A Musical Family - Johann Sebastian Bach and the Bach Family

A famous German composer and organ player, Johann Sebastian Bach came from a very musical family. He was born in Eisenach on March 31, 1685. He was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabetha Lammerhirt Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach was surrounded by music from birth. His father was an organist for St. George's Church, and all his uncles were professional musicians. They included everything from court chamber performers to classical composers.

Bach's father taught him how to play violin and harpsichord when he was very young. Johann Sebastian's famous uncle Johann Christoph Bach taught him the fine art of organ playing.

Sadly, Johann Sebastian Bach was orphaned when he was just 10 years old. His mother died in 1694, and his father died only eight months later. He then moved in with his brother, who was also a famous organist named Johann Christoph Bach. He began to study music in earnest, learning to compose, perform and write music professionally under his brother's tutelage. He also learned to play the clavichord.

At the age of 14, Johann Sebastian was awarded a choral scholarship that allowed him to study at St. Michael's School in Luneberg. The school had a great musical reputation. It was located in Hamburg, which was then one of the largest cities of the Holy Roman Empire.

After his graduation, Bach was given the title of court musician in the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst of Weimar. His reputation as a skilled musician and composer quickly spread, and soon St. Bonafice Church in Arnstadt called on Bach because they needed an organist to play their inaugural concert for a new organ. When they heard him play, they invited him to stay on as their parish organist.

He enjoyed the job, but he took extended absences to study with famous organists and was preoccupied with his composing. In 1706, he moved on to a larger parish in Muhlhausen. Shortly thereafter, he married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach. Together, they had seven children, two of which became important composers.

After only a year, Bach left Muhlhausen to become the concert master and court organist at the ducal court in Weimar. This was one of the most productive eras of his life. During this time, he produced many of his famous fugues.

In 1717, he fell out of favor in the Weimar court. When he pushed to be dismissed from his position, he was put in jail for a month before being unfavorably discharged.

Bach was then hired by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen as the music director until 1723. Many of his famous secular works were composed over these years, as Leopold was a Calvinist and not a big fan of elaborate music in his worship services.

In 1720 Bach's wife died unexpectedly. A year later, he remarried a soprano singer named Anna Magdalena Wilcke. Together, they had 13 children. Six of them survived to adulthood, and all six were talented musicians.

The family lived in Leipzig from 1723 until 1747. Bach wrote many of his most famous works, like motets and his Mass in B Minor, in Leipzig where he served as music director for several churches. In 1747, he moved to Potsdam to serve on the court of Frederick the II of Prussia.

Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750 of undetermined causes. Some believe a quack surgeon performed an unsuccessful eye operation that caused his death, while others think he suffered a stroke brought on as a complication from pneumonia. He was 65.

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What Are The Types Of Mandolin In The Mandolin Family

The mandolin is the soprano member of the mandolin family, just as the violin is the soprano member of the violin family. Similar to the violin, the instrument scale length is typically about 13 inches (330 mm).

So what are the different types of mandolin that can be found? Well, below is a list of some of the main type of mandolin:

The mandola (US and Canada), termed the tenor mandola in Europe, Ireland and the UK, which is tuned to a fifth below the typical mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the viola to the violin. Some people also call this instrument the "alto mandola." The instrument scale length is typically about 16.5 inches (420 mm). It is normally tuned like a viola, which is: C-G-D-A.

The octave mandolin (US and Canada), termed the octave mandola or mandole in Europe, Ireland, and the UK, which is tuned an octave lower than the mandolin. The instrument scale length is typically about 20 inches (500 mm), although such instruments with scales as short as 17 inches (430 mm) or as long as 21 inches (530 mm) are not unknown.

The mandocello, which is classically tuned to an octave and a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin: C-G-D-A. Today, it is quite frequent that it is restrung for octave mandolin tuning or the Irish bouzouki's GDAD. The instrument scale length is typically about 25 inches (635 mm). Note that a violoncello scale is 27" (686mm).

The Greek laouto is actually a mandocello, ordinarily tuned D-G-D-A, with half of each pair of the lower two courses that are being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddle-less bridge is glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings and tied gut frets. Modern laoutos, as played on Crete, have the whole lower course tuned in octaves as well as being tuned a reentrant octave above the expected D. The instrument scale length is typically about 28 inches (712mm).

The mando-bass, has 4 single strings, rather than double courses, and it is tuned like a double bass. These were made by the Gibson company in the early twentieth century, but appear to have never been common. Most of the mandolin orchestras will prefer to use the ordinary double bass, rather than a specialized mandolin family instrument.

The piccolo or sopranino mandolin is a rare member of the mandolin family, tuned one octave above the tenor mandola and one fourth above the mandolin; the same relation as that of the piccolo or sopranino violin to the violin and viola. The instrument scale length is typically about 9.5 inches (240 mm).

The Irish bouzouki is also considered a member of the mandolin family; although it is derived from the Greek bouzouki, it is constructed like a flat backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings (most often GDAD, an octave below the mandolin, sometimes GDAE, ADAD or ADAE) in place of the guitar-like fourths-and-third tunings of the three- and four-course Greek bouzouki. Although the bouzouki's bass course pairs are very often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, in the fashion of the 12-string guitar. Although occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is different from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from 22 inches (560 mm) to 24 inches (610 inches), although scales as long as 26 inches (660 mm), which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown.