Bach_Childhood (1685–1703) (part 2)

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach. He was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach, an organist at St. George's Church, and Maria ElisabethaLämmerhirt Bach. His father taught him to play violin and harpsichord. His uncles were allprofessional musicians, whose posts ranged from church organists and court chambermusicians to composers. One uncle, Johann Christoph Bach (1645–93), was especiallyfamous and introduced him to the art of organ playing. Bach was proud of his family'smusical achievements, and around 1735 he drafted a genealogy, "Origin of the musicalBach family", printed in translation in The Bach Reader (ISBN 0393002594).Bach's mother died in 1694, and his father eight months later. The 10-year-old orphanmoved in with his oldest brother, Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721), the organist at theMichaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf. There, he copied, studied and performed music, andapparently received valuable teaching from his brother, who instructed him on theclavichord. J.C. Bach exposed him to the works of the great South German composers of the day, such as Johann Pachelbel (under whom Johann Christoph had studied) and Johann Jakob Froberger; possibly to the music of North German composers, to Frenchmen, such as Jean-Baptiste Lully, Louis Marchand, Marin Marais; and to the Italianclavierist Girolamo Frescobaldi. The young Bach probably witnessed and assisted in the maintenance of  he organmusic. 

      Bach's obituary indicates that he copied music out of Johann Christoph's scores, but his brother had apparentlyforbidden him to do so, possibly because scores were valuable and private commodities at the time.At the age of 14, Bach, along with his older school friend George Erdmann, was awarded a choral scholarship to studyat the prestigious St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, not far from the northern seaport of Hamburg, one of the largestcities in the Holy Roman Empire.[1] This involved a long journey with his friend, probably undertaken partly on footand partly by coach. His two years there appear to have been critical in exposing him to a wider palette of Europeanculture than he would have experienced in Thuringia. 

      In addition to singing in the a cappella choir, it is likely that heplayed the School's three-manual organ and its harpsichords. He probably learned French and Italian, and received athorough grounding in theology, Latin, history, geography, and physics. He would have come into contact with sons ofnoblemen from northern Germany sent to the highly selective school to prepare for careers in diplomacy, government,and the military.Although little supporting historical evidence exists at this time, it is almost certain that while in Lüneburg, young Bachwould have visited Johanniskirche (Church of St. John) and heard (and possibly played) the church's famous organ(built in 1549 by Jasper Johannsen and nicknamed the "Böhm organ" after its most prominent master), an instrumentwhose sonic capabilities could well have been the inspiration for the mighty Toccata and Fugue in D minor. 

      Given hisinnate musical talent, Bach would have had significant contact with prominent organists of the day in Lüneburg, mostnotably Georg Böhm (the organist at Johanniskirche) as well as organists in nearby Hamburg, such as Johann AdamReincken. Through contact with these musicians, Bach probably gained access to the largest and finest instruments hehad played thus far. It is likely that during this stage he became acquainted with the music of the German organschools, especially the work of Dieterich Buxtehude, and with music manuscripts and treatises on music theory thatwere in the possession of these musicians.