Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany. Born into a family of musicians, he was naturally drawn to music from an early age. Growing up in an environment where music was a way of life, his exposure to instruments and composition began almost instinctively.

At a very young age, Johann Sebastian Bach experienced profound personal loss. He lost his mother while still a child, and at the age of nine, he was deeply affected by the death of his father as well. Considering the era in which children often continued their father’s profession, it is assumed that Bach was already capable of playing several instruments by that age. After the death of his parents, he went to live with his older brother in Ohrdruf, who worked as a musician. Bach spent nearly all of his time with his brother’s organ, rapidly developing his skills and deepening his passion for music. Throughout his youth and school years, he devoted himself to studying the works of German musicians.

Eager to expand his musical knowledge, Johann Sebastian Bach undertook long journeys to listen to and learn from composers such as Georg Böhm, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Johann Adam Reincken. In 1703, he completed his education at the Latin School, becoming the first member of the Bach family to successfully finish formal schooling.

After graduating, Johann Sebastian Bach began working as an organist in Arnstadt to earn a living. Seeking a more serious, better-paying, and more professional position, he later found what he was looking for in Mühlhausen. Although he composed several surviving works during this period, the majority of the compositions he created there have unfortunately been lost.

In 1707, after receiving a small inheritance, Johann Sebastian Bach married his cousin Maria Barbara Bach. The couple had seven children, three of whom died at a very young age. Thirteen years into the marriage, Bach was left a widower.

Approximately one year later, on December 11, 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach married the young soprano Anna Magdalena Wilcke, who was only seventeen at the time. Despite the significant age difference, they shared a deeply happy marriage. From this union, thirteen more children were born. Bach took great joy in seeing all of his children engage with music and was especially proud that his daughters were able to earn a living through music at a time when women rarely worked outside the home.

Over the course of his lifetime, Johann Sebastian Bach composed more than one thousand works. However, only a portion of these compositions have survived to the present day, largely preserved through the archives maintained by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach from his second marriage.

Renowned worldwide for his monumental contributions to music and the father of twenty children, Johann Sebastian Bach died on July 28, 1750, in Leipzig, Germany.

Source: Biyografiler.com