A Brief History of Bach

Happy 2023! 😃I'll be releasing some new videos this year, so be sure to subscribe to the channel for updates!

Happy practicing!

-Allysia

[juanborjas]

'Bach wasn't just industrious in music' I literally laughed out loud 😂

[Tigermantt]

Bach isn't just one of the greatest composers. He IS the greatest composer of all time.

[Musicienne-DAB]

I think we know a lot about Bach as a person; one thing that wasn't mentioned in this video (which, respectfully, should have been mentioned) was Bach's deep religious conviction. He was a devout Lutheran Christian and commended his music to God. That is why so much of his music is filled with a deep spirituality. And although Baroque music wasn't as emotionally raw as Romantic music, you can hear profound and controlled emotion in many of Bach's seminal pieces: his Chaconne (from Partita No.2 in D minor for violin) is widely considered one of the greatest pieces for solo violin, and was composed shortly after Bach learned of the death of Maria Barbara Bach. So we actually have quite a complex man-- yes, temperamental, strong-willed and stubborn. He was also a delinquent in his youth and was known to get into fights. However, he was deeply devoted to Lutheran Christianity, devoted to his music, a strict and attentive father, and a man affected by loss throughout his life: he lost both his parents, his siblings, his first wife and 10 of his 20 children. That's a lot of grief, which he channelled into his music.

[piusais]

I have travelled the bach trail, visiting all the place associated with him, Inc the museum in leipzig.

[JustinGarfield]

I love his compositions. And there are so many of them. I have been listening to him for many years, and still haven't heard all of them.

[razmigdaoudian]

Bach is not an ordinary musician.To me he is the most genius musician.

[James_Y.Y]

He is the greatest composer of all time.

[dorrianwes]

Bach's music makes me cry it's so beautiful

[babyboo]

You're the best. I needed information on Bach to do an essay and books where not help in, I didnt understand anything and I found your video and it helped a lot. Thank you for making this video.

[captainalpaka]

You may be fascinated by listening to Bach but playing Bach is just sublime.

[americanspirit]

"Ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, endless self-correction, that is my secret." Bach

[martijn]

Thank you very much for your playful way of Bach history telling. I love the composer so much. His music always caressing existence in the most deep and beautiful way.

[JoaoGuilherme-lxvx]

I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, because your videos are so interesting and helpful! I seriously can´t understand why you are not more recognised where and out-there! A seriously big shout-out to you!

[craigmetcalfe]

Thanks for this brief history! I like the fact that as an artist, he tread his own path, and as a street fighter he was a badass!

[writingworks]

keep up the good work this channel is seriously undersubscribed its like crash course history plus piano blog

[julieanderson]

Thanks so much for this! I love that you include maps and photos of the places JS worked and performed, let alone his employers! Must have taken ages to put this together! Great job!

[thepianoplayer]

Skipping through all the details, Bach was innovative in 2 ways: the first was the idea of Well-Tempered Clavier or well-tuned keyboard. Keyboard tuners tended to do a good job on the natural keys but not the sharps & flats. Keyboard used to be painted the other way around with the 7 natural keys as black and 5 sharps/flats as white. He intentionally wrote 1 piece for every music key to make the point every key on the keyboard needs to be properly tuned. The other is putting the keyboard as a solo instrument in a concerto. Before him, there was a lot of Concerto Grossos out of Italy featuring more than 1 solo instruments. Vivaldi wrote many concertos featuring 1 instrument but the keyboard was usually in the background to accompany the ensemble (as continuo). The 1 piece that stands out was the Brandenburg Concerto #5 in the first movement there is a keyboard solo cadenza near the end where the keyboard would perform an entire section of music without accompaniment. Solo cadenzas became common with later composers like Mozart but not at all during the Baroque.
The 1 type of composition that is much more synonymous with Bach than any other composer is the fugue. These are compositions with several similar melodies coming in and out at different times to form interesting harmonies. They were mainly performed on an organ but many have been transcribed as orchestral pieces with different instruments playing different parts. Dmitri Shostakovich was inspired by Bach and composed fugues.
Bach's music was hidden away in the attic somewhere in Germany for many years. In the 19th century he was rediscovered by Felix Mendelssohn in the 19th century. The 1 piece that inspired Mendelssohn was the St. Matthew Passion when he wrote the Italian Symphony.

[enoquesant]

Bach was awesome as a musician! A great legend!

[burkhardstackelberg]

Interestingly, while Bach was deeply revered as a composerby other composers and connaiseurs early on, during his life time he was mostly known for his organ performances. Looks like then and now, it took some time to get a knack for his polyphonic weave.

As I was younger, this weave sounded to me mostly like a more or less uniform texture - while other composers of his time, like Haendel, had more rhythmic diversity to offer. But at some point, I clicked into his intricate interaction between melody lines and fell in love with his music completely ever since.

[ssmaktoum]

You really make the best classical music 🎶 videos!! Very informative and entertaining at the same time. Thank you 😊