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Johann Sebastian Bach – composer (b. 21 March 1685, Eisenach – d. 28 July 1750, Leipzig)

is often cited as the most significant composer of modern music. His position as the premier composer of the Baroque era is undisputed. Bach's life and career were confined to a very limited geographical space. Born and raised in Thuringia, he never went farther north than Hamburg and Lübeck, or farther south than Carlsbad. In a similarly confined way, his east-west range stretched from Dresden (east) to Kassel (west). Bach was a composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he did not introduce new forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust contrapuntal technique, an unrivalled control of harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Revered for their intellectual depth, technical command and artistic beauty, Bach's works include the Brandenburg concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, the St Matthew Passion, the St John... Read