Johann Sebastian Bach was born on the 21st March 1685 into a family which was immersed in music. Most family members expected that he would be a great musician, but none would have predicted that his music would continue to effect the world some 300 years after his death. Sebastian was taught by his father, and driven by a thirst to learn often spent time with another relative, Johann Christoph Bach, listening to and learning from the music that Christoph wrote.
             Sebastian spent most of his life going from church to church composing music for different events and purposes. He married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach, who was a good singer and musician. After going through a few different jobs employed by towns, he was appointed court organist and chamber musician to Duke Wilhelm Ernst. There he played in the court orchestra and also provided music for the place chapel.
             It was working here that Bach produced most of his great works. This was due to the fact that he had more freedom here than at any of his previous jobs, and Ernst encouraged him to write good music. Although it was not here that Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier. He had a falling out with Ernst and was then imprisoned for one month. After this he was appointed Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt Cothen. Here Bach was treated very well, he did not have to write much music for the church, so dedicated his time to other writing other music. It was at this time that Bach's wife of 13 years died, which left him alone and his children without a mother. Only 17 months later he married a 20-year-old soprano named Anna Wilcke. By this period his two eldest boys were becoming great musicians, and Bach was also beginning to realise that progress could only be made in music if all keys were equally accessible. This is why he wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier. It was made up of 24 exercises, a prelude and a fugue for the 12 major, and 12 minor key signatures. There a...