The Context of the World of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Introduction
Creative work in the arts emerges in the context of several elements. These create influences for the artist, painter and sculptor. For example, one’s appreciation of a Claude Monet painting is noticeably enhanced after visiting his garden and home in Giverny, France. The same is true of music composers. This brief essay examines important aspects of life surrounding composer Johann Sebastian Bach in the hope that reviewing general Baroque period influences, especially those from societal practices, visual art, architecture, politics and religion provides insights that will help us understand, appreciate and relate more fully to Bach’s music.
Several Baroque era influences helped shape Johann Sebastian Bach’s music.
The Baroque period
It is important to understand the general nature of the Baroque period (1600-1750) to better appreciate elements that directly influenced Bach’s music.
Scientific knowledge and worldwide exploration expanded dramatically and influenced all areas of the arts. There were notable discoveries and inventions related to the microscope, optics, light, electric batteries and telescopes. These scientific advances challenged traditional viewpoints and led to development of new perspectives not based upon church beliefs and control. Global expeditions broadened exposure to other lands, their people, traditions and arts. (“Baroque Period Timeline”)
Creative energies shifted from an emphasis on religion and the church to growing curiosity about natural world phenomena and new technologies. This attitude was reflected in the arts with new styles and forms, including innovative musical forms and instrumentation usage reflected in J.S. Bach’s music (Green), especially compositions for organ, harpsichord and churches (Arnold and Jefferson, “3. The German Baroque”). The Baroque style in the arts discarded the restraints of the Renaissance and exhibited grandeur, “power, massiveness, or dramatic intensity, embellished with pageantry, color, and theatrical adventure (Guisepi). Philosophers emerged who questioned the mystery of existence. Foreign trade expanded contact with other parts of the world and created a growing middle class, free from control of the church or royal courts (“What Is Baroque Music?”).
The Baroque era enlarged the artistic range of all artists. For a time, classicism and naturalism styles lingered as baroque characteristics were developed. Freedom to express emotions and feelings and respond to new scientific realities created an “awareness of people, surrounding[s], nature and the world” producing a new era in human existence (“What Influenced the Baroque Movement?”). Bach and Germany’s cultural development during this period involved assimilating and imitating French and Italian influences more than expressing a distinctive nationalism of its own. Consolidation of conquered territories did help to create distinctive national composing and performance styles elsewhere that enlarged artistic influences within and between creative communities in Europe. Baroque era composers eventually found their music was a powerful way to communicate (Arnold and Jefferson).
Societal Practices
Social structure and practices changed during the Baroque era. Wars and political upheaval created strong monarchies that displayed their wealth extravagantly and staged operas and other large-scale presentations for their amusement. As the eighteenth century began, the Enlightenment favored the intellect over regal authority. There was a noticeable emergence and growing influence of the middle class who began to patronize the arts. Music was one of the influences that helped create the middle class during the Baroque era. Concerts evolved from church- and regal court-based settings to public performances that anyone could attend. This change extended patronage to ordinary citizens who provided more financial support for musicians (“What is Baroque Music?;” Barber-Smith et al.).
Politics
Political revolutions in earlier centuries and later in France and the United States created “unprecedented change, diversity and growth” in the arts and produced centralized authorities and nation-building that awakened wealthy and royal patrons to the power of the arts (“Baroque Architecture”). Bach would have witnessed the lengthy reconstruction after the Thirty Years War and the importation of French and Italian cultural influences Germany hoped would add luster to its artistic efforts. He experienced strong French influences in language, music, art, dance and theater while a student and as a composer (Little and Jenne 3)
Bach learned the hard way that his employment as a musician and composer during this period was subject to the whims of wealthy patrons or royalty (Greenberg). The nature of an employer and employment situation usually determined a musician’s compositions and performances. Composers hired by a court had to produce many different compositions often within a short time to provide music for a variety of social and official occasions (“What is Baroque Music?”). For example, as church organist in Arnstadt, Weimar and Leipzig, Bach composed some of his most memorable church cantatas and organ works (“Johann Sebastian Bach Biography”). When he was chosen as royal music director and cantor in Cöthen, Bach composed music suitable for the needs of a prince or a court setting (“What is Baroque Music?”).
Religious Influences
The Catholic Church enforced strict rules to counter what was considered a Protestant threat made by the Reformation. After the Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Roman Catholic Church determined religious beliefs and virtues were to be expressed in the arts in clear, realistic, emotional and sensory artistic expressions to increase faith in the church’s teachings and practices (“Influences during the Baroque Era”). Bach received a strong religious education early in life. This influenced his striking religious or church music compositions later in life. Much of his early employment was as a church-related musician and composer (“Johann Sebastian Bach Biography”).
Baroque Music
The distinctive and diverse musical forms that produced the recognizable characteristics of the Baroque era used some of the principles of scientific discoveries, especially orderliness, mathematics and harmonic relationships. This new music style featured dramatic musical and instrumental contrasts, expressive and lively melody and harmony combinations (stile moderno), interesting variations and growth of instrumental music (e.g., sonatas, concertos and suites) and new vocal music forms such as recitative and arias that formed operas that often included drama, poetry and dancing, oratorios and cantatas that expressed emotional moods and feelings (“What Is Baroque Music?”).
The Baroque era produced several musical innovations. Before the Baroque period, only one instrument played each part of a composition. Baroque composers added more instruments to play the same part to produce a richer, fuller sound. Another Baroque innovation was formation of major and minor keys and creation of several contrasting but related key signatures (e.g., using C Major and A minor notations in the same composition). Baroque composers expanded the range of instrumental music by developing the dance suite to attract dancers in their audiences, the concerto grosso that featured alternating tempos with soloists and orchestral accompaniment in dialogue and the solo concerto that featured a soloist (often the composer) performing original works alternating with an orchestra (Mackay and Romanec 6-7). Composition notations became more formal in the Baroque era (e.g., insertion of bar lines and suggestions for chords to accompany melodies). Still missing were consistent tempo and dynamic or interpretation markings on the musical manuscripts (Mackay and Romanec 7-8).
Visual Art and Architecture
Baroque era artists and architects remained fascinated with the ancient world and its artistic expression. Seventeenth century masters’ works were fresh on the minds of Baroque artists and musicians who drew from classical traditions to create new and versatile ideas and concepts virtually without limits (Wittkower, Rudolf, and Moore 1, 5-6). The art and sculpture works of the period emphasized large-scale public art designs in wall-paintings and sculptures with human figures in action poses. Biblical and church subjects were common in royal courts and churches, but art appealing to the emerging merchant and middle classes dominated displays in Protestant areas (“Baroque Art”).
Baroque period architecture began in Italy, spread throughout Europe and emphasized a freer, more emotional and theatrical style using color, lighting and grandeur to signify the importance and influence of the Catholic Church and royal patrons. Nobility soon adopted the new styles whose characteristics included “dramatic use of light, chiaroscuro effects, large scale ceilings on which frescoes are painted, long narrow naves, ostentatious decorations including gilded ones, and the use of marble, and other faux finishes” as well as curved lines and wide open spaces featuring “colored marble, intricate designs, twisted columns, scattered cupolas, imposing facades, and unbalanced tensions or bulges” in new buildings that blended paintings and sculptures with creative stone or marble structures (“Baroque Architecture;” Guisepi). As Rococo influences were established early in the eighteenth century, elegant, flowing, “graceful and ethereal” replaced robust architecture styles (Guisepi). “Proportion in architecture” became the architectural standard as the Enlightenment period was emerging (Wittkower, Rudolf, and Moore 7). The Palace of Versailles is considered an excellent example of French Baroque architecture. The form, style and characteristics of these art and architecture elements were reflected and adapted in Bach’s compositions.
Analysis of One of Bach’s Compositions
An examination of a section of one of Bach’s compositions illustrates some of the Baroque era music innovations already described. In the final movement of Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3,” multiple instruments play each part of this sprightly composition. Bach uses a dance form whose main melody is repeated between instruments. Each measure is four beats with each beat in triple time using sixteenth notes to create the feeling of perpetual motion (Mackay and Romanec 8). Bach interpolated Baroque techniques in his music.
Conclusion
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