Johann Sebastian Bach

An orphan in a family of musicians

Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685, into a family that had produced town and church musicians for generations. But he lost his mother at nine and his father at ten. Young Bach grew up and learned music in the home of his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, an organist in Ohrdruf. At fifteen he went north to Lüneburg, studying while singing in a school choir.

The young organist

At eighteen Bach became organist at a church in Arnstadt. He was brilliant but often clashed with church elders. He was criticized for filling hymn accompaniments with too many strange harmonies, and scolded for returning so late from Lübeck. He moved on via Mühlhausen to become court organist at Weimar, where he wrote much of his organ music.

From Weimar to Köthen

When he tried to leave Weimar to become music director at Köthen, the Duke of Weimar would not easily let him go. Bach insisted so stubbornly on resigning that he was locked up for nearly a month. At Köthen, from 1717, under the young, music-loving Prince Leopold, he poured out instrumental works: the Brandenburg Concertos, works for unaccompanied violin and cello, and Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier.

He also suffered great grief there. Returning from a journey in 1720, he found that his first wife, Maria Barbara, had died and was already buried. The next year he married the singer Anna Magdalena. Bach had twenty children by his two wives, but only about half survived to adulthood.

Cantor of Leipzig

From 1723 until his death, Bach served as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, responsible for church music and the school choir. In his first years he performed a new cantata almost every week. Great works like the St Matthew Passion and St John Passion came from here. The work was hard, with frequent quarrels with the town council, but he also led a student orchestra and gave coffee-house concerts.

With failing eyesight in old age, Bach underwent eye surgery in 1750, with poor results, and died that July. His music was soon regarded as old-fashioned, but his sons and pupils preserved the scores. When the young Mendelssohn staged the St Matthew Passion again in 1829, Bach's music awoke once more.

Music to hear on Pyeongeum

• Orchestral Suite No. 3, Air: a song for strings alone while the trumpets rest. It is the third stop on our Music Journey.
• Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude: one cello creating harmony and melody on its own.
• The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I Prelude in C, the chorale from Cantata 147, the Aria of the Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and more.

People around him

• His eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach: the organist who took in his orphaned brother and taught him music.
• Anna Magdalena Bachhis second wife, a singer, who copied out many of his scores.
• His sonsCarl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christian and others made their names in new styles different from their father's.
• Felix Mendelssohnwho revived the St Matthew Passion a century later.