German organist and composer. Son of Ambrosius
Bach and brother of Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), his first
music teachers.
Student and chorister, Michaelisschule, Lüneburg
(1700–03); organist, Arnstadt (1703–07); studied organ under
Buxtehude, Lübeck (1705); organist of Blasiuskirche, Mühlhausen
(1707–08); court organist, Weimar (1708–17); court concertmeister,
Weimar (1714–17); court Kapellmeister, Köthen (1717–23);
cantor, Thomasschule, and director of university music, Leipzig (from
1723); honorary court composer, Dresden (1736). Visited Frederick the
Great at Potsdam (1747); improvised there on the various newly invented
pianos and tried the chief church organs; died totally blind (1750). Composed
very large library of church, vocal, and instrumental music, including:
Vocal: about 200 church cantatas and 24 secular cantatas; a Mass in B
minor; Christmas, Easter, and Ascension oratorios; Passions according
to St. Matthew and St. John; a Magnificat, motets, hymns, etc. Organ music:
140 choral preludes including Orgelbüchlein, 18 preludes and fugues
including "St. Anne," various toccatas, fantasies, sonatas,
etc. Harpsichord: Clavierübung, Goldberg Variations, Well-Tempered
Clavier containing 48 preludes and fugues, two- and three-part inventions,
etc. Orchestral: six Brandenburg Concertos, a Sinfonia, etc. Also wrote
chamber music and unfinished Art of the Fugue. The premier composer of
late German Baroque and one of greatest in history. Four of his sons and
a grandson were musicians of importance. Wilhelm Friedmann (1710–1784),
called "the Halle Bach"; organist at Dresden (1733–46),
at Halle (1747–64); composer of concertos, sonatas, fantasias for
organ and clavier, an opera, symphonies, etc.
Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788);
composer and pioneer in establishing the sonata form; chamber musician
to Frederick the Great, Berlin (1740–67); director of church music,
Hamburg (from 1767); works included numerous concertos and sonatas for
the clavier and piano, songs, church and chamber music, and a treatise
called The True Art of Clavier Playing (1753–62), long influential.
Most important composer of pre-Classical period, strong influence on
Haydn,
Mozart,
Beethoven. Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732–1795); chamber
musician (1750) and Kapellmeister (c.1758) at Bückeburg; composer
of motets, church and secular cantatas, 3 oratorios, 6 quartets for flute
and stringed instruments, clavier sonatas, and symphonies.
Johann Christian
(1735–1782); called "the English Bach"; cathedral organist,
Milan (1760); composer to King’s Theatre and then music master to
Queen Charlotte Sophia, London (1762); cofounder of Bach-Abel concerts
(1765); composer of operas, oratorios, many arias and cantatas, clavier
concertos, chamber music, symphonies, overtures, etc. A leading exponent
of Italianate Rococo style; influenced Mozart. Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst
(1759–1845); son of J. C. F. Bach; organist, pianist, and composer;
Kapellmeister at Berlin (1789), and later music teacher of royal family;
works included cantatas, songs, and piano pieces.