JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1865. He was born into a very musical family which produced many well-known musicians over several generations. Johann Sebastian’s father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a wellknown musician.

Johann Sebastian, who was called by his middle name, Sebastian, began to learn about music from his father. Sadly, by the time Sebastian was ten years old, both of his parents had died. He went to live with his older brother, Johann Christoph, in another town called Ohrdruf. While Sebastian was a young boy he began to learn to play the violin, viola, clavier (which was a keyboard instrument) and the organ.

He also sang in the choir at the church. Sebastian stayed with his brother until he was fifteen yeas old. He then went to live in Lüneburg. Here he learned much more about church music and about music from other countries like France and Italy, which really interested him. He was by now a very successful musician and a talented composer.

When Sebastian was twenty he spent three months studying with a famous German composer and organist, Dietrich Buxtehude. He was only supposed to be there for one month but he was learning so much that he stayed on for another two months just because he wanted to. He used a lot of what he learned in his own compositions and his own playing. Some of his new ideas sounded strange to his listeners but most people liked what they heard.

Two years later he married Maria Barbara Bach and they started travelling around Germany quite a lot giving concerts. He was getting very famous. At the same time his own family was growing. Sebastian and Maria had seven children altogether, but in those days many children died, especially when they were still babies. Only four of their children survived.

In between writing music professionally, which he did a great deal of, he also managed to write music books for his wife and children, to help them advance musically as well. He wrote the ‘Well Tempered Clavier,” “Inventions,” and the “Little Organ Book” for them. Suddenly, in 1720, his wife Maria died. This left him very sad and with four young children to care for. It was a very difficult time for him.

About a year later he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, who was a singer and the daughter of a musician. She took over the care of his children and helped him to get on with his work. They had thirteen more children but only six of them survived.

In 1723 Sebastian was appointed musical director and choirmaster of Saint Thomas’ church in Leipzig. He stayed in Leipzig for the rest of his life and wrote the greatest of all his music there.