Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the small town of Eisenach , Germany in 1685 to a family filled with great musicians. For five generations, there had been violinists, organists, fiddlers, composers, and court musicians in his bloodline.

It was only nature that Johann Sebastian follow a musical career. He began his studies with his father, the town violinist and organist, but tragedy struck when he was nine. Both his father and mother died and he was forced to live with his older brother Johann Christoph.

Being a church organist, Johann Christoph continued Bach's musical studies. He taught Bach harmony, composition, harpsichord, and organ. At the age of 15, Bach won a scholarship to a school that trained choir boys. He sang in the choir as a boy soprano, but when his voice changed he became the church violinist. He also played the organ and composed music for church services.

In 1708, he worked as a court musician for the Duke of Weimar. While there, he produced a great deal of organ music. He also wrote the series of keyboard suites now call the “French Suites”. In 1716, he left and took up residence with Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen. It was during this time, he wrote the “Brandenburg Concertos”, sonatas for flute, and concertos for violin.

In 1723, at the age of 38, he moved to Leipzig and became the city's Director of Music and Cantor (Choirmaster) at St. Thomas 's School. While there, he wrote a great deal of sacred music. His “Mass in B Minor” is an example of excerpts from movements he wrote for church services.

As Bach got older, cataracts forced his eyesight to deteriorate. By 1749, he was completely blind and in 1750 he died.

After is death his music was forgotten by the general public, but in 1829, 80 years after his death, composers like Felix Mendelssohn rediscovered his work. Today, every musician or composer has heard of or been influenced by this great individual.

Additional Resources
	Classical Music Pages – Bach: http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/bachjs.html
	JS Bach Home Page: http://www.jsbach.org/biography.html
	J.S. Bach Archive and Bibliography: http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/intro.html
	Baroque Composers and Musicians: http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html
	A Johann Sebastian Bach Midi Page: http://www.bachcentral.com/
	Johann Sebastian Bach – Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach