Bach’s Birthday – The Weekend (March 30-31, 2013)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
It’s The Weekend at ESLnewscast.com.
Hello, I’m Cory Renzella, and thank you for listening. How’s your weekend been so far? I hope you’re having a good one! This weekend, we celebrate the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in Germany on March 31, 1685.
Although Johann Sebastian Bach hasn’t been alive for 263 years, he remains, or is still, one of the most famous composers ever.
A composer is a person who writes music, and Bach wrote a lot of music in his lifetime.
This probably won’t surprise you, but Bach came from a family of musicians, or people who make music. His father, uncles, and brothers were all musicians. So, he was involved in music from an early age, and he learned how to play different musical instruments, or objects that produce music.
Two of the instruments he learned to play were the violin and the organ, which is similar to the piano, but has pipes and uses air to control the noises. Organs are popular in churches and are often played during weddings in America.
If you’re confused when you hear the word “organ”, that’s okay, because it has two very different meanings. I just explained the first meaning, but organs are also parts of a person’s body. The brain, lungs, kidneys, and stomach are all examples of organs.
Anyway, back to Bach: when he was about 10 years old, both of his parents died. He went to live with an older brother, who continued to teach him all about music and introduced him to other talented, or very good, musicians. Among those was Johan Pachelbel, whose music is also very famous today.
So, between his family and the people he met, Bach had a great musical education. But he was alsogifted, meaning he had a lot of natural abilities.
As an adult, he wrote music that was very complex, or complicated, but was also very easy to listen to. He was influenced by the Lutheran Church, which he was a member of, and Italian and French music. And he integrated, or combined, all of those styles into his own music.
Bach was married twice and had 20 children, although half of them died during childhood. Of the 10 who lived to be adults, three of them also became accomplished, or successful, musicians.
At the end of Bach’s life, he lost his vision, meaning he went blind. And in the year 1750, at the age of 65, he died.
Other famous composers, like Beethoven and Mozart, greatly admired, or thought well of, Bach. But it wasn’t until the 1800s that the rest of the world realized how special Johann Sebastian Bach’s music really was.
Today, the whole world appreciates his music. He wrote a lot of it and is certainly one of the greatest composers ever.
So, to celebrate his birthday, which was 328 years ago this weekend, I thought I’d play for you one of his more famous pieces of music. It’s his Brandenburg Concerto Number 3, which he wrote around 1721, and I hope you’ll enjoy it. Thanks for listening. Have a great rest of the weekend, and I’ll talk to you again on Monday. Bye-bye.
