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Antonio Vivaldi inspired Bach
Bach wrote more than 1,000 musical compositions. During his lifetime, people recognized his ability as a great harpsichordist and organist more than they realized his genius as a composer. Most of the music he wrote didn't become popular until decades after his death.
Bach took every opportunity to meet other composers and to learn from them. He often traveled great distances to hear them play in concert. Afterward, he experimented with their music to make it sound different, and often better.
Italian composers had the greatest influence on Bach, especially Antonio Vivaldi. Bach adored Vivaldi's concertos. They sounded so much freer and livelier than German music. Bach created a wealth of new music by blending Italian and German styles. He arranged at least six of Vivaldi's violin concertos so they could be played on the harpsichord, and three others for the organ.
Bach versus Handel
By coincidence, Bach was born a little more than a month after George Frederic Handel, another great composer. Handel was born about 50 kilometres away in the town of Halle. Bach's music is often compared to Handel's. The two are considered the masters of the classical music called baroque. However, the musical strengths and styles of these two composers were quite different.
Handel concentrated on producing music for the public's entertainment. He particularly liked to set stories to music through operas or oratorios.
Bach specialized in church music. As the cantor (choirmaster) in Leipzig, one of his major responsibilities was to write new compositions for church services and religious holidays. Over a period of three years, Bach wrote a new cantata almost every week.
Bach and Handel did share similar life experiences:
They were both born in 1685 in the same region of Germany.
They each went blind after unsuccessful operations by the same eye surgeon.
They knew many of the same musicians.
Bach and Handel never met. Bach tried to arrange a meeting twice, but Handel never responded to Bach's requests to get together. Handel was a more famous composer at the time. He might not have been impressed enough by Bach's work to go out of his way to meet him.
MÜHLHAUSEN: 1707-1708
Bach arrived at Mühlhausen, a small Thuringian town proud of its ancient foundation and independence, to take up the post of organist to the town. Unfortunately, a quarter of the whole town had recently been devastated by fire; it was thus difficult for him to find suitable dwellings, and he was thus forced to pay a high rent. Nevertheless, shortly after his arrival, he brought his cousin Maria Barbara from Arnstadt, and on October 17th 1707 he married her at the small church in the picturesque little village of Dornheim. Maria Barbara came of a branch of the musical Bach family, her father being organist at Gehren.
By now Bach had high ideals for the church music of Germany, and to start with, he began organizing the rather poor facilities of Mühlhausen; he started by making a large collection of the best German music available, including some of his own, and set about training the choir and a newly created orchestra to play the music.
The first result of these efforts was his cantata 'Gott ist mein König' (BWV 71), given in hitherto unknown splendor in the spacious Marienkirche to celebrate the inauguration of the Town Council in February 1708. This, incidentally, was the only one of Bach's cantatas to be published during his lifetime and was due in this case to the Council's desire for publicity and prestige.
This success gave Bach the courage to put in a long and detailed report, proposing a complete renovation and improvement of the organ in the St Blasiuskirche. The Council agreed to carry out the renovation and improvements, and Bach was given the task of supervising the work, for not only was he now a brilliant player, but had also become an expert on the construction of organs.
However, before the organ was completed, a religious controversy arose in Mühlhausen between the orthodox Lutherans, who were lovers of music, and the Pietists, who were strict puritans and distrusted art. Bach was apprehensive of the latter's growing influence, in addition to the fact that his immediate superior was a Pietist. Music in Mühlhausen seemed to be in a state of decay, and so once more he looked around for more promising possibilities.
Former contacts made in Weimar were now useful; the Duke of Weimar offered him a post among his Court chamber musicians, and on June 25, 1708, Bach sent in his letter of resignation to the authorities at Mühlhausen, stating very diplomatically that not only was he finding it difficult to keep a wife on the small salary agreed to on his arrival, but that he could see no chance of realizing his final aim, namely the establishment of a proper church music 'to the glory of God'. The Council had little option but to allow his departure. However, the situation was concluded quite amicably and Bach was asked that he should continue to supervise the rebuilding of the St Blasiuskirche organ. This he did, and some time in 1709 he came over to inaugurate its first performance.
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