7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7

Last Years

In May 1747 Bach visited his son (Carl Philipp) Emanuel
at Potsdam and played before Frederick II the Great of
Prussia. In July his improvisations, on a theme proposed by
the king, took shape as The Musical Offering. In June 1747 he
joined a Society of the Musical Sciences, to which he pre-
sented the canonic variations on the chorale Vom Himmel
hoch da komm’ ich her (From Heaven Above to Earth I Come).
Of Bach’s last illness little is known except that it lasted
several months and prevented him from finishing The Art
of the Fugue; he succumbed to his illness on July 28, 1750, at
Leipzig. Anna Magdalena was left badly off. Her stepsons
apparently did nothing to help her, and her own sons were
too young to do so. She died on Feb. 27, 1760, and was given
a pauper’s funeral. Unfinished as it was, The Art of the Fugue
was published in 1751 and was reissued in 1752. Very few
copies were sold, however.

Joseph Haydn

(b. March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria—d. May 31, 1809, Vienna)

A

ustrian composer Joseph Haydn was one of the most
important figures in the development of the Classical
style in music during the 18th century. He helped establish
the forms and styles for the string quartet and the
symphony.

Early Years

Haydn’s father was a wheelwright, his mother, before her
marriage, a cook for the lords of the village. Haydn early
revealed unusual musical gifts, and a cousin who was a
school principal and choirmaster in the nearby city of
Hainburg offered to take him into his home and train him.