ABSTRACT
Bach’s interest in the music of his ancestors focused on the twenty vocal pieces (listed in Table 9.1) that comprise the Alt-Bachisches Archiv. The Archiv is dominated by two members of the family, both sons of the Arnstadt organist Heinrich Bach (1615-1692): Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703), who was organist in Eisenach from 1665 until his death; and Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694), who was organist and town clerk in Gehren from 1673 until his death. Both men were cousins of J. S. Bach’s father, Johann Ambrosius; and Johann Michael was also Johann Sebastian’s father-in-law via his first wife Maria Barbara, an act of interbreeding that drew two lines of the family together. Also represented in the Alt-Bachisches Archiv are Johann Bach (1604-1673), organist in Erfurt from 1636 until his death, and Georg Christoph Bach (1642-1697), cantor in Schweinfurt from 1684 until his death.
