Bach (genus)

Four branches of Bachs have been known since the beginning of the 16th century.

• Vit (Vitus) Bach (d. 1619 ) was a “baker from Hungary ”, he left Hungary (according to other sources, Slovakia ) due to religious persecution (he was a Protestant ). Wit “found great pleasure in playing on his little zither , which he took everywhere with him, even to the mill.”
• His son, Johannes (Hans) Bach (d. 1626 ) "der Spielmann" (with him. - "musician"), the first professional musician in the Bach family, "engaged in the sale of pastries, but who had a certain tendency to play music", was a piper .
• The son of Hans, Christophe ( 1613 - 1661 ) was a musician.
• His son, Johann Ambrosius is the father of Johann Sebastian.

• Of the seven children of Johann Sebastian from their first marriage (with Maria Barbara, his second cousin), four (daughter and three sons) survived to adulthood. Two of them became composers and musicians: Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philip Emanuel . The third son, Johann Gottfried Bernhard , also began his career as a musician, but died at the age of 24 years ^[1] .

Of the three children of Wilhelm Friedemann, only the daughter of Frederic Sofia survived until adulthood (and marriage). Of the children of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach, three children survived to adulthood (none of them became a musician): daughter, Anna Carolina of the Philippines, and sons, Johann Adam (1745–89) and Johann Sebastian , an artist who did not live to be 30 years old.

• In the second marriage of Johann Sebastian to Anna Magdalena Wilke (possessed an outstanding soprano voice and was the daughter of the court trumpeter of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfelsky ) 13 children were born (seven died in infancy), of which two, Johann Christoph Frederic and Johann Christians became famous. Another, the eldest son, Gottfried Heinrich suffered from a mild degree of dementia, although he played the clavier well, and perhaps composed; from the age of 16 he lived in the house of his sister, Elizabeth Juliana Frederic, and her husband. Three daughters lived to adulthood: Elizabeth Julian Frederic ( 1726 - 1781 ) (married to Johann Sebastian's pupil Johann Christoph Altnikkol ), Johann Carolina ( 1737 - 1781 ) and Regina Susanna ( 1742 - 1809 ).

Johann Christian Bach got married, but he had no children.

Johann Christoph Frederick Bach married 8 children, three sons and five daughters. Only two - the son of William Friedrich Ernst and the daughter of Anna Philippine Friederica ( German Anna Philippina Friederica ) had children. Another daughter, Christina Luise ( German Christina Luise ) died in 1852 childless. Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst , also a composer, had two daughters in his first marriage (who lived to come of age), in the second - a son who died in infancy, the last male descendant of Johann Sebastian Bach. With the death of William Friedrich Ernst in 1845, the family of Johann Sebastian Bach on the male line was interrupted ^[2] .

• The descendants of his granddaughter, Frederic Sofia, moved to Poland and the Russian Empire ( Western Region ), then, at the end of the 19th century, to Oklahoma, USA, where some of them still live ^[3] .

The older brother of Johann Ambrosia, Heinrich of Arnstadt, had two sons: Johann Michael and Johann Christof , who are among the most remarkable predecessors of Johann Sebastian. Johann Christoph, in particular, is the author of the motet “Ich lasse dich nicht” (“I will not leave you”), formerly attributed to Johann Sebastian ( BWV 159a ). Another descendant of Vita Bach, Johann Ludwig , was most admired by Johann Sebastian among all his ancestors.

• Encyclopædia Britannica , 11th ed. (published in 1910-1911, has the status of public domain) .
• Terry, C. (1930). Has Bach Surviving Descendants ? The Musical Times, 71 (1048), 511-513. doi: 1.

• Bach, Johann Sebastian // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Bach (musicians) // Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 4 volumes - St. Petersburg. 1907-1909.