Name Gottfried Bach | ||
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Parents Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach Siblings Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian Bach Cousins Johann Bernhard Bach the Younger Grandparents Johann Ambrosius Bach, Maria Elisabeth Lammerhirt, Margaretha Elisabeth Liebe, Johann Caspar Wilcke Similar People Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Gottfried Bernhard, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich | ||
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: J. S. Bach
Gottfried Heinrich Bach (26 February 1724 – 12 February 1763) was the firstborn son of Johann Sebastian Bach by his second wife Anna Magdalena Wilcke. He was born in Leipzig, where his parents had moved the year before his birth.
Gottfried Heinrich became "feeble-minded" (mildly mentally handicapped in some way) at an early age, but he played the keyboard well and C. P. E. Bach is quoted as saying that he showed "a great genius, which however failed to develop". He possibly composed: for instance the melody of the aria "So oft ich meine Tobackspfeife", BWV 515, contained in the second Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, may be his.
After his father's death in 1750 Gottfried Heinrich lived with his younger sister Elisabeth Juliane Friederica and her husband Johann Christoph Altnickol. Altnickol was a musician who lived and worked in Naumburg approximately 60 km (37 mi) southwest of Leipzig. After his brother-in-law's death in 1759 Gottfried Heinrich stayed on in Naumburg with his sister until his own death a few years later.