Johann Sebastian

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in the town of Eisenach, Germany. He was the 8th child born into a family with a long history of musicians. His father was a high ranking musician in the town. He was a string player, a town piper, and a court trumpeter.

Bach’s Birthplace

Eisenach

Johann Sebastian Bach

As a child, Bach was called “Sebastian,” mostly because most of his brothers also had the first name of Johann. At

age 8 he was sent off to school, where he did

considerably better than his brother Johann Jakob. He

was a good singer, and one of those students who always

knows the answer to everything.

His mother died when he was nine, and his father just a year later. Sebastian was sent to live with his brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist and pupil of Johann Pachelbel - the one who wrote the famous canon. Pachelbel became one of Sebastian’s first models in composition.

Pachelbel

Johann Christoph

Bach

It was soon decided that Bach would enroll in a special choir school for poor children “...with nothing to live on, but possessing good voices.”

Bach qualified on all counts.

School

Off to work! Having studied hard and soaked up everything, it

was time to get a real job. His first position was as organist and choirmaster of the little church of St. Bonifacius in Arnstadt. The choir members, all boys, were not very good singers and were rowdy. He once got in a street brawl with one of his students, who called him a “dirty dog.”

Arnstadt

After several months, Bach asked his employers for permission to travel to Lubeck to hear the great Danish organist Dietrich Buxtehude.

They weren’t terribly keen about the idea, but gave him four weeks off anyway. Bach set out on foot (young Bach walked a lot). He walked the entire way - more than 200 miles! It was the farthest he ever traveled in his lifetime.

Buxtehude

Since Buxtehude was thinking of retiring, he offered his job to Bach, who was 20. The only catch was that Bach would have to marry Buxtehude’s daughter Anna Margreta, who was nearly 30. Bach was not thrilled about the offer. He said thanks, but no thanks. Can you remember who else received this offer?

The famous composer Handel (who wrote the Hallelujah Chorus) also turned down the position. Apparently the built-in wife wasn’t the kind of job benefit they had in mind!

Instead of four weeks, Bach spent four MONTHS in Lubeck. Needless to say, his employers weren’t very happy when he returned!

Bach wasn’t keen on Buxtehude’s daughter because he’d had his eye on someone closer to home - a LOT closer to home. Her name was Maria Barbara Bach, and she was his second cousin on his father’s side. She was cute as a button and had a wonderful soprano voice.

Pretty soon the church authorities noticed that they were spending a lot of time alone together in the choir loft. They were only practicing their music, but that sort of thing tends to make church people nervous. He and Maria decided to get married, and moved to Mulhausen, where Bach got a new church job.

The Choir Loft

Things didn’t work out well in Mulhausen though, so when a Duke of Weimar offered him double his salary to come work for him, Bach said “When do I begin?”

Weimar

Bach in Weimar

Bach was becoming famous in Weimar and he and Maria Barbara had their first child, but things weren’t all that great. There were 2

dukes in Weimar who were always arguing with each other and Bach was always caught in the middle while trying to keep both of

them happy.

Duke #1 Duke #2Bach

After 10 years in Weimar, Bach decided it was time to move on. He didn’t leave on the best of terms, however. He spent nearly a month in jail for taking another job offer and asking to quit his job for the Duke. He made good use of the time though. While under arrest, he composed 46 chorale preludes.

J.S.Bach

Leaving Weimar

Bach had a great job in Kothen putting together a band for Prince Leopold. It seems that Prince Leopold loved music and spent ¼ of the total money in the kingdom getting the best instrumentalists and the most expensive instruments for his band. Prince Leopold took his band to distant cities to show them off. On his return from one such trip, Bach found that his wife had died and been buried. He was now left with 4 children to raise on his own.

KothenPrince Leopold

After Maria Barbara died, Sebastian remarried a girl named Anna Magdalena Wulcken, who at age 20 was 16 years younger than him. She was a good singer and a good music copyist as well. Perhaps she even wrote some of his music: who knows?

Bach remarried

Anna Magdalena

As one observer put it: “If the skill of his feet alone earned him such a gift, what might the prince have given him had he used his hands as well?”

All the years of practice made Bach into a terrific organist. Once when playing a concert, he played a solo using the pedals so well, the Crown Prince of Cassel took a ring off his finger and presented it to him as a gift.

A Great Talent

Bach remained humble about his playing though. When someone complimented him on his playing once he said, “There’s nothing to it. You have only to hit the right notes at the right time, and the instrument plays itself.”

In 1723 Bach and his new wife packed up the kiddies (7 by this time) and moved to Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian was appointed the Cantor and music director of the St. Thomas School.

Moving to Leipzig

Bach’s new job didn’t pay well. Bach took a giant pay cut to get the position and he was now much busier. Bach had to supply choirs every Sunday for FOUR different churches in Leipzig: St. Thomas, St. Nicholas, St. Peter, and the “New Church.” In spite of his busier schedule, Bach was now making only 25% of what he made in Kothen, but his new position was much more respected than his old position. This proves that Bach was very interested in his social standing and reputation rather than money.

More work, Less pay

St. Thomas School

Bach’s hectic schedule resulted in him writing 300 cantatas (about one per week), the b-minor mass, and the St. Matthew passion (pictured on the right). In his spare time, who knows how he found any, he composed other things.

Bach’s music

In 1729, Bach found a new challenge when he became the director of the Collegium Musicum. Each Friday evening, the Collegium Musicum would hold concerts at a local coffee house. Bach wrote a cantata to advertise the weekly concerts called the “Coffee Cantata.” Bach performed some pieces with his musical children there. He had 20 children by now!

Collegium Musicum

Several of Bach’s children shared the musical talent that their father had and became great composers themselves. Among them are:

WilhelmFriedemann

Bach

Carl PhilippEmanuel

Bach

JohannChristian

Bach

In his last years, Bach was nearly blind and his health declining. It was all he could do to jot down the first 239 measures of the last fugue of The Art of the Fugue, the most amazingly complicated composition of it’s kind ever written. Surgery attempted to restore his sight, but it failed, leaving him completely blind.

The Last Years

J.S. Bach died in July of 1750 in Leipzig, Germany. Modern interpretations of his symptoms before death indicate that he probably died from diabetes.

The Last Years

Listening:1. Toccata and Fugue in d minor

2. Minuet in G major