Johann Christoph Bach (16 June 1671 – 22 February 1721) was a musician of the

Bach family The Bach family refers to several notable composers of the Baroque music, baroque and Classical period (music), classical periods of music, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750). A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann ...

. He was the eldest of the brothers 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 ...

who survived childhood.

Life

Johann Christoph was born in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

in June 1671, a few months before the family moved to

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 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 (baptised – buried 9 March 1706; also Bachelbel) 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 h ...

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 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 preserved town ...

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, she ...

had died earlier that year, and his father

Johann Ambrosius Bach Johann Ambrosius Bach (22 February 1645 – ) 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 twin brother of Joha ...

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'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...

. 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. An abbreviated version of that second edition, known as BWV2a ...

. In the years that followed Johann Christoph copied several compositions by his younger brother, such as those in the

Andreas Bach Book Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...

, kept by one of his sons, and the

Möller Manuscript The Möller manuscript is a compilation of keyboard music made by Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), the eldest brother of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is named after its former owner, Johann Gottfried Möller (1774–1833). Johann Christoph Bach ...

.Stephen A. Crist. "The early works and the heritage of the seventeenth century", p. 75 ff. in
''The Cambridge Companion to Bach''.
edited by John Butt.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 1997. All of Johann Christoph's sons became musicians, three of them at Ohrdruf. He died, aged 49, in Ohrdruf.

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) (1926–1982), American translator of Japanese literature

. '' Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work''. Translated from the German of Johann Nikolaus Forkel. 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 Phil ...

. '' Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany (1685–1750)'', translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland. Volume I, 1899. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Johann Christoph 1671 births 1721 deaths German classical organists German male organists Johann Christoph Male classical organists et:Johann Christoph Bach (1645–93)