Bach

(bikh), the name of a Thu ring i an family prominent for two centuries in music and furnishing so many organists, Kapellmeisters and cantors that town musicians were called ‘‘the Bachs,” after them. were: (1) Bach, Jn. Sebastian, Eisenach, 21, 1685—Leipzig, July 28, 1750; youngest son of Jn. Ambrosius B. and Elizabeth (née Lammer hit), of Erfurt; early left an orphan; both parents died when he was 10, his father having begun teaching him the violin. He went to the home of his brother Jn. Chris toph, who taught him the clavichord, but forbade him inspection of a MS. vol. of works by Frohberger, Buxtehude, etc., obtaining it secretly B. copied it by moonlight for 6 months, though near-sighted, with results fatal to his eyes in later life. This desire to study other men’s work characterised his whole career. 15 his fine soprano voice secured him free tuition at St. Michael’s Ch. in Liineberg (he having already attended the Ohrdruff Lyceum). He went on foot on holidays to Hamburg to hear the great Dutch organist Reinken, and at Celle he heard the French instr. music used in the Royal Chapel. He studied also the work of Bohm, organist at Liineberg, and practised violin, clavichord and org. often all night; £703, in the Weimar ct.-orch.; 17¢4, organist at Arnstadt; 1705, walked 50 miles to Liibeck to hear Buxtehude, and stayed till a peremptory recall from the Church at Arnstadt; 1707, organist at Miihlhausen. On Oct. 17, he m. Maria Barbara Bach, his cousin, who bore him 7 children, ef whom 4 died, leaving a daughter, Wm.- Friedemann, and K. P. E. (See below.) 1708, he played before the Duke at Weimar, and was made ct.organist; 1714 Konzertmeister. his vacations he made clavichord and org. tours. 1714, he furnished the organ-music for a service conducted in the Thomas kir che, Leipzig, and produced a cantata. Dresden, 1717, he challenged March and, a French organist of high reputation, who was afraid to compete. 1717 Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt, at Ké6then, and composed much orch.- and chamber-music. In 1719. he revisited Halle, to meet Handel, but he had just gone to England. 1720, his wife died. He applied for the organ of the Jacobskirche, Hamburg. B. was now famous, but a young rival offered to pay 4,000 marks for the place and got it. In 1721 hem. Anna Magdalene Wiilken, daughter of the ct.-trumpeter at Wei enfels. She bore him 13 children, 9 of them sons, of whom only 2 survived him: Jn., Chris toph, Fr., and Jn. Christian. His second wife had a fine voice and musical taste, and wrote out the parts of many of his cantatas; for her he prepared 2 books of music. In May, 1723, cantor at the Thoma chule, Leipzig, vice Jn. Kuhnau; also organist and dir. of mus. at the Thomas kir che and the Nicol a i kir che, ‘‘Kapellmeister vom Haus aus.” to Prince Leopold. He was made, 1736, hon. cond. to the Duke of Wei enfels, and court-composer to the King of Poland, and Elector of Saxony. He kept his place at Leipzig for twenty-seven years, and there wrote most of his sacred music. often visited Dresden, where he could hear the Italian opera, cond. by Ha e. Frederick the Great having asked to hear him, on May 7, 1747, with his son Wilhelm Friedemann B. arrived at Potsdam. He improvised upon the various Silbermann pianos in the palace, followed from room to room by the king and his musicians. The next day he tried the principal organs in Potsdam, improvising a 6-part fugue on a theme proposed by the king. He afterward wrote a 3-part fugue on this theme, a Ricercare in 6 parts, several canons inscribed ‘“Them at is regii elaborationes canonicae,” and a trio for flute, violin, and ba , dedicating the “Musikalisches Opfer’ to the king. 17409, two operations to restore his sight, weakened by copying his own and other men’s works and engraving his “Art of Fugue,” left him totally blind and ruined his vigour. His ‘sight was suddenly restored, July 10, 1750; but 10 days later he died of apoplexy. He dictated the choral “Vor deinen Thron trev’ ich hiemit,”’ shortly before his death. Among his distinguished pupils were Krebs, Homilius, Agricola, Kirnberger, Goldberg, Marpurg; J. Kasper Vogler; Altnikol, his son-in-law, and his sons for whom he wrote the “* Klavierbiichlein,”’ and the ‘“‘Kunst der Fuge.”’ We engraved on copper; invented the “viola pomposa” and the ‘“Lauten-Clavicembalum”; advocated equal temperament (vide D. D.), tuning his own pianos and writing “Das Wohltemperirte Klavier,’ to further the cause. work (known in English as “‘The well tempered Clavichord,”’ or “The 48Fugues”) is a set of 48 preludes and fugues, two of each to each key, major and minor. The works are very chromatic and use the keys enharmonically. of his improvements in fingering still survive.