Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach (11 May 1715 – 27 May 1739) was a German musician. It is not known whether he composed, and his career as an organist is not in itself notable, but his life throws light on his famous father, the composer

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

. Johann Gottfried was the fourth child of Johann Sebastian Bach and

Maria Barbara Bach Maria Barbara Bach ( – buried 7 July 1720) was the first wife of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. She was also the daughter of his father's cousin Johann Michael Bach. Life Maria Barbara Bach was born at Gehren, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, to ...

to reach adulthood.

Early life

He was born in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, where his father was employed until 1717 when the family moved to Köthen. His mother died in Köthen in 1720. His father remarried the following year.

Education

In 1723 his father was appointed

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the , now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, ', describes the two functions of cantor a ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. J.S. Bach is believed to have moved to Leipzig partly because of the educational opportunities there for his sons. J.G.B. Bach attended the Thomasschule, where his father was responsible for the musical education which formed an important part of the curriculum. He also studied privately with his father.

Musical career

In contrast to his elder brothers Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel he did not get the opportunity to study at

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

after finishing school. Like his father before him, Johann Gottfried Bernhard auditioned for posts as a musician. He first served as organist at the Marienkirche, the largest church in Mühlhausen in 1735. Johann Sebastian Bach had been employed at Divi Blasii, Mühlhausen's other main church. Johann Sebastian was there in 1707–1708, and despite the briefness of his stay he was well regarded by the town council, Accessed via JSTOR (subscription required) carrying out commissions for them after moving to Weimar. He was succeeded as organist by one of his cousins. Church Saint Jacob in Sangerhausen, organ (retouched)

Church Saint Jacob in Sangerhausen, organ (retouched)

Johann Gottfried also only spent a short time in the Mühlhausen, moving in 1737 to find a new engagement as organist at the Jakobikirche in

Sangerhausen Sangerhausen () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz. It is situated southeast of the Harz, approx. east of Nordhausen, and west of Halle (Saale). About 26,000 people live in Sangerhausen ( ...

. It was a post for which his father had applied as a young man. However, a new organ by

Zacharias Hildebrandt Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688, Münsterberg, Silesia – 11 October 1757, Dresden, Saxony) was a German organ builder. In 1714 his father Heinrich Hildebrandt, a cartwright master, apprenticed him to the famous organbuilder Gottfried Silberma ...

had since been installed. In 1738, he was burdened with debt and abandoned a career in

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

in order to study

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

. There he died prematurely at age 24.

References

Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach German classical organists German male organists People educated at the St. Thomas School, Leipzig Pupils of Johann Sebastian Bach 1715 births 1739 deaths 18th-century German male musicians 18th-century keyboardists Male classical organists {{Germany-classical-musician-stub