It has been suggested that the name Bach is the sole authority for the statement that Veit was a baker. But Spitta points out that the vowel in the name is pronounced long and was frequently written BAACH in the seventeenth century, a fact which makes it difficult to associate the word with “Backer” (Baker).
In the Genealogy Johann Sebastian calls the instrument a Cythringen.
Hans Bach (d. Dec. 26, 1626) and (?) Lips Bach (d. Oct. 10, 1620). See infra, Genealogical Tables I. and II. and note to the latter.
The “Stadt Pfeiferei,” or official town musical establishment, descended from the musicians' guilds of the Middle Ages and was presided over by the Stadt Musiker, who enjoyed certain ancient privileges and the monopoly of providing the music at open-air festivities. Johann Jakob Brahms, the father of Johannes, was a member of such a corporation at Hamburg, after having served his apprenticeship for five years elsewhere. See Florence May, Johannes Brahms, vol. i. pp. 48 ff.
See Genealogical Table II. The three young Bachs were the sons of Lips Bach and, presumably, nephews of Hans the “Spielmann.” The youngest of them was named Jonas; the name of another was certainly Wendel. It is remarkable, in a period in which Italy was regarded as the Mecca of musicians, that exceedingly few of the Bach family found their way thither. Besides the three sons of Lips Bach, only Johann Nikolaus, 1669-1753 (see Table VI.), Johann Sebastian Bach's son Johann Christian, 1735-82 (see Table VIII.), and Carl P. E. Bach's son Sebastian (see Table VII.) seem to have visited Italy.
i.e. from Veit Bach. Of the three names Forkel mentions the first two were a generation before Johann Sebastian; the third, Johann Bombard, was of the same generation as Johann Sebastian; none of the three belonged to Johann Sebastian's branch.
Eldest son of Heinrich Bach (see Table VI.). Whether he was Court as well as Town Organist at Eisenach cannot be stated positively.
The Alt-Bachische Archive is a collection of the compositions of various members of the family, before and after Johann Sebastian, formed largely by the latter. From C. P. E. Bach it passed to G. Pölchau and from him to the Berlin Royal Library.
Johann Christoph composed several Motets (see them discussed in Spitta, i. 75 ff.). The daring work to which Forkel alludes was written about 1680 and is lost. Though the augmented sixth was then and remained unusual, Johann Christoph's is not the earliest use of it. Spitta finds it in Giacomo Carissimi (1604-74).
The Cantata (“And there was war in heaven”) is analysed by Spitta (i. 44). The score is unusually full: two five-part choirs; Vn. 1 and 2, 4 Violas, Contrabasso, Fagotto, 4 Trombe, Timpani, Organ. In 1726 Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a Cantata for Michaelmas on the same text (Rev. xii. 7).