I began to think the guy had some sort of similarity complex. I did some research on his life (The Bach Family--Seven Generations of Creative Genius by Karl Geiringer, printed in 1954 in Great Britain) and realized I was probably right. You should see that family tree!
Johann Sebastian Bach's father was named Johann Ambrosius Bach and his great-grandfather was Johannes. He had an uncle named Johann Christoph Bach. His brothers were named Johann Christoph, Johann Jakob, and Johann Nikolaus. He had a lot of cousins, most of whom were named, you guessed it, Johann. Some of their names: Johann Ernst, Johann Friedrich and Johann Michael.
At age 18, his first job was as a court musician for a German duke named Johann Ernst. Then when he was 22, he became organist at the church of St. Blasius. His predecessors at that church were: Johann Rudoph Ahle and Johann Georg Ahle. Besides his composing duties and organ playing, he gave music lessons, and some of his students were: Johann Martin Schubart, Johann Caspar Voglar and Johann Ludwig Krebs. For a funeral oration that he was commissioned to compose, he collaborated with a poet named Johann Christoph Gottsched. His competition in composition included Johann Pachelbel (of Canon in D fame) and Johann Jakob Froberger.
The names of three of his sons were: Johann Gottfried, Johann Christian and Johann Christoph Friedrich. (He had seventeen other children including a daughter named Johanna Carolina but I digress)
No wonder the poor guy had issues.It's not like there weren't any other nice names to choose from back in those days. Lovely names like: Wilhelm...Leopold...Friedrich...Philipp...Hans...Carl...Tobias...Hermann...Lorenz...Gottlieb... Ernst...
On second thought, maybe all those parents who chose the name "Johann" were onto something after all.
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