Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach Partita

Le Jeune Homme

et la Mort
Sentient Bach

Solo

Troika

One of the most profoundly inspired and masterful composers in history, Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a musical family on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia (in eastern Germany). The youngest of eight children, Johann Sebastian was destined to become a musician: while still a boy, he mastered the organ and violin, and was also an excellent singer. At the age of fifteen, Bach secured his first position in the choir of St. Michael's School in Lüneburg. He traveled little -- never leaving Germany in his lifetime -- but held various postitions during his career in churches and in the service of various princely courts throughout the country.

After holding positions as organist and concertmaster in Arnstadt, Mülhausen and at the court of the Duke of Weimar - and getting married (to his cousin, Maria Barbara) -- Bach moved on in 1717 to the post of Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold in Cöthen. During the years Bach was in the service of the courts, he was obliged to compose a great deal of instrumental music: hundreds of pieces for solo keyboard, orchestral dance suites, trio sonatas for various instruments, and concertos for various instruments and orchestra. Of these, the most famous are the six concerti grossi composed for the Duke of Brandenburg in 1721, known as the Brandenburg Concertos. Of Bach's music for solo instruments, the six suites for violoncello and the sonatas and partitas for solo violin are among the greatest for those instruments.

Maria Barbara died suddenly in 1720, having borne the composer seven children. Within a year Bach remarried. The daughter of the town trumpeter, Anna Magdalena Bach would prove to be an exceptional companion and helpmate to the composer -- and gave him 13 more children. (Of Bach's twenty offspring, ten died in infancy. Four became well-known composers, including Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian.) Soon after his second marriage, Bach took a position as organist and cantor at St. Thomas' Church, Leipzig, where he remained for the rest of his life.

A devout Lutheran, Bach composed a great many sacred works, as his duties required in the employ of the church. He gave the church - and the world -- well over two hundred cantatas (a new one was required of him every week), several motets, five masses, three oratorios, and four settings of the Passion story. Bach also wrote vast amounts of music for his chosen instrument, the organ, much of which is still regarded as the pinnacle of the repertoire.

Towards the end of 1749, Bach's failing eyesight was operated on by a traveling surgeon, the catastrophic results of which were complete blindness. His health failing, Bach nevertheless continued to compose, dictating his work to a pupil. He finally succombed to a stroke on July 28, 1750, and was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Thomas' Church. Later music scholars would mark the end of the Baroque age of composition with the passing of Bach.