Bach family

Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann, and Johann Christoph Friedrich

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

Family house, Wechmar

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). 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

Heinrich *1615 †1692

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 Christian *1743 †1814

Johann Philipp[6] *1752 †1846

Erfurt branch

Johann(es) [Hans] *1604 †1673

Johann Christian *1640 †1682

Johann Aegidius *1645 †1713

Johann Nicolaus *1653 †1682

Johann Jacob *1668 †1692

Johann Christoph *1673 †1727

Johann Balthasar *1673 †1691

Johann Bernhard *1676 †1749

Johann Christoph *1685 †1740

Johann Nicolaus *1682 †?

Johann Samuel *1694 †1720

Johann Christian *1696 †?

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 Christoph *1645 †1693

Johann Valentin *1669 †1720

Johann Christoph *1671 †1721

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 Christoph *1702 †1756

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

descendants

Johann Georg *1786 †1874

Georg Friedrich *1792 †1860

Ludwig Albrecht Hermann Ritter *? †?

Carolina Augusta Wilhelmine *1800 †1871

Juliane Friederica *1800 †?

descendants

Arnstadt branch

Heinrich *1615 †1692

Johann Christoph *1642 †1703

Johann Michael[13] *1648 †1694

Johann Günther *1653 †1683

Johann Nicolaus *1669 †1753

Johann Christoph *1676 †?

Johann Friedrich *~1682 †1730

Johann Michael *1685 †?

Johann Christoph *1705 †1799

Johann Christian *1717 †1738

Johann Heinrich *1709 †?

See also

• P. D. Q. Bach

References

1.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bach, Johann Sebastian". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–130.
2. New Grove Bach Family, p. 98, p. 111
3. Nephew of Lips Bach.
4. The so-called "Meininger Bach", composer.
5. Court organist, court painter Meinigen.
6. Musician, painter.
7. 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)

8. The so-called "Dresden Bach" or "Halle Bach".
9. The so-called "Hamburg Bach" or "Berlin Bach".
10. The so-called "Bückeburg Bach".
11. The so-called "Milan Bach" or "London Bach".
12. The music theorist.
13. 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