Early Life Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

II LIFE

German composer Johann Sebastian Bach traveled throughout Europe during the 18th century, working as an organist and composer in service to both churches and royalty. Though Bach wrote a number of masterful works during his travels, he did not receive full recognition from his contemporaries for his compositional ideas. Instead he gained his reputation principally through his musicianship as an organist. Since the mid-19th century, however, Bach’s works have been celebrated for their remarkable use of counterpoint, a technique in which two or more melodies are simultaneously combined.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, a small city in the German region of Thüringen, into a family that over seven generations produced more than 50 prominent musicians. During his life Bach worked at a number of German courts, as organist or music director, and spent his last 27 years in Leipzig teaching and composing. Bach was married twice and had 20 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood. A number of his children became prominent musicians.
Early Life
ach’s father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was town music director and court trumpeter in Eisenach, and his father’s cousin, Johann Christoph, served as court organist. In all likelihood the young Bach received instruction in string playing from his father and sang in the choir of Saint George’s, the court church, under Johann Christoph Bach. At age seven he entered the Latin School, which German theologian Martin Luther had attended two centuries earlier. There Bach made good progress in his studies.

Life changed drastically for Bach with the death of his mother in 1694, followed one year later by the death of his father. The ten-year-old boy was taken in by his oldest brother, 23-year-old Johann Christoph, who worked as an organist in nearby Ohrdruf. There Bach continued his studies at the Lyceum, and was given thorough keyboard instruction by his brother. Together, the two Bachs often made manuscript copies of contemporary works. Under his brother’s guidance, young Bach became acquainted with a wide variety of German keyboard music.

As Johann Christoph’s family expanded, it became increasingly difficult to house his younger brother, and consequently at age 15 Bach sought and attained a scholarship to the Saint Michael’s School in Lüneburg in northern Germany. Here, in return for singing in the choir, he received room, board, tuition, and a small spending allowance. In Lüneburg he probably continued his organ studies with Georg Böhm, a master of hymn-tune variations and harpsichord dance suites. In addition, he made several trips to Hamburg to hear the virtuosic improvisations of organist Johann Adam Reincken.

In 1702 the 17-year-old Bach successfully competed for an organist position in the village of Sangerhausen but seems to have been disqualified at the last minute because of his youth. The following year he worked for a brief time as a “lackey and violinist” at the court in Weimar. Soon thereafter he was paid to test and inaugurate the recently installed organ in the New Church in Arnstadt. The church officials were so impressed with his playing that they immediately hired him to replace the existing organist, for whom they found other work.

Arnstadt: 1703-1707
Mühlhausen: 1707-1708
Weimar: 1708-1717
Köthen: 1717-1723
Leipzig: 1723-1750

III WORKS

Cantatas
Motets
Oratorios and Passions
Magnificat and B-Minor Mass
Organ Works
Clavier Works
Works for Solo Instruments
Works for Instrumental Ensemble
Musical Offering, Canonic Variations, Art of Fugue
Method of Composing

IV THE REVIVAL OF BACH’S MUSIC