Johann Sebastian Bach: the master of woven melodies

A family of musicians

Bach was born in 1685 in the town of Eisenach, in Germany. Many people in his family were musicians, so music was part of everyday life. He lost his mother when he was about nine and his father soon after, when he was ten. He then went to live in the town of Ohrdruf with his older brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist and taught him more music.

When he grew up, he worked as an organist and as a musician for churches and for noble families in several German towns, including Weimar, Köthen and Leipzig. In Leipzig, he trained choirs and wrote music for the church services for about 27 years. He died in 1750.

The art of weaving melodies

Bach was famous for counterpoint, which means playing several melodies at the same time so that they fit together, like threads in a cloth. One simple way to do it is a round, where the same tune starts again and again, one voice after the other. Bach used this idea in a much more clever way, in pieces called fugues.

Try it: sing a song you know in a round with a friend, with the second voice starting one line later.

Some famous pieces

Bach wrote a huge number of pieces. Here are a few that people love.

The Brandenburg Concertos

Six lively pieces for different groups of instruments, which he sent in 1721 to a nobleman, the Margrave of Brandenburg, who lived in Berlin.

The Well-Tempered Clavier

Two books of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys, great for studying music.

The Cello Suites

Six pieces for a cello playing alone.

Toccata and Fugue in D minor

A dramatic piece for organ, very famous for its first notes. It is traditionally credited to Bach, though experts still discuss how and when it was written.

Forgotten, then loved

During his life, Bach was known mostly as a great organist. After he died, many of his pieces were played much less often. In 1829, the young composer Felix Mendelssohn conducted Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin, and many more people began to love Bach's music again. Today he is thought of as one of the greatest composers in history.