Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and over three hundred cantatas of which around two hundred survive. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Life

Bach was born in Eisenach, in the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a great musical family. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, and all of his uncles were professional musicians. His father probably taught him to play the violin and harpsichord, and his brother, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him the clavichord and exposed him to much contemporary music. Apparently at his own initiative, Bach attended St. Michael's School in Lüneburg for two years. After graduating, he held several musical posts across Germany: he served as Kapellmeister (director of music) to Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, and as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a position of music director at the main Lutheran churches and educator at the Thomasschule. He received the title of "Royal Court Composer" from Augustus III in 1736. Bach's health and vision declined in 1749, and he died on 28 July 1750.

Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen, BWV 66

Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen (Rejoice, you hearts),BWV 66, is a church cantata for Easter by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed it for the Second Day of Easter in Leipzig and first performed it on 10 April 1724. He based it on his congratulatory cantata Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück, BWV 66a, first performed in Köthen on 10 December 1718.

History and words

The cantata is Bach's first composition for Easter in Leipzig. The day before, on Easter Sunday of 1724, he had performed Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4. He derived the cantata for the Second Day of Easter ("den zweiten Osterfesttag") from his earlier secular work, the Serenata Der Himmel dacht auf Anhalts Ruhm und Glück composed in Köthen. On the Third Day of Easter of 1724 he performed Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß, BWV 134, which he derived in a similar way from Die Zeit, die Tag und Jahre macht, BWV 134a, a cantata to celebrate the New Year's Day of 1719 in Köthen.

The prescribed readings for the feast day were from the Acts of the Apostles, the sermon of Peter (Acts 10:34–43), and from the Gospel of Luke, the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13–35). The unknown poet faced the problem that Bach's congratulatory cantata was written as a dialogue of tenor and alto. He kept the dialogue in three movements, in the middle section of the opening chorus and two duets, assigning the "roles" Hope ("Zuversicht", later "Hoffnung") and Fear ("Schwachheit", later "Furcht") to the voices. The text reflects these different reactions to the news of the Resurrection of Jesus, which might be attributed both, to the two disciples, discussing the events on their walk, and to the listener of the cantata.

List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach

There are over 1000 known compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. Nearly all of them are listed in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), which is the best known and most widely used catalogue of Bach's compositions.

Listing Bach's compositions

The earliest lists of Bach's compositions are given by his biographers, starting from his obituary which gives a list of instrumental works printed during the composer's lifetime (from Clavier-Übung I to The Art of Fugue), followed by a list which groups other types of compositions he wrote. The first separately published biography of the composer, by Johann Nikolaus Forkel, follows the same setup: its ninth chapter first lists printed works (adding four-part chorales that were published in the second half of the 18th century), followed by a rough overview of the unpublished ones. In the first half of the 19th century more works were published, so the next biographies (Schauer and Hilgenfeldt in 1850) had more elaborate appendices listing printed works, referring to these works by publisher, and the number or page number given to the works in these publications. So, for example, the Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major can be indicated as "C. F. Peters Vol. III No. 1", or any of the variants ("Griepenkerl and Roitzsch Vol. 3 p. 2", "Peters Book 242 p. 2", "P. S. V., Cah. 3 (242), No. 1", etc.)

Organ Sonata (Elgar)

The Sonata in G major, Op 28 is Edward Elgar's first sonata composed for the organ and first performed on 8 July 1895. It also exists in an arrangement for full orchestra made after Elgar's death.

Structure

The genesis of the work was a request to Elgar to write an organ voluntary for a convention of American organists in the English city of Worcester in 1895. Instead, Elgar decided on a four movement sonata of nearly half an hour's length.

The four movements are:

The opening theme resembles the beginning of Elgar's The Black Knight, a cantata completed two years earlier and gaining acceptance when Elgar began work on the organ sonata. The outer movements follow the classic sonata form; the inner movements are in three-part A-B-A form. Michael Kennedy observes that to play the finale successfully, the organist needs to be a mental and physical athlete.

Elgar wrote, "one week's work", in the score inscription, but that measures only the final constructive push. He had worked on the piece off and on for nearly three months. Biographer Jerrold Moore notes that Elgar depended, in order to complete a work, on the stimulation of an imminent deadline. This was the first time, but not the last, that Elgar cut it so close that there was insufficient time for rehearsal. It was first performed by the Worcester Cathedral organist, Hugh Blair, on 8 July 1895.

Surname

A surname or family name is a name added to a given name. In many cases, a surname is a family name and many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In the western hemisphere, it is commonly synonymous with last name because it is usually placed at the end of a person's given name.

In most Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries, two or more last names (or surnames) may be used. In China, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Madagascar, Taiwan, Vietnam, and parts of India, the family name is placed before a person's given name.

The style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name (forename) is far from universal. In many countries, it is common for ordinary people to have only one name or mononym.

The concept of a "surname" is a relatively recent historical development, evolving from a medieval naming practice called a "byname". Based on an individual's occupation or area of residence, a byname would be used in situations where more than one person had the same name.