Biography Born at Eisenach, in Thuringia, he came of a distinguished musical family. At 15 he became a chorister at Luneburg and at 19 organist at Arnstadt. Subsequent appointments included positions at the courts of Weimar and Anhalt-Kother, and finally in 1723, that of musical director at St Thomas's choir school in Leipzig, where, apart from his brief visit to the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia in 1747, he remained there until his death. Bach married twice and had 21 children, ten of whom died in infancy. His second wife, Anna Magdalena Wulkens, was a soprano singer; she also acted as his amanuensis, when in later years his sight failed. Bach was a master of contrapuntal techniq