildings, including the addition of two upper floors and some exterior "restyling".

Bach's own accommodations were much improved in the process. The choral forces were much diminished during this period and so Bach produced a number of solo cantatas. At the opening speech, Gesner stressed the need for music within the foundation - which must have given Bach some hope for a brighter future in the school. His successor was Johann August Ernesti, 29 years old, a former senior member of the Thomasschule staff.

Ernesti had entirely new ideas on education: Classics and Theology were out of date, and there must be more stress on subjects that would be useful in secular life.