Today, we celebrate the 336th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach, born in the small German town of Eisenach on this day March 21 in 1685 (under the old Julian calendar; under the new calendar, his birthday falls on March 31).
Composing music at a prolific pace (sometimes at the rate of one cantata per week!), Bach was a humble man who attributed his success to divine inspiration and a strict work ethic. He lived to see only a handful of his works published, but more than 1,000 that survived in manuscript form are now published and performed all over the world.
I published a similar diary two years ago — some of the material here is derived from that diary.
A Few Tributes to Bach
Bach lives! (Thanks to AI by Deep Nostalgia).
Let’s Enjoy a few Favorites
Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. Allegro (by Munich Bach Orchestra/Karl Richter) was featured on the Golden Record sent on both of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft in 1977 and which are still exploring space beyond the Solar system.
Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman — Bach Concerto for Two Violins: I- Vivace
Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott - Ave Maria (J.S. Bach/ Gounod)
The enigmatic Crab Cannon. I remember reading about in Douglas Hofstadter’s “Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid” in 1979.
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
We present a few different renderings of Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - some traditional, some quite modern.
Epilogue
Please share your memories of Bach and his music. How has it touched your life? What are your favorites musical pieces? Any interesting tidbits of information about Bach’s life?