The Divine Composer Named Johann Sebastian Bach

Born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach in the year of 1685, this German composer began his musical career with learning to play the violin and the harpsichord, which his father taught him to play. His family was a very musical family; his father was an organist for the church and his uncles and brothers were composers and organists as well. In fact, his uncle, Johann Christoph Bach was extremely well known at the time for his talents. Johann Sebastian's family was quite successful in their music and was relatively well known for their talent.

At the age of ten, tragedy struck Johann Sebastian's immediate family when his mother passed away and his father followed her fate within a year. After this happened, his older brother took him in and this is where Johann Sebastian continued to learn what he could from his brother. It was during this time that he also learned to play the clavichord. Four years after moving in with his older brother, he earned the Choral scholarship, which allowed him to travel to Luneburg and attend St. Michael's school for two years. There, Johann Sebastian learned more about playing instruments, like the harpsichord and the organ, but also studied some geography, theology, other languages, physics and history.
After his two years at St. Michael's, he went to the chapel of Duke Johann Ernst where he remained for about seven months as court musician. During this time in Weimar, his reputation as an organist began to grow. Life continued to improve for Johann Sebastian when he took the position of organist at a church in 1703, which offered him a higher salary and allowed him more time to work on his own creations. It was there that he began creating some of his own compositions, though he still had much to learn about composing music.

He remained in this position for about three years before he decided that it was time for him to move on. In 1706, he was offered the organist position at the church of St. Blasius', located in Muhlhausen, where he had more freedom than he did in his previous position. He later married Maria Barbara and had seven children. Sadly, only four of the seven children made it to adulthood. This marriage would not be his only marriage as his first wife, Maria Barbara passed away in 1720. Bach remarried in 1721 to Anna Magdalena and together they had thirteen children. Unfortunately, only six of the thirteen grew into adulthood.

As time went on, his career and reputation continued to grow. He accepted a few more different positions including court master in Weimar, director of music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, and was eventually appointed Cantor of Thomasschule in Leipzig where he remained until his death in 1750. Throughout his life, Johann Sebastian Bach learned all that he could about music. His passion for this art was incredible and was what led him to compose some of the most amazing pieces of the time. He is remembered today as one of the most innovative genius' of that period, though he didn't bring in any new forms of music; instead, he built on the style that was present at the time. Today, he is best known for the music he composed and is considered one of the best composers in history.

by Victor Epand