Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach was born on 11 May 1715, the sixth of seven children born to Johann Sebastian and Maria Barbara Bach and the fourth to survive childhood. The Baptismal records at the State Church in Weimar noted his

The Bach family was enjoying happy times in Weimar, and Maria Barbara was expecting again in 1713. On 21 February 1713, Bach was lodged in the castle at Weissenfels to celebrate the birthday of Duke Christian, and we know that

The Bach family was happily settled in Weimar. Maria Barbara Bach was taking care of the household and was certainly busy raising their precocious daughter Catharina Dorothea. Johann Sebastian, in the meantime, continued his duties in the service of Duke

Johann Sebastian Bach was a hugely productive man. And I am not merely talking about his musical compositions. With his wives Maria Barbara and Anna Magdalena, Bach fathered 20 children over his lifetime. So we decided on a little series

This episode of my favorite canons starts with an accidental discovery. In 1975, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France acquired the first edition of the Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It turned out that this particular printed score had originally belonged to Bach

In his Goldberg Variations, Musical Offering, and the canonic variations on “Vom Himmel hoch,” Bach pursued canonic procedure to its absolute limits. The use of canon no longer merely serves to lend emphasis or cogency to the composer’s part-writing, but

The combination of the Prelude and Fugue seems to be a particularly 18th-century construction. The two works should be in the same key and have different compositional rules: the Prelude as an introductory piece, sometimes of an improvisatory nature, and

J.S. Bach (1685–1750) came to Cöthen in 1717 as Kapellmeister and Chamber Music Director to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen and remained there until he left for Leipzig in 1723. In those seven years, he could explore instrumental music because the