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Johann Sebastian Bach composed the most lucid music ever written, like a mathematician, and for the "greater glory of God". He died 250 years ago on the 28th July:

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685. The Bach family were quite well known throughout Northern Germany as accomplished musicians and they achieved widespread fame when young Johann Sebastian's talents came to light. His parents died when he was nine years old and between 1695 and 1700, he went to live with his brother Johann Christoph. As a boy he apparently had a fantastic soprano singing voice and always took the lead roles in the church and school choirs. He started composing fairly early on in his life and his first main works, including the Preludes and Variations for organ, were composed between the ages of seventeen and twenty. The organ was an instrument for which Bach wrote superlatively - he was a great lover of church music in general and was regarded as one of the finest organists of the day. Brought up with a strong association with the church, he was always involved in church music, both as a singer and an organist. He wrote many of his marvellous series of cantatas for the Sunday services at the Church of St Thomas in Leipzig, and these works are probably the finest of their type. Bach was always in demand and held a succession of excellent jobs throughout his lifetime. These included much celebrated posts at the courts of Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar and of Prince Leopold of Cöthen. Bach married his first cousin, Maria Barbara in 1707. Life, however, was not always a bed of roses. In the early years Bach was heavily influenced by the composer Buxtehude (another great writer for the organ) and he left his first job as organist at Arnstadt to go and have lessons with the maestro. This turned into a four-month sabbatical, causing trouble with Bach's employers when he returned: not only had his presence been missed for four consecutive months, but he had come back writing in quite an advanced and unusual style that wasn't exactly what was required. It was actually great music that was just a little ahead of its time. So Bach moved on to the job in Weimar, which afforded him greater artistic freedom. His main duties were as court organist and chamber musician to the reigning Duke Wilhelm Ernst, and he subsequently secured the job of Konzertmeister (conductor) to the court orchestra in his last three years of service. It was at the beginning of this period of work that he wrote some of his most famous organ pieces, including the marvellous Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. The top job at these various courts was invariably that of Kappelmeister, and this position became vacant in 1716 at Weimar. Much to Bach's annoyance he did not get offered the job, and so he immediately started looking for another position, ending up at the court of Prince Leopold of Cöthen. Bach remained in Cöthen until 1723 and created some of his finest music in this period: the Brandenburg Concertos, the violin concertos, the suites for orchestra and much of the chamber music. Bach remarried after his first wife's death and eventually fathered a total of twenty children with different women. In 1723, he moved to Leipzig where he was appointed Choir leader and Kappelmeister of St Thomas Church - a prestigious post which he kept until his death in 1750. Today Bach is revered all over the world as one of the greatest composers ever to have lived, producing what has been described as 'pure' music. His skill at writing for keyboard instruments and for choirs also had a significant effect on all composers who followed him, even to the present day.  
 

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