Johann Sebastian BachBorn: March 21, 1685Died: 1750
Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685, the youngest of eight children of Johann Ambrosius Bach who was the son of Christoph and Johannes Bach; and died in the year 1750. According to tradition in Leipzig, his body was buried near the St. John's church door, about six paces from the south wall. In 1894 a group of scholars began looking for, and found what they believed to be his grave. If the skeleton they found was indeed his, then he can be described to have been about 5 feet 7 1/2 inches tall, with a large head, a strong build and a solid body, which supports the portraits which were painted during his life. Although there are few pictorial evidences, he is further described as having a large nose, ample cheeks, a prominent chin, resolute lips and to wear a wig (as was the custom of the day). 
He had a temper, and was known as a hard man to get along with. He was a stern and religious Lutheran whose library contained volumes of clerical works. He had an obsession with death, and fretted about it more than others of the same period. Haydn and Handel were religious and knew they were going to Heaven, seeming to be friends with God, but not Bach. Rather, he stood in awe of God, and once said that the final point of music "should be none else but the glory of God and the recreation of the mind."
He was married twice, and had twenty children, nine of whom lived beyond his death. It was the largest family of any of his contemporaries, even at a time when large families were the norm. He was the most affluent and respected of his day through his penny-pinching. 
Bach comes from a long line of accomplished musicians, trying to gain musical posts as often as possible. When he was nine his mother had died, and when he was ten, his father died, so he and his brother Jakob were taken in by their older brother Johann Cristoph who was an organist at Ohrdruf. Johann Sebastian must have been a gifted child, having been a senior in the local school at the age of fourteen (the usual age being eighteen). He was possibly the most gifted of all composers we know of! He was a good organist, keyboard player (harpsichord, clavichord, spinet), singer, violinist, and a composer. He also had perfect pitch.
He held many positions in the court or church, and he held his last position, as cantor of St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig for twenty-seven years. In Leipzig his duties were numerous. In addition to all matters relating to teaching the boys at the church, he was also responsible for musical programs including the actual music and its performance, in all four of the city's churches. He was to compose a cantata every week for service, and conduct its performance. There was Passion music for Good Friday, motets for weddings and funerals, and festival compositions for the city itself. He was a composer of the Baroque(the era lasting from about 1600 to 1750), during a time when radical new concepts in music were pushing his music aside for the lighter, more melodic musical style of the STYLE GALANT which made his son Johann Christian popular. The Baroque era brought about four-part harmonies and figured bass, also known as thorough bass, which Bach says was handed down from On High. It also created scales as we know them today, having done away with the old church modes, and developed rhythmic ideas breaking music into bar lines. It saw the rise of the cultured middle class, who were asking for more musical entertainments, the forerunner to our public concerts of today. 
Bach sought after a big sound, and requested that there be at least twelve to sixteen singers and eighteen to twenty instrumentalists for a performance. He had a very difficult time finding talented musicians for these occasions, and felt that the lack of musical talent was the reason for the decline in performance standards in Leipzig. He was fortunate to pull together forty participants to present his St. Matthew Passion. He was known by all accounts as a dominating figure when conducting an orchestra, and was a brilliant score reader. His ear for music was so refined that even in very large groups he could detect an error. While conducting he would sing, play, beat, and cue all at once.
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