Johann Sebastian Bach

Music History I: Ancient to Baroque

Course 1 · Chapter 7 · Johann Sebastian Bach

Chapter 6 named the tools Baroque music built its own sound from — basso continuo, tonal harmony, and a genuine command over musical emotion. This chapter covers the composer real music history now credits with mastering all of them most completely — even though, in a genuinely honest twist, that was not how his own contemporaries actually saw him.

Bach's Real Career

Johann Sebastian Bach's most important, longest-held post was Thomaskantor in Leipzig, from 1723 until his death in 1750 — a real, demanding role responsible for directing the St Thomas School and providing music for four separate churches, which required him to compose new cantatas for the church calendar on an unrelenting real schedule, week after week, for years. His own surviving output from this and earlier posts is genuinely enormous: hundreds of sacred and secular cantatas, the six Brandenburg Concertos, the two volumes of preludes and fugues making up The Well-Tempered Clavier, and the Mass in B minor, among a great deal more.

A Real, Honest Complication

The modern, near-universal reputation of Bach as one of history's greatest composers is genuine — but real historical evidence shows this was not how he was actually regarded during his own lifetime, or even for decades afterward.

⚠ Known First as a Performer, Not (Yet) a Master Composer Real, documented sources confirm that decades after Bach's own 1750 death, he was still primarily known as a virtuoso organist and improviser, rather than as a composer of major, serious works. His own compositional style was genuinely regarded by many contemporaries as old-fashioned, increasingly out of step with the newer, lighter galant style already becoming fashionable during his final years. This is a genuinely more nuanced real picture than the popular "totally forgotten genius" story sometimes implies — a small circle of real connoisseurs, notably centred in Berlin and including Bach's own son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, did keep parts of his legacy alive throughout the 18th century, even while his broader public and critical reputation as a composer had genuinely declined.

The Real 1829 Bach Revival

St Matthew Passion, revival performance

Conducted by Felix Mendelssohn · Berlin, 1829 · roughly 79 years after Bach's death

Felix Mendelssohn, then only twenty years old, conducted a real, historically pivotal performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion in Berlin, in collaboration with Carl Friedrich Zelter and the members of the city's own Sing-Akademie musical society. Real, documented accounts of this specific performance credit it directly with launching what music history now calls the "Bach Revival" — soon after 1829, Bach's own reputation shifted decisively, and he began, for the real first time, to be widely regarded as one of the greatest composers who ever lived.

Bach's Real Family

Bach had twenty real children across two marriages — seven with his first wife, and thirteen with his second wife, Anna Magdalena, of whom six survived into adulthood. Genuinely remarkably, four of his own sons went on to become notable composers in their own right: Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel (the very son who helped preserve his father's own legacy through the 18th century), Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian Bach.

Bach's Reputation, Then and Now

Period	Real, Documented Reputation
During his lifetime (to 1750)	A celebrated organist and improviser; a respected, but not singularly exceptional, composer
Decades after his death	Still primarily known for organ performance; his compositional style seen by many as old-fashioned
After 1829 (post-Mendelssohn)	Increasingly regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time

1. Why might a composer's own contemporaries be a genuinely poor judge of which of his works will matter most to history, decades or centuries later?

2. What real role did a small circle of connoisseurs (including Bach's own son) play in the roughly 79 years between Bach's death and Mendelssohn's 1829 performance — and how does this complicate a simple "he was completely forgotten, then suddenly rediscovered" story?

3. Four of Bach's own sons became notable composers. What real advantages might growing up in a working composer's household have given them, beyond any inherited musical talent itself?

Quick Reference

Bach's most important post: Thomaskantor in Leipzig, 1723-1750
Real major works: the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B minor, and hundreds of cantatas
During his own lifetime and for decades after, Bach was primarily known as an organist, not yet as history's most celebrated composer
The real "Bach Revival" began with Mendelssohn's 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion, ~79 years after Bach's death
Bach had 20 children; four sons became notable composers themselves

Next chapter: Handel & the Oratorio — where a genuine contemporary of Bach's own era took a different real career path, becoming a celebrity in his own lifetime rather than after it.