Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thüringen, into a family that over seven generations produced at least 53 prominent musicians, from Veit Bach to Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach. Johann Sebastian received his first musical instruction from his father, Johann Ambrosius, a town musician. When his father died, he went to live and study with his elder brother, Johann Christoph, an organist in Ohrdruf. In 1700 Bach began to earn his own living as a chorister …showed first 75 words of 720 total…

…showed last 75 words of 720 total…his contrapuntal skill in the form of 16 fugues and 4 canons, all on a single theme. Bach's sight began to fail in the last year of his life, and he died on July 28, 1750, after undergoing an unsuccessful eye operation for his blindness that he was getting. Throughout Bach's lifetime he wrote over 1,200 pieces of music. It took over 100 years for people to start listening to his music again after he died at the age of 65 years.