There’s no better place to begin learning about Baroque music than with Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)–he’s a famous classical music composer who is great for babies, children, and pretty much everyone else! Even though my one-year-old son, Little M, is just a baby, he loves Bach! And Bach is such a big deal that you’ve probably already heard of him, even if you’ve never listened to classical music before.

Spoiler Alert: You’ve actually already heard a lot of classical music in your life, even if you don’t know it! It’s in commercials and movies, in shopping malls and sometimes even elevators. You’ve almost definitely heard a lot more classical music than you think you have!

But who was Bach? And how did he become so famous? Here’s a short Bach bio to fill you in.

Bach’s Bio

J.S. Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685. He started studying music at a very young age and even though both of his parents died by the time he was 10 years old, one of his brothers took care of him and helped him continue studying music.

As Bach grew up, he moved around to a few different cities in Germany, working as a musician everywhere he went. In 1723 he ended up in Leipzig, working as the music director for several churches there and teaching in the St. Thomas boys’ school. The move to Leipzig was the last one he made: he lived and worked there until his death in 1750.

Bach wrote more than 1,000 pieces that still survive today (and probably many more that no longer exist). He wrote both instrumental music–or music for instruments without voices–and vocal music–or music that includes singing.

Though he wasn’t super well-known during his lifetime, in the early 1800s–nearly 100 years later!–another composer, Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) thought his music was pretty amazing. Mendelssohn wanted more people to know about Bach’s music, so he put on a big Bach concert and that was the beginning of Bach’s fame. After that everyone saw just how great Bach’s music was and the rest is history.

The Music

So the piece of music my one-year-old son, Little M, and I want to share with you today is the first movement of one of Bach’s cantatas, “Wir danken dir…” (BWV 29).

A movement is a short(ish) piece that is grouped with other movements to form a larger musical piece. A cantata, in this context, is a piece of music for voices and instruments.

Even though this is a cantata (so it has singers), the first movement is just instruments, so you don’t need to worry about understanding any text.

This movement is fun and flashy and really enjoyable to watch as well as listen to! This is one of the reasons that Bach is great for babies–his music is often good at capturing their attention, especially with great performance videos!

If you want to know more about any of the instruments you see in the video, check out our Guide to Baroque Instruments. The instruments in this video are called “period instruments” because they were made in the same time period (i.e. hundreds of years ago!) as the music being played, or they are exact copies of instruments from that time period.

We hope you enjoy the music! The first movement ends at about 3:50, so you can stop the video there or keep listening if you want to hear more. Let us know what you think by leaving us a comment below!

This performance is by the Netherlands Bach Society. Go check them out on their website or their YouTube channel!