Play it Bach Discussion Post

While recording "In My Life," John Lennon told George Martin to "play it like Bach" for the piano solo. Johann Sebastian Bach (1600-1750) was a giant of the Baroque era. Go to “Links To The Past” in Chapter 5 in your WebBook. Write at least 3 paragraphs about J.S. Bach, George Friderick Handel, and Antonio Vilvaldi. Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. Also known as the “Father of Harmony,” Bach was taught by his father and his uncle, learning different musical instruments like the organ, the harpsicord, and the violin. Bach ruled in music during the Baroque era, mainly known for his sacred Church works, like his cantatas, arias, and recitatives. He also created organ pieces and choral preludes that followed two different styles of composure: “free-style and strict imitation.” Wachet auf is one of Bach’s best-known works. He was also well known for his fugue writing, a way for a musical number to separate two or more parts and voices. Bach created a way to allow instruments to play in twelve major and minor keys, called the Well-Tempered Clavier, which remains as one of the most important musical work for keyboardists and classical music of the Baroque era. In addition to his musical pieces, Bach also composed concertos. Concertos were single instruments – typically the violin, cello, or flute – that an orchestra accompanied. The Brandenburg Concertos were Bach’s most famous examples of his concertos. By twenty-three, Bach’s fame had peaked, and he had become one of the most famous composers of his time, being appointed cantor at Saint Thomas’s church in Leipzig, Germany. However, Bach wasn’t the only composer ruling over the Baroque era. George Frideric Handel was born in Germany. Like Bach, he was able to learn music from his family. Handel, like the Beatles, started his musical journey in Hamburg, Germany playing the violin. Handel wrote numerous operas and concertos but was most famous for his oratorios, which were sacred works for orchestras and choirs. They were not performed like operas, where the stage was filled with brilliant costume changes, props, and emotional numbers done by a cast of actors. Instead, oratorios were narratives depicting religious themes, minus the glitz of operas. However, Handel did compose a few operas in the Royal Academy of Music. His most famous opera seria, a musical number influenced by Greek or Roman mythology, was Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt), which was a three-act performance that followed the Roman Civil War. Like Bach and Handel, Antonio Vivaldi was also a well-known musician of the Baroque era who was raised by a musical family. Known as the “father of concerto” and the “Red Priest” because of his red hair and the fact that he was baptized earlier than many of his peers, Vivaldi was born in Venice and taught violin at a very young age. He soon became known as a “music master” and people traveled to see Vivaldi perform at Ospedale della Pietà. Similar to Bach and Handel, Vivaldi wrote operas and oratorios, but is best known for his concertos, namely Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons). This fourpart series represents spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each concerto has a solo violin composition with a backing orchestra, along with a poem or a sonnet to add to the mood the music resonates for each season. Vilvadi’s La Pimavera (Spring) concerto is the most well-regarded, as the music replicates the sound flowing water, chirping birds, and barking sheepdogs.