Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach (Eisenach, 21 March (O.S.) 1685 – Leipzig, 28 July 1750) was a German composer of Baroque music, organist, harpsichordist, violist, music pedagogue and conductor.
Bach is considered by most musicologists to be one of the greatest and most influential composers in the history of Western art music because of the inventiveness with which he combined melody, harmony and rhythm, as well as various musical styles and dance forms of his time, which inspired many composers after him and challenged them to match him. Bach showed as no other how important the construction of a composition is, as well as the maximization of an ever-present build-up and release of tension.

Bach's extensive oeuvre was first catalogued and classified thematically by Wolfgang Schmieder, initially only for the German music publisher Breitkopf & Härtel as a lending and publication catalogue, in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV). The oeuvre is particularly notable for great compositional technical craftsmanship and – for many – a strong emotional expressiveness.
Bach achieved in his treatment of polyphony and harmony a quality in which he far exceeded the boundaries of what had been realized up to that point in classical music. Bach's oeuvre encompasses virtually all styles and forms that were common in his time, with the exception of opera, although there are secular cantatas with clear influences from opera.