Download Johann Sebastian Bach`s first lesson.

Johann Sebastian Bach
By Chad Miller
and Destinee
Deitz.
He was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21,
1685.
He died on July 28, 1750 in Leipzig, Germany.
In the summer of 1703 Bach was invited to test and
demonstrate the organ in the new church at Arnstad.
In 1707 Bach was appointed organist at the Church of St.
Blaise in Mühlhausen. Later that year Bach married Maria
Barbara.
When Bach arrived in Weimar later in the summer of 1708 as
curt organist to Duke Wilhelm Emst, it marked the third time in
5 years that he had changed positions because of unfavorable
circumstances.
Bach's prime responsibility was to conduct the court orchestra, in
which the prince himself participated. Bach produced his greatest
instrumental works during the Cöthen period.
The other candidates were recognized composers, and Bach's ability
as an organist was not needed since the cantor was not required to
play at the services.
Bach's first music lessons were on the violin, with his father as instructor.
Having a beautiful soprano voice, he also sang in the choir at St. George's
Church. On May 3, 1694, his mother died; his father remarried 6 months
later but died scarcely 2 months after that. The oldest brother, Johann
Christoph, assumed the care of the 10-year-old Johann Sebastian. The boy
moved to Ohrdruf to live with his brother, organist at St. Michael's Church.
From him Johann Sebastian received his first instruction at the harpsichord
and perhaps at the organ.
His first lesson
was with his
dad, Johann
Ambrosius
Bach. Its was
with a violin.
That is what he played
at is first lesson.
In October 1707, Bach married his cousin
Maria Barbara Bach; together they would
eventually have seven children, including
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach.
Bach's wife Maria had died in 1720. In 1721, he married Anna
Magdalena Wilcke the daughter of the town trumpeter they would
have 13 children together including Johann Christian Bach.
Altogether, Bach had 20 children with his two wives, but 10 of his
children died in infancy. Four went on to become well-known
composers and musicians.
By 1740, Bach's eyesight was failing. Two eye operations
resulted in Bach's complete blindness; these operations also
damaged his health and may have hastened his death. He
died of a stroke on July 28, 1750. Bach is buried at St. John's
cemetery, Leipzig. Bach's widow Anna lived for another ten
years, dying in poverty in 1760. Bach's death in 1750 marked
the end of the Baroque period in music.
Bach's works were soon forgotten. In March, 1829 (almost 100
years after Bach's death), the composer Felix Mendelssohn
performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion, spurring a world-wide
interest in Bach. Soon, Bach's works were appreciated by the
world - essentially for the first time.