Johann Sebastian Bach

1685 – 1750 · died at about 65^[1][2]

Music

Fun Facts About Johann Sebastian Bach

• Johann Sebastian Bach was jailed for almost a month in 1717 for too stubbornly demanding to be released from his job at the Weimar court.^[1]
• To hear the organist Dieterich Buxtehude in Lübeck, Bach reportedly walked 450 kilometers (280 miles) each way, and stretched a four-week leave into about four months.^[1]
• Bach tried to meet Handel: in 1719 he traveled to Halle to see him, but Handel had already left town.^[1][3][4]
• Bach's failed eye surgery was performed by John Taylor, a surgeon now seen as a charlatan who is believed to have blinded hundreds of people, including Handel.^[1][3][4]
• Bach's grave in Leipzig went unmarked for nearly 150 years, and later research has questioned whether the remains in his present grave are actually his.^[1]
• Three works by Bach are on the Voyager Golden Records, sent into space aboard the two Voyager probes.^[1]
• Isaac Newton and Johann Sebastian Bach were alive at the same time for 42 years.^[1][2][5][6]
• Johann Sebastian Bach was alive at the same time as John Locke — their lives overlapped for 19 years (1685–1704).^[1][2][7][8]

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.^[1]

Contemporaries

George Frideric Handel

65 yr overlap

Antonio Vivaldi

56 yr overlap

Voltaire

56 yr overlap

Benjamin Franklin

44 yr overlap

Carl Linnaeus

43 yr overlap

Leonhard Euler

43 yr overlap

Isaac Newton

42 yr overlap

Peter the Great

40 yr overlap

Christopher Wren

38 yr overlap

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

38 yr overlap

Frederick the Great

38 yr overlap

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

31 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Johann Sebastian Bach

When was Johann Sebastian Bach born?

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31, 1685, and died on July 28, 1750.

How old was Johann Sebastian Bach at death?

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 31, 1685, and died on July 28, 1750, at age 65.

What was Johann Sebastian Bach known for?

Johann Sebastian Bach was known for: Master of Baroque composition. Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St. Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. He is known for his mastery of counterpoint, as heard in The Musical Offering and The Art of Fugue. Felix Mendelssohn precipitated the Bach Revival with a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Ever since, Bach has been acclaimed as one of the greatest composers of classical music.

Who was alive at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach?

Johann Sebastian Bach's closest contemporary was George Frideric Handel. Their lives overlapped for 65 years.