The Bach Dynasty: The Most Musical Family in History

In parts of central Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, town musicians were reportedly called "Bachs" whether or not they bore the name — the family so dominated the profession that the surname had become the job title. Musicologists have counted more than fifty professional musicians in the Bach family across roughly two centuries: the deepest dynasty in the history of any art.

The mountain in the middle

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was, in his own time, merely one distinguished Bach among many — a provincial Kapellmeister famed more as an organist than composer. Today his 1,100-plus surviving works — a productivity record explored in our composers ranking — form the foundation of Western music: The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B minor, the Passions, the cello suites. When the Voyager probes left Earth carrying humanity's Golden Record, Bach appeared three times — more than any other composer.

He was orphaned at ten and raised by an older brother — a Bach, an organist, naturally. He fathered twenty children, ten of whom survived infancy; four of those became composers of European reputation.

The sons

• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach — the eldest and, by family consensus, the most gifted organist among the sons; his improvisations were legendary, his career turbulent.
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — the most famous Bach of the eighteenth century. For decades after 1750, "the great Bach" meant C.P.E., not his father. His treatise on keyboard playing taught generations, and Mozart said of him: "He is the father, we are the children."
• Johann Christian Bach — the "London Bach," who brought the family name to opera and to England, where in 1764 he befriended and mentored an eight-year-old visitor on tour: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose symphonic style carries J.C.'s fingerprints. The dynasty thus personally tutored the greatest prodigy who ever lived.

The rediscovery

Here is the strangest fact in the dynasty's story: after his death in 1750, Johann Sebastian's music largely fell out of fashion — kept alive by connoisseurs, studied by Mozart and Beethoven, but publicly near-forgotten. The resurrection came in 1829, when the twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn — himself a legendary prodigy — conducted the St Matthew Passion in Berlin, its first major performance since Bach's era. "It was a Jew," Mendelssohn noted wryly to a friend, "who gave back to the people the greatest Christian music." The modern cult of Bach dates from that single concert.

"I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."

— Johann Sebastian Bach

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Watch: J.S. Bach: Complete Concertos Vol. 1

Why dynasties die

No family has repeated the feat, and the reasons are structural: the Bachs flourished in a guild economy where music was a trade passed father to son, complete with apprenticeships, town posts and church contracts. When that economy dissolved into the age of the freelance genius, hereditary mastery went with it. The Bach dynasty is therefore a closed record — the greatest concentration of musical talent one bloodline will ever produce, sealed in amber around 1800, with its summit still towering over all of music.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many musicians were in the Bach family?

Musicologists count more than fifty professional musicians across roughly two centuries — the deepest dynasty in any art.

Which Bach was most famous in the 18th century?

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach — for decades after 1750, 'the great Bach' meant him, not his father.

Who revived Johann Sebastian Bach's music?

The twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, whose 1829 Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion launched the modern Bach revival.