Happy Birthday, Johann!
Today in 1865 in Eisenach, Germany, Johann Sebastian Bach was born. The world would be a poorer place without him.
One of my favorite CDs for the office is The Goldberg Variations, scored for a string quartet. But it's hard to go wrong picking something of his.
He spent a large part of his life as a playing musician - an organist, mostly - and much of his composed music was considered too old-fashioned or too ornamental. He changed jobs a lot, until 1723, when he became a choirmaster in Leipzig where he remained until his death in 1750. Most of his jobs were for one church or another, in fact, but he happily wrote secular music when he worked for Prince Leopold of Cothen - until his wife (the prince's) disapproved of such a frivolous expense as chamber music. But whatever kind of music Bach wrote, he did it gloriously.
Labels: birthdays
2 Comments:
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At 7:53 AM, March 21, 2008
Unknown had this to say...
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At 12:18 PM, March 21, 2008
Anonymous had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->I took music appreciation in college, and the one thing I remember the professor saying was "If anyone ever tries to tell you that Bach was anything other than a genius, I can tell you something about that person right now. They're crazy, and you shouldn't listen to them anymore."
He was right... and also, now I know you're not crazy.
Bach is divine to listen to and fun but challenging to play. I was pleased when my son's high school band, given the choice of playing a Bach prelude & fugue or some other piece at a concert, voted for the Bach.
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