J c bach biography timeline

Family of musicians and composers

For people named Bach, see Bach (surname).

The Bach family is a family of notable composers of the baroque and classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735 when he was 50 and was continued by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel.

Descendants of Johann Sebastian Bach

Of the seven children that Johann Sebastian Bach had with his first wife Maria Barbara Bach, his second cousin, four survived into adulthood: Catharina Dorothea Bach (1708–1774); Wilhelm Friedemann; Carl Philipp Emanuel (the "Berlin Bach", later the "Hamburg Bach"); and Johann Gottfried Bernhard. All four were musically talented, and Wilhelm Friedeman and Carl Philipp Emanuel had significant musical careers of their own.

After his first wife died, Johann Sebastian Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a gifted soprano and daughter of the court trumpeter of Prince Saxe-Weissenfels. They had 13 children, of whom Johann Christoph Friedrich (the "Bückeburg Bach") and Johann Christian (the "London Bach") became significant musicians. A further four survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich; Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781), who married Bach's pupil Johann Christoph Altnickol; Johanna Carolina (1737–1781); and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).

Of Bach's surviving children, only five married. Of these, Johann Christian had no children from his marriage to the soprano Cecilia Grassi. Carl Philipp Emanuel, who married Johanna Maria Dannemann, had three surviving children. Of these children the youngest, Johann Sebastian (1748–1778) was a gifted painter who died young. None of Emanuel's children married or had offspring, with his bloodline dying out with the death of his daughter Anna Carolina Philippina (1746–1804).

Elisabeth Juliane Friederica, known as Liesgen, with Altnic

1685
Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach on 21 March. He retained many memories of his childhood in Eisenach throughout his life, including the family home (which also contained rooms for trainee musicians), the traditional grammar school with its choir in the old Dominican monastery, St George’s Church and its organ, and the town hall, where brass musicians performed from the tower.

1693–95
Bach attended the local Latin grammar school.

1694
J.S. Bach’s mother Elisabeth died in May.

1695
Bach’s father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, died on 20 February. Now an orphan, Bach moved to Ohrdruf, where he lived with his brother Johann Christoph, fourteen years his senior and the organist at St Michael’s Church. Together with his brother Johann Jakob and also his cousin Johann Ernst, Bach attended the grammar school, at that time a very prestigious educational establishment in the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha. He sang in the school choir, whose responsibilities include performing at the local Ehrenstein Castle as well as at weddings and funerals. Under Johann Christoph’s guidance, Bach learned to play the organ. During this time, the organ at St Michael’s was completely overhauled, giving the young Johann Sebastian an opportunity to learn the basics of organ construction. In 1704, he wrote a keyboard composition, the Capriccio in E major, dedicating it to his elder brother. The house where the three Bach brothers lived was later burned down during a large fire in 1753.

1700–02
J.S. Bach was a chorister at St Michael’s School in Lüneburg and a pupil of Georg Böhm. He visited Johann Adam Reincken in Hamburg and studied the organ heritage of north Germany.
The young Bach’s musical abilities were long a matter of speculation as there were far too few authoritative sources about his early years. In 2006, however, copies of north German organ works were discovered in the Anna Amalia Library in Wei

Biography

EISENACH: 1685-1695

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21st l685, the son of Johann Ambrosius, court trumpeter for the Duke of Eisenach and director of the musicians of the town of Eisenach in Thuringia. For many years, members of the Bach family throughout Thuringia had held positions such as organists, town instrumentalists, or Cantors, and the family name enjoyed a wide reputation for musical talent.

The family at Eisenach lived in a reasonably spacious home just above the town center, with rooms for apprentice musicians, and a large grain store. (The pleasant and informative "Bach Haus" Museum in Eisenach does not claim to be the original family home). Here young Johann Sebastian was taught by his father to play the violin and the harpsichord. He was also initiated into the art of organ playing by his famous uncle, Johann Christoph Bach, who was then organist at the Georgenkirche in Eisenach. Sebastian was a very willing pupil and soon became extraordinarily proficient with these instruments.

When he was eight years old he went to the old Latin Grammar School, where Martin Luther had once been a pupil; he was taught reading and writing, Latin grammar, and a great deal of scripture, both in Latin and German. The boys of the school formed the choir of the St. Georgenkirche, which gave Johann Sebastian an opportunity to sing in the regular services, as well as in the nearby villages. He was described as having 'an uncommonly fine treble voice'. The Lutheran spirit would have been strong in Eisenach, for it was in the Wartburg Castle standing high above the town, that Martin Luther, in hiding from his persecutors, translated the New Testament into German.

Roads were still unpaved in the smaller towns, sewage and refuse disposal poorly organized, and the existence of germs not yet scientifically discovered. Mortality rates were high as a result. At an early age Johann Sebastian lost a sister and late

Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was born in 1735 in Leipzig. He was taught to play keyboard instruments and music theory by his father from an early age. But since his father died when Johann Christian was only fourteen, his instruction in composition and keyboard instruments was continued by his elder half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin.

In 1755, Johann Christian travelled to Italy, where he found an influential patron in Count Agostino Litta, who introduced him to for example his teacher Padre Martini. Staying in Milan until 1762, he also travelled in this period to further his education, including to visit Padre Martini in Bologna. His Italian phase was dominated by the composition of Latin church music. In addition, he converted to Catholicism, presumably to raise his chances of a permanent position, although this severely strained his relationship with Carl Philipp Emanuel. In 1760 he was made deputy organist at Milan Cathedral and in 1761 appointed kapellmeister at the Church of Santa Maria di Caravaggio. While in Italy, alongside sacred music, he also turned his hand to the opera, which became one of his most important genres. He soon began writing arias and overtures for other composers’ works, and quickly acquired a reputation for his operatic work rather than his church music. Bach’s first opera Artasere debuted in 1760 in Turin, while his second and most famous opera Catone in Utica was first performed in 1761 in Naples.

In autumn 1762, Johann Christian Bach moved to London, having been commissioned to compose two operas for the King’s Theatre. Although he had only requested a one-year sabbatical from Milan Cathedral, in 1763 he decided not to return to Italy. True, his contract at the theatre wasn’t immediately renewed, but he still acquired a healthy reputation both as music tutor to Queen Charlotte (to whom he dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 1) and thanks to his involvement