Bach family
The Bach family was of importance in the history of music for nearly two hundred years, with over 50 known musicians and several notable composers, the best-known of whom was Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750).[1] A family genealogy was drawn up by Johann Sebastian Bach himself in 1735, his 50th year, and completed by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel.
The Bach family never left Thuringia until the sons of Sebastian went into a more modern world. Through all the misery of the peasantry at the period of the Thirty Years' War this clan maintained its position and produced musicians who, however local their fame, were among the greatest in Europe. So numerous and so eminent were they that in Erfurt musicians were known as "Bachs", even when there were no longer any members of the family in the town. Sebastian Bach thus inherited the artistic tradition of a united family whose circumstances had deprived them of the distractions of the century of musical fermentation which in the rest of Europe had destroyed polyphonic music.[1]
Ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach
Four branches of the Bach family were known at the beginning of the 16th century, and a Hans Bach of Wechmar is documented to have been alive in 1561, a village between Gotha and Arnstadt in Thuringia, who is believed to be the father of Veit Bach.[1]
- Veit (Vitus) Bach (c. 1550 – 1619, Wechmar) was, according to Johann Sebastian's genealogy, "a white-bread baker in Hungary" who had to flee Hungary because he was a Lutheran, settling in Wechmar. He "found the greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill".
- His son Johannes Bach I (c. 1580 – 1626) "der Spielmann" (lit. "the player"), was the first professional musician of the family. "At first took up the trade of baker, but having a particular bent for music" he became a piper.
- His second grandson Christoph (1613–1661) was an instrumentalist.
- His first great-grandson Johann Ambrosius was a violinist, and the father of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Others born before 1685
Johann Ambrosius' uncle, Heinrich of Arnstadt, had two sons: Johann Michael and Johann Christoph, who are among the greatest of J. S. Bach's forerunners, Johann Christoph being once supposed to be the author of the motet, Ich lasse dich nicht (I will not leave you), formerly ascribed to Sebastian Bach and now confirmed to be his (BWV 159a).[citation needed] Another descendant of Veit Bach, Johann Ludwig, was admired more than any other ancestor by Sebastian, who copied twelve of his church cantatas and sometimes added work of his own to them.[1]
Descendants of Johann Sebastian Bach
- Of the seven children that Johann Sebastian Bach had with his first wife only three survived him. Two of these had musical careers of their own: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.
- After his first wife died, Johann Sebastian Bach then married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, herself a gifted soprano and daughter of the court trumpeter of Prince Saxe-Weissenfels. They had 13 children, of whom Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian became significant musicians. A further four survived into adulthood: Gottfried Heinrich, Elisabeth Juliane Friederica (1726–1781) who married Bach's pupil Johann Christoph Altnikol, Johanna Carolina (1737–1781) and Regina Susanna (1742–1809).[2]
Family tree
Main branch
| ? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hans fl. 1561 | Veit † ante 1578 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Veit *? †1619 | Johann(es) *1550 †1626 | Philippus *~1552 †? | Caspar *~1570 † post 1640 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann(es) *1604 †1673 | Christoph *1613 †1661 | Wendell *~1580 †? | Lips *~1590 †1620 | Andreas *1587 †1637 | Heinrich *? †1535 | Caspar *~1600 †? | Melchior *1603 †1634 | Johann(es) *1612 †1632 | Nicolaus *1618 †1637 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Erfurt branch | Eisenach branch | Arnstadt branch | Wendel *1629 †1682 | Johann[3] *1621 †1686 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Jacob *1655 †1718 | Johannes Poppo *1659 †1738 | Johann Stephan * post 1665 †1717 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Ludwig[4] *1677 †1731 | Nicolaus Ephraim *1690 †1660 | Georg Michael *1703 †1771 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samuel Anton *1713 †1781 | Gottlieb Friedrich[5] *1714 †1785 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Philipp[6] *1752 †1846 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Erfurt branch
| Johann(es) [Hans] *1604 †1673 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Aegidius *1645 †1713 | Johann Nicolaus *1653 †1682 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Jacob *1668 †1692 | Johann Balthasar *1673 †1691 | Johann Bernhard *1676 †1749 | Johann Christoph *1685 †1740 | Johann Nicolaus *1682 †? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Samuel *1694 †1720 | Johann Günther *1703 †1756 | Johann Ernst *1722 †1777 | Johann Friedrich *1706 †1743 | Johann Aegidius *1709 †1746 | Wilhelm Hieronymus *1730 †1754 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Georg *1751 †1797 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eisenach branch
| Christoph *1613 †1661 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Georg Christoph *1642 †1697 | Johann Ambrosius *1645 †1695 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Valentin *1669 †1720 | Johann Balthasar *1673 †1691 | Johann Jonas *1675 †1685 | Johann Jacob *1682 †1722 | Johann Nikolaus *1683 †? | Johann Sebastian[7] *1685 †1750 | Johann Ernst *1683 †1739 | Johann Christoph *1689 †1740 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Lorenz *1695 †1773 | Johann Elias *1705 †1755 | Tobias Friedrich *1695 †1758 | Johann Bernhard *1700 †1743 | Johann Heinrich *1707 †1783 | Johann Andreas *1713 †1779 | Wilhelm Friedemann[8] *1710 †1784 | Carl Philipp Emanuel[9] *1714 †1788 | Johann Gottfried Bernhard *1715 †1739 | Gottfried Heinrich *1724 †1763 | Johann Christoph Friedrich[10] *1732 †1795 | Johann Christian[11] *1735 †1782 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Michael[12] *1745 †1820 | Philipp Christiann Georg *1734 †1809 | Ernst Carl Gottfried *1738 †1801 | Ernst Christian *1747 †1822 | Johann Christoph Georg *1747 †1814 | Johann Sebastian *1748 †1778 | Wilhelm Ernst von Colson *? †? | Anna Philippiana Friederica *1755 †1804 | Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst *1759 †1845 | Christina Luise *? †1852 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Georg *1786 †1874 | Georg Friedrich *1792 †1860 | Ludwig Albrecht Hermann Ritter *? †? | Carolina Augusta Wilhelmine *1800 †1871 | Juliane Friederica *1800 †? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arnstadt branch
| Heinrich *1615 †1692 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Michael[13] *1648 †1694 | Johann Günther *1653 †1683 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Nicolaus *1669 †1753 | Johann Friedrich *~1682 †1730 | Johann Michael *1685 †? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Johann Christian *1717 †1738 | Johann Heinrich *1709 †? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–130.
- ^ New Grove Bach Family, p. 98, p. 111
- ^ Nephew of Lips Bach.
- ^ The so-called "Meininger Bach", composer.
- ^ Court organist, court painter Meinigen.
- ^ Musician, painter.
- ^ Wed in his first marriage to second cousin Maria Barbara (1684–1720); in second marriage, 1721, to Anna Magdalena Wilcke (1701–1760). J. S. Bach have had 20 children in total. Here below the complete list:
- First marriage
- Catherine Dorothea (*1708 †1774)
- Wilhelm Friedemann (*1710 †1784)
- Johann Christoph (*†1713)
- Maria Sophia (*†1713)
- Carl Philipp Emanuel (*1714 †1788)
- Johann Gottfried Bernhard (*1715 †1739)
- Leopold Augustus (*1718 †1719)
- Second marriage
- Christiana Sophia Henrietta (*1723 †1726)
- Gottfried Heinrich (*1724 †1763)
- Christian Gottlieb (*1725 †1728)
- Elisabeth Juliana Friederica (*1726 †1781)
- Ernestus Andreas (†1727)
- Regina Johanna (*1728 †1733)
- Christiana Benedicta (*1729 †1730)
- Christiana Dorothea (*1731 †1732)
- Johann Christoph Friedrich (*1732 †1795)
- Johann August Abraham (†1733)
- Johann Christian (*1735 †1782)
- Johanna Carolina (*1737 †1781)
- Regina Susanna (*1742 †1809)
- ^ The so-called "Dresden Bach" or "Halle Bach".
- ^ The so-called "Hamburg Bach" or "Berlin Bach".
- ^ The so-called "Bückeburg Bach".
- ^ The so-called "Milan Bach" or "London Bach".
- ^ The music theorist.
- ^ Johann Michael had a daughter, Maria Barbara, who was Johann Sebastian Bach's first wife.
External links
Media related to Bach family at Wikimedia Commons- Bach Family Tree Image map
- Bach Family
- Article on the Bach Family
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