Researching Johann Bach

Born in Leipzig in the Electorate of Saxony, he was taught music by his father, and also tutored by his distant cousin . He studied at the St. Thomas School, and some believe he studied law at the university there, but there is no record of this. In 1750, William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe appointed Johann Christoph harpsichordist at Bückeburg, and in 1759, he became concertmaster. While there, Bach collaborated with Johann Gottfried Herder, who provided the texts for six vocal works; the music survives for only four of these.

Bach wrote keyboard sonatas, symphonies, oratorios, liturgical choir pieces and motets, operas and songs. Because of Count Wilhelm's predilection for Italian music, Bach had to adapt his style accordingly, but he retained stylistic traits of the music of his father and of his brother, C. P. E. Bach.

He married the singer Lucia Elisabeth Münchhausen (1728–1803) in 1755 and the Count stood as godfather to his son Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach. J.C.F. educated his son in music as his own father had, and Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst went on to become music director to Frederick William II of Prussia.

In April 1778 he and Wilhelm travelled to England to visit Johann Christian Bach. J. C. F. Bach died 1795 in Bückeburg, aged 62.

He was born in Thal near Eisenach. At the age of 22 he moved to Meiningen eventually being appointed cantor there, and later Kapellmeister. He wrote a large amount of music and regularly oversaw performances, both at Meiningen and neighbouring courts.

He was a third cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach, who made copies of several of his cantatas and performed them at Leipzig. The cantata Denn du wirst meine Seele nicht in der Hölle lassen, BWV 15, once thought to be by Johann Sebastian, and listed as BWV 15 in Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of his works, is now thought to be by Johann Ludwig.

Bach died in Meiningen.

Johann Christoph had a reputation as a composer that was only equalled by that of Johann Sebastian within the Bach family during his lifetime. He was organist at Eisenach and later a member of the court chamber orchestra there. His brother, Johann Michael Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach's father-in-law and Maria Barbara's father), was also a composer. Some of the works were later attributed to Johann Sebastian, but were recently recognized as written by Johann Christoph. One of the most famous works is the cantata, based on the Song of Solomon.

Despite his success as a musician, Johann Christoph experienced financial difficulties, which may have resulted in his not having been selected as the guardian of Johann Sebastian when the latter's parents died. Yet Johann Christoph found the money to have his portrait painted in oil several times, including the well-known portrait of him that is on display in a Berlin museum. Johann Christoph was heavily in debt when he died at Eisenach. He died just ten days after his wife Maria died.

Sebastian Bach described him in his Genealogy (, 1735) as "the profound composer", thus hinting at his reputation, not just within the family, but within society.

Johann Michael Bach (baptised, Arnstadt, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen –, Gehren) was a German composer of the Baroque period. He was the brother of Johann Christoph Bach, as well as first cousin, once removed and father-in-law of Johann Sebastian Bach (he was the father of J.S. Bach's first wife Maria Barbara Bach). He is sometimes referred to as the "Gehrener Bach" to distinguish him from the "Wuppertaler Bach", Johann Michael Bach (1745–1820).

Johann Nicolaus was the eldest son of Johann Christoph Bach and the second cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach. He was educated at the University of Jena, where he later became organist. He was probably born at Eisenach, where his father was employed as a musician, attended the Eisenach Latin school until 1689, and was a student of the Jena city organist J.M. Knüpfer, a son of Sebastian Knüpfer; after an Italian sojourn in 1696, he became organist at the Stadtkirche and the Kollegiatkirche in Jena.He was influenced by Antonio Lotti. He later joined the Danish army. He then returned to Jena where he lived for the rest of his life. Few of his compositions survive. He was also a maker of harpsichords and organs.

Surviving pieces include a mass, two chorale preludes on "" and a Singspiel Der jenaische Wein- und Bierrufer, this in the form of a quodlibet on Jena student traditions.

The son of Christoph Bach (1613–1661), Ambrosius was born in Erfurt, Germany, as the twin brother of Johann Christoph Bach (1645–1693). Ambrosius was employed as a violinist in Erfurt.

In 1671, he moved his family to Eisenach, in present-day Thuringia, where he was employed as a court trumpeter and director of the town musicians. He married his first wife Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt on 1 April 1668, and had eight children by her, four of whom became musicians, including Johann Sebastian Bach, the famous German Baroque composer and musician. She was buried on 3 May 1694. On 27 November 1694 he married Barbara Margaretha, née Keul (she had already been twice widowed). He died in Eisenach less than three months later. After Johann Ambrosius Bach's death, his two children, Johann Jacob Bach and Johann Sebastian Bach, moved in with his eldest son, Johann Christoph Bach.

Bach is thought to have been born in Eisenach. After his studies at the Latin school there, he became oboist in the municipal band. After the death of their father Johann Ambrosius Bach in 1695, Johann Jacob and Johann Sebastian moved in with their older brother Johann Christoph Bach, organist at Ohrdruf. In 1704, he entered the service in the military band of the army of King Charles XII of Sweden. It is thought that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his Capriccio on the departure of his Beloved Brother BWV 992 on this occasion.

In 1709, he participated in the Battle of Poltava. During his stay in Constantinople, he studied flute under Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin. From 1713 to 1722, he served as flutist in the court of the Stockholm capelle. He died childless in 1722 in Stockholm and is buried there.

Johann Jacob played oboe, flute and possibly violin. He probably composed the Sonata in C minor under the name Signor Bach.

The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical formation in Lüneburg. From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig. He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer, a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by his sovereign, Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1736. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65.

Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular. He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets. He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four-part chorales and his sacred songs. He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments. He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra. Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue.

Throughout the 18th century, Bach was primarily valued as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities. The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed. Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals (and later also websites) exclusively devoted to him, and other publications such as the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions. His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including, the Air on the G String and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and of recordings, such as three different box sets with complete performances of the composer's oeuvre marking the 250th anniversary of his death.

A court and town musician in Arnstadt, he was the third son of Christoph Bach and the twin brother of Johann Ambrosius Bach. He was the uncle of Johann Sebastian Bach. He married Martha Elisabeth Eisentraut (1654–1719).

He is not to be confused with other Johann Christoph Bachs (see Bach family).

Category:German classical composersCategory:German male composersCategory:German Baroque composersJohann Christoph BachCategory:1645 birthsCategory:1693 deathsCategory:Musicians from ErfurtCategory:17th-century classical composersCategory:Twin musiciansCategory:Twin people from Germany

Bach was born in Berlin. He studied under Adam Friedrich Oeser in Leipzig. In May 1773, he moved to Dresden, and in February 1776 he moved to Hamburg, where his father was Director of Music. In September 1776 he embarked on a study trip to Rome, where he became seriously ill soon after his arrival in February 1777, and died of this unknown ailment in 1778.

Bach created mostly brush drawings of idyllic landscapes, bustling with people. His works show the influence of Salomon Gessner. Towards the end of his life he turned to representations of people and created historical and mythological scenes. He also made vignettes and illustrations of works by Gottlieb Rabener and Christian Felix Weiße.

Collections of his works are in Coburg, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig and Vienna.

He was a son of Johann Elias Bach (1705–1755), and therefore a nephew of J. S. Bach. He is not to be confused with his great uncle Johann Michael Bach (1648–1694, brother of Johann Christoph Bach). He was active as a lawyer in Güstrow (Mecklenburg), then a music teacher at the high school in Elberfeld, Wuppertal.

His main theoretical work was his Kurze und systematische Anleitung zum General-Bass und der Tonkunst uberhaupt published at Kassel in 1780.