d St. Nicholas churches, conducing the choirs, overseeing the musical activities of numerous municipal churches, and teaching Latin in the St. Thomas choir school. Although demanding, Bach persisted and succeeded in Leipzig and continued to write music of various kinds with a level of craft and emotional profundity that was his alone. Bach remained at his post in Leipzig until his death in 1750. Although he was blinded by cataract problems in the early 1740s, he still managed to compose masterful pieces up until days before his death. His last musical composition that he crafted happened to be a choral prelude, which was dedicated to his son-in law. To this day more than 1,000 of Bach’s accomplished compositions survive. Some of his most famous works include the “Brandenburg Concerto,” The “Mass In B Minor,” “The Goldberg Variations for Harpsichord,” his vast amount of toccatas, especially his “Toccata In F Major,” his collection of variations on organ preludes captured in the “Well Tempered Clavier,” his immense amount of fugues and chorales including his “Fugue in G minor,” major as well as his tremendous amount of chorales, and his Christmas and Easter oratorios, which was another schism in his music genre. Quite frankly, the list goes on and on and on. Surely, Johann Sebastian Bach never believed that his success would become so heroic and monumental. However, we today perceive him to be one of the key individuals to shape the music we listen to. It is no secret that his writings, especially chorale writings, are used to illustrate the principles of our functional system of harmony. It is in this example alone that it can be seen that Bach’s works have not only survived to the point where they are still heard and listened to, but they also still provide us with knowledge and understanding from which we can learn and discover music. It is for these re...
