Bach, J.S.: Great Organ Works

Rubsam

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Cat No: 8553859

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099485920

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BACH, J.S.

Description
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Toccataand Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 Fugue in G minor, BWV 578Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552 "StAnne" Jesu bleibet meine Freude, BWV 147 (Jesu,Joy of Man's Desiring) Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major, BWV564 Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of afamily that had for generations been occupied in music. His sons were tocontinue the tradition, providing the foundation of a new style of music thatprevailed in the later part of the eighteenth century. Johann Sebastian Bachhimself represented the end of an age, the culmination of the Baroque in amagnificent synthesis of Italian melodic invention, French rhythmic dance formsand German contrapuntal mastery.Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach waseducated largely by his eldest brother, after the early death of his parents.At the age of eighteen he embarked on his career as a musician, serving firstas a court musician at Weimar, before appointment as organist at Arnstadt. Fouryears later he moved to M??hlhausen as organist and the following year becameorganist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar. Securing hisrelease with difficulty, in 1717 he was appointed Kapellmeister to PrinceLeopold of Anhalt-Cothen and remained at Cothen until l723, when he moved toLeipzig as Cantor at the School of St. Thomas, with responsibility for themusic of the five principal city churches. Bach was to remain in Leipzig untilhis death in 1750.As a craftsman obliged to fulfil theterms of his employment, Bach provided music suited to his variousappointments. It was natural that his earlier work as an organist and somethingof an expert on the construction of organs, should result in music for thatinstrument. At Cothen, where the Pietist leanings of the court made churchmusic unnecessary, he provided a quantity of instrumental music for the courtorchestra and its players. In Leipzig he began by composing series of cantatasfor the church year, later turning his attention to instrumental music for the Collegiummusicum of the University, and to the collection and ordering of his owncompositions.Leipzig Clavier??bung, of which the thirdvolume appeared in 1739, opens with an impressive and majestic Prelude in Eflat, and the whole collection ends with a fugue in the same key, known tothe English as the St. Anne Fugue because of the similarity of thesubject to a well-known Anglican hymn-tune of that name.The famous D minor Toccata and Fugue isan early work, probably written while Bach was organist at Arnstadt or atM??hlhausen, that is in 1706 or 1707, before he moved to Weimar. The Fugue inG minor, BWV 578, is thought to have been written before 1707. Itsfive-bar subject is stated first by the soprano, followed by the other threevoices in descending order. Sequential episodes lead to partial and completeentries of the subject, as the fugue goes forward. A cantata provides themovement Jesu bleibet
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