Why was Bach not all that famous when he lived?

Answer 1

During Bach's lifetime, he was known mostly for his skills as an organist and organ technician. He was not well known for his compositional output during his lifetime for two main reasons:

1) Bach composed in a polyphonic fugal style that was considered to be going out of fashion starting around 1730 or so in favor of a more homophonic cosmopolitan style that appealed to the growing middle class. The use of polyphonic forms such as passacaglia, ritornello form, and fugue were considered relics of a musical style that was needlessly complex, elitist, and lacked expressive directness.

2) Unlike Handel (who was a world traveller) Bach spent almost his entire life in Germany working in small courts such as Weimar and Cothen. Even though his last decades were spent in the larger city of Leipzig, he never settled in large cities known for music such as London, Paris, or Vienna.

Answer 2

That depends on what you mean. J.S. Bach had fallen very much out of favor by the end of his life, due largely to the fact that the musical world was moving on to the Classical era, including his own famous sons, most notably C.P.E Bach. J.S. Bach, known as the fulfiller of the Baroque era was not respected for some time from the late part of his life and after his death. However, very famous musicians still studied and knew about the great Baroque composers during this time, including the like of Mozart and Haydn. By the Romantic era, however, there was an increased interest in musicology and music of the past that has continued to grow and foster all the way until modern day. And in this wave of musicology, J.S. Bach has been given back his rightful seat as one of the most important and respected composers in history.

Answer 3

NO