Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Bach, Johann Christoph

Bach, Johann Christoph, was probably one of the greatest contrapuntists and most expert organists in Germany towards the close of the seventeenth century. He was court and town organist at Eisenach. In the archives (as they were called) of the Bach family, which Emmanuel Bach possessed in Hamburg, there was, among other pieces, a motet of Johann Christoph's composition, in which he had ventured to make use of the extreme sixth, which, in his days, was considered an extremely bold attempt. He was also an uncommon master of full harmony, as is proved by a piece of church music, composed by him for' Michaelmas day, to the words "Es erhul sich ein Streit," which has twenty obligate parts, and yet is perfectly pure in respect to the harmony A second proof of his great skill in the harmony is, that he is stated never to have played on the organ and clavichord with less than five necessary or obligato parts.