Johann Sebastian Bach

On 17 October 1707, four months after arriving at Mühlhausen, Bach married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach. Together they had seven children, four of who reached adulthood.

His surviving children from this marriage were Catharina Dorothea, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. They were all born in Weimar. Maria died all of a sudden on 7 July, 1720.

In 1721, Bach met Anna Magdalena Wilcke, a highly gifted singer at the Court in Köthen. They married on 3 December 1721 and together had thirteen children. However, only six of them survived.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on 31 March 1685, in Eisenach, the capital city of the duchy of Saxe-Eisenach. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach and director of the town musicians. His mother, Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt, was the daughter of a furrier.

Sebastian, the youngest of his parents’ eight children, grew up in a musical environment. All his parental uncles as well as four of his own brothers were renowned musicians. While his father taught him violin and the harpsichord, his uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, gave him lessons in organ.

At the age of eight, young Sebastian started going to the local Latin Grammar School, where, apart from reading and writing, he also studied scriptures in Latin and German. Later as the students formed the choir of the St. Georgenkirche, he was selected as one of the choirboys.

Sebastian’s mother died on 1 May, 1694. His father too passed away on 2 March 1695. Thus he became an orphan shortly before his tenth birthday.

By then, his eldest brother, also named Johann Christoph Bach, had established himself as organist at the St. Michaeliskirche, Ohrdruf. He now took charge of his two youngest brothers, ten year old Johann Sebastian Bach and thirteen year old Johann Jacob Bach.

Thus in 1695, at the age of ten, Sebastian began to live in the household of his brother in Ohrdruf, happily taking lessons in organ and harpsichord from him. The elder Bach also encouraged him to copy music of renowned musicians of that time and watch how organs were constructed.

Simultaneously, he also attended the Gymnasium in Ohrdruf, where he had lessons in Latin, Greek, French, Italian and theology. During his period, he sang in the local choir. His soprano voice and musical capabilities soon impressed the Cantor Elias Herda.

Sometime in early 1700, he found a place in the choir of the wealthy Michaelis monastery at Lüneburg, possibly at the recommendation of Elias Herda, who himself was a student there. There, he was immediately appointed to Mettenchor, a select body of singers, because of his uncommonly beautiful soprano voice.

Subsequently, he started participating in different types of choral or orchestral performances. He was also free to use the fine music library in the monastery, thus enriching his knowledge on the subject. Later, as his voice began to change, he started acting as the violinist and also as an accompanist at the harpsichord.

Johann Sebastian Bach first tried for employment at the new church of Arnstadt in his native Thuringia. Unfortunately, there the organ was still under construction and while waiting for the work to finish, he received an offer from Johann Ernst, the Duke of Weimar.

Subsequently, he began his career as a violinist in the small chamber orchestra of Johann Ernst at Weimar. Concurrently, he acted as deputy to the Court Organist, Effler and soon came into contact with Italian instrumental music.