Article reveals the genius and humanity behind classical music’s towering figure. Known for his divine compositions, Bach lived a life filled with personal loss, intense work, and innovations that still shape music today.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach walked over 200 miles on foot to hear a famous organist play—a journey that took several weeks.
He fathered 20 children, though only 10 survived past infancy; several went on to become respected composers.
Bach was thrown in jail for nearly a month after he tried to quit a job without permission.
He wasn’t widely celebrated in his lifetime and was known more as an organist than a composer.
Bach could write music backwards and upside down—he loved puzzles and mathematical patterns in music.
His Well-Tempered Clavier helped standardize keyboard tuning, influencing how all Western music is played today.
He wrote a full cantata every week for years while working in Leipzig—a pace modern composers find almost impossible.
Bach once got into a sword fight with a student over a musical disagreement.
He often signed his compositions with “S.D.G.”—Soli Deo Gloria, meaning “To God Alone the Glory.”
Beethoven called Johann Sebastian Bach the “original father of harmony” and said his name should mean “ocean,” not “brook.”
His Mass in B Minor was never performed in full during his lifetime, yet it’s now considered one of the greatest works in music history.
Bach became blind late in life, but he continued to compose music by dictation.
He re-used and rearranged his own music frequently, adapting sacred themes into secular works and vice versa.
His music was rediscovered in the 19th century thanks to a revival led by Felix Mendelssohn.
Johann Sebastian Bach died in 1750, and the Baroque era is often said to have ended with him.
