Bach, J.S.: Organ Works, Bwv 535, 550, 584, 588-589, 736, 740

Description

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 535 Partita diverse sopra: O Gott, du frommer Gott, BWV 767 Trio in G Minor, BWV 584 Fantasia super: Valet will ich dir geben, BWV 736 Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 550 Canzona in D Minor, BWV 588 Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, Vater, BWV 740 Allabreve in D Major, BWV 589 Johann Sebastian Bach was a member of a family that had forgenerations been occupied in music. His sons were to continue the tradition, providing thefoundation of a new style of music that prevailed in the later part of the eighteenthcentury. Johann Sebastian Bach himself represented the end of an age, the culmination ofthe Baroque in a magnificent synthesis of Italian melodic invention, French rhythmic danceforms and German contrapuntal mastery.Born in Eisenach in 1685, Bach was educated largely by hiseldest brother, after the early death of his parents. At the age of eighteen he embarkedon his career as a musician, serving first as a court musician at Weimar, beforeappointment as organist at Arnstadt. Four years later he moved to M??hlhausen as organistand the following year became organist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst ofWeimar. Securing his release with difficulty, in 1717 he was appointed Kapellmeister toPrince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen and remained at Cothen until 1723, when he moved toLeipzig as Cantor at the School of St. Thomas, with responsibility for the music of thefive principal city churches. Bach was to remain in Leipzig until his death in 1750. As a craftsman obliged to fulfil the terms of his employment,Bach provided music suited to his various appointments. It was natural that his earlierwork as an organist and something of an expert on the construction of organs, shouldresult in music for that instrument. At Cothen, where the Pietist leanings of the courtmade church music unnecessary, he provided a quantity of instrumental music for the courtorchestra and its players. In Leipzig he began by composing series of cantatas for thechurch year, later turning his attention to instrumental music for the Collegium musicum of the University, and to the collection andordering of his own compositions. Bach's Prelude and Fugue inG minor, BWV 535, seems to have been written during the composer's period atWeimar as court organist. The Prelude contains an extended passage of modulation on achromatically descending bass. In the fugal exposition the four voices enter in descendingorder, the whole work culminating in a dramatic climax, introduced by the pedals, beforethe final extended tonic pedal-point.O Gott, du trommer Gott, BWV 767,(O God, thou good God), is one of an early set of Partitediverse, chorale variations, writtenprobably during Bach's school-days at L??neburg, but later much revised. The chorale isfirst stated, the first section repeated with ornaments, as in its third appearance at theend. The first variation, Partita II, in atwo-part texture, sets fragments of the chorale melod