Johann Sebastian Bach Essay

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most influential and best known composers of the Late Baroque era. He contributed a massive library of more than one thousand pieces of music, and it said that his death marked the end of the Baroque era. His mastery of counterpoint and polyphonic writing elevated Baroque music and paved the way for advancements of the Classic era. He had a wide array of compositional styles, and Bach is credited with development of the modern concerto for a solo instrument, based on the concerto grosso through his series of works, the Bradenburg concertos. As a church organist at a young age, he found opportunities to write for the keyboard. His compositional understanding helped him contribute to the creation of other forms,

As the name suggests, there are two parts to this piece being the toccata followed by the fugue. The toccata is a virtuoso musical form that originated during the Baroque era. There is a lot of freedom for expression and emphasizes the performer’s technical abilities. There are often fast runs and free-form improvisatory-like sections, a quite drastic step in a new direction from strict musical forms common during this time, such as the sonata or cantata. Bach has been recognized as the master of the fugue, a musical form that features a primary melodic line or motive in a contrapuntal manner. Fugues are similar to canons or rounds, but have incredible depth and layers to their composition. Thanks to composers such as Bach, the combination of the toccata and fugue came about as a way of expressing the skill and abilities of both the performer and the composer

The next couple of minutes follows a common trend in Bach’s style: the lack of any one particular style. There are many exaggerated runs and unexpected dissonances, as may be expected in an Empfindsamer piece during this time. There are intense emotive chords and minor scales, as recognized by the storm and distress style. However, it cannot be said that Toccata and Fugue in D Minor fits into one of these styles exclusively, as he clearly exhibits a mixture of styles throughout much of his work. As the toccata ends and the fugue begins, we can see Bach’s masterful contrapuntal writing. There is a collection of ideas including the subject, bridge, and countersubject, that we can see used in different keys throughout the fugue. Bach takes these ideas, uses them in different keys, and writes counterpoint parts to harmonize. It is as if there is a question and answer being asked between these sets of ideas. Subjects and countersubjects are developed and altered, expanding the harmony on multiple levels in this incredible musical puzzle. Once again, there are a few styles exhibited in this piece, between the Alberti bass and homophonic lines and the pure counterpoint spread across three voices of the organ. Bach’s mastery of this compositional form goes to show that his understanding of music was far beyond many other musicians