Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy Birthday, Bach!

Today is the birthday of the man I like to call the "Father of Music"...
Johann Sebastian Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born 326 years ago in Germany. He had a very interesting life.

At a young age, his older brother taught him to play the organ. It wasn't long before Bach was better at playing than his brother!

At one point in his life, he was even imprisoned for writing music for one king while he was working for another.

He had 20 children -- seven with his first wife, Maria Barbara (who died in 1720), and thirteen with his second wife, Anna Magdalena (unfortunately, only six of these children would survive to adulthood). Two of his children became very famous composers themselves: Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Christian Bach, who would later teach young Mozart.

Due to illness Bach lost his sight shortly before he died and underwent an unsuccessful eye surgery to regain it. He died at the age of 65 in the year 1750.  

Below is a recent computer construction of what Bach may have really looked like:

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