Classical music hero J.S. Bach is still putting out records today

Just about everybody’s favorite classical music composer in history is Johann Sebastian Bach. He was born in 1685 in Germany, but people still love him and his music. Even today many recordings are made of his well-loved music. Here is a work our homeschool family likes very much and listens to in various versions all the time.

Of course you will recognize that music from the first few notes. This work, The Brandenburg Concertos, was written in 1721 as a tribute to the Duke of Brandenburg. There are many, many recordings of it since it is complicated without being overly so, and it has an extraordinarily beautiful melody. It is played all the time in commercials and telephone hold recordings.

This particular selection of classical music is of Brandenburg Concerto Number 3. Which I feel is the best of the concerti. It has three parts: allegro (which means lively, cheerful, brisk), adagio (slow, relaxed, easy pace), and allegro again. The second allegro does not repeat the same melody as the first, but it is quite easily recognized as related to the first part. It is the first allegro that most telephone hold recordings play, and it is that part that I particularly love. I listen to it as recorded by multiple artists over and over.

Today Bach is often considered to be the best classical music composer in the world of all time, and certainly he is felt to be the quintessential composer for the period known as the Baroque Period (1600 to 1750). While Bach is held in high esteem today, it has not always been so. In his life he was known as a highly skilled organist and musical mathematician. However, when he died not many people followed his music or even knew of him.

While he had famous admirers like Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, his compositions were neglected by most musicians of the day. In 1829, sixty years after Bach’s death, Felix Mendelsohn awakened the music world to Bach when he produced his Passion According to St. Matthew in a German music hall. This was one hundred years after Bach wrote it.

Since then Bach’s many works have demonstrated that he is a musician of extraordinary genius. He is a master of counterpoint, the use of musical voices interdependent in harmony, yet independent in rhythm and perceived pitch. Even though he was not given credit for it, Bach’s brilliant standardized approach to harmony was used until around the end of the 1800s which is when the modern period began. Johannes Brahms recognized his fantastic abilities when he said, “Study Bach: there you will find everything.”