The Brandenburg Concertos

Johann Sebastian Bach - Teacher and Composer

Johann Sebastian Bach couldn’t have known that his music would be more popular hundreds of years after his death than it was during his lifetime. Bach was born in Germany in 1685 to a family whose musical roots went back more than 200 years. Orphaned at nine, he went to live with his brother, Johann Christoff Bach, who played the organ.

All Grown Up

At the age of 16, Bach graduated from St. Michael’s school near Hamburg, from which he had received a choral scholarship. He then went to work as a court musician and during the next four years proceeded to hold the position of organist in various churches and in 1707 married his second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, with whom he fathered seven children.

The Composer

In 1708 Bach returned to Weimar, the town where he had started his career only this time he had a much more prestigious position as an organist and it was here that he began composing.

Bach moved on again in 1717 and advanced his career once again when he became the Kapellmeister or director of music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen. Because the Prince was Calvinist, most of Bach’s music during this period was secular in nature and it was during these years that he composed the very famous Brandenburg Concertos. In 1720, his wife died, but he remarried the following year and had 13 more children. Only 10 of Bach’s 20 children survived to adulthood. Of those 10, four went on to become composers and musicians who all forged memorable music careers, as well.

The Teacher

In 1723, Bach became Director of Music for two Lutheran churches in Saxony. There he taught the schoolchildren singing and provided music for the church services. This was a prestigious government job which he held until his death in 1750 at the age of 65. During his life, Johann Sebastian Bach composed more than 1000 works, the last of which he composed on his deathbed.

Famous Bach Works:

1. Overture (Suite) No. 2 in B Minor
2. Sheep May Safely Graze
3. Brandenburg Concertos
4. Piano (Clavier) Concerto No. 1 in D Minor
5. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
6. The Well-Tempered Clavier
7. St. Matthew Passion
8. St. John Passion
9. B-minor Mass