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 This day, March 21 (1685), Baroque composer and organist, Johann Sebastian Bach, is born at Eisenach, Germany. His works are regarded as the greatest of polyphonic music, and he is best known to this day as the master of counterpoint.
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When we talk classical music Bach, we remember him through the strength and warmth in his choral works and fugues, his church music in oratorios, concertos, suites, and keyboard music, both for clavier and organ.
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In 1707, aged 22, Bach moved to Mühlhausen to work as an organist. Four months later, he married his cousin Maria Barbara. After his first wife's death in 1720, he remarried. His second wife, Anna Magdalena Wülkens was a soprano and worked for him when his sight started failing in later years. He had 20 children from his two marriages, although several died in infancy.
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Aside from oratorios, passions and fugues, Johann Sebastian Bach's major works include:Â The Well-Tempered Clavier, Cello Suites, Six Brandenburg Concertos and Concerto in D minor for two violins. His most popular classical music piece is that haunting "Air on the G String."
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He wrote all kinds of Baroque music except one, the opera. This, he left to his contemporary, George Frideric Handel.
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Not appreciated as much as other prominent masters, his music found its way and was revived in the early 19th century especially by the virtuoso composer Felix Mendelssohn.
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Johann Sebastian Bach is not credited with revolutionizing any musical form, however, he gave the musical world with his brand of creative polyphony and intense spirituality. A devoted Protestant German, all his works were dedicated "To the Greater Glory of God."
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