Johann Sebastian Bach
 
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers in
Western musical history. More than 1,000 of his
compositions survive. Some examples are the Art of Fugue,
Brandenburg Concerti, the Goldberg Variations for
Harpsichord, the Mass in B- Minor, the motets, the Easter
and Christmas oratorios, Toccata in F Major, French Suite
No 5, Fugue in G Major, Fugue in G Minor ("The Great"), St.
Matthew Passion, and Jesu Der Du Meine Seele. He came from
a family of musicians. There were over 53 musicians in his
family over a period of 300 years. Johann Sebastian Bach
was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685. His
father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a talented violinist,
and taught his son the basic skills for string playing;
another relation, the organist at Eisenach's most important
church, instructed the young boy on the organ. In 1695 his
parents died and he was only 10 years old. He went to go
stay with his older brother, Johann Christoph, who was a
professional organist at Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph was a
professional organist, and continued his younger brother's
education on that instrument, as well as on the
harpsichord. After several years in this arrangement,
Johann Sebastian won a scholarship to study in Luneberg,
Northern Germany, and so left his brother's tutelage. A
master of several instruments while still in his teens,
Johann Sebastian first found employment at the age of 18 as
a "lackey and violinist" in a court orchestra in Weimar;
soon after, he took the job of organist at a church in
Arnstadt. Here, as in later posts, his perfectionist
tendencies and high expectations of other musicians - for
example, the church choir - rubbed his colleagues the wrong
way, and he was embroiled in a number of hot disputes
during his short tenure. In 1707, at the age of 22, Bach
became fed up with the lousy musical standards of Arnstadt
(and the working conditions) and moved on to another
organist job, this time at the St. Blasius Church in
Muhlhausen. The same year, he married his cousin Maria
Barbara Bach. Again caught up in a running conflict
between factions of his church, Bach fled to Weimar after
one year in Muhlhausen. In Weimar, he assumed the post of
organist and concertmaster in the ducal chapel. He remained
in Weimar for nine years, and there he composed his first
wave of major works, including organ showpieces and
cantatas. By this stage in his life, Bach had developed a
reputation as a brilliant, if somewhat inflexible, musical
talent. His proficiency on the organ was unequaled in
Europe - in fact, he toured regularly as a solo virtuoso -
and his growing mastery of compositional forms, like the
fugue and the canon, was already attracting interest from
the musical establishment - which, in his day, was the
Lutheran church. But, like many individuals of uncommon
talent, he was never very good at playing the political
game, and therefore suffered periodic setbacks in his
career. He was passed over for a major position - which was
Kapellmeister (Chorus Master) of Weimar - in 1716; partly
in reaction to this snub, he left Weimar the following year
to take a job as court conductor in Anhalt-Cothen. There,
he slowed his output of church cantatas, and instead
concentrated on instrumental music - the Cothen period
produced, among other masterpieces, the Brandenburg
Concerti. While at Cothen, Bach's wife, Maria Barbara,
died. Bach remarried soon after - to Anna Magdalena - and
forged ahead with his work. He also forged ahead in the
child-rearing department, producing 13 children with his
new wife - six of whom survived childhood - to add to the
four children he had raised with Maria Barbara. Several of
these children would become fine composers in their own
right - particularly three sons: Wilhelm Friedmann, Carl
Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian. After conducting and
composing for the court orchestra at Cothen for seven
years, Bach was offered the highly prestigious post of
cantor (music director) of St. Thomas' Church in Leipzig -
after it had been turned down by two other composers. The
job was a demanding one; he had to compose cantatas for the
St. Thomas and St. Nicholas churches, conduct the choirs,
oversee the musical activities of numerous municipal
churches, and teach Latin in the St. Thomas choir school.
Accordingly, he had to get along with the Leipzig church
authorities, which proved rocky going. But he persisted,
polishing the musical component of church services in
Leipzig and continuing to write music of various kinds with
a level of craft and emotional profundity that was his
alone. Bach remained at his post in Leipzig until his
death in 1750. 

He was creatively active until the very end, even after
cataract problems virtually blinded him in 1740. His last
musical composition, a chorale prelude entitled "Before
They Throne, My God, I Stand", was dictated to his
son-in-law only days before his death.