Charting a Path to Johann Sebastian Bach

Many piano students share the belief that the genesis of keyboard literature can be traced back to Johann Sebastian Bach. He stands as a trailblazer, the composer who kick-started the entire keyboard repertoire with his inventions, preludes, fugues, partitas, suites, and more. For us pianists, this perspective takes root in childhood, with Bach’s music serving the dual role as both the starting point and the towering pinnacle in our musical journey—the Alpha and Omega of keyboard music.

I’ve had the opportunity to dive into the musical roots of the keyboard repertoire while teaching Piano Literature at the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts this semester. Researching, preparing for, and delivering lectures for this course has given me an amazing chance to explore the seeds to the mighty piano repertoire that is so often neglected and taken for granted. J.S Bach was the great inspiration for many composers who came after him (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Robert and Clara Schumann, everybody….), but who inspired him? Upon whose musical foundation did Bach build his awe-inspiring Goldberg Variations, the brilliant partitas and suites, and the iconic Well-Tempered Clavier?  

Before Bach (born in 1685) was even a glimmer in the musical cosmos, there was already a wealth of keyboard literature developing in Europe for over three centuries. The Robertsbridge Codex is one of the oldest manuscripts for keyboard instrument that has been discovered, and it is dated to around 1320. The Renaissance ushered in Italian musical dominance, but over time, composers of the English virginal school, the Italian cembalo school, and the French clavecin school all became influential forces to the development of the repertoire.

Surprisingly, during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Germany (where Bach was born) didn’t see the same explosion of keyboard repertoire as England, Italy, and France did. This anomaly can be attributed to the religious shifts of the Reformation in Germany during the sixteenth century, which significantly altered the prevailing attitudes towards music. Music's role in religious services took on heightened significance, tilting the scales towards sacred compositions. This climate, possibly unsupportive of secular music, may have been less conducive to the vibrant dance forms flourishing in England, Italy, and France. However, by the mid-seventeenth century, the tides of musical composition began to shift.

In the pursuit of founding a German keyboard school, composers who preceded Bach and lived concurrently with him, serving as both sources of inspiration and learning for Bach, played a pivotal role. These forerunners merged styles of the English, Italian, and French schools of previous centuries; the music of Italian masters such as Girolamo Frescobaldi, Andrea Gabrielli, Giovanni Gabrielli along with that of the great French composer Francois Couperin was particularly influential.

Dutch composer Jan Sweelinck (1562-1621) was an organist at the Oude Kork (Old Church) in Amsterdam, but he was equally renowned for his teaching. His music features a synthesis of the English virginal school and the Italian cembalo school. He borrowed variation technique from the English but added his own personal touch when it came to counterpoint and cadential treatment. Bach learned a lot from Sweelinck’s treatment of counterpoint. Sweelinck’s keyboard output consists of variations, fantasias, toccatas. One of his most famous pieces is "Variations on 'Mein junges Leben hat ein End'" (My Young Life is Ended).  

Excerpts from Sweelinck’s Mein junges Leben hat ein End (My Young Life is Ended)

Jakob Froberger (1616-1667) is an extremely important name, because he is considered the “preamble” to the German keyboard school that would become so significant and influential in the 18th century. He was truly an “international” composer who embarked on a series of travels throughout Europe which exposed him to the diverse musical styles and traditions of the time. During his time in Italy, he studied with the great Girolamo Frescobaldi. His travels exposed him to the diverse musical styles and traditions of the time, which is apparent in analyzing his keyboard output. Froberger’s greatest contribution is the standardization of the keyboard suite, a collection of dances. He was the first composer to treat the suite as an entity in itself, making sure to include four core dances in each suite: allemande, courante/corrente, sarabande, and gigue. However, in some of his suites, he gives some of his movements very descriptive titles, so he’s one of the first German composers to attempt “expressive music.” For example, Allemande faite en passant le Rhin dans une Barque en peril (Allemande made while crossing the Rhine in a Boat in Distress) or Plainte faite à Londres Pour Passer La Mélancholie laquel le se joue (Dirge made in London to while away Melancholy, which is Played Slowly with Discretion). This reminds one of the suites of the great French Baroque composer who is to come later, Francois Couperin, who included descriptive picturesque miniatures in his suites, such as the well-known “Les Barricades Mystérieuses.”

There is a personal connection between Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) and JS Bach. As a young and aspiring organist, JS Bach greatly admired Buxtehude’s organ playing and compositions. One of the most well-known aspects of the connection between Bach and Buxtehude is Bach’s famous journey from Arnstadt to Lübeck in order to hear Buxtehude play the organ in 1705. Bach walked more than 250 miles to experience Buxtehude’s music and learn from him and took leave from his job at the time in order to accomplish this. Moreover, Buxtehude’s variations Aria: La Capricciosa has many similarities to Bach’s Goldberg Variations. They both begin with an aria and are in the key of G Major. The very last variation of Goldberg is a “quodlibet,” a musical form that combines several different melodies, usually popular tunes, in counterpoint. One of the melodies that Bach used in the quodlibet is the popular German folk tune Kraut und Ruben, or “Cabbage and Turnips.” This is the same folk song that Buxtehude based his Aria: La Capricciosa upon.

Dietrich Buxtehude’s Aria: La Capricciosa


We all know about Bach’s epic prelude and fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier, pieces that often remind us pianists of all stages of progress through our pianistic journeys. However, about five years before Bach’s began composing the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, there was Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer’s (1656-1746) Ariadne Musica Neo-Organoedum (1715), a set of 24 prelude and fugues intended to help guide organists through the “modern” keys (major and minor tonalities as opposed to the old church modes).

J.C.F Fischer’s Ariadne Musica Neo-Organoedum

Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722) is not a well-known composer these days, but in the course of JS Bach’s life, we can say that he was a huge influence. Kuhnau actually held the post of cantor of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig before Bach worked there. In the present, we know that The Leipzig years marked one of Bach's most productive periods, during which he composed masterpieces such as the St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, the b minor mass, the Goldberg variations, the Art of the Fugue, the partitas, and the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. When Kuhnau died, the Job was actually initially offered to composer and organist Christop Graupner, but after he rejected it, it went to Bach, the second choice. In the present day, it seems impossible to us that with Bach’s composition and organ abilities, he would ever be considered second choice to any position, but one way or another, due to the death of Kuhnau, Bach made it to Leipzig and from there gifted us with some of his best masterpieces.

Kuhnau's most intriguing works arguably reside in his six Biblical sonatas. These compositions serve as prime exemplars of highly detailed programmatic music, defying the expectations of their era. For instance, the first sonata immerses the listener in the narrative of David and Goliath, encapsulating the intense battle between the two iconic figures from the Old Testament.

excerpt from Johann Kuhnau’s first Biblical Sonata

 While Bach may not have been as well-traveled or international as someone like Jakob Froberger, his unique ability to absorb and harmonize the musical influences surrounding him sets him apart. Exploring the music of these influences acquires a deeper resonance when we acknowledge the profound impact they had on Johann Sebastian Bach. The works of Jan Sweenlinck, Jakob Froberger, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Johann Fischer might not be as renowned or cherished as Bach's keyboard compositions are today, but it's essential to acknowledge the significant role they played in shaping the foundation upon which Bach's music was built.