J.S. Bach

(1685-1750)

            We all know about Johann Sebastian Bach.  He was the master Baroque composer famous for his inventive compositions and amazing counterpoint.  He wrote scores of simple pieces well-known to nearly every student. Yet his more advanced pieces are complex enough to challenge even the most advanced player.  And he was probably the most influential composer who ever lived. 

It can be hard to imagine Bach as a human being just like you and me.  His music’s mathematical perfection makes it seem like he was some musical demi-god who just sat around cranking out notes all day.  Well, he did write a lot of music, but he did a lot of living, too.  Here are some facts and stories that will shed some light on the personal side of the great composer’s life.

·        It’s no accident that J.S. was musical.  Back in 17^th century Germany, most boys didn’t have much of a choice what they did when they grew up.  They grew up learning trade secrets from their fathers and usually ended up in the same profession.  

Bach’s entire extended family was made up of musicians.  The Bach family influenced German musical history for almost 200 years.   So much so, in fact, that in the town of Erfuhrt it became common practice to call musicians “Bachs,” even after there were no longer any Bach family members living there.

·        Bach had no tolerance for inferior musicians.  Once as a young man he got into a brawl because of it.  Coming home late one night, a young bassoonist accosted J.S. for insulting his playing.  They got into a brawl over it (some accounts even have J.S. drawing his sword!)  That earned him the reputation for being a hot head.

According to another story, Bach once got so upset with an organist’s constant mistakes that he ripped off his wig and threw it at the fellow, telling him he would have been better off as a cobbler.

·        It’s no accident that Bach was such a great composer – and not just because he was groomed for it from the time he was small.  He was serious about his studies. 

Once he was given 4 weeks’ leave from his job to go study with the great organist Dietrich Buxtehude.  One problem:  Buxtehude lived in Lubeck, 250 miles away.  Bach had no money, so he walked the entire way.  Not only that, but he blew off his job for an extra few months (as well as resisting pressure Buxtehude put on him to marry his daughter!) in order to learn from the master.

·        J.S. Bach continued the tradition of siring great musicians.  He had two wives (but not at the same time!) who had 20 children between them.  Sadly, only ten of Bach’s kids survived to adulthood.  (Infant mortality was very high in those days.)   His two most famous sons were Carl Philip Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann, children of his first wife and second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach.  But the sons of his second wife, the soprano Anna Magdalena, were accomplished musicians as well.

You may have noticed the little statuettes of J.S. Bach that grace nearly every music studio in existence.  Hopefully next time you see one, these stories will allow you to imagine a little color creeping into those cold plaster cheeks.