Born 1685 in Eisenach
Johann Sebastian was born into a musical dynasty. Uncles, cousins, fathers, cats, dogs; you name it, the Bachs were legendary in musical circles.
The child prodigy
By age 10, Bach's
mother and father had both died, he moved to the nearby town of Ohrdruf
with his elder brother, Johann Christoph Bach. His brother taught him
music, but wasn't too keen on Johann Sebastian copying out his scores.
The younger Bach had to sneak peaks at Johann Christoph's music library
under cover of darkness. This 10-year-old was getting good, and nobody
could hold him back.
The amazing organist
Bach took a choral scholarship at St. Michael's School in
Lüneburg. The surname on the CV probably helped. He met all sorts of
people, and heard a whole heap of new musical styles. He sang and played
the organ; he was very good at the organ - leaps and bounds ahead of
anyone else.
Off to see his hero
Bach had an idol, and it was Dieterich Buxtehude. He
decided that Buxtehude's famously extravagant Abendmusiken concerts in
Lübeck had to be experienced, so the young composer famously made the
250-mile journey on foot. Let's hope he enjoyed the gig.
Getting into fights
The maestro apparently called one of his students a "nanny-goat bassoonist" - and it sparked a marketplace brawl. Boys will be boys.
Doing what he did best: church music
Bach took another church job in Weimar, and soon became known as one of Germany's greatest composers and virtuosos, taking on organ pupils from far and wide. He also
married Maria Barbara – so happy times all round (for the time being at
least).
A bit of aristocratic chamber music
Either he'd had enough of the church, or he just fancied a
bit of extra shut-eye on a Sunday morning, but Bach soon moved on to
pastures new:
Prince Leopold's court in Cöthen . Here, he pumped out huge amounts of chamber music. And a good thing too.
And heading to Leipzig
Bach's first wife died suddenly, and the composer got
married for a second time - to singer Anna Magdalena Wilcke. Prince
Leopold had married too, but his wife wasn't too fond of music. It was
time for the Bach family to move on again, and Leipzig it was.
A big family
He wasn't just prolific in music - his family was
flourishing (he had 20 children in all). His wife Anna Magdalena helped
in the music copying, and several of his sons were making big names for
themselves as composers and musicians.
His inner geek released
Bach grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with
the authorities at St. Thomas's Church - so he amused himself in
creating large scale, and quite geeky, compositional projects.
So enigmatic...
Bach loved numbers, and musical riddles. Many of his
great works contain encoded numerological messages and complex things
like mirrored sections.
All sorts of puzzles and fugues
The Musical Offering was a collection of musical puzzles
on a single melodic theme - and included something termed the 'Crab
Fugue'.
Bach, and the future
When Bach died in 1750 his style of composition was
considered old-fashioned and rather out-of-date. His sons. composing in
new styles, were now considered the hottest things in town. But over the
following decades and centuries Bach's music was rediscovered and he
became regarded as one of the finest composers in musical history. Many have since tried to imitate, but there's only one.
