Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer who lived from 1685 to 1750. Here are 20 facts about him for a school project, a poster, or a composer study. Each one is short enough to copy onto a card.
His family and childhood
1. He was born on March 31, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany. His town used an older calendar, so the record of the day says March 21.
2. His family had been musicians for generations. In the nearby town of Erfurt, people called the town musicians “the Bachs.”
3. The name Bach means “brook” in German.
4. Both of his parents died before he turned ten. He went to live with his oldest brother, who was an organist.
5. A story told after his death says that his brother kept a book of music locked away. The boy copied it out in secret, by moonlight.
His jobs
6. At 20, he walked more than 200 miles to hear a famous organist named Buxtehude. He stayed far longer than his boss had allowed.
7. In his lifetime, he was better known as an organist than as a composer. Towns hired him to test their new organs.
8. A duke once put him in jail for nearly a month. Bach had pushed too hard to be let out of his job.
9. In 1723, he moved to Leipzig. He led the music at the main churches and taught at a boys’ school for the last 27 years of his life.
10. He was not the town’s first choice. Two other musicians were offered the job before him.
11. For several years, he wrote a new piece for church almost every week.
His home
12. He married twice and had 20 children. Ten of them lived to grow up. Read how many children did Bach have?
13. Four of his sons became well-known composers.
14. He liked coffee. He wrote a funny piece about a girl who will not give it up. It was most likely first played in a coffee house in Leipzig.
15. He never wrote an opera, and he never left Germany.
His music
16. The catalog of his music lists more than 1,000 works. Each one has a BWV number. Read what opus, K, and BWV numbers mean.
17. The Well-Tempered Clavier is two books of keyboard pieces. Each book has a prelude and a fugue in all 24 keys.
18. He could spell his name in music. In German, the notes B-flat, A, C, and B are called B, A, C, and H. He used them as a tune in one of his last works.
19. In 1747, he visited the King of Prussia. The king gave him a hard tune, and Bach made up a fugue on it on the spot. Later he sent the king a whole set of pieces built on that tune.
20. Near the end of his life, he lost his sight. He died in Leipzig in 1750, at 65.
One more
Three of his pieces are on the golden records that left Earth aboard the Voyager spacecraft in 1977. No other composer has as many.
Four things people get wrong
“He was a famous composer in his day.” He was known as a great organist. Few of his pieces were printed while he was alive.
“His music was forgotten until Mendelssohn.” Not by musicians. Mozart and Beethoven both studied his keyboard pieces. Mendelssohn’s concert in 1829 brought his music to a wider public.
“He wrote the Minuet in G.” He did not. It sits in a notebook he made for his wife, and the composer was Christian Petzold. Read who wrote the Minuet in G.
“He wrote ‘Ave Maria.’” Not quite. More than 100 years after Bach died, a French composer named Charles Gounod added a tune on top of Bach’s Prelude in C. Read Prelude in C major by Bach for kids and Ave Maria for kids.
Things to do together
Make a poster. Pick five facts. Write each one in a box and draw a picture for it.
Quiz night. Turn ten of the facts into questions. Take turns asking them.
Spell his name. At a piano, play B-flat, A, C, and B. That is “Bach” in German note names.
Plan the walk. Find a town about 200 miles from yours on a map. Work out how many days it would take to walk there.
Twenty at the table. Set out 20 buttons for Bach’s children. Move ten to one side for the ones who grew up.
Print and play
Print the Bach fact sheet. Read Bach for kids for his life story and the pieces to play first. For a closer listen, see the Brandenburg Concertos guide. Test what you know with the composer quiz.
For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.
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This article is part of Classical composers for kids: a guide by era, from Vivaldi to Britten.
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Use it with your kids
Print a listening page, a practice chart, or a composer fact sheet. Or try a tool, such as the composer timeline or the piece picker.