The Bach Top 33: The Most Favored Works of Johann Sebastian Bach..
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach: He was and remains without doubt the most gifted pipe organ player of all time. But he also composed for this instrument. And he was additionally a highly respected expert in organ building. © M. Doering..
Are These the Most Beautiful Music Works of Composer Johann Sebastian Bach?..
Johann Sebastian Bach and his music. What you will find on this page is first and foremost beautiful music by Johann Sebastian Bach. There are also beautiful pictures. What you will not find is a. an all-inclusive list of the most beautiful and most popular works by Johann Sebastian Bach, b. “any order”, c. any rating at all or ... d. the claim that my way of presentation makes any sense at all..
What is the best way to “transport” the music of Johann Sebastian Bach? To provide an introduction. One of many possible entry points. Bach is demanding ... you realize that very quickly. More precisely: as soon as you start to approach him. Genealogically, musically, whatever. “The bottom line”, however, is that my selection of musical works can actually be criticized in every respect. But ... I already know that..
The most beautiful ( ! ) works by Bach ... No, I'm not going to get into that. It would be a very subjective selection. It would only be based on my personal taste. And if I wanted to listen my way through the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, I would have to listen to around 160 CDs, each lasting an hour. That's how extensive the complete work is. That would hardly be helpful. Not for you, not for me. And ... this website wouldn't be ready for another three years..
You don't want to read any further? About my selection philosophy? About how you can make the most of this musical section of my website with this little “instruction manual”? Then simply click on the link three paragraphs above. This will take you directly to number 1 of the 33 most popular works by Johann Sebastian Bach..
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Just the Most Important: Music of Bach..
They are my favorites too ... but at the same time it is Bach's music that the world prefers to listen to. What makes me think that these following 33 are the works by Bach that the world prefers? That ... is actually quite simple. That's what YouTube, Google, Yahoo, and Co. are for. A few clicks and the results become clear. This is how I found out: “Bach + Fugue”, “Bach + Brandenburg Concerts”, “Bach + The Well-Tempered Clavier”: enter, wait for the search result, see the number of hits. It's very simple. Welcome to the 21st century. As always ... with a smile..
We live in the age of Internet 3.0, almost 4.0, and so the challenge is approached with an innovative approach. You ask Google for the most hits. Not with just one keyword, not with just one question. No, you formulate back and forth and see what comes up. What comes up when you search for works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Internet - via Google - delivers a fairly representative cross-section of results. After all, it's no longer just young people who surf. All baby boomers do too. However, the much older ones are perhaps underrepresented..
From now on, it is an entirely arbitrary decision whether you choose ten, 20, 30 or 100 titles. Of Bach's 1,128 works. That's right, the more you find and make one of the most popular, the less precise, because more personal, the selection becomes. I think exciting numbers are cool (... 66, 99, 999 etc.), so I decided on 33..
And we continue. Now we're browsing for works in the “Bach collections for beginners”. We do this until we've found lots of titles. It's similar with YouTube, and you get an initial feeling of which musical works match the search query “Johann Sebastian Bach”. Of course, the challenge of creating this website also helps.
From here, the whole game starts all over again. But now in the opposite direction. Now that the titles have been found, they serve as keywords. To check how much feedback Google, YouTube, and Yahoo provide on these individual pieces. You can explore what came out of this analysis from here and a little further down on this page of my website. It should be noted that Google, of course, represents the mainstream. And while I'm editing these lines, it occurs to me that I could also start a survey. Then, if this, my website really becomes what it should be. It would be a collaboration with many Bach institutions, Bach societies, Bach choirs, Bach orchestras and the general public, namely Bach enthusiasts and Bach beginners. That ... well, it would be a very elaborate idea..
And further with Bach on Bach. That is on my website: Now you think about what you want to see. You do this until you have found a subject for all the musical works I want to present..
The 33 Most-Favored Music Works of Johann Sebastian Bach ... With My 33 Photo Galleries..
1 Air From the Overture in D Major
Who doesn't know “Air”? Who hasn't heard it somewhere at some time or other? It is number 1068 in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (... Bach Works Catalogue). The picture compilation includes historical prints relating to Johann Sebastian Bach. There are historical postcards, pictures and more. Have fun watching and listening..
2 Prelude No. 1 From: The Well-Tempered Clavier..
No, Ludwigsburg is neither a Bach city nor a Bach location. Not at all. So why are there pictures of it here? Because, on the one hand, the themes for the visual underpainting of Bach's music “run out”. On the other hand, Ludwigsburg offers wonderful pictures of the palace there. The work has the BWV (... Bach Works Catalogue) number 846..
3 Concert No. 1 in D Minor
The BWV number 1052 to listen to and many Bach portraits to discover. What did Bach look like? Well, exactly as Elias Gottlob Haußmann painted him in 1746. That is, when Bach had to deliver three oil paintings of himself. At the time when he joined the Musical Society in Leipzig..
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4 Goldberg Variations
The same applies to the many Bach monuments that have been erected in honor of the super composer: Which work of art really looks like Bach? I have meanwhile found around 40 tributes. And the search continues. The New Bach Monument in Leipzig ... it is based on the painting by Haußmann, so it is "close". But did Bach look like he does in Arnstadt, in Dornheim and in Mühlhausen? We do not know. Listen to Bach's music to many of the pictures: It is the Bach work with the BWV number 988..
5 Christmas Oratorio
The Christmas Oratorio: It is number 248 in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. And that's right, Berlin is a Bach city. Even if only a minor one, but ... Bach was indeed busy there, and he also enjoyed the highlight of his musical career there, that is, making music for the “Old Fritz”..
6 St. Matthew Passion
You can read more about the St. Matthew Passion "right here on my website in the neighborhood". You can see pictures of this dream city of Dresden in the video above. It is a Bach city for me because Johann Sebastian Bach won what is probably the first song contest still known today, the competition with the Frenchman Marchand. The St. Matthew Passion has the BWV number 244..
7 St. John Passion
It is the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis number 245. You will see a tiny part of the more than 170 postage stamps that have been issued around the world on the subject of Bach for around 100 years. We have physically collected them all here. We have perfectly scanned them and organized them by country for you.
8 Minuet in G Major
That's right, Potsdam is Bach's city. Because Johann Sebastian Bach most likely played here for King Frederick II. And so did one of his famous sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, also known as the "Berlin Bach". At the time, CPE is said to have complained to the king that if he did not have the road between Berlin and Potsdam repaired, he would no longer play in Potsdam. The BWV number? It is 841..
9 Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Lübeck, a Bach city? A real Bach city? Well, for me, it is, because he made a pilgrimage there for around ten to eleven weeks. And if the daughter of the local organist
Dieterich Buxtehude hadn't been a lot older than Bach himself, his life would probably have turned out differently. Bach was working in Arnstadt at the time. He had applied for four weeks vacation but was away for twelve weeks. The work has the BWV no. 147..
10 Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor
Weimar is so naturally a Bach city that you hardly need to write another word about it. And yet there is no Bach House in Weimar worthy of the family's three super musicians. Bach worked and lived in this dream city for around ten years. Two particularly musically successful sons were born here. And the place where the Bachs' private life in Weimar took place is still undeveloped. It is also an ugly gap between buildings. Many Bach fans, including my wife and I, don't understand how it has been over 35 years since Bach was appropriately honored there..
11 Brandenburg Concerts: Concert 2
Of course, Ohrdurf. A whole branch of the Bachs lived there, which were called "Bache" back then. Today they are also called "Bäche". There are two monuments there in honor of this family. One stands directly next to the tower of St. Michael's Church. A second stands in the park in the city center. Johann Sebastian Bach lived here with his older brother and his eldest brother. The BWV number of this piece of music is 1047..
12 Brandenburg Concerts: Concert 3
The BWV number is 1048, and why do you see photos of
Gehren with this musical work? Because Gehren is one of the Bach locations for this “Bach on Bach” project.
Maria Barbara Bach was born here. She later became Johann Sebastian Bach's first wife. She was the daughter of Johann Michael Bach from Gehren, who was also a musician. He was a cantor and composer. The first monument honors Johann Sebastian Bach. A second monument still honors all the Bachs mentioned today..
13 French Suite No. 5
Weißenfels: Only Bach fans who are particularly interested in the life of the later Thomaskantor know that Bach was also the music director of the Weißenfels musicians of the local nobility. Bach was an advisor to the electoral chapel. He was “Hochfürstlicher Sächsisch-Weißenfelsischer würklicher Capellmeister”. And you can still read this at the castle there. The number of the work in the Bach works list? The 816..
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14 Easter Oratorio
Wechmar, of course. Visit Wechmar and listen to a few bars of the Easter Oratorio. The Easter Oratorio with the BWV number 249. Wechmar is the cradle of the Bach family of musicians. They existed before ... the Bache. But there is documentary evidence that Johann Sebastian Bach's great-great-grandfather played for the first time in this tiny but important Bach village. To the beat of the Veit Bach Mill, as it was of course not yet called at the time..
15 Sheep May Safely Graze
“Sheep can safely graze" is no. 208 in the BWV. Take a look at the small arrangement of wonderful photos that I took in this wonderful Bach city. Is Lüneburg a real Bach city? Of course, it is. After his time in Ohrdruf, Bach moved to Lüneburg with his friend Georg Erdmann and studied and sang there for two years before returning to Thuringia..
16 Coffee Cantata
What now? Gräfenroda is Bach's place? Although it is not mentioned in any of the historical biographies? In almost none? Yes, that's right. I found out ... or rather I rediscovered it, that the oldest records of the Bache family go back to Gräfenroda. A Bach moved from there to Bohemia. Then this family moved on to Austria. And from there they finally returned. So the Bachs were never in what was then Preßburg. Oh yes, the BWV number ... 211..
17 Peasant Cantata
Dornheim, around two minutes by car from the city limits of Arnstadt to the outskirts of Dornheim. It was there that Johann Sebastian Bach married his Maria Barbara Bach, a second cousin. This happened at the time when Bach was cantor in Mühlhausen. He must therefore very probably have met her during his time in Arnstadt. The BWV number of the peasant cantata? 212. And then: Didn't Bach also write a beer cantata?..
18 Violin Concert No. 2 in E Major
Andisleben, or as some Americans call it "Andioebin" ... what does this small community have to do with Johann Sebastian Bach? Nothing at all. Absolutely nothing. However, it does have a lot to do with the genealogy of the Bach family. Because Andisleben was once home to Bachs who emigrated. To America. The BWV number is 1042..
19 Sleepers Awake
Firstly, the BWV number: It is 645. Bach only lived and worked in Mühlhausen for one year. Then he moved on again. Once again, to Weimar, where he finally spent nine years. What else did he do during this time in
Mühlhausen? Apart from composing and making music? That's right, he got married. But not in the mighty Divi Blasii Cathedral in Mühlhausen, in front of which Bach's monument today reminds us of his work. Bach married his Maria Barbara in the small, cute wedding church, or village church, in Dornheim. Dornheim, very close to Arnstadt..
20 Minuet
The Père Lachaise cemetery has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Bach. But the photos you can take there are as great as a tourist visit to this cemetery. And then: Bach's music. It fits wonderfully, and you have something to look at while you enjoy the melody. Don't “Paris” and “Bach” go together at all? Well ... a little bit. Because Bach is honored with a plaque at the Paris Opera. And Louis Marchand came from Paris, against whom Bach won a music competition in Dresden. The BWV number is 114..
21 Toccata in D Minor
Who doesn't know it: the first few seconds of Bach's Toccata? And what fits better to the German capital than this impressive melody? Enjoy my pictures from Berlin, where, twelve years after the first pages of this website were created, I discovered the last Bach monument that I found in 2024..
22 Fuge in D Minor
Sure, Eisenach is the “Bach city of all Bach cities” alongside Leipzig. This is where the super musician was born and where he lived for almost ten years. Eisenach is certainly the most worthwhile Bach destination to relive his life's journey. There are two monuments there that honor him. Bach's elementary school is there. He was baptized in the Georgenkirche. This is where his father played music at the court of Eisenach. There is the Bach House and the Bach Museum. Eisenach is simply worth a Bach trip. The 565 is it. In the BWV.
23 The Art of the Fuge
Immediately the number in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis BWV: It is 1080. These are wonderful pictures, photographed in the Bach city of Arnstadt, which is well worth a visit. Bach had his first “real” job in Arnstadt. He was organist there. Three unmusical events and their "aftermath" caused him to resign: He applied for four weeks' leave, but was then away for twelve weeks. He had a “frembde Jungfer” (... a "foreign maiden") perform in the church. And he drew his sword against six of his choir students.
24 Musical Sacrifice
The Bach work 1079. And Gotha is actually a Bach city? Of course, it is, confirmed by the Lord Mayor himself. Bach played in Gotha. And Hans the Minstrel, Bach's great-grandfather, was a "great musical act" there. So it's quite clear: Gotha is a Bach city ... and ... very, very worth a visit.
25 Fuge in G Minor
And Flein has what to do with Bach? Nothing. Except that the two creative individuals who “run” this Bach Mission live here: Renate Bach and I, the author of this internet work. Flein is a small wine village near the city of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg. Enjoy Bach's music to the pictures from Flein ... with his work number 578.
26 Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin
No, Dinkelsbühl has nothing at all to do with Bach, except perhaps that you can certainly hear Bach works in the churches of this medieval town in Southern Germany. Incidentally, the work above is no. 1001 in the BWV. I took photos in Dinkelsbühl, and I am convinced that the motifs are perfectly suited to Bach's piece of music..
27 Overture No. 2 in B Minor
Rothenburg ob der Tauber does not have quite as little to do with Bach as Dinkelsbühl, one position higher up. Rothenburg has a very exciting ensemble of stained-glass windows in the town church of St. Jakobi. On the second floor, behind the world-famous Altar of the Holy Blood carved by Tilman Riemenschneider, next to the Luther window ensemble..
28 Concert No. 5 in F Minor
The “Bach city of all Bach cities”, but not necessarily a Johann Sebastian Bach city. Although JSB was certainly in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, to visit his family. There are still 60 entries about this, the largest family of musicians in the world, in the church records. For us, this is quite clear: Erfurt is Bach city. And what a city it is. The BWV number of the musical work is 1056..
29 I Had Much Grief
And once again a location that has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with Bach. Has, had and will have. Unless ... a monument is erected there in his honor. Schwäbisch Hall is a wonderful town and I took photos there. You can look at my pictures now. Together with the music of Bach, the work 21..
30 Suite No. 1 From the Six Cello Suites
BWV number 1007 marks the start of a second-last pictorial theme that has nothing to do with Bach. At least nothing to do with Bach beyond the use of his music for church services. There is a beautiful castle in
Weikersheim, very close to Heilbronn, my home. It's a paradise for photographers. A combination with Bach's music is available here and now in my offer..
31 Magnificat in D Major
The number in the BWV first ... It is 243. Leipzig, what a Bach city. A Bach city with three Bach memorials, if you include the Bach bust in St. Nicholai Church. And four Bach memorials if you count Bach's grave in St. Thomas Church. The Bach Archive, Bach Museum and many more “Bach attractions” await fans of the exceptional musician from all over the world..
32 Wilt Thou Now, Lord Jesus, Come From Heaven?
Bach has actually commented on this: Bach could very well imagine his future in Köthen. His employer,
Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen, was also his friend, who played music, too. The town was neither too small nor too big. And he and his music were held in high esteem. Then fate struck: His wife Maria Barbara died far too young. This fact also led him to decide to continue living in Leipzig and move away from Köthen.
33 Ave Maria
In Würzburg, too, Bach's music is “only” played in the city's churches. But there is no Bach memorial. However, there are the Würzburg “Bach Days”, a great series of events. Not because there are these days there, but because I took some great photos in Würzburg, I have created this photo series for the last of Bach's most popular musical works. They go perfectly with the master's Ave Maria. And to be precise: The Ave Maria that people usually mean when they talk about it is a collaboration between Bach and Gounod. Bach provided the "background", Gounod composed his melody "over it"..
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