21st March: Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this date in 1685. Some facts about him:

1. He was born in the town of Eisenach, Germany, to Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt. His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach, was the director of the town musicians, and all his uncles were professional musicians. In fact, he came from a long line of musicians.
2. He was orphaned at the age of ten and went to live with his older brother. He got into trouble there by copying an old musical score (blank scores were expensive).
3. He married twice and had twenty children, although only a few survived to adulthood. Only one of his sons did not become an organist.
4. He once challenged someone to a duel - not with guns, but with keyboards. Each musician was to set to the other a series of musical tasks, including themes to improvise and styles to imitate. King Augustus decided to offer a prize of 500 Talers to the winner. Bach's prospective opponent, Louis Marchand, came to the conclusion that he stood no chance of winning and was likely to be humiliated, so on the day of the contest, he legged it to Paris by stagecoach. The noblemen from Dresden who turned up to watch the contest, were treated to a recital by Bach instead. Sadly, Bach didn't get the prize money, since it had been stolen by a servant.
5. Bach's talent as a composer wasn't appreciated during his lifetime. He was a working musician whose career encompassed a series of jobs. Relations with employers weren't always good. In 1705, Bach walked 200 miles from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear organist Dietrich Buxtehude play. He was only granted four weeks leave from his position as organist in Arnstadt but ended up taking off four months, without permission. Another employer sent him to prison for trying to resign.
6. Bach was into numerology. In mystical numerology the letters of his surname added up to 14, and if he added his initials, JS, the total was 41. These two numbers are hidden countless times within the notes and musical structure of Bach’s works. More obvious examples are 14 Canons in the Goldberg Variations and 14 Contrapuncti in the Art of Fugue.
7. Bach was most famous for his religious music, but he also wrote some secular pieces including a piece about Coffee. It was called 'Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht' ('Be still, stop chattering') and was most likely first performed in a Leipzig coffee house.
8. Translated into English, BACH means STREAM (ruscello/torrente). In German, the name Bach spells out four musical notes (B —B flat, A—A natural, C—C natural, H—B natural).
9. Despite being born in the same year and only about 130 kilometres (81 mi) apart, Bach and Handel never met. It wasn't for want of trying, on Bach's part, at least. In 1719, Bach made the 35-kilometre (22 mi) journey from Köthen to Halle to try and meet up with Handel, but Handel had left the town.
10. There's another coincidence concerning Bach and Handel and that was that they both had trouble with their eyes and were both operated on by the same eye surgeon, John Taylor. In those days this would have meant without anaesthetic. Taylor wasn't particularly good and in both cases, the surgery went wrong. Handel's vision got worse for the last ten years of his life, while Bach went blind and died a few months later of a stroke.