Johann Christian Bach

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"JC Bach" redirects here. For his relative with the same initials, see Johann Christoph Bach.
Johann Christian Bach
Johann Christian Bach, 1776
Born(1735-08-05)5 August 1735
Leipzig
Died1 January 1782(1782-01-01) (aged 46)
London
Parents

Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons.[1] After living in Italy for five years (1757–1762), Bach moved to London,[2] where he became known as "The London Bach".[3] He is also sometimes known as "The English Bach", and during his time spent living in the British capital, he came to be known as John Bach. He is noted for playing a role in influencing the concerto styles of Haydn and Mozart. He contributed significantly to the development of the new sonata principle.[definition needed][4]

Life

Johann Christian Bach was born to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in Leipzig, Germany. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth—an age gap emphasised by the sharp differences in the musical styles of father and son. Even so, father Bach instructed Johann Christian in music until his death in 1750.[5] After his father's death, he worked (and lived) with his second-oldest half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach,[5] who was twenty-one years his senior and considered at the time to be the most musically gifted of Bach's sons.

He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside

viola da gamba. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas
, and symphonies.

J. C. Bach's memorial,
St Pancras Churchyard, London

Bach lived in Italy for several years from 1754,

King's Theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763. In 1764 or 1765, the castrato Giusto Fernando Tenducci, who became a close friend, created the title role in his opera Adriano in Siria at King's.[8]

That established his reputation in England, and he became music master to

Queen Charlotte. In 1766, Bach met soprano Cecilia Grassi, who was eleven years his junior, and married her shortly thereafter. They had no children. J. C. Bach performed symphonies and concertos at the Hanover Square Rooms. This was London's premier concert venue in the heart of fashionable Mayfair. The surrounding Georgian homes offered a well-to-do clientele for his performances. One of London's primary literary circles, which included Jane Timbury, Robert Gunnell Esq., Lord Beauchamp, and the Duchess of Buccleuch
, was acquainted with Bach, and members were regular attendees at his events.

In 1777, he won a landmark case, Bach v Longman, which established that (in English law) copyright law applied to musical scores. Even before then, Bach demanded a proper credibility for his compositions almost at the same time upon his arrival to London in 1762. He was granted an exclusive right to publish his music for 14 years.[9]

By the late 1770s, both his popularity and finances were in decline. By the time of Bach's death on New Year's Day 1782,[10] he had become so indebted (in part due to his steward embezzling his money), that Queen Charlotte stepped in to cover the expenses of the estate and provided a life pension for Bach's widow. He was buried in the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church, London.

Legacy

Sinfonia in G minor, Op. 6, No. 6
I. Allegro
Performed by Camerata Budapest, Hanspeter Gmur (conductor), courtesy of
Naxos Records
Problems playing this file? See media help.

In the fourth volume of Charles Burney's General History of Music there is an account of J. C. Bach's career.[11]

There are two others named Johann Christian Bach in the Bach family tree, but neither was a composer.

In 1764, Bach met with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was aged eight at the time and was in London during the Mozart family grand tour.[12] Bach then spent five months teaching Mozart in composition.[12] Bach is widely regarded as having a strong influence on the young Mozart, with scholars such as Téodor de Wyzewa and Georges de Saint-Foix describing him as "The only true teacher of Mozart".[12] Mozart arranged three sonatas from Bach's Op. 5 into keyboard concertos, and in later life Mozart "often acknowledged the artistic debt he owed" to Johann Christian.[13] Upon hearing of Bach's death in 1782, Mozart commented, "What a loss to the musical world!"[14]

The Bach-Abel concerts were a series of public concerts that eventually gave way to the development of modern day concert series. In collaboration with his friend and German virtuoso viola da gamba player, Johann Christian Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel created these subscription concerts, which were the first of its kind in Europe. These concerts first started at Abel's residence but an increase in popularity led to these concerts being held at larger venues. [15]

These concerts were not only the first of its kind to be a subscription concert but also would feature a program as well. In terms of programming, these concerts would feature new works by Bach and Abel and new contemporary music at the time - these concerts also gave a platform for newer musical artists, such as Haydn, to feature their works on a public stage. Because these concerts required a subscription, they cultivated a regular audience as the audience members prepaid for that season's concert series. Furthermore, the Bach-Abel concerts allowed the middle class greater access to live classical music. Previously, live music performances were limited to private, aristocratic settings; however, these subscription concerts were made available to the wider public, allowing middle class people to engage in the arts and society. [16]

Works

Main article: List of compositions by Johann Christian Bach

The works of J. C. Bach are given 'W' numbers, from

Garland Publishing, 1999). Bach's compositions include eleven operas,[1] as well as chamber music, orchestral music and compositions for keyboard.[5]

References

Notes

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780671870423
    .
  2. ISBN 9781351571333
    .
  3. ISBN 9780802197979
    .
  4. OCLC 11814265
    .
  5. ^ a b c d Johann Christian Bach at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. ^ a b "The Catholic Bach", Cantica Nova Publications
  7. ^ "Bach Cantatas Website".
  8. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/67196
    .(subscription required)
  9. ISSN 0027-4666
    .
  10. AllMusic
  11. ^ Burney, Charles (1789). A General History of Music, Vol. 4. London: Printed for the author. pp. 480–83.
  12. ^
    ISBN 9781461648079
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-19-866212-9
  14. ISBN 0-486-22859-2
    .
  15. ^ "La Follia – The Bach-Abel London Concerts with Anton | KMFA 89.5 | Austin's Classical Music Radio Station". www.kmfa.org. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  16. ^ Hugill, Planet. "Style and elegance: with Bach-Abel Society, Les Ombres take us back to the elegant evenings of the Bach-Abel concerts in London". Retrieved 25 April 2024.

Further reading

  • Hans T. David, A. Mendel, C. Wolff. The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents (New York: Norton, 1998).
  • Heinz Gärtner (trans. by Reinhard Pauly). John Christian Bach: Mozart's Friend and Mentor. (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1994).
  • Johann Sebastian Bach, his work and influence on the music of Germany, 1685–1750, 3 vols. (London: Novello & Co., 1899): Vol I, Vol II, Vol III
  • Charles Sanford Terry. John Christian Bach (London: Oxford University Press, 1967).
  • ISBN 0-393-30088-9
    .
  • Percy M. Young. The Bachs: 1500–1850 (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1970).

External links

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