The Bach Music Family - How Long Did They Remain Significant?

Sara Levy, student of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Pal of the Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach household, collector of Bachiana and good-aunt of Felix Mendelssohn relates how the Bach sons kept the Bach name alive in the planet of music immediately after their father's death.

I have identified the Bach loved ones for years and years. I studied harpsichord with Johann Sebastian Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. In truth, Wilhelm generally told me I was his favored pupil. Wilhelm Friedemann was a brilliant organist and improviser, but he never ever lived a content life and however died in poverty in Berlin years ago.

Johann Sebastian Bach's second son, Carl Phillip Emanual, on the other hand, was hugely prosperous, each in Berlin and later in Hamburg exactly where he had a post incredibly related to his father's St. Thomas position. Carl Phillip's loved ones and I were good good friends for years and years. CPE is finest recognized for his Essay on the Correct Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. The treatise is now applied by each essential teacher in the land, such as Beethoven's.

The younger Bach boys had been also incredibly the musicians. Johann Christoph Friedrich ended up in Buckeburg, Germany as a court musician and there he happily stayed all his life. In reality, individuals contact him now the Buckeburg Bach.

Johann Sebastian's youngest son, Johann Christian, who was only 15 when his father died, lived for a time with his brother, Carl Phillip in Berlin, but quickly left Germany. Johann Christian was the initial Bach to do such a factor! He studied and worked for a time in Italy and discovered to compose in a completely various style than any of the other Bachs. In truth, he composed mainly opera in the Italian style. Ultimately he ended up in London exactly where he was a court composer for the Queen.

Here is a small story to show you how distinctive he was from his father and brothers. As the story goes, the Queen commanded Johann Christian to play a concerto on the organ in between the acts of his new oratorio. She wanted Johann Christian to emulate the wonderful Handel's style. As the story goes, the young Bach's playing was so awful that the audience hissed and the boys in the chorus laughed. As you can envision, Johann Christian was mortified, but he merely was not an improviser or a composer of organ music.

With the death of Johann Sebastian Bach's grandson, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, in Berlin on December 25, 1845, the final musically important descendant of Johann Sebastian Bach was gone. The lengthy line of musical Bachs was extinguished.

The music of the Bach household music may have gone unnoticed for centuries if it had not been for our loved ones. I knew the music of the Bach loved ones was wonderful music! I knew this terrific music had to be preserved so I collected as a lot of it as feasible for my library creating certain this good music was not lost. As a patron of the arts, I wanted to make confident that the wonderful music of the previous was not permitted to die!

I am confident you have heard of my wonderful-nephew Felix Mendelssohn. On Christmas Day of 1825, he was provided the manuscript the wonderful St. Matthew Passion, one of Johann Sebastian Bach's finest oratorios. In 1829, my terrific-nephew led the modern day premiere (the initially efficiency due to the fact the death of Bach) of this good work that led to the 19th-Century "Bach Revival." I do hope the music of this good master, Johann Sebastian Bach and the music of his sons will live on in concerts and churches for centuries to come.

(This vignette is one of a dozen anecdotes incorporated in the organ and media occasion, Bach and Sons, performed by Dr. Jeannine Jordan, concert organist.)

Dr. Jeannine Jordan has a doctorate degree in organ overall performance with an emphasis in Baroque repertoire. She studied with renown Swiss organist, Guy Bovet, has performed all through the globe, and presents the organ music of Bach in a inventive system, "Bach and Sons," using visual media and narration. She has also recorded organ music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons on historic 17th and 18th century organs in the Bach area of Saxony, Germany. https://promotionmusic.org/Listening_Media.html
Take a look at Bach and Sons to schedule a absolutely free consultation with Dr. Jordan to discover how you can bring Bach to your neighborhood. https://promotionmusic.org/Bach___Sons_PNQ5.html