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The Life of Johann Sebastian Bach

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The Life of Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantata BWV 1 “Wie Schön Leuchtet der Morgenstern”
Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach held various musical positions all over what is now Germany. From the year 1723 until his death in 1750 he served as cantor and director of music in Liepzig. His job here was very structured and kept him busy; being the head of music at four churches , he had to compose a cantata for every Sunday and adhere to the ways of the church. It was here, and under these circumstances that Cantata BWV 1, “Wie Schön leuchtet der Morgenstern”, which translates to “how beauteous beams the morning star”, was composed in 1725. The piece was written for the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where Mary is visited by the archangel Gabriel and informed of her task to bear and raise the son of God. The work is for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, four part chorus, orchestra and basso continuo. This piece is a prime example of Bach’s vocal compositional style and the type of work Bach was commissioned to write as director of music in Liepzig.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach to Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. At the age of nine (1694) Bach lost his mother shortly followed by his father the year after. Now orphaned, he and his brother were taken in by his much elder brother Johann Christoph Bach who was the organist at Ohrdruf. It was here in Ohrdruf that Bach supposedly received his first organ lessons from his older brother and it is possible and theorized that during the five years spent here Bach taught himself how to compose and may have turned out a few compositions before moving to Lüneberg in 1700.
Johann Christoph Bach already had two children and another on the way; his small Ohrdruf Cottage could no longer house Johann Sebastian. So, in 1700, he was sent to Lüneberg to sing in the choir and be housed there. Though Bach now aged fifteen loses his fine boy-soprano voice shortly after arriving he continued to put his



Bibliography: Arnold, Denis. Bach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1984. Bach, Johann Sebastian. Seven great sacred cantatas: in full score : from the Bach-Gesellschaft edition. New York: Dover, 1985. Bach, Johann Sebastian, and Melvin P. Unger. Handbook to Bach 's Sacred Cantata Texts: An Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 1996. Bach, Johann Sebastian, Reinhold Kubik, Paul Horn, and Jean Lunn. Wie Schön Leuchtet Der Morgenstern: BWV 1 : Kantate Zum Fest Mariae Verkündigung. Neuhausen-Stuttgart: Hänssler-Verlag, 1981. Bettmann, Otto. Johann Sebastian Bach as His World Knew Him. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Pub. Group, 1995. Boyd, Malcolm. 2000. Bach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Butt, John edited by Malcolm Boyd. J.S. Bach. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1999. Daw, Stephen. The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Choral Works. Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 1981. Dreyfus, Laurence. Bach 's Continuo Group: Players and Practices in His Vocal Works. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1987. Dreyfus, Laurence. Bach and the Patterns of Invention. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1996. Marshall, Robert Lewis. The Compositional Process of J.S. Bach: A Study of the Autograph Scores of the Vocal Works. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1972. Mendel, Arthur and Christoph Wolff edited by David Hans. The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. New York: W.W. Norton. 1998. Stapert, Calvin. My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach. Grand Rapids, Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans. 2000. Westrup, Jack. Bach Cantatas. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. 1966. Whittaker, William. The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach: Sacred and Secular. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1959. Williams, Peter. The Life of Bach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004. Wolff, Christoph, ed. The World of the Bach Cantatas. New York: Norton. 1997. Young, W. Murray. The Cantatas of J.S. Bach: An Analytical Guide. Jefferson, North Carolina: MacFarland. 1989. [ 20 ]. Alison Dobson-Ottmes. Cantatas BWV 1-3.Hanser-Verlang. Helmuth Rilling. 1998. 6 [ 21 ]

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