In early 2026, several concerts featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach will be held at St. Peter's Church in Vienna. As the "Gothenburg Variations" slowly flowed on the piano, the ancient stone walls seemed to warm up because of these notes. This was not only a concert, but also a soulful dialogue spanning three hundred years. This German Baroque composer was only a musician quietly working in churches and courts before his death. After his passing, he was revered by Beethoven as the "God of Music" and praised by German composer Brahms as the "foundation of all music". In the long river of Western music history, he is like a lighthouse, constructing "grammar rules" for classical music with rigorous polyphonic thinking and profound humanistic spirit, and becoming a common spiritual comfort for all mankind with melodies that transcend time and space. 1、 The soul of music that grows through inheritance and refinement. On March 21, 1685, Bach was born into a musical family in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. Since the second half of the 16th century, when Fait Bach began his amateur music career as a baker, this family has produced dozens of professional musicians over 260 years. Bach's father was a municipal musician in Eisenach, responsible for performing in city celebrations and religious ceremonies; My uncle is an organist who has created many first religious cantatas. Bach, who was immersed in the music atmosphere since childhood, started learning violin with his father at the age of 3 and attempted to play the organ at the age of 7. His family's musical genes have long been integrated into his bloodline. At the age of 10, Bach's parents passed away within a few months and he was forced to go to Alderney to seek refuge with his elder brother Johann Christophe Bach. My elder brother is an organist in the local church, and his education of Bach is meticulous and rigorous: he teaches him Latin and Lutheran doctrine during the day, and guides him on playing the harpsichord at night. At the age of 15, Bach received a scholarship from the choir of the Saint Michel School in L ü neburg for his clear voice. This school has the oldest music library in Germany, where Bach first encountered the diverse music styles of the European continent. During this time, he met Georg Bohm, an organist at St. John's Church, who studied under Dutch organist Reinken. His magnificent playing style deeply influenced Bach. In order to listen to Reinken's live performances, 16-year-old Bach once walked 30 miles to Hamburg during the summer vacation, making several trips back and forth and enjoying it. This "pilgrimage style" learning gradually integrated the polyphonic tradition of Germany with European instrumental techniques. In 1708, Bach accepted an invitation from the Grand Duke of Weimar, Wilhelm Ernst, to serve as the organist for the palace church, ushering in the nine-year "Weimar period". This became the golden period for his organ creation, with works such as "Organ Sonata Collection" combining Lutheran hymns with polyphonic techniques, retaining the solemnity of religion while showcasing the charm of the instrument's timbre. In 1717, Bach transferred to the court of K ö ttin and served as the court musician for Prince Leopold of Anhalt K ö ttin. This prince loves secular music and has no restrictions on Bach's creations, allowing him to unleash his passion for exploring instrumental music. During his six years in K ö ttin, Bach wrote masterpieces such as the Brandenburg Concerto, the Well Tempered Clavier (Volume 1), and the Creative Works. The Brandenburg Concerto breaks tradition with its unique instrument combination, becoming a model for Baroque concertos; The "Well Tempered Clavier Collection" is the first systematic use of the twelve equal keys, incorporating all 24 major and minor keys into the composition, "opening a door" for the tonal expansion of keyboard music, and is known as the "Old Testament of music". In 1720, Bach's first wife Maria Barbara passed away, and in his grief, he turned more of his energy to religious music. In 1723, upon the recommendation of German composer Telemann, Bach was appointed as the music director of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Although his salary was only a quarter of that of the K ö ttin era, this was still the "final battlefield" for his compositions. During his 27 years in Leipzig, Bach completed masterpieces of religious music such as the Passion of Matthew, Passion of John, and Mass in B minor. The Passion of Matthew, with its grand structure and compassionate melody, transforms the story of Jesus' suffering into a "musical epic"; The Mass in B minor transcends sectarian boundaries and evokes spiritual resonance. In 1749, Bach became blind due to eye disease, but still orally recited "The Art of Fugue". This unfinished work revolves around a central theme, exhausting polyphonic techniques such as appreciation, retrograde, and reflection, becoming his ultimate exploration of musical logic. On July 28, 1750, Bach passed away in Leipzig at the age of 65. He created over 1000 works, covering almost all musical genres of the Baroque period, leaving behind an unparalleled artistic peak. 2、 In Bach's world of music, polyphony is not simply a combination of melodies, but a harmonious dialogue of multiple independent melodic lines. He inherited the polyphonic tradition of his German predecessors and blended Italian melodic beauty with French dance rhythms, pushing this technique to the extreme. The Art of Fugue "is the crystallization of his polyphonic thinking. The entire piece is based on a concise theme, which is unfolded into 14 fugues and 4 canons through the" fugue "(a polyphonic imitative musical form). Among them, the" six part fugue "is referred to by musicologists as the" perfect control of the human mind over the sound order ". Listening to this work, it's like seeing mathematicians deducing complex formulas on the blackboard, with every note's position and every interweaving of voices as precise as the laws of the universe. Bach's polyphony not only pursues technical perfection, but also emphasizes emotional expression. In the "Look, Lord, our God" section of the Passion of Matthew, the soprano, bass, and choir parts are intertwined. The gentle compassion of the soprano and the solemn narrative of the bass, combined with the harmony support of the choir, transform sympathy and reverence for Jesus into a moving movement, achieving a perfect unity of rational structure and emotional resonance. As the consensus of later generations on Bach's musical spirit is: Bach's polyphony is not a cold technical display, but a warm spiritual dialogue. Before Bach, European music generally used "pure rhythm" or "pentatonic rhythm", which made it difficult to freely switch between different tones and limited the creative space of music. The twelve tone temperament divides an octave into twelve semitones, ensuring consistency in the interval relationships of all tonality and providing the possibility for modulation. But this uniform system was not widely accepted at that time, and Bach proved its superiority through artistic practice through his collection of "The Well Tempered Clavier". The Prelude in C major in Volume One of the "Well Tempered Clavier Collection" begins with a concise decomposed chord, like a beam of light piercing through darkness, and the subsequent fugue begins with a dialogue of four voices, showcasing the brightness and openness of C major; The Prelude in C minor, on the other hand, creates a deep melancholy with continuous sixteenth notes, and the fugue part pushes emotions to a climax through the superposition of voices. The 48 works cover 24 major and minor keys, each with a unique personality. The brightness of the major key and the subtlety of the minor key can be freely switched through the "bridge" of the twelve equal temperament. This work is not only a "Bible" for keyboard performance, but also a "technical textbook" for later composers: Bach's influence on tonal exploration can be seen in Beethoven's Piano Sonata, Chopin's Nocturne, and Debussy's Prelude. Bach's compositions almost covered all musical genres of the Baroque period, and achieved breakthroughs in each genre. In the field of organ music, his "Toccata and Fugue" combines dramatic introductions with rigorous fugues, becoming the "must choose" for organ performance. Its solemn and tensive melody is still a popular choice for film and game soundtracks, such as Star Wars and Genshin Impact; In the field of concertos, the Brandenburg Concerto breaks through the traditional mode of "solo and ensemble". The third concerto creates a rich sense of hierarchy through a "symmetrical combination" of three violins, three violas, and three cellos, while the sixth concerto features two violas as the main instrument, breaking the tradition of high pitched voices dominating; In the field of vocal music, his "Coffee Cantata" incorporates the secular scene of "drinking coffee" into religious music with humorous lyrics and light melodies, achieving a fusion of "sacred and secular". What is particularly valuable is Bach's expertise in "cross-border fusion". He incorporated the melodic techniques of Italian violin into German organ music, the rhythm of French dance music into keyboard works, and the melody of folk songs into religious cantatas. This "inclusive" creative philosophy gives his music both academic depth and a touch of popular aesthetics. 3、 From being forgotten to resonating globally, Bach's works were briefly forgotten after his death. With the rise of classical style, people prefer the simplicity and clarity of Mozart and Haydn, while Bach's complex polyphony and Baroque ornate style are seen as "outdated antiques". Until 1829, at the age of 20, Mendelssohn conducted a reenactment of "The Passion of Matthew" in Berlin, which shocked the European music scene. German composer Delson had a love for Bach's music since childhood. He discovered the manuscript of "St. Matthew Passion" in his grandmother's library, spent several months organizing it, and convinced the Berlin Singing Academy to hold a performance. When the chorus of 'Look, this person' sounded, tears welled up in the eyes of the audience - they had never heard such profound and emotional religious music before. This performance not only revived Bach, but also sparked the "Bach Revival Movement": Mozart re studied Bach's polyphonic techniques, and the counterpoint passages in his Requiem were deeply influenced by Bach; Beethoven bluntly stated that "Bach is my teacher", and the choral part of "Ode to Joy" in his Ninth Symphony borrowed Bach's harmonic thinking; Brahms' Symphony No. 4, which took 21 years to compose, is also a tribute to Bach's "Chacon Dance". Since the 20th century, the rise of the "Classical Music Movement" has allowed people to get closer to the original appearance of music in the Bach era. Artists represented by Polish French harpsichordist Landovska and Austrian conductor Harnoncourt are dedicated to restoring Baroque instruments (such as harpsichords and ancient violins) and performance techniques (such as improvisation of bassoons and decorative notes). The "Gothenburg Variations" recorded by Landovska restores the "original flavor" of Bach's works with the crisp sound of the harpsichord; The Brandenburg Concerto conducted by Harnoncourt showcases the agility of Baroque music through its lively rhythm and transparent fabric. At the same time, the interpretation of modern instruments has injected new vitality into Bach's music. The Gothenburg Variations, recorded by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould in 1955, broke the shackles of traditional performance with extremely fast speed and unique humming, becoming one of the most controversial yet best-selling records in classical music history; French Chinese pianist Zhu Xiaomei performed the "Gothenburg Variations" in a minimalist style. Her performance at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig was praised by local media as "interpreting the profoundness of the West with the tranquility of the East"; In 2020, Chinese pianist Lang Lang shed tears in front of Bach's tombstone while performing this work at St. Thomas Church: "Playing here feels like having a conversation with him, and his music contains emotions beyond language." Since Bach's music was introduced to China in the early 20th century, its influence has been expanding day by day. Nowadays, the average legal steel