German composer; eldest surviving son of J. S. and Anna Magdalena Bach. He received early training in music from his father and later enrolled to study law at the Univ. of Leipzig. He gave up his studies in 1750 when he was offered a position as chamber musician at the Bückeburg court of Count Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe; he retained this post until his death. As Konzertmeister, beginning in 1759, he directed operas and concerts. The poet Johann Gottfried Herder arrived at the court in 1771, and for the next five years Bach collaborated with him on cantatas and oratorios (Die Kindheit Jesu and Die Auferweckung Lazarus) and on the opera Brutus (music lost). He also composed twenty symphonies, six keyboard concertos, solo keyboard music, and many chamber works.