Bitter setting, brilliant workīach's stay in Leipzig, as musical director and choirmaster of Saint Thomas's church and school, wasn't always happy. She bore him 13 children, in addition to the seven he'd had by Maria, and helped copy his music for performers. Maria died in 1720, and the next year he married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, an accomplished singer. After various moves and prominent jobs, he finally settled down in Leipzig in 1723, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1707 he married a second cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, and went to Mülhausen to become organist in the Church of Saint Blasius. But he was already too highly respected to be dismissed. When he returned to his church, he was severely criticized for breach of contract and, in the ensuing weeks, for his new organ flourishes and harmonies that accompanied congregational singing. Bach was so enamored with his teacher, he stretched the visit to two months. In October 1705, Bach was invited to study for one month with the renowned Danish-born German organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude. Rembrandt paints Return of the Prodigal Son After a few months, he moved to Arnstadt to become a church organist. Three years later, he was a violinist in the chamber orchestra of Prince Johann Ernst of Weimar. He become a soprano (women weren't permitted to sing in church) in the choir of Lüneburg's Church of Saint Michael. By age 10 Bach was orphaned, and he went to live and study with his elder brother, Johann Christoph, an organist in Ohrdruf.īy age 15 Bach was ready to establish himself in the musical world, and he immediately showed immense talent in a variety of areas. Johann Sebastian received his first musical instruction from his father, Johann Ambrosius, a town musician. He was born and schooled in Eisenach, Thuringia (at the same school Luther had attended), part of a family that in seven generations produced 53 prominent musicians. Near 1 Chronicles 25 (a listing of Davidic musicians) he wrote, 'This chapter is the true foundation of all God-pleasing music.' At 2 Chronicles 5:13 (which speaks of temple musicians praising God), he noted, 'At a reverent performance of music, God is always at hand with his gracious presence.'Īs one scholar put it, Bach the musician was indeed 'a Christian who lived with the Bible.' Besides being the baroque era's greatest organist and composer, and one of the most productive geniuses in the history of Western music, Bach was also a theologian who just happened to work with a keyboard. He underlined passages, corrected errors in the text and commentary, inserted missing words, and made notes in the margins. He pored over it as if it were a long-lost treasure. When he was 48, Johann Sebastian Bach acquired a copy of Luther's three-volume translation of the Bible. 'At a reverent performance of music, God is always at hand with his gracious presence.'

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