Valet will Ich dir geben

Johann Ernst Bach (1722 – 1777) was a German composer of the Classical Period. He was the son of Johann Bernhard Bach.

In his early life, Bach studied at the Lateinschule in Eisenach from 1732 to 1735. On January 16, 1737, he entered the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where he then became a pupil of his uncle Johann Sebastian Bach. Being a student of J.S Bach, he assisted his uncle in copying his music.

During the years of 1740 to 1741, he studied law at the Universität Eisenach. He returned to Eisenach in 1741 or 1742 and filled in for his ailing father as a choirmaster and organist. In 1748, he became his father's official assistant, and in 1749 he was his successor.

As a composer, Johann Ernst was abreast of the stylistic innovations of his time, although he did not exclude contrapuntal writings. His works are often highly dramatic and full of effects.

He generally criticized the declining trend of the religious music of his time and promoted the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and Gottfried Heinrich
Stelzel.

His distaste for secular music can be seen through his surviving compositions, most of which are sacred.

It has been widely accepted that Bach had private lessons with his uncle, which likely had an influence on his own composition.