Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
- Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen (c.1754)
Performers: Dorothee Mields (soprano); Gerhild Romberger (alto); Georg
Poplutz (tenor); Klaus Mertens (bass);
L'arpa festante; Bachchor Main
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German composer and organist. The eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach,
he received his earliest musical training from his father, later
enrolling in the Thomasschule in Leipzig. In 1726 he was sent to
Merseburg to study violin under Johann Gottlieb Graun, returning in 1729
to enroll in Leipzig University. There he studied mathematics, but in
1733 he was appointed organist at the Sophiakirche in Dresden. In 1746
he was appointed as organist at the Liebfraukirche in the Pietist city
of Halle. Unfortunately, his relations with the town fathers and his
cantor Georg Mittag were problematic, and he began to apply for other
posts throughout Germany without success, although he was allowed in
1762 to style himself as Kapellmeister to the court of Hessen-Darmstadt
even though he did not obtain the position. In 1764 he simply quit his
position and began to support himself through private teaching,
eventually leaving for Braunschweig in 1770 and subsequently for Berlin
four years later. There, he continued to teach even though he was
initially welcomed at the court of Anna Amalia, the sister of Frederick
II of Prussia. His last years were spent in extreme poverty exacerbated
by alcoholism. Although active as a composer, his reputation during his
lifetime was primarily for his keyboard improvisation, no doubt due in
part to the rigorous training provided by his father.
His music, however, is often characterized by a mixture of older styles
(also inherited from his father) and a sense of harmonic and formal
experimentation that often created extreme contrast and jarring
dissonances. Not surprisingly, some of his earlier compositions were so
close in style to those of his father that they were misattributed. He
was a good teacher; his students include his brother Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, and Johann Nikolaus Forkel, with
whom he also collaborated on that author’s biography of Johann
Sebastian Bach. His music, cataloged according to F (Falck) or BR
numbers, consists of 32 cantatas (two secular); an opera, Lausus und
Lydie; two Masses and several Mass movements; a German Te Deum; several
other smaller sacred settings; 15 keyboard sonatas; 18 works for musical
clockwork; around 40 polonaises; 10 keyboard fantasies; some 40 or so
miscellaneous works for the keyboard; 11 fugues/canons; three sonatas
for two keyboards (one titled “concerto”); eight symphonies; seven
concertos (five for keyboard, and one each for flute and two
harpsichords); a sextet; nine flute duets; three viola duets; and five
trio sonatas. The famous portrait by Wilhelm Weitsch is now known to
portray his cousin.
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