Also in Weimar Bach started work on the Little Organ Book , containing traditional Lutheran chorales hymn tunes set in complex textures. In , 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.
Johann Kuhnau and Bach played again when it was inaugurated in In the spring of , Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister , an honor that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the castle church. BWV forPentecost. Despite being born in the same year and only about kilometers 81 mi apart, Bach and Handel never met. Thomas Church in Leipzig which served four churches in the city, the Thomaskirche , the Nikolaikirche St.
Nicholas Church , the Neue Kirche and the Peterskirche , and musical director of public functions such as city council elections and homages. This was a prestigious post in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony, which he held for twenty-seven years until his death. 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; it was probably for this purpose, and for in-school training, that he wrote at least six motets. The Paulinerkirche had a much better and newer organ than did the Thomaskirche or the Nikolaikirche. Bach broadened his composing and performing beyond the liturgy by taking over, in March , the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, a secular performance ensemble started by the composer Georg Philipp Telemann.
This was one of the dozens of private societies in the major German-speaking cities that was established by musically active university students; these societies had become increasingly important in public musical life and were typically led by the most prominent professionals in a city.
In , Bach composed a mass for the Dresden court Kyrie and Gloria which he later incorporated in his Mass in B minor. He later extended this work into a full mass, by adding a Credo , Sanctus and Agnus Dei , the music for which was partly based on his own cantatas, partly new composed. In he travelled to England, gained repute there, and became music master to Queen Charlotte.
The king played a theme for Bach and challenged him to improvise a fugue based on his theme. Its six-part fugue includes a slightly altered subject more suitable for extensive elaboration.
Other late works by Bach may also have a connection with the music theory based Society. One of those works was The Art of Fugue , which consists of eighteen complex fugues and canons based on a simple theme. The Art of the Fugue was only published posthumously in Consisting mainly of recycled movements from cantatas written over a thirty-five year period, it allowed Bach to survey his vocal pieces one last time and pick select movements for further revision and refinement.
On 28 July , Bach died at the age of Spitta gives some details. In , it was published by Lorenz Christoph Mizler in the musical periodical Musikalische Bibliothek. He was originally buried at Old St. Grounded in the old-world picture, drawn to the music of the spheres, he produced oratorios and passions of profoundly human dimensions, but his music also seems - and I say this in spite of my own rationalism - to point beyond, nowhere more so than in his greatest fugues where emotion and the cosmic achieve a thrilling synthesis.
I was brought up in a family that listened to classical music only now and again, and went to schools where musical appreciation focused on things like the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. So I didn't start listening to Bach seriously until I reached my 20s - and immediately took him to heart.
Twenty-odd years later, when I fell seriously ill and spent a long time recovering, he became the composer I love above all others. It wasn't just that I didn't seem to have room in my head for big Romantic orchestral sounds. It had - and still has - more to do with the extraordinary mixture of intense organisation and great lyrical beauty. It's rare for a day to pass without me listening to something from his enormous, thank goodness catalogue - a solo instrument if I want to dance on the head of a pin, a choral work if I feel more expansive.
And thanks to the wonderful Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series, masterminded and conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, the expansive days seem to be on the increase.
So what's so good about Bach then? For some it is the mathematical precision of his compositions. For others it is the passionate cry of his soul infusing the music.
Here, some famous fans say why they love JSB. Andrew Marr Broadcaster Bach has been in the background for most of my life, one way or another - the Brandenburg concertos in my parents' record collection when I was a boy; the Christmas music at school; and I remember being stunned when, as a teenager, a friend played me the solo violin sonatas and partitas in a double record set.
Emmanuelle Haim Conductor I love Bach's music because it is so comforting. Alain de Botton Philosopher Most contemporary music is about love between two people. Germaine Greer Writer "So what's so good about Bach? Suzi Quatro Rock musician I was trained in classical piano and percussion from the age of seven. Katie Mitchell Theatre director I often play Bach before rehearsals begin. Ian Bostridge Tenor Bach is a strange mixture of the meta-physical and the emotional, a fitting father-figure to classical music.
Andrew Motion Poet laureate I was brought up in a family that listened to classical music only now and again, and went to schools where musical appreciation focused on things like the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Helmuth Rilling, another outstanding Bach conductor, reckons the true extent of Bach's genius is only now becoming apparent. When I asked pianist James Rhodes recently why Bach was the ultimate, he put it pretty succinctly. And I was going to say, how about the Double Violin Concerto, second movement?
But maybe it should be the Violin and Oboe Concerto second movement instead? Definitely listen to the St Matthew Passion — at least the opening; and from the St John — this chorus. And obviously the Sanctus from the B Minor Mass. Oh, but what about this Brandenburg concerto? Then we would need, of course, this prelude and fugue from the Well-Tempered Klavier. And what about the fact that there are countless wondrous interpretations from across the ages of each of these pieces?
I give up. Go listen, play, love, revere — and be changed for always. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
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