More Birthdays!

This year in music is a great one, from Mozart’s 250 birthday, and now three more big birthdays; Johann Sebastian Bach, George Fredrick Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti who are all 321 year old. For this post we will look at J.S. Bach. Bach is thought by many and I am one of them to be the best composer that ever lived. Bach had a very special theory that helped with this, and it was that: all music should glorify God and be pleasing to man. This principle is still very true today, and I think that a lot of composers\artist need to get back to. Let’s take a look at Bach’s history. He was born on the 21 of March 1685, in the Saxon town of Eisenach. Which for all of you church history buffs out there will know that is where Wartburg mountain is, and you guessed it, on top is Wartburg Castle. The same castle where Martin Luther went into hiding under the name of Knight George, after being condemned at Worms. Knowing this it makes perfectly clear why Bach was so staunchly Lutheran. Bach had a hard life growing up. He lost both of his parents when he was 10, then went to live with his older bother and when he could no longing support Johann and his own family Bach obtained a free place at St. Michael’s school where he finished his schooling. Bach was mostly a church musician but had a few court appointments. One of which he was thrown in jail because he no longer wanted to work there. Because of the fact that the duke’s wife hated all types of music and Bach couldn’t understand how anyone could not like music. So let’s just say that things were very tense when the two were in the same room. So after that he was bailed out by a more powerful duke, which made Bach his chief musician, Bach lived a rather peaceful adult life. He was blessed with many children, many of which were very musical. The most famous was Johann Christian. Bach lived in Lipzig for 28 years until his death. While he was at Lipzig he composed some of his best music such as the St. Matthew’s Passion and the Goldberg Variations. Throughout his life he was thought of as the best organist rather than composer but today is revered as both the best organist and the greatest of all composers. Well, I will stop there and finish the other composers at a later date. So check back later and I will try to have blogged in a timely fashion.