German composer and organist.  Born in North Germany, when music was of great importance in court life,religious observances and municipal functions. He spent most of his life at Weimar and Leipzig , where he won fame as a keyboard-player, improvisor and indefatigable composer of music for the church and for the entertainment of noble patrons.

Although most of the great composers who succeeded him were familiar with his 48 preludes and fugues, for many years after his death he was remembered only as a learned contrapuntal composer and as the father of  C.P.E. Bach , a great innovator but a minor composer . Today he is recognized as a great universal genius and as a central figure in the development of music.

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