(b Arnstadt, bap. 8 Dec 1642; d Eisenach, bur. 2 April 1703). German composer [13 in Bach family genealogy]. He studied under his father and in 1663 became organist of the Arnstadt castle chapel. In 1665 he was appointed town organist and court organist and harpsichordist at Eisenach, posts he held for the rest of his life inspite of disputes with civic authority. J. S. Bach wrote that he ‘was as good at inventing beautiful ideas as he was at expressing words. He composed, as far as current taste allowed, in a galant, cantabile style, unusually full in texture’. His vocal works include motets and vocal concertos, the former in the tradition of the aria and chorale motet, with alternate imitative and chordal writing; he also wrote for keyboard, in a style akin to Pachelbel's.
The Bachs were a huge family of several lines with many musicians among them. Of these, Johann Christoph was second in genius and compositional skill only to Johann Sebastian. Johann Sebastian is said to have first become acquainted with the organ through his uncle Johann Christoph. J.S. Bach also studied and performed his works, which were contrapuntally complex, imaginative, and lyrical. He was a fine improviser on the keyboard, and was influenced in his compositional style by Pachelbel. The genres in which he worked include keyboard pieces, organ preludes and fugues, vocal music, and concerti. His church music mixed the older style with the newer. The old German motets consisted of alternations between chordal and imitative sections, and the newer contained livelier lines, concertante writing, and elaborate instrumental writing. His concerted church music was excessively fine, and superior to that of most of his contemporaries, and in his motets we have been left with masterpieces of the form.
We possess only one oratorio by Johann Christoph, which was a relatively new form, about the struggle between Michael the Archangel and the Devil. It is a tone picture of rare quality, full of images of bold power and apocalyptic vision. Scored for two five-part choirs and an orchestra which includes four trumpets, drums, and organ, it is a grand, magnificent, and dramatic composition. After an opening instrumental movement, the basses begin in canon, and the trumpets answer one another in distant military calls. The two choirs sing in angry counterpoint, and the trumpets rage above them in sonorous fury. The huge turmoil of sound continues until a move to the dominant signifies Satan's defeat. There is a choral fugato, a triumphant instrumental sinfonia, followed by another glorious, magnificent choir. After several more numbers, the choirs close in joyous antiphony. The whole is quite dramatic, vigorous, and emotional.
Johann Christoph studied music with his father when young, and was appointed the organist of the chapel in Arnstadt in 1663. In 1665 he was made organist of the Kapelle of the Duke of Eisenach, where Johann Pachelbel was a member. While Johann Christoph was organist at the Duke's Kapelle, Pachelbel was for a time organist of the court, and the two knew and influenced one another. Johann Christoph was also appointed the Duke's court harpsichordist at a later date. Telemann's father-in-law was Kapellmeister for the duke, so the Bachs knew the Telemann family as well. ~ Rita Laurance, All Music Guide
Johann Christoph Bach (6 December 1642 – 31 March 1703) was a German composer of the Baroque period. He was born at Arnstadt, the son of Heinrich Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach's great uncle, hence he was Johann Sebastian's first cousin once removed. He was also the uncle of Maria Barbara Bach, J.S. Bach's first wife. He is not to be confused with Johann Sebastian's Bach's son, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach.
Johann Christoph had a reputation as a composer that was only equalled by that of Johann Sebastian within the Bach family during his lifetime. He was organist at Eisenach and later a member of the court chamber orchestra there. His brother, Johann Michael Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach's father-in-law and Maria Barbara's father), was also a composer. Some of the works were later attributed to Johann Sebastian, but were recently recognized as written by Johann Christoph. One of the most famous works is the cantata Meine Freundin, du bist schön, based on the Song of Solomon. His eldest son, Johann Nicolaus Bach, was also a composer.
Despite his success as a musician, Johann Christoph experienced financial difficulties, which may have resulted in his not having been selected as the guardian of Johann Sebastian when the latter's parents died. Johann Christoph was heavily in debt when he died at Eisenach.
