Johann Christian Bach was a German composer, a facile and prolific writer of vocal and instrumental works in the prevailing Italianate styles of his time.
Background
He was born in 1735 in Leipzig, Germany. His parents were Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth - an age gap exemplified by the sharp differences in the musical styles of father and son.
Education
On the death of his father in 1750, Johann Christian went to Berlin to continue his musical education with his brother. In private service with a Milanese nobleman, he continued his studies with the renowned contrapuntal teacher Padre Martini, with whom he afterward remained on good terms.
Career
In 1754 Johann Christian departed for an extended period in Italy, centered in Milan. Bach's conversion to Catholicism in 1760 opened the way to a secure position as organist at the Cathedral of Milan, the main significance of which, as he himself stated, was that it was not demanding and left him time to devote to composing instrumental music and, especially, Italian operas. In 1762 his opera Alessandro nell'Indie, on a familiar subject for opera seria, was performed in Naples.
Bach's active pursuit of a career as opera composer on the international circuit led to contacts with England, and in 1762 he settled there for good. He was soon appointed music master to the Queen and, together with Karl Friedrich Abel (a former pupil of his father's at Leipzig), he founded the famous Bach-Abel Concerts in London, which lasted from 1764 until 1782 and were among the most important musical events in England during this period.
Bach was the leading virtuoso performer and composer of German origin in England at the time; an opera placard billed him as the "Saxon Master of Music. " In 1764 the 8-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made his famous appearance as keyboard prodigy at the English court, beginning a close and lasting personal relationship with Bach.
It is essential for an understanding of the music of Mozart and his times to realize that in the 1770 he was thoroughly familiar with the music of Johann Christian Bach and still wholly unacquainted with that of Johann Sebastian Bach.
During his time in Italy, he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism and devoted much time to the composition of church music.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
In 1778 Mozart wrote from Mannheim to his father that he had met Bach there and that "I love him (as you know) and respect him with all my heart. .. ."
Connections
In 1766, Bach met soprano Cecilia Grassi, who was eleven years his junior, and married her shortly thereafter. They had no children.