This Day in History: German Baroque composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685. Bach has generally been regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, and his name ranks as one of the top three composers of all time, alongside Mozart and Beethoven.
Bach comes from a very musical family: "Bach’s great-grandfather was a piper. His grandfather was a court musician. His father was a violinist, organist, court trumpeter, and kettledrum player. At least two of his uncles were composers. He had five brothers—all named Johann—and the three who lived to adulthood became musicians. J.S. Bach also had 20 children, and, of those who lived past childhood, at least five became professional composers. According to the Nekrolog, an obituary written by Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, '[S]tarting with Veit Bach, the founding father of this family, all his descendants, down to the seventh generation, have dedicated themselves to the profession of music, with only a few exceptions.'" Mental Floss
Bach influenced the structure of Procol Harum's biggest hit, ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ and may be behind the Beatles songs “Penny Lane,” “In My Life,” and “Blackbird.” Nearly 300 years after his death, Johann Sebastian Bach is still the gold standard in classical music.
“He's the teacher par excellence...His music has influenced every later generation of composers and musicians – a heritage that continues right up to our own time. My friend Krzysztof Penderecki told me that without Bach he would never have written his own St Luke Passion.”~Helmuth Rilling
"What makes Bach a true genius, is not his musical precocity, nor his virtuosity, nor his great musical output. It is his ability to communicate and to be understood by all; regardless of the age, background and knowledge. If music—and art to the extent—is a language, then geniuses are its great communicators, and Bach is one of them. He was also a great teacher, and a lot of his works are didactic and therefore find meaning for many musicians. To me, Bach is the man who organised and structured the language of Western music." Doug Thomas
“Bach is the beginning and end of all music.” Max Reger
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