# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Bach, Johann-Sebastian

See also Johann Sebastian Bach on Wikipedia; Johann Sebastian Bach at Wikipedia; Bach, Johann Sebastian in the 11th Edition; and the disclaimer.
of knowledge available at that primitive period ; he was particularly anxious to withhold from him a certain collection of compositions for the pianoforte, by contemporary masters, which, however, the younger Bach contrived to obtain surreptitiously, and which he copied at night in the course of six months. By practising the music thus become his own on the pianoforte, he made himself master of the technique of an instrument, the capabilities of which he was destined to enlarge and develop by the works of his own genius. In 1698 his brother died, and Bach, at the age of fourteen, saw himself thrown on his own resources for his further means of support. He went to Liineburg, where his beautiful soprano voice obtained him an appointment as chorister at the school of St Michael. In this manner he became practically acquainted with the principal works of vocal music, continuing at the same time his practice on the organ and pianoforte. A special teacher of any of these instruments, or, indeed, of the theory of music, Bach seems never to have had, at least ​not to our knowledge, and his style shows little affinity to the modes of expression in use before him. In some measure, indeed, it may be said that he new-created his own style, and, at the same time, that of modern music in general, a proof both of the originality of his power and of the autodidactic kind of his training. Nevertheless, Bach was anxious to profit by the examples of contemporary masters of his art. We hear of frequent trips to the neighbouring cities of Hamburg, Liibeck, and Celle, at that time important centres of artistic life. In the first-mentioned city Keiser created sensation by the unrivalled splendour of his operatic productions, -while at Liibeck the celebrated organist, Buxtehude, excited the enthusiastic admiration of the young arrt-aspirant. In Celle, on the other hand, a celebrated band, composed chiefly of French artists, offered an opportunity for the
At the age of eighteen Bach returned to Thuringia, where his executive skill on the organ and pianoforte attracted universal attention, and even obtained him various musical appointments, of which we mention as the most important that of court organist to the duke of Weimar. One, and not the least welcome, of his official duties was the composition of sacred music. One of his most beautiful sacred cantatas, Ich hatte viel Bekiimmerniss, was composed during his stay at Weimar. An amusing incident of his otherwise quiet and eventless career also belongs to this time. We are speaking of his musical combat with the celebrated French organist, J. Louis Marchand, who had reached Dresden on his travels, and lorded it over his artistic colleagues at the Saxon court in the most sublime manner. The injured musicians, in their endeavours to humble the pride of the Frenchman, at last hit upon the idea of proposing a competition on the organ between him and Bach, whose fame at that time had begun to spread far beyond his place of residence. He was summoned to Dresden, and the day of the tournament fixed, at which the court and all the musical celebrities of the town were to be present. At first Marchand treated his young and comparatively unknown rival with scorn, but on hearing him perform at a preparatory meeting, he was so struck with Bach s power that he ignominiously quitted the field, and vanished from Dresden before the day of the contest arrived. This triumph led to Bach s appointment as musical conductor (Kapell meister ] to the duke of Kb then, which he held from 1717-1723, after a previous stay at Weimar for nearly nine years. In 1723 he removed to Leipsic, where the position of cantor at the celebrated " Thoniasschule," combined with that of organist at the two principal churches of Leipsic, was offered to him. It was here that the greater part of his works -were composed, mostly for the immediate requirements of the moment. Several of them he engraved himself, with the assistance of his favourite son, Friedemann. The further course of his life ran smoothly, only occasionally ruffled by his altercations with his employers, the town-councillors of Leipsic, who, it is said, were shocked by the " unclerical " style of Bach s compositions, and by his independent bearing generally. He was married twice, and had by his two wives a family of eleven sons and nine daughters. In 1747 Bach made a journey to Potsdam by the invitation of Frederick the Great, who, himself a musical amateur, received the master with distinguished marks of regard. He had to play on the numerous pianofortes of the king, and also to try the organs of the churches of Potsdam. Two years after this event his sight began to fail, and before long he became perfectly blind, a circumstance which again coincides with the fate of his great contemporary, Handel. Bach died of apoplexy on the 28th July 1750. His loss was deplored as that of one of the greatest organists and pianoforte players of his time. Particularly his powers of improvisation are described as unrivalled by any of his contemporaries. Of his compositions comparatively little was known. His MS. works were at his death divided amongst his sons, and many of them have been lost in the course of time; only about one-half of his greater works were recovered, when, after the lapse of nearly a century, the verdict of his neglectful contemporari&s was reversed by an admiring posterity.
(f. h.)