THE BACH SONS AS “SYMPHONISTS”

Chapter:

CHAPTER 10 Instrumental Music Lifts Off

Source:

MUSIC IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

Among the other composers of concert symphonies whose works became early classics of the genre were two of J. S. Bach’s sons. Johann Christian Bach, a prolific composer of opera seria and, later in life, a concert impresario in his own right, naturally gravitated toward the genre as a spinoff from his primary activities. The interchangeability of opera overture and early symphony, both as genres and as terms, is well illustrated by J. C. Bach’s popular Symphony in B♭, op. 18 no. 2. It was originally composed in 1774 as the sinfonia avanti l’opera preceding Bach’s Lucio Silla. Publication followed seven years later in London, in a set entitled “Six Grand Overtures,” of which two others were actual operatic sinfonias and the remaining three were symphonies composed for concert use. The use of the word “overture” to refer to what we now call symphonies persisted in London to the end of the century.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 10 Instrumental Music Lifts Off." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-10004.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 10 Instrumental Music Lifts Off. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-10004.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 10 Instrumental Music Lifts Off." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-10004.xml