Johann Bach was an outstanding German music master in the 18th century. His works had a huge impact on the development of European music and art, and he is known as the "Father of European Music."
Bach was born into a musical family in Thuringia, central Germany. His family has produced musicians for generations. His great-grandfather and great-grandfather were both well-known musicians. His grandfather’s generation produced three musicians, and his father was a violinist. Bach had three brothers, all musicians; Bach had a son who was also an outstanding musician. This is rare in music history.
Influenced by his grandfather and father, Bach received a good music education from an early age and was also influenced by local folk music, which made him love music. Unfortunately, both parents died when Bach was less than 10 years old. From then on, Bach was raised by his elder brother and sent to school.
Bach was not satisfied with the knowledge imparted by his brother. He was extremely interested in the scores of many famous musicians collected by his brother. After being rejected by his brother, Bach stole the music scores every night while his brother was asleep and copied them under the moonlight. It took him half a year to copy all the music scores. Later, his brother found out and took away the music scores he had copied. However, Bach had already kept these scores firmly in his mind.
After living and studying beside his brother for five years, Bach decided to make an independent living. He humbly sought advice from famous experts at the time and worked tirelessly. Once he heard that there was a performance by a famous musician in Hamburg and decided not to miss this opportunity to learn. Since he had no money to take a car, he brought his own dry food and went on foot, walking 60 kilometers back and forth.
In 1704, Bach became the organist of the New Church in Arnstadt, where he learned and studied organ playing skills. When he heard that a German musician was in Lübeck, 300 kilometers away, he took four weeks off to seek advice. In Lübeck, Bach admired the master's superb skills and was intoxicated by the master's music and never left. He forgot that he only took four weeks' leave and stayed for more than four months before returning to Arnstadt.
The church has long been dissatisfied with Bach's daily behavior, and this time it even used pretexts to put him on trial and reduce his salary. Bach was so angry that he left Arnstadt Church in 1707.
After staying in the Mülhausen church for a period of time, Bach was hired as organist in the Weimar court orchestra in 1708, and was soon promoted to music director. Bach's career made great progress during his stay in Weimar. In order to adapt to the frequent needs of the court, he had to compose as quickly as possible and adopt various performance methods, thus having extensive exposure to secular music. During this period he composed a large number of organ music, such as "Pasacalia" and so on.
At this time, Bach's playing ability also reached unprecedented heights. In 1717, the famous French fortepian Marcham was invited to perform. Bach changed the piece that Marciano had just performed 12 times with new techniques, which shocked the German aristocrats who had always fallen at the feet of foreigners and cheered them repeatedly. Bach proposed to hold a competition with Marcian and tell the difference in public. Marciang ostensibly agreed and fled in the evening. In this way, Bach became famous.
Although Bach was so talented in music, he was treated unfairly by the Duke. He was imprisoned for more than a month and left Weimar at the end of 1717.
From 1717 to 1723, Bach served as the band conductor of the Gordon court. Due to the extremely poor conditions here, Bach was more engaged in composing orchestral music. His famous works during this period include "The Well-Tempered Clavier" Volume 1, "Brandenburg Concerto", etc.
After 1723, Bach went to work in Leipzig and served as the choir director of Thomas Church. Bach worked in Leipzig for 27 years until his death. This was the peak period of music creation in his life. His famous works include "Matthew Passion", "Mass in B Minor", "Well-Tempered Clavier" Volume 2, etc.
In his later years, Bach lost his sight after a stroke. Since then, he has been plagued by illness and his health has deteriorated day by day. But he still tenaciously persisted in creating, writing his works through oral narration and recording by his wife or students.
Bach died on July 28, 1750, and a superstar fell!
It was not until nearly 80 years after his death that Bach's creations gradually became known, respected and admired. He is called by music historians "a pivotal figure in the history of European music that connects the past and the future."