Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach, not one of his myriad kids. He really churned them out. Bach is another one of those boys that, like Mozart and Beethoven, everybody and their mum has heard of. He’s one of the greats. If you believe what a whole host of professional and amateur experts has to say on the subject, then he’s the greatest of all time. He’s the Muhammad Ali of the classical world.
Except, of course, that he isn’t actually classical at all (neither Bach nor Muhammad Ali) he’s very much Baroque. In fact… he’s so Baroque he needs fixing (oh dear that wasn’t even funny when it was in Beauty and the Beast). He is the archetypal Baroque composer. Baroque literally means overwhelmingly ornate, and that is precisely what his music is like. It’s so precisely put together you could go crazy trying to understand what is going on. It is a masterfully crafted piece of clockwork.
He is a master of counterpoint - which is several independent melodies moving up and down and around each other. People often consider his music to sound mathematical. His pieces have that kind of deliberate, logical precision about them. Sonically, he uses a very limited number of sounds, as in his day orchestras were quite small. It might be because of this, and the clean, precise sound of his music that many people become fans of his before the later classical and romantic music with all their clangs and swoops and bangs.
Musical Snippets
- Brandenburg Concerto No.3, 1st movement - This is famous. It’s a concerto grosso, which doesn’t mean it’s gross but does mean that instead of being one instrument versus the rest of the orchestra like in a regular concerto, it’s a whole bunch of instruments versus the orchestra. This melody is chunky and delicious. Like Campbell’s soup. (buy at Amazon
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- Violin Concerto in D minor, 1st movement - Here’s another concerto. Sound melodies again, and all very Baroquey. That’s all I have to say on the matter. (buy at Amazon)
- Prelude and Fugue in G Minor - Ah. Now, I know a tonne of people like Bach’s organ stuff. He wrote a lot of stuff for the organ. It sounds very vampirey (come on, you know what I mean, imposing, menacing - like Dracula would play). (buy at Amazon