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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750):

Like many composers born into a musical family, Johann Sebastian


Bach received his earliest instruction from his father in Eisenach. After
his father’s death in 1695, Bach studied in Ohrdruf with his brother,
Johann Christoph, and also attended schools in Eisenach, Ohrdruf,
and Lüneburg. In 1703, Bach attained his first post as organist in
Arnstadt, where he stayed until 1707, followed by a year as organist in
Mühlhausen. From 1708 to 1717 Bach worked for Duke Wilhelm Ernst
of Weimar, first as court organist, and after 1714, as Kapellmeister.
Many of his organ compositions were written during this period,
including the Orgelbüchlein, as well as some of his cantatas. While in
Weimar, Bach also came into contact with a great deal of Italian
music, and was particularly influenced by Vivaldi’s concertos.
Bach embarked on the next phase of his career in 1717, when he
became the Music Director for the Prince Leopold of Cöthen (1717–
1723). Since the court chapel was Calvinist (a religion that did not use
elaborate music in its services), Bach composed a great deal of
instrumental music during this time, including the Brandenburg
Concertos, the Suites for solo cello, the Sonatas and Partitas for solo
violin, the first volume of Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The Well-
Tempered Clavier) and the Orchestral Suites. While there was no
need for sacred vocal music, Bach also composed a few cantatas to
commemorate special events at court.
In 1723, Bach was appointed music director and cantor at the
Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a position he was to hold for the rest of his
career. (Bach was actually the second choice for the position, as the
more famous Telemann had already refused the job). His official
duties were immense, requiring him to oversee the music in the city’s
four main churches, teach and provide music for municipal occasions.
During his first six years in Leipzig, Bach composed four cycles of
cantatas and the St. John and St. Matthew Passions. By 1729, Bach
had amassed a large repertoire of music for services in Leipzig, and
was able to turn his attentions elsewhere. From 1729 to 1737 (and
again from 1739 to 1741), Bach served as the director of the Leipzig
Collegium Musicum, a group of professional musicians and university
students founded by Telemann in 1704. In addition to reviving many
compositions from Cöthen for the Collegium’s weekly concerts, many
of Bach’s secular cantatas from this time were probably composed for
the group. Bach also published a number of more abstract, erudite
works for publication, particuarly the four volumes entitled Clavier-
Übung (Keyboard Practice), which hold the Six Partitas for
Keyboard (Vol. I), the Italian Concerto, the French Overture (Vol. II)
and the *Goldberg *Variations (Vol. IV); another late work along
similar lines is the unfinished Die Kunst der Fuge ( The Art of Fugue).
Although he was famous during his lifetime, Bach’s contemporaries
had all but dismissed him as old-fashioned by the time of his death in
1750. According to anecdotal evidence, his music was still respected;
Mozart and Beethoven both reportedly studied his compositions. The
true revival of Bach’s works began in 1829, however, when Felix
Mendelssohn conducted a famous performance of the St. Matthew
Passion in Berlin. After hearing the performance, Hegel called Bach a
“grand, truly Protestant, robust and, so to speak, erudite genius which
we have only recently learned again to appreciate at its full value.”
Mendelssohn’s efforts to promote Bach’s music continued, and
eventually led to the founding of the Bach Gesellschaft (Bach
Society), an organization devoted exclusively to promoting his works.

Henry Purcell (1659–1695): As the son of a musician at court, a


chorister at the Chapel Royal and a composer for three different
kings, Henry Purcell spent his entire life in Westminster. After showing
a proclivity for music at a young age, Purcell may have studied with
John Blow in the Chapel Royal. 18th century historian Charles Burney
questioned the extent of the tutelage, however, writing that “…he had
a few lessons from Dr. Blow, which were sufficient to cancel all the
instructions he had received from other masters, and to occasion the
boast inscribed on the tomb-stone of Blow, that he had been ‘Master
to the famous Mr. Henry Purcell’.”
As part of his royal duties, Purcell was expected to write music to
celebrate special occasions, such as the birthday ode for Queen Mary
entitled “Come Ye Sons of Art, Away.” Although Italian opera had not
yet caught on in England, Purcell composed a number of “semi-
operas,” such as King Arthur (1691) and *The Fairy Queen *(1692),
and the only through-sung English opera of the seventeenth century,
*Dido and Aeneas *(1689). Purcell also wrote a large amount of
incidental music for the theater, which his widow published
posthumously as A Collection of Ayres, Compos'd for the Theatre,
and upon Other Occasions(1697).
In addition to his activities at court and in the theater, Purcell was also
involved with the advent of public concerts in London, and composed
harpsichord suites and trio sonatas for performance at these events.
In 1683, a group of amateur and professional musicians started a
“Musical Society” to celebrate the Festival of St. Cecilia, “a great
patroness of music,” on November 22. Purcell composed three odes
for the Society. Upon his premature passing in 1695, “the English
Orpheus” was buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741): Born in Venice, Antonio Vivaldi was


trained in music as a child, but was ordained as a priest in 1703.
Although his vocation and striking red hair earned him the moniker “Il
Prete Rosso” (the Red Priest), his picturesque nickname soon
became the only vestige of his priestly duties. Within a year of his
ordination, Vivaldi stated that he no longer wished to celebrate the
mass because of “tightness of the chest,” a condition some have
attributed to angina pectoris, asthmatic bronchitis—or simply to the
fact that music was the Red Priest’s true calling.
Around 1704, Vivaldi began his association with the Ospedale della
Pietà, an institution with which he was connected for most of his life.
Although the Ospedale was usually called an orphanage, it was in
reality a home for the illegitimate daughters of Venetian noblemen,
and was well financed by its “anonymous” benefactors. In addition to
room, board, and an excellent education in music, the Pietà offered a
creative outlet for women at a time when professional opportunities for
female musicians were uncertain. The students of the Pietà played
many different instruments (as one eighteenth-century writer
observed, “[They] play the violin, the recorder, the organ, the oboe,
the cello, the bassoon; in fact, there is no instrument large enough to
frighten them”) and were considered to be among the most
accomplished performers of their time. Because they were constantly
in need of new music, the bulk of Vivaldi’s output—including almost
500 concertos, 46 sinfonias, 73 sonatas, chamber music and a small
number of sacred compositions – was likely intended for these
talented performers.
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759): Like his friend Telemann,
George Frideric Handel showed a great deal of musical promise
during his childhood in Halle, but was initially encouraged to study law
instead. Although he entered the University of Halle in 1702, he left a
year later to become a violinist in the opera house at Hamburg. It was
in this city that his first two operas, Almira and Nero, were produced in
1705, followed by Daphne and Florindo in 1708. Handel then traveled
to Italy, premiering Rodrigo (1707) in Florence and Agrippina (1708) in
Venice, where he may also have met Vivaldi. In Rome he studied with
Corelli, and performed La Resurrezione (1709) and Il Trionfo del
Tempo (1710). Early in 1710, Handel left Italy to
become Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover, George Louis, who
became King George I of England in 1714. Handel moved to London
in 1712, where he remained for the rest of his life.
Handel arrived in London as a famous opera composer, but English
audiences proved resistant to the genre’s charms. By the early 1730s,
the assaults of critics and the notoriously lascivious lifestyles of the
singers had worn down London audiences, and Handel needed to find
a new medium for his art. The oratorio was the perfect solution.
English oratorios were similar to opera in their use of recitative and
aria, but were rarely staged, and were based on stories from the Bible
in the vernacular. Handel’s addition of the chorus also resonated with
London audiences, who were steeped in the English tradition of
anthem-singing. Ultimately, the English oratorio cemented Handel’s
reputation forever—and works such as Messiah, Judas
Maccabeus and Israel in Egypt are still tremendously popular today.
In addition to his operas, oratorios and well known Coronation
Anthems, written for the coronation of George II, Handel composed a
great deal of instrumental music still performed today. Some of the
most famous were composed for royal occasions, including Water
Music, written for concerts on the Thames, and Music for Royal
Fireworks. Others were published for purchase by subscription, like
the Op. 6 Concerti Grossi, based on the Op. 6 collection of Corelli.
After becoming blind in 1751, Handel died eight years later in London.
He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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