The most celebrated member of a large family of northern German musicians. Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist, organist, and expert on organ building, Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces of church and instrumental music. Appearing at a propitious moment in the history of music, Bach was able to survey and bring together the principal styles, forms, and national traditions that had developed during preceding generations and, by virtue of his synthesis, enrich them all.

He was a member of a remarkable family of musicians who were proud of their achievements, and in about 1735 he drafted a genealogy, 'Ursprung der musicalisch-Bachischen Familie' (“Origin of the Musical Bach Family”), in which he traced his ancestry back to his great-great-grandfather Veit Bach, a Lutheran baker (or miller) who was driven from Hungary to Wechmar in Thuringia, a historic region of Germany, by religious persecution late in the 16th century and died in 1619. There were Bachs in the area before then, and it may be that, when Veit moved to Wechmar, he was returning to his birthplace. He used to take his cittern to the mill and play it while grinding was going on. Johann Sebastian remarked, “A pretty noise they must have made together! However, he learnt to keep time, and this apparently was the beginning of music in our family.”

Until the birth of Johann Sebastian, his was the least distinguished branch of the family; its members had been competent practical musicians, but not composers, such as Johann Christoph and Johann Ludwig. In later days the most important musicians in the family were Johann Sebastian's sons, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, and Johann Christian (the ‘English Bach’).

Johann Sebastian is arguably one of the finest composers in the history of western music - to quote Wagner: 'the most stupendous miracle in all music'.