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Johann Sebastian Bach Biography

(1685 - 1750)

Life
Reputation and influence
- Revival of music
- Editions of Bach's works

Related Works

Harpsichord concertos
Sinfonias
Chamber music

1720 6 Sonatas and partitas for solo violin
1723 6 Sonatas for violin and harpsichord
c.1720 6 Suites for solo cello
1747 Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering)
Flute sonatas
Trio sonatas
Keyboard music
c.1720 Chromatic fantasia and fugue in D minor
1722, 1742 Das wohltemperirte Clavier (The well-tempered keyboard), the ‘48’
c.1724 6 English suites
c.1724 6 French suites
1731 6 Partitas
1735 Italian Concerto
1735 French Overture
1722, 1741 Goldberg Variations
c.1745 Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue)
Inventions
Suites
Dances
Capriccios
Organ music
600+ Chorale preludes
Concertos
Preludes
Fugues
Toccatas
Sonatas
Fantasias
Sacred choral music
1724 St John Passion
1727 St Matthew Passion
1734 Christmas Oratorio
1749 Mass in B
1723 Magnificat in D
200+ Church cantatas
c.1744 No.80 Ein feste Burg is unser Gott
1731 No.140 Wachet auf
Motets
1727 Singet dem Herrn
?1723 Jesu meine Freude
Chorales
Sacred songs
Arias
Secular vocal music
30+ cantatas
c.1735 No.211 ‘Coffee Cantata’
1742 No.212 ‘Peasant Cantata’
Orchestral music
1721 Brandenburg Concertos nos. 1–6
4 Orchestral suites
c.1725 Suite in C
c.1725 Suite in D
c.1731 Suite in D
1731 Suite in B minor

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Related People

Wolfgang Mozart

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(born March 21, 1685, Eisenach, Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies—died July 28, 1750, Leipzig) composer of the Baroque era, the most celebrated member of a large family of northern German musicians. Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist, organist, and expert on organ building, Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces of church and instrumental music. Appearing at a propitious moment in the history of music, Bach was able to survey and bring together the principal styles, forms, and national traditions that had developed during preceding generations and, by virtue of his synthesis, enrich them all.

He was a member of a remarkable family of musicians who were proud of their achievements, and about 1735 he drafted a genealogy, Ursprung der musicalisch-Bachischen Familie (“Origin of the Musical Bach Family”), in which he traced his ancestry back to his great-great-grandfather Veit Bach, a Lutheran baker (or miller) who late in the 16th century was driven from Hungary to Wechmar in Thuringia, a historic region of Germany, by religious persecution and died in 1619. There were Bachs in the area before then, and it may be that, when Veit moved to Wechmar, he was returning to his birthplace. He used to take his cittern to the mill and play it while the mill was grinding. Johann Sebastian remarked, “A pretty noise they must have made together! However, he learnt to keep time, and this apparently was the beginning of music in our family.”Until the birth of Johann Sebastian, his was the least distinguished branch of the family; some of its members, such as Johann Christoph and Johann Ludwig, had been competent practical musicians but not composers. In later days the most important musicians in the family were Johann Sebastian's sons—Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christian (the “English Bach”).

Life

Early years

J.S. Bach was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. Ambrosius was a string player, employed by the town council and the ducal court of Eisenach. Johann Sebastian started school in 1692 or 1693 and did well in spite of frequent absences. Of his musical education at this time, nothing definite is known; however, he may have picked up the rudiments of string playing from his father, and no doubt he attended the Georgenkirche, where Johann Christoph Bach was organist until 1703.