author
Johann Nikolaus Forkel
1749–1818
A pioneering scholar of music history, he helped turn the study of music into a serious academic field and wrote the first full biography of Johann Sebastian Bach. His work helped preserve Bach’s reputation for later generations.
1 Audiobook
Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work
by Johann Nikolaus Forkel
About the author
Born in Meeder near Coburg in 1749, Johann Nikolaus Forkel became a German organist, music theorist, and one of the earliest major musicologists. After briefly studying law, he settled in Göttingen, where he served as organist at the university church and later as musical director of the university for many years.
Forkel is best remembered for treating music history and criticism with unusual seriousness and method. He wrote on musical theory, history, and bibliography, and he is often described as one of the founders of modern musicology.
His lasting fame also rests on his deep admiration for Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1802, he published the first biography of Bach, a landmark book that helped keep Bach’s life and work in public view at a time when the composer was far less widely celebrated than he would later become.