Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (21 June 1732 – 26 January 1795) was a German composer and harpsichordist, the fifth son of Johann Sebastian Bach, sometimes referred to as the “Bückeburg Bach”. Born in Leipzig and the Count stood as godfather to his son Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach. J.C.F. educated his son in music as his own father had, and Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst went on to become music director to Frederick William II of Prussia. In April 1778 he and Wilhelm travelled to England to visit Johann Christian Bach. J. C. F. Bach died in 1795 in Bückeburg, aged 62. Assessment The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica says of him: “He was an industrious composer, … whose work reflects no discredit on the family name.” He was an outstanding virtuoso of the keyboard, with a reasonably wide repertory of surviving works, including twenty symphonies, the later ones influenced by Haydn and Mozart; hardly a genre of vocal music was neglected by him. A significant portion of J. C. F. Bach’s output was lost in the World War II destruction of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin, where the scores had been on deposit since 1917. Musicologists Hansdieter Wohlfahrth, who catalogued his wo