The following is written in Bach’s obituary of 1754
“If ever a composer showed polyphony in its greatest strength, it was certainly our late lamented Bach. If ever a musician employed the most hidden secrets of harmony with the most skilled artistry, it was certainly our Bach.
No one ever showed so many ingenious and unusual ideas as he in elaborate pieces such as ordinarily seem dry exercises in craftsmanship.
As long as anyone cannot show us even the mere possibility of the existence of a better organist or keyboard player, we cannot be blamed if we are audacious enough to continue to claim that our Bach was the greatest organ and keyboard player who ever lived.
It may be the case that many famous men achieved a great deal on these instruments, but we doubt that any was so accomplished, in the hands as well as the feet, as was Bach. Anyone who had the pleasure of hearing him and comparing his playing, without prejudice, to that of others will agree that this doubt is not without foundation.
And whoever examines his organ and keyboard works – which, as is widely known, he himself performed to the greatest perfection – will have no objection to the position expressed above.”
Key Figures in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Life
Contemporaries and supporters behind the genius of the Baroque master. These relationships were crucial in shaping Bach’s illustrious career and lasting legacy.
Johann Ambrosius Bach
Johann Ambrosius Bach was the father of Johann Sebastian. The highly esteemed Ambrosius Bach received a musical education in Arnstadt at the age of nine.
In 1671, he moved to Eisenach, where he worked as a highly respected court and town musician. Johann Ambrosius Bach died shortly before Johann Sebastian’s tenth birthday.
Johann Ernst III, Duke of Saxe-Weimar
In March 1703, Duke Johann Ernst III employed the young Bach as a lackey and violinist at the court of the Red Palace.
In July of the same year he left Weimar again to go to Arnstadt and work as an organist.
The duke died in 1707.
Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
After working as an organist in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, the 23-year-old Bach returned to Weimar in July 1708. He now worked there as court organist and chamber musician.
From November 1717, Bach was imprisoned in the tower of the Weimar City Palace for almost a month, because he had accepted a new position in Köthen.
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann maintained a close friendship with Johann Sebastian Bach and Handel and was godfather of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Telemann worked in Hamburg as general music director from 1721 and also directed the so-called Gänsemarkt Opera from 1722.
He is considered the composer who left behind the greatest number of compositions, with around 3,800 documented works.
Ernst August I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Ernst August I was the son of Johann Ernst III. In 1707, Ernst August I became co-regent of his uncle Wilhelm Ernst on behalf of his late father.
He took his band, including Johann Sebastian Bach, to the wedding in Nienburg (Saale), and it was also here where the composer met the bride’s brother, his future employer Leopold von Anhalt-Köthen.
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
As Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann grew up with music from an early age. His career as a very capable composer and organist soon became apparent.
Among others, he cultivated contacts with legendary composers of the Dresden court, such as Johann Adolph Hasse and Jan Dismas Zelenka.
He also taught Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who is associated with the Goldberg Variations.
Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen
In August 1717, Bach was appointed court music director by Prince Leopold at his court in Anhalt-Köthen.
At the same time, this year was overshadowed by the death of his wife Maria Barbara – in July 1720, the only 35-year-old was buried in Köthen.
Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
Bach wrote commissioned compositions for the duke and dedicated so-called homage works, such as the Hunting Cantata. For these long-standing services, the ruler of the Duchy of Saxe-Weissenfels awarded him the title Hochfürstlich Sächsisch-Weißenfelsischer würklicher Capellmeister von Hause aus in 1729.
August II, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania
In 1717, King August II. (Augustus the Strong) seconded Bach in his request for release to Duke Wilhelm Ernst.
Bach later wrote a cantata, Es lebe der König, der Vater im Lande, which was performed on August’s name day.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, also known as the “Hamburg Bach” or the “Berlin Bach”, was the fifth of seven children of Johann Sebastian Bach and his first wife Maria Barbara Bach.
He was in the service of King Frederick II from 1740 to 1768 and dedicated the six Prussian Sonatas, published in Nuremberg in 1742, to him.
August III of Poland, Elector Frederic August II of Saxony
August III. was the son of August the Strong and the Electress Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
On the occasion of the Electress’s passing, Bach set the Trauerode to music, based on a libretto by Johann Christoph Gottsched.
Consequently, Bach dedicated parts of the later Mass in B minor – the so-called Missa of 1733 – to the new Elector and subsequent King August III., whereupon he was ultimately awarded the title of Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Court Composer.
Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
In the winter of 1718/19, Johann Sebastian Bach visited the city of Berlin and impressed the music-loving Christian Ludwig with his skills.
Christian Ludwig asked Bach for some of his compositions and in the spring of 1721 received a score entitled Six Concerts Avec plusieurs Instruments, now known as the Brandenburg Concertos.
Johann Adolf Hasse
Born in Hamburg, Hasse began his career as a trained singer there and in Brunswick.
In Italy, he established his reputation as a composer and befriended Farinelli.
Active in Dresden from 1731, he served from 1733 under Augustus III as Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Kapellmeister.
During their Saxon years, he and his wife, the prima donna Faustina Bordoni, maintained a friendly, mutually respectful relationship with the Bach family.
Silvius Leopold Weiss
Silvius Leopold Weiss was employed as a court lutenist under Augustus the Strong starting in 1718, and with an annual salary of up to 1,400 thalers, he was considered the highest-paid instrumentalist of the Dresden court.
He maintained an intensive, collegial, and likely warm relationship with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, who became the organist at the local Sophia Church in 1733, as well as with Johann Sebastian Bach.
The artistic testament to this connection is Bach’s Suite in A major, which is based on Lute Sonata No. 47 by Weiss.
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was a great clavierist and composer. His collaboration with Johann Gottfried Herder at the court of Bückeburg is considered one of the most fruitful partnerships in music and literary history.
His son, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, was the only grandson of Johann Sebastian Bach to achieve widespread recognition as a composer. He marks the official end of the musical Bach dynasty.
Johann Philipp Kirnberger
Johann Philipp Kirnberger was a highly esteemed and widely renowned German musician, composer, and one of the most significant music theorists of the 18th century.
He maintained a regular correspondence with J. N. Forkel and enjoyed a close relationship with C. P. E. Bach, whom he knew from his time at the Berlin court of Frederick II.
From 1739 to 1741, he was a student of J. S. Bach.
Johann Christian Bach
The youngest of the eleven Bach sons, Johann Christian Bach was also known as the “London Bach” or “Milan Bach”.
He instructed the young Mozart in composition and had a significant influence on his musical development.
In 1768, J. C. Bach gave the historically first public solo concert on a fortepiano (a square piano made by Johannes Zumpe) in London.
As an opera composer, he was internationally renowned.
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg
Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg was a music theorist and author of various standard works, such as the Treatise on the Fugue of 1753 and 1754, which deals with The Art of the Fugue, among other things.
Marpurg likely crossed paths with Bach in Berlin in 1747 and, following the composer’s death, established himself as the most important advocate for his musical legacy.
Count Hermann Carl von Keyserling
The name Goldberg Variations which is often used today, is based on an anecdote about Count Hermann Carl von Keyserling and his personal harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg.
Bach’s eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann dedicated his harpsichord sonata in E-flat major to the Count in 1763.
Johann Christian Kittel
As a trusted student and copyist of Bach’s late Leipzig period, Johann Christian Kittel preserved the genuine organ tradition of the spiritual genius and, through his own Erfurt school, wove the decisive personal link to the master’s Romantic revival.
His deep reverence manifested itself, among other things, in the acquisition of the 1748 Haussmann portrait from the estate of C. P. E. Bach, as well as in his two handwritten copies of the Goldberg Variations, one of which he personally inscribed as the “non plus ultra” of musical art.
Friedrich II, King in Prussia
On May 7, 1747, King Frederick II. requested a musical encounter with J. S. Bach.
Bach originally traveled to Sanssouci Palace to visit his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, who was employed there as court harpsichordist, and to see his grandson.
Wilhelm Friedemann accompanied his father on this trip.
John Taylor
John Taylor (* 1703 in Norwich; † November 16, 1770 in Rome) was an English oculist and medical charlatan.
John Taylor performed two unsuccessful eye operations on Bach. Taylor also later operated on Handel’s eyes to no avail.
The Dutch ophthalmologist R. Zegers noted: “After his training, Taylor began practicing in Switzerland, where he blinded hundreds of patients, as he himself once confessed.”
The Old Bach Memorial near St. Thomas Church in Leipzig