Johann Sebastian Bach was a great composer of music who lived in Germany more than 200 years ago
. His music is still played and enjoyed by musicians and music lovers all over the world. Bach was born in 1685 in the city of Eisenach in Germany. He studied the violin with his father, who was also a musician, and learned to play the organ and the clavichord, a musical instrument very much like our modern piano. Bach had a large family-twenty children- but still found time to compose more music than almost any man who ever lived. He made his living by claying the organ in churches and by training and leading groups of church singers. He was considered the greatest organist of his time and the greatest composer of music for the organ. He wrote many hymns and much religious music, including Mass in B Minor and the Passion According to St. Matthew. The music he composed for the clavichord is now played on the piano. Some of the best pieces he wrote for this instrument are in a group called "The Well-Tempered Clavichord." Much of his work is called chamber music and was written for very small orchestras or for groups of three or four musicians who played in a small room instead of a big concert hall. Bach died in 1750 in the city of Leipzig, Germany. He was blind in his last year. Bach came from a musical family and several of his sons were important composers too. Karl Philipp Emanuel Bach, his most gifted and talented son, composed many pieces of music that are still played and enjoyed.