Johann Sebastian Bach
1685-1750
The fate of the music of this great German composer, born more than three hundred years ago, is truly remarkable. During his lifetime, he was recognized primarily as an organist and an expert in musical instruments, but after his death, he was almost forgotten for several decades. However, over time, his work was gradually rediscovered and admired as a precious artistic treasure, unparalleled in craftsmanship, inexhaustible in depth, and filled with humanism. "Not a stream! — His name should be Ocean." This is how another musical genius, Beethoven, spoke of Bach.
*"Bach" translates from German as "brook."
​
Bach was able to publish only a small part of his works during his lifetime. Now, more than a thousand have been published (and many are still lost). The first complete collection of Bach's works began to be printed in Germany a hundred years after his death, and it took forty-six large volumes. It's impossible to even roughly count how many individual editions of Bach's music have been published and continue to be published in various countries. The demand for his work is so great, as it holds a vast and honored place not only in the global concert repertoire but also in music education.
Johann Sebastian Bach continues to be a teacher to literally everyone who engages in music. He is a serious and strict teacher, requiring the ability to focus in order to master the art of performing polyphonic works. But those who are not afraid of difficulties and carefully adhere to his demands will feel the wise and heartfelt kindness behind his sternness, which he imparts through his beautiful and immortal creations.
​
​
​
Life Path: Family and Childhood
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Thuringia, a region in central Germany, in the small town of Eisenach, surrounded by forests. At that time, Thuringia still felt the heavy consequences of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), in which two large European power blocs clashed. Bach’s ancestors, closely connected to the German artisan and peasant community, had endured this devastating war. His great-great-grandfather, Veit, was a baker, but loved music so much that he never parted with his zither — an instrument similar to a mandolin — and even played it while milling grain at the mill.
Among his descendants, who settled throughout Thuringia and neighboring regions, there were so many musicians that anyone involved in the profession came to be called "Bach" in that area. They were church organists, violinists, flutists, trumpeters, and some showed talent as composers. They were employed by city municipalities and at the courts of rulers of the small principalities and duchies into which Germany was fragmented.
Johann Sebastian’s father was a violinist and a musician for the city and the court in Eisenach. He began teaching his younger son music and sent him to a church school. With a beautiful high voice, the boy sang in the school choir. When he was about ten years old, both of his parents died. His older brother, a church organist in the nearby town of Ohrdruf, took responsibility for the orphaned Johann Sebastian. He enrolled his younger brother in the local lyceum and personally gave him organ lessons. Later, Johann Sebastian also became a harpsichordist, violinist, and violist. From a young age, he began learning musical composition on his own, copying the works of various composers. One particularly interesting music notebook had to be copied secretly by moonlight, as his older brother had forbidden him to do so. However, when the long and difficult work was finished, his brother discovered it, got angry at Johann Sebastian for disobedience, and ruthlessly took the manuscript away.
Beginning of Independent Life: Lüneburg
At fifteen, Johann Sebastian made a decisive step — he moved to the distant northern German city of Lüneburg, where he became a choir singer and scholar at a school attached to a monastery church. In the school library, he could acquaint himself with many manuscripts of works by German musicians. In Lüneburg and Hamburg, where he traveled by country roads, he could listen to the playing of talented organists. It’s possible that in Hamburg, Johann Sebastian visited the opera theater — the only one in Germany at that time giving performances in German rather than Italian. He successfully completed school in three years and began searching for work closer to his native region.
Weimar
After briefly serving as a violinist and organist in three towns, Bach, already married, settled in Weimar (Thuringia) in 1708 for nine years. There, he was an organist at the duke’s court, and later vice-kapellmeister (assistant director of the chapel choir and instrumental ensemble). Already as a teenager in Ohrdruf, Bach began composing music, particularly arranging Protestant chorales for the organ — his favorite instrument. In Weimar, he created some of his remarkable mature organ works, such as the *Toccata and Fugue in D Minor*,
the *Passacaglia in C Minor*,
and the *Chorale Preludes*.
By this time, Bach had become an unrivaled performer and improviser on both the organ and the harpsichord. This was clearly demonstrated by the following event: Once, Bach traveled to the Saxon capital of Dresden, where a competition between him and the famous French organist and harpsichordist Louis Marchand was arranged. However, after hearing Bach’s brilliant improvisations on the harpsichord, Marchand secretly fled Dresden before the contest could take place.
At the Weimar court, Bach had the opportunity to familiarize himself with works by Italian and French composers. He approached their achievements with great interest and artistic initiative. For example, he created several free arrangements for harpsichord and organ of Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concertos. Thus, the first keyboard concertos in the history of music were born.
During his three years in Weimar, Bach was required to compose a new sacred cantata every fourth Sunday. In total, he created more than thirty works in this way. However, when the aging court kapellmeister, whose duties Bach had essentially been performing, passed away, the vacant position was not given to Bach but to the deceased man’s untalented son. Outraged by this injustice, Bach submitted his resignation. For his “disrespectful demand,” he was placed under house arrest. However, he showed proud and determined persistence, standing firm in his decision. After a month, the duke reluctantly issued the “displeased order” to release the rebellious musician.
Vivaldi-Bach Concerto in A Minor
Chorale Prelude in F Minor
Köthen
At the end of 1717, Bach moved with his family to Köthen. He was offered the position of court kapellmeister by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen, ruler of a small state neighboring Thuringia. The prince, who sang and played the harpsichord and the viola da gamba, treated Bach with great respect and provided him with good material support. Bach’s duties, which took up relatively little of his time, involved leading an ensemble of eighteen vocalists and instrumentalists, accompanying the prince, and playing the harpsichord himself. In Köthen, Bach composed many works for various instruments, particularly keyboard music. On the one hand, these were pieces for beginners — small preludes, two-part and three-part inventions, written by Bach for his eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann. On the other hand, he composed the first of two volumes of the monumental work The Well-Tempered Clavier, which included 48 preludes and fugues, as well as a major concert work, *The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue*.
The Köthen period also saw the creation of two collections of keyboard suites known as the *French Suites* and the *English Suites*. Prince Leopold took Bach on trips to neighboring states. When Johann Sebastian returned from one such trip in 1720, he was struck by a great sorrow — his wife Maria Barbara had just passed away, leaving behind four children (three others had died young). A year and a half later, Bach remarried. His second wife, Anna Magdalena, had a fine voice and was very musical. Working with her, Bach compiled two clavier *Notebooks*, consisting of pieces by him and other composers. Anna Magdalena was a kind and caring companion to Johann Sebastian. She bore him thirteen children, six of whom survived to adulthood.
Leipzig
In 1723, Bach moved to Leipzig, a large trading and cultural center in neighboring Saxony. He maintained good relations with Prince Leopold but saw that the musical opportunities in Köthen were limited — there was no large organ or choir. Moreover, Bach’s eldest sons were growing up, and he wanted to provide them with a good education. In Leipzig, Bach took the position of cantor — director of the boys' choir and teacher at St. Thomas Church School (Thomasschule). He had to accept some restrictive conditions, such as “not leaving the city without the permission of the mayor.” Bach was assigned many duties, including dividing the small school choir and orchestra (really just an ensemble) so that music could be performed during services at two churches, as well as at weddings, funerals, and various celebrations. Not all of the choirboys had good musical talent. The school building was dirty, neglected, and its students were poorly fed and dressed in rags. Bach, who was also considered Leipzig’s “music director,” often called attention to these issues with the church authorities and city management (magistrate). However, he received little financial assistance in return, only petty service complaints and reprimands.
Bach taught his students not only singing but also instrumental performance, and even hired a Latin teacher at his own expense. Despite these difficult circumstances, Bach devoted himself passionately to composing. In the first three years of his service, he wrote and rehearsed a new sacred cantata almost every week. About two hundred of Bach’s works in this genre have survived. In addition, several dozen of his secular cantatas are known, most of which were congratulatory pieces addressed to various prominent figures. One exception is the humorous *Coffee Cantata*, written in Leipzig, resembling a scene from a comic opera. It tells the story of lively young Lieschen, who becomes fascinated by the new coffee craze despite her grumpy father Schlendrian’s warnings.
​
​​​ In Leipzig, Bach created his most outstanding monumental vocal and instrumental works — *St. John Passion*, *St. Matthew Passion*,
and the *Mass in B Minor*.
He also composed a large number of instrumental works, including the second volume of *The Well-Tempered Clavier* and the collection *The Art of Fugue*. Bach traveled to Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin, and other German cities, performing on organs and testing new instruments. For more than ten years, Bach led Leipzig’s "Musical Society," composed of university students and amateur musicians — both instrumentalists and singers. Under Bach’s direction, they performed public concerts featuring secular music. Despite his incredible skill, Bach was free from arrogance and often said: "I had to work hard; anyone who works just as hard will achieve the same."
Bach’s large family brought him many concerns but also great joy. In their circle, he could hold entire home concerts. Four of his sons became renowned composers: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel (children of Maria Barbara), and Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian (children of Anna Magdalena). With age, Bach’s health deteriorated, and his eyesight declined sharply. In early 1750, he underwent two unsuccessful eye surgeries, became blind, and died on July 28th.
Johann Sebastian Bach lived a difficult and industrious life, illuminated by his brilliant creative inspiration. He left behind little wealth, and Anna Magdalena passed away ten years later in a poorhouse. Bach’s youngest daughter, Regina Susanna, who lived into the 19th century, was saved from poverty through private donations, to which Beethoven contributed.