Most people with even a cursory knowledge of music history are familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach. Widely regarded as the father of classical music, Bach’s influence was momentous in the works of some of the most highly regarded composers of all time, including Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, and Beethoven, who called him the “father of all harmony.” Even those unfamiliar with the Western Canon will likely be able to place pieces such as “Toccata and Fugue in D minor,” and “Unaccompanied Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude,” by way of cultural association upon hearing them.
Born the youngest child in a family of German musicians, Bach began his musical education quite early in life. It is believed that his father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, director of the town musicians in Eisenach, taught his son the fundamentals of music theory, as well as how to play the violin during the first years of Johann Sebastian’s childhood. While Bach received some level of formal musical instruction as part of his general studies, he most likely attained the bulk of his musical knowledge through interactions with other members of the Bach family, whose musical lineage dated by generations before Bach was even born.
Bach began his formal education at seven years old in the early 1690s, where he would study Latin and would receive stringent religious instruction, the latter of which would inform his work most significantly. Bach’s parents would pass away within less than a year of one another when the boy was only 10 years old, leaving him orphaned and placed under the care of his older brother, Johann Christoph. Johann Christoph was a church organist himself, and continued the work his father had begun in instilling a working knowledge of music in his younger brother. Bach was enrolled in a local school, and would remain with his brother’s family until he was 15 years old.
In 1700, Bach became a pupil at the school of St. Michaelis in Lüneburg where he sang soprano in the church choir until his departure in 1702. It is said that Bach possessed a wonderful singing voice to which his teen years brought about a change that prompted him to shift his focus to the study of instruments such as the harpsichord and violin. In 1703, Bach got his first job as a performing organist, a position he would occupy for much of his life.
While, in the present day, the importance of Bach’s compositional works and his enormous influence are essentially considered common knowledge, appreciation of the composer’s genius was limited at best during his own lifetime. Bach did begin to develop a reputation in the early 1700s which led to a steady stream of work for the young musician. The lion’s share of this attention was focused not on Bach’s compositional mastery, however, but on his extraordinary technical ability as an organist. In fact, the enduring mastery of Bach’s compositional prowess went all but unrecognized during his life, with only a few seeing publication prior to his death in 1750. He primarily made ends meet by working as an organist in various churches, as well as teaching music.
The influence of Bach’s compositional style can be attributed to numerous factors. Bach was a composer of the Baroque period, and would pass away years before trailblazers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were even born. The times themselves were limiting, and many mainstay instruments of the classical repertoire, the piano being perhaps the most substantial example, were either in their infancy during this time, or simply had yet to be invented at all. As such, very little of Bach’s work was written for piano, with much of it being composed for organ, harpsichord, and various string instruments. This alone creates an immediate distinction between the music of Bach and the composers who would come after him.
Perhaps the most prevalent factor that contributed to Bach’s artistry, and his life in general, was religion. Bach was a student of religion from childhood, and owned an extensive collection of theological texts. Most of his work was written in and for the church, and religious symbolism was used as the filter through which the composer could convey his own deep-seated emotions and thoughts. Much of Bach’s composition took inspiration from various hymns which he would expound upon to create sprawling, original works. While the music itself is perfectly serviceable outside a religious context, there is little doubt that religion was a primary informant of Bach’s work.
Of all his innumerable accomplishments and contributions to the art of music, perhaps none is more valuable than Bach’s implementation of counterpoint in his work. Merriam-Webster defines counterpoint as “the combination of two or more independent melodies into a single harmonic texture in which each retains its linear character.” In short, counterpoint refers to multiple musical ideas existing simultaneously while contributing to an overall piece rather than muddying it up with excess noise. This may be where Bach’s influence is most strongly felt today.
More modern examples of counterpoint use in popular music include Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair/Canticle,” Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” and The Beatles’ “For No One.” Paul McCartney, in particular, was an avid student of classical music, and brought much of that influence to his work with The Beatles. Though the technique was not invented by Bach, the composer so vigorously tested the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable that his work largely came to characterize the idea. This is not unlike Bach’s revolutionization of concepts such as harmony and modulation. The tonal system – the primary format of arranging pitches in Western music – would come to be defined by Bach’s sophisticated approach to four-part harmony.
The development of ornamentation techniques is another essential contribution of Bach’s work. In this context, ornamentation refers to a rush or flurry of musical notes that are not essential to the primary melody, and whose implementation is intended to add color and texture to the piece. Ornamentation has been used excessively in popular music over the years, and has arguably increased in prevalence since the technological advent of overdubbing, which allows recording artists to layer an essentially endless number of tracks atop an existing piece.
Due to the limitations placed upon society by the antiquated nature of early documentation, we can only trace things back so far. Because of this, the various “father of” labels in music are generally meant to be taken with a grain of salt. While jazz music almost certainly predates Jelly Roll Morton’s influential run in the 1920s, he is still considered to be the father of the genre, due to our inability to dig much deeper. Cornetist Buddy Bolden is seen as a key figure in the development of the genre, and was active in the very early 1900s. But so little is known of the man’s life and output that one would be remiss not to consider the extent to which perpetuated myth contributed to his standing in the jazz world. Singer and guitarist Robert Johnson is hailed by many as the father of the blues. The two recording sessions undertaken by the singer in the late 1930s laid the blueprint for an entire genre. It is widely accepted, however, that the blues as a genre long predates Johnson’s contributions, and has its roots in the first slaves that were brought to America. Johann Sebastian Bach fulfills a similar function in the world of classical music. It is impossible to understand how far back many of the ideas presented in Bach’s work truly date, but we can say with certainty that Bach was the first musician in quantifiable Western history to explore the themes he did, in the way which he did. In terms of Western culture, whether you are playing or listening, Johann Sebastian Bach almost undoubtedly had some hand in contributing to that experience.