Bach, Johann Ernst
Bach, Johann Ernst
Bach, Johann Ernst, only son of Johann Bernhard; b. Eisenach, Jan. 28, 1722; d. there, Sept. 1, 1777. He was a pupil of his uncle Johann Sebastian. After studying law at the Univ. of Leipzig, he returned to Eisenach and practiced as an advocate. In 1748 he became asst. organist to his father at the Georgenkirche, succeeding him as organist in 1749. In 1756 he became Court Kapellmeister to the fused courts of Weimar, Gotha, and Eisenach. When this arrangement was dissolved in 1758, he retained his position and worked in the administration of the ducal finances in Eisenach. He publ. Sammlung auserlesener Fabeln mit Melodeyen (ed. by H. Kretzschmar in Denkmaler Deutscher Tonkunst, vol. 42, 1910) and other works. Only a small portion of his works has been publ.; his Passion oratorio, O Seele, aeren Sehen, is in Denkmaler Deutscher Tonkunst, vol. 48, 1914. A sonata is in K. Geiringer, Music of the Bach Family: An Anthology (Cambridge, Mass., 1955). Two fantasies and fugues for organ are found in D. Hell-mann, ed., Orgelwerke der Familie Bach (Leipzig, 1967).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire