Johann Sebastian Bach (born March 21 [March 31, New Style], 1685, Eisenach, Thuringia,
Ernestine Saxon Duchies [Germany]—died July 28, 1750, Leipzig) composer of the Baroque
era, the most celebrated member of a large family of north 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
By 1695 both his parents were dead, and he was looked after by his eldest brother,
also named Johann Christoph (1671–1721), organist at Ohrdruf. This Christoph
had been a pupil of the influential keyboard composer Johann Pachelbel, and he
apparently gave Johann Sebastian his first formal keyboard lessons. The young
Bach again did well at school, and in 1700 his voice secured him a place in a select
choir of poor boys at the school at Michaelskirche, Lüneburg.
His voice must have broken soon after this, but he remained at Lüneburg for a
time, making himself generally useful. No doubt he studied in the school library,
which had a large and up-to-date collection of church music; he probably
heard Georg Böhm, organist of the Johanniskirche; and he visited Hamburg to
hear the renowned organist and composer Johann Adam Reinken at the
Katharinenkirche, contriving also to hear the French orchestra maintained by the
duke of Celle.
He seems to have returned to Thuringia in the late summer of 1702. By this time he
was already a reasonably proficient organist. His experience at Lüneburg, if not at
Ohrdruf, had turned him away from the secular string-playing tradition of his
immediate ancestors; thenceforth he was chiefly, though not exclusively, a
composer and performer of keyboard and sacred music. The next few months are
wrapped in mystery, but by March 4, 1703, he was a member of the orchestra
employed by Johann Ernst, duke of Weimar (and brother of Wilhelm Ernst, whose
service Bach entered in 1708). This post was a mere stopgap; he probably already
had his eye on the organ then being built at the Neue Kirche (New Church)
in Arnstadt, for, when it was finished, he helped to test it, and in August 1703 he
was appointed organist—all this at age 18. Arnstadt documents imply that he had
been court organist at Weimar; this is incredible, though it is likely enough that he
had occasionally played there.
The Arnstadt period
At Arnstadt, on the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest, where he remained until 1707,
Bach devoted himself to keyboard music, the organ in particular. While at Lüneburg he had
apparently had no opportunity of becoming directly acquainted with the
spectacular, flamboyant playing and compositions of Dietrich Buxtehude, the most significant
exponent of the north German school of organ music. In October 1705 he repaired this gap in
his knowledge by obtaining a month’s leave and walking to Lübeck (more than 200 miles [300
km]). His visit must have been profitable, for he did not return until about the middle of
January 1706. In February his employers complained about his absence and about other
things as well: he had harmonized the hymn tunes so freely that the congregation could not
sing to his accompaniment, and, above all, he had produced no cantatas. Perhaps the real
reasons for his neglect were that he was temporarily obsessed with the organ and was on bad
terms with the local singers and instrumentalists, who were not under his control and did not
come up to his standards. In the summer of 1705 he had made some offensive remark about
a bassoon player, which led to an unseemly scuffle in the street. His replies to these
complaints were neither satisfactory nor even accommodating; and the fact that he was not
dismissed out of hand suggests that his employers were as well aware of his exceptional ability
as he was himself and were reluctant to lose him.
