Many musical scholars believe that J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel are the two most important, influential composers of the Baroque period. Both of these men were born in Germany in 1685, and since they came into existence around the same time, they share some similarities. As an introductory statement, Bach and Handel were born into two very different families. Handel did not come from a musical family; his father wanted him to study law. By age nine, his talent was too obvious for his father to ignore and Handel began to study with a local organist and composer. On the contrary, Bach came from a long line of musicians. Bach also had four sons which became gifted composers, in their own right. Bach, like Handel, also started as an organist and composer. The primary difference between the two composers was that Bach was a church organist. Not long after Handel left for the University of Halle, he put his law career aside, and went to Hamburg.
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Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 61) in a portrait by E...While in Hamburg, he was a violinist and a harpsichordist in the orchestra.
According to the text, so many members of the family were musicians that the name Bach was synonymous with town musician. J.S. Bach passed on the musical heritage by having twenty children, of which only nine survived and four became well-known composers. In Eisenach, Germany, Bach probably was given his first lesson by his father, but when he was at the tender age of nine both of his parents died. Bach went to live with his older brother. Who do you think his brother was? Why, of course, another organist in a nearby town. At the age of fifteen, he left his brother and tried to make it on his own. At eighteen, Bach became the church organist in...