Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician born in 1685 who lived during the Baroque period. He came from a family with many generations of composers and musicians. Bach held several musical director positions throughout Germany, composing pieces for the Lutheran church such as his Mass in B Minor. He composed in complex counterpoint and fugue styles and is considered one of the greatest composers of all time, having written works including the Brandenburg Concertos, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Bach went blind late in life and died in 1750.

2. You have probably heard of someone named Bach
before. Most likely it was
Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Bach family was made up of more than 70
composers and performers in Germany from the 16th
to the early 19th centuries.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer during the Baroque time
period.
The Baroque definition of music placed emphasis on
continual motion.

3. His Life
Johann Sebastian Bach, or Sebastian as he was called by
his family, was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 25,
1685.
His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach (1645-1695), was a
renowned violinist and was employed as a court trumpeter
and music director in the town of Eisenach. Bach probably
learned to play the violin at an early age from his father.
His mother, Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt (1644-1694), also
came from a musical family.

4. By the age of 10, both of his parents had died and he was sent
to live with his oldest brother. From him, he learned to play
the harpsichord. This was to make a big impact on his life.
As his brother’s family grew, he was forced to find another
place to live. Bach went to a choral school in northern
Germany and a few years later found work as a violinist at
Weimar.
A harpsichord is the predecessor of the
piano. A keyboard instrument whose
strings are plucked, rather than struck, in
order to produce the sound.

5. Bach became an organist in Arnstant in 1703 and stayed
there until 1707, when he went to Muhlhausen until
1708. He showed a bit of his temper, having arguments
with both employers.
They
didn’t
have
laws
about
that like
we do
now!!
In 1707, he married his cousin, Maria Barbara.
They went on to have 7 children,
before she died in 1721.
In 1708, Bach returned to Weimar as a
court organist for the Duke of Saxe-
Weimar and stayed there 9 years.

6. Bach went to Anhalt-Cothen in 1717 and worked for Prince
Leopold as the Director of Music.
In 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilken, who was a
professional singer. They ended up having 13 more children
during their marriage.
This brings Bach’s total of children to 20!!!
Mr. Bach made a final move to Leipzig in 1723. There he
became the Director of Music at the St.Thomas School.
It is interesting to see that Bach did not travel much during his
lifetime and stayed within a small area of Germany.

7. Born 1685
1703-1708
1717-1723
1723-1750
1708-1717
Germany
Bach’s life and work

8. By 1748 Bach was nearly blind from cataracts.
In March and April of 1750, he was operated on by the English
oculist John Taylor. The operations and the treatment that
followed them may have hastened Bach's death.
Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750.

9. His Work
Bach was known as an organist in his time
and not for his compositions.
His deep Lutheran religion was felt in his
music and was a constant in his life.
Through his music he could serve his
church, community and country.
Bach’s complex music used musical techniques called
counterpoint and fugue.
Counterpoint consists of playing two or more melodies at
one time.
Fugue is a composition in which different instruments repeat
the same melody with slight variations.

10. During the earlier years at Leipzig, Bach’s work
demonstrated his ability of storytelling using dramatic
melodies or chords to represent different events of life.
Example of this style include:
The Passion of St. John (1723)
Magnificant (1723)
The Passion According to St. Matthew (1729)
Christmas Oratoro (1734)
Bach composed many pieces of music and they are often
listed with the letters BWV followed by a number. Such as:
BWV #212 or such.
BWV is an abbreviation for Bach Werke Verzeichniss, which
is a catalog of Bach's works. The catalog is organized by genre,
not in the order the pieces were composed.

11. Some other pieces that Bach composed:
Fugue in D Minor
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Badineire

12. Did you know?
• The town of Eisenach is also the birthplace of Martin
Luther. He was important leader in the Protestant
Reformation and the founder of the Lutheran Church.
•Bach shares his birth year with another famous composer,
G.F.Handel. Handel also had cataract surgery performed by
oculist John Taylor. American composer Edward
MacDowell observed "Bach and Handel were in every way
quite different, except that both were born in the same year
and killed by the same doctor”.
•There is a competion in Leipzig, the Johann Sebastian Bach
competition, that is regarded as one of the major international
competitions for young artists.

13. Now we know all about Bach,
what’s up with the Wig?
Funny you should ask.
During Bach’s life, wigs were
quite popular with the elite and
became a distinguishing factor of
wealth.
Bach is noted for sporting his
white hairdo and you can even
purchase a replica off the Internet
for approximately $33.00.
Bach Wig