Johann Nicolaus Bach (or Johann Nikolaus Bach) ( – 4 November 1753) was a German composer of the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period. Johann Nicolaus was the eldest son of

Johann Christoph Bach Johann Christoph Bach (baptised – 31 March 1703) was a German composer and organist of the Baroque period. He was born at Arnstadt, the son of Heinrich Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach's first cousin once removed and the first cousin of J.S. ...

and the

second cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

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 ...

. He was educated at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

, where he later became organist. He was probably born at

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

, where his father was employed as a musician, attended the

Latin school until 1689, and was a student of the Jena city organist J.M. Knüpfer, a son of

Sebastian Knüpfer Sebastian Knüpfer (6 September 1633 – 10 October 1676) was a German composer, conductor and educator. He was the ''Thomaskantor'', cantor of the Thomanerchor in Leipzig and director of the towns's church music, from 1657 to 1676.''Grove Concise ...

; after an Italian sojourn in 1696, he became organist at the Stadtkirche and the Kollegiatkirche in Jena. He was influenced by

Antonio Lotti Antonio Lotti (5 January 1667 – 5 January 1740) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. Biography Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was ''Kapellmeister'' at Hanover at the time. Oral tradition says that in 1682, Lotti be ...

. He later joined the Danish army. He then returned to Jena where he lived for the rest of his life. Few of his compositions survive. He was also a maker of harpsichords and organs. Surviving pieces include a mass, two chorale preludes on "" and a

Singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...

''Der jenaische Wein- und Bierrufer'', this in the form of a

quodlibet A quodlibet (; Latin for "whatever you wish" from ''quod'', "what" and '' libet'', "pleases") is a musical composition that combines several different melodies—usually popular tunes—in counterpoint, and often in a light-hearted, humorous man ...

on Jena student traditions.

References

Wilibald Gurlitt Wilibald Gurlitt (1 March 1889, Dresden – 15 December 1963, Freiburg) was a German musicologist. Gurlitt, son of the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, attended the St. Anne Semi-Classical Secondary School (''Annenrealgymnasium'') in Dresd ...

: Bach, Johann Nikolaus. In: ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.'' Band 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, . *Bach, Johann Nikolaus. In: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB).'' Vol. 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, .

External links

* 1669 births 1753 deaths German Baroque composers German male classical composers German classical composers Johann Nicolaus 18th-century classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians {{Germany-composer-stub