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Chances are you’ve heard at least several compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. From the simple chord progressions of The Well-Tempered Clavier to the powerfully moving St. Matthew Passion, Bach has claimed an everlasting foothold in the history of music with his magnitude of unparalleled works (with his known compositions numbering over one thousand). His genius so directly influenced music that music historians have often separated music history into two periods: “pre-Bach” and “post-Bach.”

However, most historians leave out an important and evident characteristic that was the sole reason for his music’s timeless and incalculable value: his strong and unwavering devotion to God. Because of Bach’s undying faith in Christ, his music was built on a solid foundation and still, over three hundred years later, draws listeners in with its beauty and truth.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685. It was in this same city, over 150 years earlier, that Martin Luther had translated the Bible into German and had also written several of the hymns that influenced Bach’s music. The Reformation had transformed Germany into a Protestant, religious culture; because the Lutheran hymnbook’s purpose was to convey a spiritual message, Bach grew up listening to hymns that promoted Christ and were actually meaningful, compared to the Catholic masses of previous years.

Orphaned at the age of ten, Bach lived with his elder brother until he was fifteen, and then became a soprano in the Lutheran cathedral at Lüneberg (at that time, women were not permitted to sing in choirs). By the time he was eighteen, his virtuosic skills were becoming widely known: he had grown into a master clavichordist, organist, violinist, violist, and, most importantly, composer. He took up a position as a violinist and violist in the court orchestra at Weimar, and then became employed as an organist in a church at Arnstadt.

Bach’s life is an excellent example of hard work and frugality. When asked later in life how he had earned his success, he humbly replied, “I was obliged to work hard. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed just as well.” He was an unassuming, humble man who would undoubtedly be surprised by the large impact his music has made.

For Bach, life was certainly not without hardships. While employed in the court orchestra of a wealthy duke, he at one point considered an offer from another employer. His current employer feared a breach of contract and so imprisoned him for one month in his residence’s dungeon. Yet Bach used this time to complete a book of organ repertoire, which has now been called “one of the greatest events in music.” Another difficult blow was the death of his first wife, upon which he discovered that she had already been buried after returning from a musical tour. However, Bach overcame every obstacle and, through determination and discipline, made the best out of each troublesome event in his life.

After his remarriage to his cousin Anna Magdalena, Bach eventually had twenty children altogether, although ten of them died before they reached adulthood. Life in the Bach household must have been very interesting indeed: Bach kept up a busy schedule of travel and work, but was, in the end, a home-lover. He was essentially frugal, and taught his children to place family devotion before material goods. It should come as no surprise that all of the Bach children were musical and well-taught. In fact, two of Bach’s sons later became well-known composers.

Because of his religious upbringing and his personal relationship with Christ, Bach was strongly convicted that all music he wrote should be for the glory of God. His manuscripts are often inscribed with “Soli Deo Gloria,” “To God Alone be the Glory,” and “With the Help of Jesus.” Symbolically, his first composition was a simple exercise based on a hymn tune, and at his death he was hard at work on a chorale, “Before Thy Throne I Now Appear.” In all, over 75% of his music was written for the purpose of church worship. Even during what historians call his “secular period,” where he wrote music to be used outside of a church setting, he still placed God’s standards at the forefront of his composing.

But Bach was more than just a mere “Christian” composer. At the age of forty-eight he had acquired Luther’s translation of the Bible: his three-volume set is filled with notes, underlined passages, and even corrections of errors he had discovered in the text and commentary. We find the vision he maintained for his music in 1 Chronicles 25, where he wrote in the margin, “This chapter is the true foundation of all God-pleasing music.” Bach was sincerely devoted to honoring God in whatever he did. He even believed that all pleasurable and secular activities were to be done for God’s glory.

Bach has often been called “The Fifth Evangelist.” The reason for this is clear: his music is a seamless artistic representation and proclamation of Christ’s message. His surviving two hundred cantatas (a cantata is a medium-length narrative or descriptive piece of music with vocal solos and accompanied by a chorus or an orchestra) are a supreme example of this: the words are the focus of the music, a literal call to worship. These cantatas, as one writer put it, join “the Bible, music, and history into a unified whole . . . expressing scriptural truth by means of great art.”¹

As Bach’s career progressed, he took a step that many historians have been exceedingly puzzled over: he accepted a position as cantor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. It was a seemingly obscure and underpaid job, but his twenty years there resulted in his crowning years of creativity, where he composed his most spiritually edifying music and a vast amount of vocal and choral works. As the years passed, Bach’s eyesight grew increasingly worse, and two botched operations resulted in his permanent blindness.  Yet Bach still continued to write music, even as he neared death. He died at the age of sixty-five.

Most people who are unfamiliar with Bach do not realize that he was relatively obscure during his lifetime. His music was not widely performed and the only thing he was renowned for, albeit towards the end of his life, was being organist and teacher. Only a few of his compositions were performed while he was yet alive, and even then they usually were performed just once. It was not until the nineteenth century that the composer Felix Mendelssohn revived his music by organizing a performance of the “St. Matthew Passion.” His music began to take the world by firestorm: people began to appreciate its timeless power and beauty, and it provided a firm groundwork for many other composers. Musicians and historians began to unearth his compositions and bring them to light.

It was through his enduring music that Bach has continued to speak the saving message of Jesus Christ. Listen to his oratorios and choral works: he proclaims, to this day, the saving grace of Christ. It is only because historians overlook the message within his music that many do not realize what a devoted and sincere Christian he was. Each chord in Bach’s music pulses with a desire to serve God, to glorify Him through the aspiration to proclaim the Gospel through whatever means He has given us to do so.

It is because of Johann Sebastian Bach that music is what it is today; he is undoubtedly the most important composer to have ever lived. Somehow, I don’t think it is one bit ironic that Bach was also a born again, dedicated Christian. May his life be an example to us all: whatever we do, it should resonate with the words Bach so often penned on his manuscripts: “To God alone be the glory.”

[1] Stuart Smith, Jane. The Gift of Music. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1995.