Gottfried Heinrich Bach (26 February 1724 – 12 February 1763) was the firstborn son of

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 w ...

by his second wife Anna Magdalena Wilcke. He was born in

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 wel ...

, where his parents had moved the year before his birth. Gottfried Heinrich became "feeble-minded" (mildly mentally disabled in some way) at an early age, but he played the keyboard well and

C. P. E. Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and sec ...

is quoted as saying that he showed "a great genius, which however failed to develop". He possibly composed: for instance the melody of the aria " So oft ich meine Tobackspfeife", BWV 515, contained in the second ''

Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach The title ''Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach'' (german: Notenbüchlein für Anna Magdalena Bach) refers to either of two manuscript notebooks that the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach presented to his second wife, Anna Magdalena. ...

'', may be his. After his father's death in 1750 Gottfried Heinrich lived with his younger sister Elisabeth Juliane Friederica and her husband

Johann Christoph Altnickol Johann Christoph Altnickol, or Altnikol, (baptised 1 January 1720, buried 25 July 1759) was a German organist, bass singer, and composer. He was a student, copyist and son-in-law of Johann Sebastian Bach. Biography Altnikol was born in Berna be ...

.''The New Grove Bach Family'' MacMillan 1983, p. 3 Altnickol was a musician who lived and worked in

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

approximately southwest of Leipzig. After his brother-in-law's death in 1759 Gottfried Heinrich stayed in Naumburg with his sister until his own death a few years later.

Notes

1724 births 1763 deaths Gottfried Heinrich Pupils of Johann Sebastian Bach Musicians from Leipzig German people with disabilities {{Germany-bio-stub