Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced ) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S. more...

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) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, a control of harmonic and motivic organisation from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France. He is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, J.S. Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the keyboard suites and partitas, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, The Musical Offering, The Art of Fugue, Sonatas and partitas for solo violin and a large number of cantatas, of which about 220 survive. An example of some of these stylistic traits appears below, in the chorus Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe from the Christmas Oratorio, written in 1734 during his mature period.

Biography

Early years (1685–1702)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany to an extraordinary musical family--for more than 200 years, the Bach family had produced dozens of worthy performers and composers during a period in which the church, local government and the aristocracy provided significant support for professional music making in the German-speaking world, particularly in the eastern electorates of Thuringia and Saxony. Sebastian's father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a talented violinist and trumpeter in Eisenach, a town of some 6,000 residents in Thuringia, and held a post involving the organisation of secular music and participation in church music. Sebastian's uncles were all professional musicians, ranging from church organists and court chamber musicians to composers. Contemporary documents indicate that, in some circles, the name Bach had come to be used as a synonym for "musician".

Sebastian was proud of his family's musical achievements, and around 1735 Bach drafted a geneaology, "Origin of the Musical Bach Family" (Ursprung der musicalisch-Bachischen Familie), tracing the history of generations of successful musical Bachs. Bach's roots can be traced back to Hungary and his ancestor Veit (Vitus) Bach was a Hungarian who was expatriated from the country by the Habsburgs, because he was a Lutheran; he was also, not surprisingly, a musician.

Read more at Wikipedia.org