Johann Christoph Bach (16 June 1671 – 22 February 1721) was a musician of the
Bach family
The Bach family is a family of notable composers of the baroque and classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735 when he was ...
. He was the eldest of the brothers of
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...
who survived childhood.
Life
Christoph was born in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...
, on 16 June 1671, a few months before the family moved to
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
, where Johann Sebastian was born fourteen years later as the last child.
[Spitta 1899]
p. 174–175
/ref> In 1686, Johann Christoph was sent to Erfurt to study under Johann Pachelbel
Johann Pachelbel (also Bachelbel; baptised – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and ...
for the next three years.[Spitta 1899]
p. 183–184
/ref> By the end of his apprenticeship he was organist in the St. Thomas church in that town for a short time, followed by some months at Arnstadt
Arnstadt () is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, on the river Gera (river), Gera about south of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia, and has a well-preserved historic centre with a partially ...
where several Bach relatives lived.
In 1690, Johann Christoph became organist at the Michaeliskirche at Ohrdruf
Ohrdruf () is a small town in the district of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It lies some 30 km southwest of Erfurt at the foot of the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The former municipalities Crawinkel, Gräfenhain an ...
. In October 1694, he married Dorothea von Hof. His mother Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt (24 February 1644, Erfurt – 1 May 1694, Eisenach) was the mother of Johann Sebastian Bach.
She was a daughter of Valentin Lämmerhirt (or Lemmerhirt, 1605–1665), a furrier and coachman in Erfurt. On 8 April 1668, sh ...
had died earlier that year, and his father Johann Ambrosius Bach
Johann Ambrosius Bach (22 February 1645 – 20 February 1695) was a German musician, father to Johann Sebastian Bach.
Life
Johann Ambrosius Bach was born in Erfurt, Germany, the son of musician Christoph Bach (1613–1661). He was the twi ...
died in March the next year. Two younger brothers, Johann Jacob and Johann Sebastian, who up till then had been living with their father in Eisenach, came to live with Johann Christoph's family in Ohrdruf. At the time, Johann Jacob was thirteen, and Johann Sebastian not even ten. Johann Christoph's five sons were born between 1695 and 1713.[Forkel/Terry 1920/2011, Table V p. 307]
Johann Christoph became his youngest brother's keyboard teacher, or, at least, Johann Sebastian "laid the foundations of his wnkeyboard technique" under the guidance of his eldest brother. An anecdote is told by Johann Sebastian's early biographers:[Spitta 1899]
p. 186
/ref>
The brother had however not died "soon after". Having stayed with his brother for five years Johann Sebastian left Ohrdruf, joining the choir of St. Michael's Convent at Lüneburg
Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...
. Around the time Johann Sebastian left Lüneburg a few years later he composed a Capriccio in E major in honor of his eldest brother, BWV 993
The (, ; BWV) is a catalogue of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. It was first published in 1950, edited by Wolfgang Schmieder. The catalogue's second edition appeared in 1990 and the third edition in 2022.Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV). T ...
. In the years that followed, Johann Christoph copied several compositions by his younger brother, such as those in the Andreas Bach Book
(''Andreas Bach Book''), named after one of its owners, is a manuscript collection of 57 keyboard pieces, compiled by Johann Christoph Bach from Ohrdruf, the elder brother of Johann Sebastian Bach. The collection dates from the years 1704 to 17 ...
, kept by one of his sons, and the Möller Manuscript
:''see also Müller
Moller, Möller, Møller or von Möller is a surname. 'Möller' means 'Miller'. Notable people with the surname include:
* Adolf Möller, German rower
* Aksel Møller (1906–1958), Danish politician
* Ale Möller, Swedish mus ...
.[Stephen A. Crist. "The early works and the heritage of the seventeenth century", p. 75 ff. i]
''The Cambridge Companion to Bach''.
edited by John Butt. Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 1997.
All of Johann Christoph's sons became musicians, three of them at Ohrdruf. He died on 22 February 1721, aged 49, in Ohrdruf.
Family
Johann Christoph Bach was married Dorothea von Hof. They had nine children:
* (1695–1768), Court cantor in Gandersheim, organist in Pferdingsleben, 1722–1768 Cantor in Udestedt), in 1722 got married Susanna Elisabeth Wolckner (1699–1753), had four children.
* Christiana Sophia Bach (1697–1725), in 1722 got married Johann Christian Happe (1689–1761)
* Johann Bernhard Bach
Johann Bernhard Bach (23 May 1676 – 11 June 1749) was a German composer, and second cousin of J. S. Bach.Smith, Timothy A"Johann Bernhard Bach 1676-1749". Northern Arizona University. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
Life
Johann Bernhard Bach was b ...
(1700–1743); organist at St. Michaelis in Ohrdruf
* Johann Christoph Bach (1702–1756); teacher and cantor in Ohrdruf
* Johanna Maria Bach (1705–1742)
* (1707–1783); organist and teacher in Öhringen
* Magdalena Elisabetha Bach (1710–1789), was married Ludwig Gottfried Möller (1700–1777)
* (1713–1779); teacher and organist in Ohrdruf
* Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1713)
References
Sources
* Charles Sanford Terry Charles Sanford Terry may refer to:
* Charles Sanford Terry (historian) (1864-1936), English historian and authority on Johann Sebastian Bach
* Charles Sanford Terry (translator)
Charles Sanford Terry (1926–1982) was an American translator ...
. '' Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work''. Translated from the German of Johann Nikolaus Forkel
Johann Nikolaus Forkel (22 February 1749 – 20 March 1818) was a German musicologist and music theorist, generally regarded as among the founders of modern musicology. His publications include the two-volume ''Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik'' ...
. With notes and appendices by Charles Sanford Terry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe. 1920.
* Philipp Spitta
Julius August Philipp Spitta (27 December 1841 – 13 April 1894) was a German music historian and musicologist best known for his 1873 biography of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Life
He was born in , near Hoya, and his father, also called Phili ...
. '' Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany (1685–1750)'', translated by Clara Bell
Clara Courtenay Bell ( Poynter; 1835–1927) was an English translator fluent in French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish,''The Illustrated American'': 22 November 1890, p. 500''The Author: A Monthly Magazine fo ...
and J. A. Fuller Maitland. Volume I, 1899.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Johann Christoph
1671 births
1721 deaths
German classical organists
German male organists
Johann Christoph
German male classical organists