Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach was the first son of Johann Sebastian Bach, and his father gave him the most thorough possible musical training – in fact it's possible that the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach that Johann Sebastian compiled to guide his son's keyboard tuition is now better-known than any of Wilhelm Friedemann's own music. But by the standards of his time, Wilhelm Friedemann was a skilled and (initially) successful composer, training at the Thomasschule in Leipzig and studying law in Halle before in 1733 becoming organist of the Sophienkirche in Dresden, where his students included the keyboardist Johann Goldberg (whose name is enshrined in Johann Sebastian's famous Variations). Wilhelm Friedemann moved to Halle in 1746, as organist of the Liebfrauenkirche, and from then on his career seems to have faltered; unhappy in Halle, he attempted to find employment in Braunschweig and finally Berlin, where he died in 1784 after falling out of favour at court – he was said to be irascible and reluctant to adapt his music to changing tastes. He composed keyboard solos and concertos, chamber music and some 30 church cantatas; his keyboard fugues – at any rate – were highly prized by Mozart for their contrapuntal mastery.