Ancestors of Johann Sebastian Bach
Four branches of the Bach family were known at the beginning of the 16th century, and in 1561 we hear of Hans Bach of Wechmar, a village between Gotha and Arnstadt in Thuringia, who is believed to be the father of Veit Bach.
- Veit (Vitus) Bach (d. 1619) was "a white-bread baker in Hungary" who had to flee Hungary because he was a Lutheran and who "found the greatest pleasure in a little cittern which he took with him even into the mill".
- His son Johannes (Hans) Bach (d. 1626) "der Spielmann" (lit. the player), was the first professional musician of the family. "At first took up the trade of baker, but having a particular bent for music" he became a piper.
- His second grandson Christoph (1613–1661) was an instrumentalist.
- His first great-grandson Johann Ambrosius was Johann Sebastian Bach's father.
Read more about this topic: Bach Family
Famous quotes containing the words ancestors of, ancestors and/or bach:
“Thou shalt make thy house
The temple of a nations vows.
Spirits of a higher strain
Who sought thee once shall seek again.
I detected many a god
Forth already on the road,
Ancestors of beauty come
In thy breast to make a home.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 B.C.)
“We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his days work at Auschwitz in the morning.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)