Abstract
"All music", said Johann Sebastian Bach, ""should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment; where this is not remembered there is no true music." At twenty three, in 1708, he accepted an invitation to the court of Weimar. This straightforward biography interprets Bach the man, his boyhood, his two marriages and his many children, and explains his contribution to music. His triumphs and sorrows, the progressive blindness which engulfed him before his death and the shadow cast by the idiocy of one son are told.