Symphonies of the Bach Familiy

Every generation creates its own forms of expression. Often, this happens in an abrupt departure from what came before. And not infrequently, the provocative gestures in which a new attitude to life is articulated disappear again just as quickly as they were created. Such thoughts may also have moved Johann Sebastian Bach when, in the early 1740s, his two eldest sons took up the genre of the symphony, which originated in Italy and was accompanied by a novel treatment of the orchestra and compositional technique. Together with their generational peers, they created an independent line of tradition that was later referred to by music historians as the “symphony of the North German school.” The fact that the symphony did not remain a short-lived fad favored by a handful of young savages, but advanced to a genre that soon came to be regarded as the “recognized highest form of instrumental music,” is one of the most significant and momentous musical achievements of the 18th century: