Johann Sebastian Bach

During his lifetime Johann Sebastian Bach enjoyed greater renown for his exceptional skill at the organ than for any music he created. The sacred vocal pieces, organ and choral compositions, and remaining instrumental works display an exuberance and apparent liberty that mask an underlying structural discipline of extraordinary strictness. His command of counterpoint stood out for both its technical daring and originality, while the elaborate architecture of his scores—frequently embedding theological and numerical references that interlock with puzzle-like precision—continues to astonish performers. Countless musicians still regard him as the supreme composer in history.

Bach entered the world in Eisenach during 1685. His father, court trumpeter Johann Ambrosius in the service of the Duke of Eisenach, instructed him on the violin and harpsichord. Before the boy reached his tenth birthday his father passed away, leaving him without parents; he then joined his eldest brother Johann Christoph, newly wed and residing in Ohrdruf. Thanks to a remarkable singing voice he secured a place at the Michaelis monastery in Lüneberg in 1700. Although his voice soon broke, he remained there playing instruments. A brief appointment as violinist in Weimar during 1703 preceded his move to the post of organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, which he held from 1703 to 1707. Relations with the church authorities remained strained because the young musician regularly neglected assigned duties in favor of private organ practice. One record notes a four-month leave approved so he could journey to Lübeck and absorb the style of Dietrich Buxtehude; he overstayed the period and returned to official displeasure. In June 1707 he accepted a short-term organist position at St. Blasius in Mühlhausen, where that autumn he wed his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. While there he completed the celebrated Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) together with his earliest cantatas, yet he soon felt the town’s resources insufficient. In 1708 he entered the service of the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar as court organist and orchestral player, rising to director of the ensemble in 1714. Numerous organ works, among them the Orgel-Büchlein, date from these years, during which he also began the preludes and fugues later gathered as Das wohltemperierte Klavier. Political tensions at court prompted his departure; in December 1717 he became Kapellmeister at Köthen. Bach’s first wife died suddenly in 1720, leaving him responsible for four surviving children after three others had perished in infancy. He soon met soprano Anna Magdalena Wilcke and married her in December 1721; she gave birth to thirteen children, of whom five reached adulthood. The six Brandenburg Concertos (BWV 1046–51) and numerous additional secular pieces belong to the Köthen period.

In May 1723—following Georg Philipp Telemann’s refusal—Bach assumed the post of Kantor at the Thomas School in Leipzig, retaining it until his death. There he produced the greater part of both his sacred and secular cantatas. Dissatisfaction grew over modest compensation, heavy obligations, and poor facilities, leading him to accept the directorship of the Collegium Musicum in 1729; this professional and amateur ensemble performed weekly concerts. In 1736 he also took the title of music director at the Dresden Court under Frederick Augustus II, a role whose imprecise requirements granted him latitude to compose freely. During the 1740s he made repeated journeys to Berlin, where his son Carl Philipp Emanuel held a court appointment. The Goldberg Variations, one of the few works issued during his lifetime, appeared in 1741. In May 1747 King Frederick II of Prussia received him cordially and received in return the intricate Musical Offering (BWV 1079). Among Bach’s final compositions stands the Mass in B minor of 1749. Afflicted by diabetes, he died on 28 July 1750.