About this ebook
(Schirmer Performance Editions). Schirmer Performance Editions are designed for piano students and their teachers as well as for professional pianists. Pedagogical in nature, these editions offer insightful interpretive suggestions, pertinent fingering, and historical and stylistic commentary. Prepared by renowned artists/teachers, these publications provide an accurate, well-informed score resource for pianists. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) married his second wife in 1721. By that time, he was already an established organist, court and chamber musician, and Kapellmeister at the Cothen court. After their marriage, the couple started right away on a Keyboard Notebook ( Clavier Buchlein ) for Anna Magdalena's practice. Eventually they collected two separate books (begun in 1722 and 1725), which are known today as the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Includes audio recordings. Editor & recording artist: Christos Tsitsaros
About the author
Composer, organist, and the most famous of an illustrious family of German musicians, Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685. He was a master of polyphonic baroque music-a musical form characterized by the use of multiple parts in harmony and by an ornate, exuberant style. Bach's father, Johann Ambrosius, taught his son to play the violin at a very early age. At age 10, after both of his parents died, Bach lived with his brother Johann Christoph, an organist, who taught him to play keyboard instruments. Bach's musical genius, however, soon surpassed his brother's skill. During his lifetime, Bach was known more for his skill as an organist than as a composer. His fame as a composer did not come until years after his death, when his works were discovered by the composers Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann and published in the 1800s. Between 1703 and 1717, Bach served as an organist in the German cities of Arnstadt, Muhlhausen, and Weimar. During that time, he wrote chorales, cantatas, concertos, preludes, and fugues, primarily for the organ. These works fused Italian, French, and German characteristics with a profound mastery of the contrapuntal technique. While serving as music director at the court of a German prince from 1717 to 1723, Bach wrote many compositions for the clavier and instrumental ensembles. These included preludes, fantasies, toccatas, and dance suites that served as both music instruction and entertainment. Of these works, the best known is the Well-Tempered Clavier, a series of preludes and fugues composed in 1722 and Bach's last position as cantor and music director of St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig (1724--50), exerted considerable influence on Lutheran church music. During this period, he composed as many as 300 cantatas, 200 of which have been preserved. After his death at the age of 65, Bach became revered as one of the world's greatest composers, and his compositions are regarded by many as the most sublime music ever composed.
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