Johann Sebastian Bach studied under his elder brother Johann Christoph Bach after moving to Ohrdruf around 1695–1696, following the deaths of their parents. In addition to instruction in organ and clavier playing, Johann Sebastian was exposed through Johann Christoph’s extensive music library not only to South German masters like Pachelbel and Froberger but also to works by Kerll, North German composers such as Böhm, Reincken, Bruhns, and Buxtehude, as well as French composers including Lully, Marchand, and Marais. During this period he copied music, sometimes against his brother’s wishes, and began forming the broad stylistic foundation that later shaped his own compositional voice.
Johann Christoph Bach was related to Johann Sebastian Bach as his elder brother and guardian. Trained in Erfurt under Pachelbel before becoming organist at Ohrdruf in 1690, he provided a home, education, and musical guidance to the young Johann Sebastian while working at St. Michael’s Church. His background as a pupil of Pachelbel, his own large family of musically active children, and his early role in shaping Johann Sebastian’s encounter with a wide European repertoire deepened the familial and artistic environment that influenced Johann Sebastian’s development within the broader Bach musical tradition.
