Johann Sebastian Bach
German Baroque master of counterpoint and keyboard music
1685
1750
German
Baroque
The Well-Tempered Clavier, Mass in B minor, Brandenburg Concertos
Early life
Johann Sebastian Bach was born on 21 March 1685 in Eisenach, in the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach, into a family of musicians that had produced notable performers and composers for generations. Orphaned at ten, he was raised by his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, an organist who gave him keyboard lessons. Bach's voracious appetite for learning led him to copy out scores by candlelight and to walk long distances to hear distinguished organists. He held positions as church organist in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, then as court organist and concertmaster in Weimar, before becoming Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen in 1717. In 1723 he accepted the position of Cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, a post he held for the remaining twenty-seven years of his life.
Career and major works
Bach's output is staggering in both scope and quality. His keyboard works include The Well-Tempered Clavier (two books, 1722 and 1742), comprising forty-eight preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys; the Goldberg Variations (1741); and the monumental Art of Fugue (1750). For orchestra he composed the six Brandenburg Concertos (1721), four orchestral suites, and concertos for various instruments. His sacred vocal output includes over two hundred surviving church cantatas, the Christmas Oratorio (1734), the St John Passion (1724), the St Matthew Passion (1727), and the Mass in B minor (1749). His organ works, including the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the Passacaglia in C minor, and the chorale preludes, define the pinnacle of Baroque organ literature.
Musical style and legacy
Bach's music represents the supreme synthesis of Baroque contrapuntal mastery with expressive depth. His command of counterpoint — the art of combining independent melodic lines — has never been equalled. His harmonic language, while rooted in the conventions of his time, is of extraordinary richness and daring. Although his music was admired by connoisseurs during his lifetime, widespread public recognition came only after Mendelssohn revived the St Matthew Passion in 1829. Today he is universally regarded as one of the greatest composers in Western music. He died in Leipzig on 28 July 1750.