Item 71 - A Programme Note: Bach, Death, and the Maiden

German composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Thuringia in 1685. Born into a large musical family, he was the youngest child of string player Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lämmerhirt. His parents died when he was ten, and he was cared for by his eldest brother until he won a choral scholarship to the school at Michaelskirche, Lüneburg in 1700. This appears to have influenced his interest in church music and the organ. In August 1703 he was appointed as the organist for the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, although his eccentricities gave his employers some cause for complaint. In June 1707 Bach moved to the Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen, Thuringia, marrying his cousin, Maria Barbara, in October that same year. During this time he produced several church cantatas.