<P> Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March (O.S. 21 March) 1685--28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period . He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations as well as for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor . Since the 19th - century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time . </P> <P> The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician in Eisenach . After becoming an orphan at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother, after which he continued his musical development in Lüneburg . From 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, for longer stretches of time, at courts in Weimar--where he expanded his repertoire for the organ--and Köthen--where he was mostly engaged with chamber music . From 1723 he was employed as Thomaskantor (cantor at St. Thomas) in Leipzig . He composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble Collegium Musicum . From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music . In Leipzig, as had happened in some of his earlier positions, he had a difficult relation with his employer, a situation that was little remedied when he was granted the title of court composer by the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland in 1736 . In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions . He died of complications after eye surgery in 1750 . </P> <P> Bach enriched established German styles through his mastery of counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and his adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France . Bach's compositions include hundreds of cantatas, both sacred and secular . He composed Latin church music, Passions, oratorios, and motets . He often adopted Lutheran hymns, not only in his larger vocal works, but for instance also in his four - part chorales and his sacred songs . He wrote extensively for organ and for other keyboard instruments . He composed concertos, for instance for violin and for harpsichord, and suites, as chamber music as well as for orchestra . Many of his works employ the genres of canon and fugue . </P> <P> Throughout the 18th century Bach was mostly renowned as an organist, while his keyboard music, such as The Well - Tempered Clavier, was appreciated for its didactic qualities . The 19th century saw the publication of some major Bach biographies, and by the end of that century all of his known music had been printed . Dissemination of scholarship on the composer continued through periodicals and websites exclusively devoted to him, and other publications such as the Bach - Werke - Verzeichnis (BWV, a numbered catalogue of his works) and new critical editions of his compositions . His music was further popularised through a multitude of arrangements, including for instance the Air on the G String, and of recordings, for instance three different box sets with complete performances of the composer's works marking the 250th anniversary of his death . </P>

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