Johann Sebastian Bach was associated with many German cities. He lived in some of them, applied for work in others, and visited friends or played recitals in still others. Even when living in one or another of these cities, he continued to travel about within what is now the country of Germany.

J.S.Bach was born in Eisenach in 1685, the son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a town musician, and Elizabetha Lemmerhirt. He was baptized in the Georgenkirche (St. George's Church) in the center of town, where the baptismal font from Bach's time is still used today. Eisenach is dominated by the Wartburg Castle high on a hill, the castle where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. There is a Bach house, filled with instruments and historical artifacts, and a Luther house in the town. He attended school in Eisenach until 1695, when, after the death of both parents, he moved to Ohrdruf to live with his older brother, Johann Christoph. In 1700, he transferred to Michaelisschule (St. Michael's School) in Lüneburg. While in Lüneburg, he attended concerts in Hamburg and Celle, and applied for an organ post in Sangerhausen.

In 1703, Johann Sebastian became a court musician in Weimar, a job which only lasted about six months, before he was appointed organist of the Neue Kirche (St. Boniface's) in Arnstadt. The organ at this church has been rebuilt several times, but still retains six stops from Bach's day. He examined an organ in Langewiesen, and remained in Arnstadt until 1707, but took an extended leave (from October, 1705 to January, 1706) to hear Buxtehude in Lübeck. Indeed, the Arnstadt authorities were displeased with this long absence, and soon Bach was off to another position in another city--this time as organist at Blasiuskirche (St. Blasius Church) in Mühlhausen. Mühlhausen is a medieval city, with most of its wall still standing. In October of 1706, he married Maria Barbara Bach in Dornheim. His only published cantata, Gott ist mein König ("God Is My King"), BWV 71, was composed in Mühlhausen for the city council.

Not long after this, Bach began another job, in 1707--this one back in Weimar, and working for the co-reigning Dukes, Wilhelm Ernst and Ernst August, but this time, both as a court musician, and as organist of the Dukes' chapel. Weimar was and is a great cultural city. Here he actually stayed ten years, and wrote many of the larger organ preludes and fugues, many chorale settings, and most of the Orgelbüchlein. But, Bach was not totally "settled." He performed concerts in Weissenfels, Gotha, and Mühlhausen, approved organs in Erfurt and Traubach, went to his nephew's baptism in Ordruf, and applied for a job at the Martkirche (Liebfrauenkirche) in Halle. He also went to Dresden for a music competition with Marchand, from which Marchand fled. In 1714, Bach was appointed concertmaster at Weimar, with increased salary and commissions to compose cantatas. He was mentioned in print for the first time, being called "the famous Weimar organist."

From 1717 to 1723, Bach lived in Cöthen, where he was Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold. He visited Berlin to purchase a harpsichord, visited Karlsbad with the Prince, approved an organ in Leipzig, and performed in Schleiz and Zerbst. He applied for a position at the Jacobikirche in Hamburg. And he tried to meet Handel in Halle, but when he traveled there, he found that Handel had left that day on a trip (some said he fled away). While in Cöthen, his first wife died and he married Anna Magdalena Wilcke. The musical output included much instrumental music: the Brandenburg Concertos, Clavier-Büchlein for Anna Magdalena Bach, Clavier-Büchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and much more.

In 1723, Bach moved to Leipzig for the post of Cantor and Music Director at the Thomasschule (St. Thomas School). He was responsible for music at four churches, including the two largest of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas where he conducted the music at one of these one week, and at the other the next, along with teaching the boys music and Latin. Leipzig was and remains a university town, and St. Thomas Church dates back to the 13th-Century. The Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) was a center of rebellion just over a decade ago in the struggle to free East Germany and bring down the wall. Bach later became Music Director of the Collegium Musicum. During this time he traveled to Dresden, Altenburg, Cöthen, Weissenfels, and Wiederau for organ concerts, approved organs in Naumburg, Störmthal, Gera, Stöntzsch, Kassel, Mühlhausen, and Zschortau, sought employment in Danzig (Gsansk) by letter, went to Berlin to visit son Carl Phillipp Emmanuel, to Potsdam to the court of Frederick II, and took other trips to Halle and Sangerhausen. This is the time he wrote the larger choral pieces, published the Clavierübung, the Schübler Chorales, Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, the Musical Offering, and the Art of the Fugue. He died in 1750 in Leipzig and was buried there, first at St. John's Cemetery, and now near the altar of St. Thomas Church.