Johann Sebastian Bach spent his career as a working church musician and Kapellmeister in provincial Germany, largely unrecognized in his own lifetime as anything more than a formidable organist, yet his mastery of counterpoint and harmonic structure became a foundation stone of Western music. Works like The Well-Tempered Clavier systematized keyboard composition in ways that later composers, jazz musicians, and pop arrangers alike would continue to draw from for centuries. His influence on later musicians, including jazz-trained pianists like Nina Simone, runs through his intricate, mathematically rigorous keyboard writing.

the sound in question

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Prelude in C Major, BWV 846Johann Sebastian Bach