JS Bach's life revolved around his music and his family. He wrote and played music from childhood up until the end of his life when his eyes failed him. He also had 20 children with his two wives: Maria Barbara and Magdalena Wilcke (he remarried after his first wife suddenly passed away). His reputation at the time of his death started to decline as his work was considered old fashioned compared to the emergying Classical Style. Some of his children went on to become prominent musicans. His son Carl Philip Emanuel Bach went on to become one of the founders of the Classical style.

Bach (who composed over 1,100 works) gained widespread recognition after Felix Mendelssohn played the St.Matthew Passion in 1829, almost 80 years after his death. He has since influenced several composers, and his "musical science" continues to influence even modern day music, most notably the theme of Toccata and Fugue being used in rock songs.

Intensive work has gone into recovering and cataloguing JS Bach's work (over 1,100 items). His work has been catalogued using the BWV, or Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ("Bach Works Catalogue") numbering system.

In addition to several Bach monuments which have been erected across Germany, there are Bach research centers (Bach-Archiv Leipzig being the most pre-eminent), institutions, museums, archives, his original choir in Thomaskirche, and ensembles which are dedicated to Bach scholarship, preservation and performance of his work.