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Bach 1685 - 1750 (65)

Harmony is next to Godliness.


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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) was a Baroque German composer, conductor, music educator, violinist, and organist. He is considered one of the leading figures in the history of music, as he perfected polyphony and established the tonal system on which Western Music is based. He was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach (now in the German state of Thuringia) and was the youngest of eight children. His father was a musician who taught him music from a young age. Unfortunately, both of his parents, as well as some of his siblings, died during the plague epidemic of 1695. Johann was just ten years old at the time and went to live with his older brother, who was also a musician in the town of Ohrdruf. There he was taught instruments, harpsichord, theory, and composition. He completed his formal studies in 1700 and began working as a musician at St. Michael's Cathedral in Lüneburg, where he presented his first cantata. Today, this church is called "The Church of Bach". In 1707, he married his second cousin with whom he had seven children. Bach faced many problems with his employers at St. Michael's Cathedral, which eventually led to his resignation. He took the position of organist at the Church of St. Blasius in the city of Mühlhausen, where he continued to write and present cantatas. However, interventions in his musical work by the ecclesiastical authorities of the city once again became a reason for his resignation. In 1708, he began to serve as a musician in the Weimar Court, where he wrote many important works. However, after a while, his relations with the court were disturbed as they tried to interfere in his work. In November 1717, he was imprisoned for a month for defying the musical wishes of the local Weimar ruler.



After his release from prison, he began working for Prince Leopold in Köthen. There Bach conducted the choir and orchestra and from 1717-1723 wrote his most important concertos and sonatas. In 1720, his wife died unexpectedly, and the following year he married the daughter of a fellow musician with whom he had 13 more children. However, it was not long before he was again faced with problems and moved to Leipzig as the director of the church choir.

The position was challenging and often brought him into conflict with the city council, as he was barred from writing music for the theater and was forced to constantly compose new pieces for Sundays and holidays and to teach at St. Thomas's school. Bach fulfilled his duties, producing an extremely large volume of work, but his health was collapsing, and his eyesight was becoming increasingly weak. He was permanently blinded after two failed surgeries performed by a wandering English "doctor." After postoperative complications and poor treatment, Bach died on July 28, 1750, at the age of 65, leaving behind eleven descendants (nine of his 20 children had died at a young age), five of whom became musicians. He also left more than 1000 works that cover a wide range of both instrumental (works for harpsichord, church instrument, concerto) and vocal music (oratorios, services, cantatas).