How many settings did bach compose

His uncles were all professional musicians, whose posts included church organists, court chamber musicians, and composers. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach —93 , introduced him to the organ, and an older second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach — , was a well-known composer and violinist.

Bach, aged 10, moved in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach — , the organist at St. He received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on the clavichord. Also during this time, he was taught theology, Latin, Greek, French, and Italian at the local gymnasium. At the age of 14, Bach, along with his older school friend Georg Erdmann, was awarded a choral scholarship to study at the prestigious St.

Although it is not known for certain, the trip was likely taken mostly on foot. His two years there were critical in exposing him to a wider facet of European culture.

He came into contact with sons of noblemen from northern Germany sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in other disciplines. In January , shortly after graduating from St. His role there is unclear, but likely included menial, non-musical duties. During his seven-month tenure at Weimar, his reputation as a keyboardist spread so much that he was invited to inspect the new organ, and give the inaugural recital, at St.

In August , he became the organist at St. Despite strong family connections and a musically enthusiastic employer, tension built up between Bach and the authorities after several years in the post. Bach was dissatisfied with the standard of singers in the choir, while his employer was upset by his unauthorised absence from Arnstadt; Bach was gone for several months in —06, to visit the great organist and composer Dieterich Buxtehude and his Abendmusikenat St.

The visit to Buxtehude involved a kilometre mi journey each way, reportedly on foot. In , Bach was offered a post as organist at St. It included significantly higher remuneration, improved conditions, and a better choir. They had seven children, four of whom survived to adulthood, including Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach who both became important composers as well.

The council paid handsomely for its publication, and it was a major success. Bach moved with his family into an apartment very close to the ducal palace. She remained to help run the household until her death in He attained the proficiency and confidence to extend the prevailing structures and to include influences from abroad. He learned to write dramatic openings and employ the dynamic motor rhythms and harmonic schemes found in the music of Italians such as Vivaldi, Corelli, and Torelli.

Bach was particularly attracted to the Italian style in which one or more solo instruments alternate section-by-section with the full orchestra throughout a movement. Also in Weimar Bach started work on the Little Organ Book , containing traditional Lutheran chorales hymn tunes set in complex textures. In , Bach was offered a post in Halle when he advised the authorities during a renovation by Christoph Cuntzius of the main organ in the west gallery of the Market Church of Our Dear Lady.

Johann Kuhnau and Bach played again when it was inaugurated in In the spring of , Bach was promoted to Konzertmeister , an honour that entailed performing a church cantata monthly in the castle church. BWV for Pentecost. Figure 3. Despite being born in the same year and only about kilometres 81 mi apart, Bach and Handel never met. Thomas Church in Leipzig which served four churches in the city, the Thomaskirche , the Nikolaikirche St.

Nicholas Church , the Neue Kirche and the Peterskirche , and musical director of public functions such as city council elections and homages. This was a prestigious post in the mercantile city in the Electorate of Saxony, which he held for twenty-seven years until his death.

Bach was required to instruct the students of the Thomasschule in singing and to provide church music for the main churches in Leipzig.

Bach was required to teach Latin, but he was allowed to employ a deputy to do this instead. A cantata was required for the church services on Sundays and additional church holidays during the liturgical year. He usually performed his own cantatas, most of which were composed during his first three years in Leipzig. Bach took such editorial liberties with the settings. However, prioritizing the Dietel over the Breitkopf settings requires careful engagement with the errors that Dietel made.

This would also mean that the approximately settings that have survived only from the Breitkopf i. So there you have it. The answer to the question posed in the title of this brief essay is somewhere between and , depending on many factors.

Copyright So how many Bach four—part chorales are there? BWV Riemens. Reason for Possible Elimination 8. Bach used a revision of a setting by Daniel Vetter for his Cantata 8 from September Bach changed the key and eliminated the obbligato instruments in the later version. Riemenschneider corresponds to the BWV 69a. Bach closes Cantata 27 from October with a setting taken directly from the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. The revised version is transposed from C to D.

Bach closes Cantata 43 from May with a setting taken directly from the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch. Bach reused the concluding chorale from Cantata 59 from May as the concluding number for Cantata from May BWV a. The later revision eliminates the obbligato parts of BWV and transposes it up a M2. Attributed to C. Bach in three early manuscripts, including the newly rediscovered Fasch manuscript SA Slight variants.

Riemenschneider corresponds to BWV With only meager choral resources and limited rehearsal time, Bach in utilized an existing Erdmann Neumeister orthodox libretto with intimate poetry and two chorales quite appropriate for the Feast of Pentecost. Matthew Passion. These early Leipzig secular cantatas and drammi per musica "may be smaller in volume than the body of church cantatas but it is in no way inferior in quality and social impact," says Martin Geck.

Picander, Count von Flemming The groundwork for the two Saxon celebrations involved an earlier relationship between Picander and the Dresden court's most trusted Leipzig representative, Count Joachim Friedrich von Flemming. In , the Leipzig spring fair began on May 4 and the festivities were held on Monday, May Special note was made in the C. On 31 July , Flemming had assumed his official duties with a dramma per musica to a Picander libretto, composer unknown.

Picander also wrote the text to a solo Evening Music for Flemming on 1 January Paul University Church, Bach scholars have developed a still-unsubstantiated hypothesis that Bach was the composer. Just how these arrangements for using the services of members of the Collegium musicum were made has yet to be clarified. It is a fact that such a friendly relationship between Schott and Bach did exist: Schott substituted for Bach when the latter was performing outside of Leipzig or on private trips away from the city" [Bach-Dokumente II, Item ].

From 20 March , Bach replaced Schott, who became city cantor and music director in Gotha.