Johann Sebastian Bach, as we know, is regarded as one of the greatest composers in Western music. He had a lot of influence on other composers in his contemporaries even through succeeding time spot. Today, his compositions are the most frequently performed ones among the keyboard repertoire. So in my paper, I’d like to figure out how much contribution J.S Bach made to the keyboard music and how many composers were influenced by him. I will put emphasis on his The Well- Tempered Clavier which is a good example to illustrate this point.
How great a composer can be is somehow related to the composer’s growing environment and family background. J.S. Bach (3/21/1685-7/20/1750) was born in a musical family in Eisenach, Germany. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach , was a director of town musicians. Most of his family members are organists, violinists and composers. He learned violin and the basics of music theory from his eldest brother and learning organ music from his uncle Johan Chrisoph Bach . He studied at St. Michael’s school at 1700. After graduating from that place, he changed a lot of jobs during 1708 to 1714. He spent the rest of his life, about 27 years, at the …show more content…
Despite of being less popular than other music genres such as sonata, prelude and fugue is an essential part of piano works. As a great landmark in the history of prelude and fugue, Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier combined two books: preludes and fugues and Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues [3]. Here I need to mention the well- temperament means twelve equal tones in an octave range, which is a tuning system described in the 20th century. Organist Arnolt Schlick had mentioned it in his article in the 16th century, but the well-temperament tuning system was not widely used in Baroque Period. Therefore, the Well-Tempered Clavier ‘s coming was still an innovation of keyboard
How great a composer can be is somehow related to the composer’s growing environment and family background. J.S. Bach (3/21/1685-7/20/1750) was born in a musical family in Eisenach, Germany. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach , was a director of town musicians. Most of his family members are organists, violinists and composers. He learned violin and the basics of music theory from his eldest brother and learning organ music from his uncle Johan Chrisoph Bach . He studied at St. Michael’s school at 1700. After graduating from that place, he changed a lot of jobs during 1708 to 1714. He spent the rest of his life, about 27 years, at the …show more content…
Despite of being less popular than other music genres such as sonata, prelude and fugue is an essential part of piano works. As a great landmark in the history of prelude and fugue, Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier combined two books: preludes and fugues and Twenty-four Preludes and Fugues [3]. Here I need to mention the well- temperament means twelve equal tones in an octave range, which is a tuning system described in the 20th century. Organist Arnolt Schlick had mentioned it in his article in the 16th century, but the well-temperament tuning system was not widely used in Baroque Period. Therefore, the Well-Tempered Clavier ‘s coming was still an innovation of keyboard