Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, organist and musician was born March 21, 1865 in Eisenach, Germany and died July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany.
Of the famous composers, Bach is regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of classical music.
His ability as an organist endured during his lifetime and it was not until the 19th century that Bach’s music gained wide recognition.
Bach’s invention was to raise the art of expressing two independent melodies together in harmony.
Bach’s classical works receiving the most fame are Well-Tempered Clavier, Art of the Fugue and The Brandenberg Concertos.
By the time he was 10 years old, both parents had died within a year and he moved to live with his brother, Johann Christoph Bach who taught him how to play the clavichord.
But it was Bach’s voice that gained him a musical scholarship at St. Michael’s School in Luneburg.
As he grew older and his treble voice changed, he started playing the violin.
He also began composing organ music for the Lutheran church where he worshiped, which led to his being hired as an organist in a church in Arnstad, Germany soon after he graduated from St. Michael’s School in 1702.
He married his cousin in 1707 and she gave him three sons, although in his lifetime he went on to father 17 more children.
By 1708 his frustration that the church was not embracing his musical ideas led him to a position as the court organist for the Duke Wilhelm Ernst. Still, Bach’s scores were not recognized as his ability as an organist.
Still, by 1710 Bach penned a huge amount of organ music including preludes, toccatas, and fugues.
By 1717 as he was searching to stretch his musical interests, he was hired as the director of music for Prince Leopold in Cothen which led to his greatest instrumental works including violin sonatas and partitas as well as suites for the cello and clavier.
In 1721, a year after his first wife died, he married 20 year old Anna Magdalena Wulken who would bear 13 children over the next two decades of marriage.
Finally, in 1723 he was hired as a composer as the cantor of the Leipzig St. Thomas Church where he composed most of his choral music including cantatas, motets and masses.
Late in life he gradually went blind and died of a stroke in 1750.
