{
  "slug": "johann-sebastian-bach",
  "name": "Johann Sebastian Bach",
  "description": "Johann Sebastian Bach appears 4 times in our Baroque and Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records lists, placing as high as No. 1. Hand-curated, with a reason for every pick.",
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/johann-sebastian-bach/",
  "appearanceCount": 4,
  "distinctRecordings": 4,
  "years": {
    "first": 1721,
    "last": 1749
  },
  "highestPlacing": {
    "rank": 1,
    "list": "Baroque"
  },
  "appearsOn": [
    {
      "kind": "genre",
      "slug": "baroque",
      "name": "Baroque",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/baroque/",
      "entries": 3
    },
    {
      "kind": "curator",
      "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
      "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/",
      "entries": 1
    }
  ],
  "tracks": [
    {
      "trackKey": "johann-sebastian-bach--goldberg-variations",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--goldberg-variations/",
      "title": "Goldberg Variations",
      "year": 1741,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Thirty variations over a bass line, returning at the end to the aria unchanged. Glenn Gould recorded it twice, at opposite tempos, twenty-six years apart, and both are right.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Goldberg%20Variations",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah392lnFHxM",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 1,
      "on": {
        "kind": "genre",
        "slug": "baroque",
        "name": "Baroque",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/baroque/"
      },
      "artist": "Johann Sebastian Bach"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "johann-sebastian-bach--mass-in-b-minor",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--mass-in-b-minor/",
      "title": "Mass in B minor",
      "year": 1749,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Assembled at the end of his life from music written across four decades, for a liturgy his own church did not use. The largest single achievement in Western music, put together from parts.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Mass%20in%20B%20minor",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3FLbiDrn8IE",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 2,
      "on": {
        "kind": "genre",
        "slug": "baroque",
        "name": "Baroque",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/baroque/"
      },
      "artist": "Johann Sebastian Bach"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "johann-sebastian-bach--brandenburg-concerto-no-3",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--brandenburg-concerto-no-3/",
      "title": "Brandenburg Concerto No. 3",
      "year": 1721,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Nine string players, no soloist, and every one of them busy. Bach sent the set to a margrave who appears never to have had them played, which is the most Bach fact available.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Brandenburg%20Concerto%20No.%203",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=pdsyNwUoON0",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 8,
      "on": {
        "kind": "genre",
        "slug": "baroque",
        "name": "Baroque",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/baroque/"
      },
      "artist": "Johann Sebastian Bach"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "johann-sebastian-bach--brandenburg-concerto-no-5",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/johann-sebastian-bach--brandenburg-concerto-no-5/",
      "title": "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5",
      "year": 1721,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The bridge to Nina Simone, and why it is here at the end. Listen to Bach and you hear the exact classical piano she is playing inside her jazz records — which is the whole argument: it is all one music.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Brandenburg%20Concerto%20No.%205",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Johann%20Sebastian%20Bach%20Brandenburg%20Concerto%20No.%205",
          "exact": false
        }
      },
      "rank": null,
      "on": {
        "kind": "curator",
        "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
        "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
      },
      "artist": "Johann Sebastian Bach"
    }
  ],
  "curates": null
}