THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSICIANS OF ALL TIME

7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

Among the works that can be ascribed to these early
years are the Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello
dilettissimo (1704; Capriccio on the Departure of His Most
Beloved Brother, BWV 992), the chorale prelude on Wie
schön leuchtet (c. 1705; How Brightly Shines, BWV 739), and
the fragmentary early version of the organ Prelude and
Fugue in G Minor (before 1707, BWV 535a). (The “BWV”
numbers provided are the standard catalog numbers of
Bach’s works as established in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis,
prepared by the German musicologist Wolfgang
Schmieder.)

The Mühlhausen Period

In June 1707 Bach obtained a post at the Blasiuskirche in
Mühlhausen in Thuringia. He moved there soon after and
married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach at Dornheim on
October 17. At Mühlhausen he produced several church
cantatas; all of these works are cast in a conservative mold,
based on biblical and chorale texts. The famous organ
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565), written in the
rhapsodic northern style, and the Prelude and Fugue in D
Major (BWV 532) may also have been composed during
the Mühlhausen period, as well as the organ Passacaglia in
C Minor (BWV 582), an early example of Bach’s instinct
for large-scale organization. Cantata No. 71, Gott ist mein
König (God Is My King), of Feb. 4, 1708, was the first of
Bach’s compositions to be published. Bach resigned from
his post in Mühlhausen on June 25, 1708, and subsequently
moved to Weimar, on the Ilm River.

The Weimar Period

Bach was, from the outset, court organist at Weimar and a
member of the orchestra. From Weimar, he occasionally