Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music, instrumental compositions, keyboard works; organ works and vocal music. Since the 19th-century Bach revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
The Bach family already counted several composers when Johann Sebastian was born. After being orphaned at the age of 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother Johann Christoph, after which he continued his musical education in Lüneburg. In 1703 he was back in Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen and, at courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and Köthen, where he was engaged with chamber music. From 1723 he was employed as the cantor at St Thomas's in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city, and for its university's student ensemble, Collegium Musicum. From 1726 he published some of his keyboard and organ music. In the last decades of his life he reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions.
