Biography on J.S Bach

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Johanna Sebastian Bach's Personal Life

Johanna Sebastian Bach, known as the "Father of Modern Music," was a famous German musician and composer during the Baroque period. He was born into a family with great musical background from several generations before him. Johann Sebastian Bach, the eighth child of the family, was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685. His father taught him to play the violin, and young Bach became the most gifted musician in the family.

Bach was only ten years old when both of his parents died. Then he went to live with his older brother Johann Christoph, a church organist in Ohrdruf. There he went to school at the Lyceum, learned Latin, and sang in the school choir. The older brother gave Johann Sebastian Bach his first formal keyboard lessons. He taught Johann Sebastian Bach to play the clavichord and harpsichord. However, Johann Christoph was jealous of young Johann Sebastian Bach's musical talent.

He would not let his younger brother see manuscripts of famous clavier pieces, so at night when everyone had gone to bed Johann Sebastian Bach copied the music by moonlight. The older brother discovered the copied music and in anger took it away from him. At age fifteen when his brother could no longer support him, Johann Sebastian Bach left his brother's home to live in Luneburg where he studied the organ and composed music.

In 1706, he married his second cousin Maria Bach. He and Maria raised seven children. Unfortunately, she died in 1720 after thirteen years of marriage. Within a year, Johann Sebastian Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, professional singer. Together they had thirteen children. Johann Sebastian Bach was a devoted father but was known to be short tempered outside the home quarrelling with his employers. He was an...