Johann Sebastian Bach

Born 21 March 1685, Eisenach.
Died 28 July 1750, Leipzig.

Bach came from a large family of professional church musicians in north Germany: four of his sons, moreover, became major composers. His music reflects the major appointments he held: As court organist in Weimar (1708-17) he composed the great toccatas and fugues and other works for organ; as chapelmaster to the prince of Anhalt-Cöthen, the Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites. In 1723, he became cantor of St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig, where his duties included presenting weekly church cantatas, passion music for Good Friday, and festive music for all manner of major events.

He was a devoted servant of God and the church, a good husband and father, and a superb teacher (composing, for example, two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier to explore new possibilities of tuning and to demonstrate their worth). Bach was admired as one of the best keyboard virtuosi of his day; in the ability to compose counterpoint and fugue, he has few rivals. At the end of his life he assembled four works to summarize his art: The Art of Fugue, B-Minor Mass (1747-49), Goldberg Variations, and Musical Offering.

BWV numbers refer to a non-chronological catalogue, the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis by Wolfgang Schmieder (1950).

Works

Orchestra
Brandenburg Concertos (6)
Orchestral Suites (4)
    "Badinerie" (2nd Suite) (c. 1735)
Air (3rd Suite)
Keyboard Concertos
Violin Concertos (2)
Double Concerto, d, 2 vns & orch., BWV 1043 (c. 1720)
    movt. I

Cantatas (more than 200 sacred, several dozen secular)
No. 40: Wachet auf ("Sleepers Wake," 1731)
No. 80: Ein' feste Burg ("A Mighty Fortress," c. 1734)
    movt. I

Large Chorus-and-Orchestra Works
B-Minor Mass (c. 1749)
St. John Passion (1724)
St. Matthew Passion (1727)
Magnificat (1723)
Christmas Oratorio (1734)

Songs

Protestant chorale harmonizations

Organ Music
Toccatas and Fugues
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor
Chorale preludes, etc.

Instrumental Solos
Sonatas for violin, cello, harpsichord, flute

Keyboard Music
2-part Inventions
3-part Sinfonias
English, French Suites; Partitas
The Well-Tempered Clavier (1722, 1742)
    Fugue in C Minor
Notebooks for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Anna
Magdalena Bach
Goldberg Variations
A Musical Offering (1747)
Art of Fugue (1745-50)