Johann Christian Bach

Johann Christian Bach was born to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in Leipzig, Germany. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth—an age gap emphasised by the sharp differences in the musical styles of father and son. Even so, father Bach instructed Johann Christian in music until his death in 1750. After his father's death, he worked (and lived) with his second-oldest half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who was twenty-one years his senior and considered at the time to be the most musically gifted of Bach's sons. He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside Carl Friedrich Abel, a distinguished player of the viola da gamba. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas, and symphonies. J. C. Bach's memorial, St Pancras Churchyard, London Bach lived in Italy for several years from 1754, studying with Padre Martini in Bologna. He became organist at Milan cathedral in 1760. During his time in Italy, he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism and devoted much time to the composition of church music, including music for a Requiem Mass and a Te Deum. Johann also composed a quantity of Latin sacred music during his time in Italy. In 1762, Bach travelled to London to première three operas at the King's Theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763. In 1764 or 1765, the castrato Giusto Fernando Tenducci, who became a close friend, created the title role in his opera Adriano in Siria at King's. That established his reputation in England, and he became music master to Queen Charlotte. In 1766, Bach met soprano Cecilia Grassi, who was eleven years his junior, and married her shortly thereafter. They had no children. J. C. Bach performed symphonies and concertos at the Hanover Square Rooms. This was London's premier concert venue in the heart of fashionable Mayfair. The surrounding Georgian homes offered a well-to-do clientele for his performances. One of London's primary literary circles was acquainted with Bach and members were regular attendees at his events. He is noted for playing a role in influencing the concerto styles of Haydn and Mozart. He contributed significantly to the development of the new sonata principle. He was one of the originators of the Classical style and an important composer and concert organizer in London. He died of pneumonia on New Year's Day 1782 and was buried at St Pancras Old Church.