The Most Influencial People in the World: JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)

The great composer Johann Sebastian Bach was the first man to successfully combine the differing national styles of music which had existed in western Europe. By bringing together what was best in the Italian, French, and German musical traditions, he succeeded in enriching all of them. Not outstandingly famous during his own lifetime, Bach was half forgotten during the fifty years following his death. But his reputation has grown steadily during the last 150 years, and he is today generally acknowledged to be one of the two or three greatest composers of all time: in the opinion of some, the greatest of them all.

Back was born in 1685, in the town of Eisenach, in Germany. It was his good fortune to be born into an environment where musical talent was admired and musical achievement encouraged. Indeed, the Bach family had been outstanding in the field of music for many years before Johann Sebastian was born. His father was a fine violenist, two of his great-uncles had been talented composers, and several of his cousins were highly respected musicians.

Bach’s mother died when he was nine, and he was an orphan by the time he was ten. As a teenager, he received a scholarship to St. Michael’s School in Luneburg, partly because of his fine voice and partly on the basis of need. He graduated from St. Micharl’s in 1702, and the following year found a position as a violinist in a chamber orchestra. Over the next twenty years, he held a variety as a superb organ player, although he was a composer, teacher, and conductor as well. In 1723, when Bach was thirty-eight years old, he obtained the position of cantor of St. Thomas’s Church in Leipzig. He held that position for the remaining twenty-seven years of his life. He died in 1750.

Although Bach was never without a good position and was always able to support his family, he was not nearly as famous during his own lifetime as Mozart and Beethoven (or even Franz Liszt or Fraderic Chopin) became during their lifetimes. Not all of Bach’s employers recognized his genius. In Leipzig, the council had wished to hire a “first rate musician”; it was only when they were unable to obtain the services of their first two choices that they reluctantly offered the position to Bach! (On the other hand, a few years earlier, when he had wished to leave his post as organist and concertmaster at the ducal court at weimar for a new position, the duke was so reluctant to have him leave that he actually put Bach in prison. Bach spent over three weeks in jail before the duke finally relented.)

Bach married his second cousin when he was twenty-two years old. They had seven children together, but Bach’s wife died when he was thirty-five years old. He remarried the following year, and his second wife not only helped raise the first seven children, but bore him an additional thirteen children. Only nine of Bach’s children survived him, but four of those became well-known musicians in their own right. A talented family indeed!

Bach was a prolific composer. His works include approximately300 cantatas; the set of 48 fugues and preludes that compose The Well-Tempered Clavier; at least 140 other preludes; more than 100 other harpsichord compositions; 23 concertos; 4 overtures; 33 sonatas; 5 masses; 3 oratorios; and a large variety of other pieces. All in all, Bach composed more than 800 serious pieces of music during his lifetime!

Bach was a Lutheran, and deeply religious. He wished his music to serve the church, and the majority of his works are religious music. He did not attempt to invent new forms of music, but rather carried the existing forms to their highest peak.

During the half-century following his death, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach was largely ignored. (It is worth nothing, though, that the greatest musicians of that era—Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—did appreciate Bach’s genius.) New musical style were evolving, and the öld-fashioned”music of Bach went temporarily into eclipse. After 1800, however, there was a revival of interest in Bach’s music, and since then his reputation and popularity have steadily climbed. Bach is more popular today, in the secular age, than he was during his own lifetime. It is indeed strange that a composer who was considered old-fashioned 200 years ago, both in style and in subject matter, should be widely admired today. What is the reason for his immense reputation?

In the first place, Bach is generally considered to be technically the best craftman of all the major composers. He was acqainted with all the musical resources of his day, and could use each of them flawlessly. For example, no subsequest composer has ever rivaled Bach’s artistic command of counter-point (a technique in which two or more separate melodies are played at the same time). In addition, his works are admired for the logic and diversity of their orchestration, the cogency of their themes, and the expressiveness of their melodies.

To most serious students of music, the depth and complexity of structure of Bach’s compositions give them a more lasting appeal than the more easily understood works of most other composers. Many people whose interest in music is more casual think of Bach as a rather difficult composer; however, it should be pointed out that his following is not confined to a small musical elite. His records probably sell better than those of any classical composer except Beethoven. ( In the long run, of course, the works of a “popular” composer who is all the rage for a while, but whose popularity proves transient.)

Where should Bach be ranked on this list? Plainly, he should be ranked below Beethoven: not only are Beethoven’s works more popular, but he was also a daring innovator who did more to influence the course of musical history than Bach did. It likewise seems appropriate to rank Bach below Michelangelo, the leading figure in the visual arts, and far below Shakespeare, the greatest literary genius. But in view of the enduring popularity of Bach’s music and the large influence it has had upon subsequent composers, it seems reasonable to rank him higher than any other artistic or literary figure.

The Most Influencial People in the World: LAO TZU (fl. 4th C.B.C.)

Of the many thousands of books which have been written in China, the one which has perhaps been the most frequently translated and read outside that country is a slender volume written over two thousand years ago and known as the Lao Tzu, or the Tao Te Ching. The Tao Te Ching (Classic of the Way and its Power) is the central text in which the philosophy of Taoism is expounded.


It is a subtle book, written in an extraordinary cryptic style and capable of many interpretations. The central idea concerns the Tao, which is usually translated “the Way”or “the Road.”But the concept is comewhat obsecure, since the Tao Te Ching itself begins by saying: “The Tao which can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name which can be named is not the eternal name.”Nevertheless, we might say that Tao means roughly “Nature”or “the Natural Order.”

Taoism takes the view that the individual should not struggle against the Tao, but should submit to it and work with it. Actively seeking to gain or exercise power is not so much immoral as it is foolish and furtile. The Tao cannot be defeated; one should instead try to live in conformity with it. (A Taoist might point out that water, which is infinitely soft, which flows without protest into the lowest places, and which responds to even the weakest force without resistance, is nevertheless indestructible, whereas the hardest rocks are worn away in time.)

For an individual human beinf, simplicity and naturalness are usually advisable. Violence should be avoided, as should all striving for monsy or prestige. One should not seek to reform the world, but rather to respect it. For governments, also, a somewhat inactive policy is usually the wisest course. There are too many statutes already. Passing more laws, or harshly enforcing the old ones, usually makes matters worse. High taxes, ambitious government programs, and making war are all contrary to the spirit of the Taoist philosophy.

According to Chinese tradition, the author of the Tao Te Ching was a man called Lao Tzu, who is said to have been an older contemporary of confucius. But confucius lived in the sixth century B.C., and both because of its style and its content, few modern scholars believe that the Tao Te Ching was written at such an early date. There is considerable dispute as to the book’s actual date of conposition. (The Tao Te Ching itself never mentions a specific person, place, date, or historical event.) However, 320 B.C. is a good estimate—certainly within eightly years of the true date, and probably much closer.

This problem has led to a great deal of dispute concerning the dates—and even the existence—of Lao Tzu himself. Some authorities believe the tradition that Lao Tzu lived in the sixth century B.C., and have therefore concluded that he did not write the Tao Te Ching. Other scholars have suggested that he is merely a legendary figure. My viewpoint, accepted only by a minority of scholars, is that: (1) Lao Tzu was a real person, and the author of the Tao Te Ching; (2) He lived in the fourth century B.C.; and (3) The story that Lao Tzu was an older contemporary of Confucius is fictitous, and was fabricated by later Taoist philodophersin order to lend prestige to the man and his book.

It is worth nothing that of the early Chinese writers neither Confucius (551-479 B.C.), nor Mo Ti (fifth century B.C.), nor Mencius (371-289 B.C.) makes any mention of either Lao Tzu or the Tao Te Ching; however, Chuang Tzu, an important Taoist philosopher who flourished about 300 B.C., mentions Lao Tzu repeatedly.

Since even the existence of Lao Tzu is in dispute, we should be skeptical of biographical details. But there are respectable sources for the following statements: Lao Tzu was born and lived in northern China. For part of his life he was an historian or curator of official archives, most probably at Loyang, the capital of the Chou dynasty monarchs. Lao Tzu was not his original name, bit is rather an honorific title meaning roughly öld master.”He was married and had a son named Tsung. Tsung later became a general in the state of Wei.

Although Taoism started as a basically secular philosophy, a religious movement eventually developed out of it.however, while Taoism as a philosophy continued to be based primarily on the ideas expressed in the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist religion soon became encrusted with an enormous number of superstitious beliefs and practices that have relatively little to do with the teachings of Lao Tzu.

Assuming that Lao Tzu actually was the author of the Tao Te Ching, his influence has been large indeed. The book is very short (less than six thousand characters in Chinese, and therefore small enough to fit on a single sheet of newspaper!), but it contains much food for thought. A whole series of Taoist philosophers have used the book as a starting point for their own ideas.

In the West, the Tao Te Ching has been far more popular than the writings of Confucius or of any Confucian philosopher. In fact, at least forty different English translations of the book have been published, a larger number than for any other book except the bible.

InChina itself, Confucianism has generally been the dominant philosophy, and where there is a clear conflict between the ideas of Lao Tzu and those of Confucius, most Chinese have followed the latter. Nevertheless, Lao Tzu has generally been highly respected by the Confucians. Furthermore, in many cases, Taoist ideas have simply been assimilated into Confucian philosophy, and have thereby influenced millions of persons who do not call themselves Taoists. Similarly, Taoism has had a marked influence on the Chinese development of Buddhist philosophy, and in particular on Zen Buddhism. Though few people today call themselves Taoists, there is no Chinese philosopher except Confucius who has had so widespread and enduring an impact on human thought as Lao Tzu.

The Most Influencial People in the World: VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)

Francois Marie Arouet—better known by his pseudonym, Voltaire—was the leading figure of the French Enlightenment. A poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, historian, and philosopher, Voltaire was the apostle of freethinking liberalism.

Voltaire was born in 1694, in Paris. He was of middle class origin, and his father was a lawyer. In his youth, Voltaire attended the Jesuit college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Afterward, he studied law for a while, but soon dropped it. As a young man in Paris, he soon acquired the reputation of being a very witty fellow, full of clever jokes and satiric verses, Voltaire was arrested and thrown into the Bastille. He spent almost a year in prison, where he occupied his time by writing an epic poem, the Henriade, which later won considerable acclaim. In 1718, shortly after Voltaire was released from prison, his play Oedipe was produced in Paris, where it was an enormous success. At twenty-four, Voltaire was famous, and for his remaining sixty years, he was a leading French literary figure.

Voltaire was clever with money as well as with words, and he gradually became an independently wealthy man. In 1726, however, he ran into some trouble. Voltaire had already established himself as the wittiest and most brilliant conversationalist of his time (and perhaps of all time). He lacked, however, the modesty which some French aristocrats felt was appropriate for a commoner. This led to a public dispute between Voltaire and one such aristocrat, the Chevalier de Rohan, in which Voltaire’s wit got him the better of the verbal fighting. Soon afterwards, however, the Chevalier had Voltaire beaten up by a group of ruffians and, later on, thrown into the Bastille. Voltaire was soon released from jail on the condition that he leaves France. He therefore went to England, where he stayed for about two and a half years.

Voltaire’s stay in England proved to be a major turning point in his life. He learned to speak and read English, and became familiar with the works of such famous Englishmen as John Locke, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and William Shakespeare. He also became personally acquainted with the most of the leading English thinkers of the day. Voltaire was impressed by Shakespeare and by English science and empiricism; but what most impressed him about the English was their political system. English democracy and personal liberties presented a striking contrast to the political conditions which Voltaire knew in France. No English lord could issue a letter de cachet and thereby have Voltaire summarily thrown into jail; and if for any reason Voltaire were to be detained improperly, a writ of habeas corpus would soon get him released.

When Voltaire returned to France, he wrote his first major philosophical work, the Letters philosophiques, usually called the Letters on the English. That book, which was published in 1734, marks the true beginning of the French Enlightenment. In the Letters on the English, Voltaire presented a generally favorable description of the British political system and of the ideas of John Locke and other English thinkers. Publication of the book aroused the anger of the French authorities, and Voltaire was again forced to leave Paris.

Voltaire spent most of the next fifteen years in Cirey, in eastern France, where he was the lover of Madame du Chatelet, the brilliant and educated wife of Marquis. In 1750, a year after her death, Voltaire went to Germany at the personal invitation of Frederick the Great of Prussia. Voltaire spent three years at Frederick’s court in Potsdam. At first he got along well with the brilliant and intellectual Frederick, but eventually they quarreled, and in 1753, Voltaire left Germany.

After leaving Germany, Voltaire settled on an estate near Geneva, where he could be safe from both the French and Prussian kings. However, his liberal views made even Switzerland a bit dangerous for him. In 1758, therefore, he moved to a new estate in Ferney, near the French-Swiss border, where he would have two possible directions in which to flee in case of trouble with the authorities. He stayed there for twenty years, pouring out literary and philosophical works, corresponding with intellectual leaders throughout Europe, and entertaining visitors.

Through all these years, Voltaire’s literary output continued undiminished. He was a fantastically prolific writer, perhaps the most voluminous author on this list. All told, his collected writings run to well over 30,000 pages. They include epic poems, lyric verse, personal letters, pamphlets, novels, short stories, plays, and serious books on history and philosophy.

Voltaire had always been a strong believer in religious toleration. However, when he was in his late sixties, a number of particularly horrifying instances of persecution of Protestants occurred in France. Aroused and outraged, Voltaire dedicated himself to an intellectual crusade against religious fanaticism. He wrote large numbers of political pamphlets opposing religious intolerance. Also, he took to ending all his personal letters with the words Ecrasez l’infame, which means, “Stamp out the infamous thing.” To Voltaire, “the infamous thing” was religious bigotry and fanaticism.

In 1778, when he was eighty-three years old, Voltaire returned to Paris, where he attended the premiere of his new play, Irene. Large crowds applauded him as the “grand old man” of the French Enlightenment. Hundreds of admirers, including Benjamin Franklin, visited him. But Voltaire’s life was soon over. He died in Paris on May 30, 1778. Because of his outspoken anticlericalism, he could not receive a Christian funeral in Paris; but thirteen years later, victorious French revolutionaries had his remains dug up and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris.

Voltaire’s writings are so voluminous that it would be very difficult to list even his major works in a short article. More important than the titles, though, are the basic ideas which he promoted throughout his career. One of his strongest beliefs was in the necessity for freedom of speech and of the press. A remark frequently attributed to him is: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Although Voltaire never actually made that explicit statement, it certainly reflects his attitude.

Another leading principle of Voltaire’s was his belief in freedom of religion. Throughout his career, he steadfastly opposed religious intolerance and persecution. Although Voltaire believed in God, he firmly opposed most religious dogmas, and constantly presented the view that organized religion was basically a sham.

Quite naturally, Voltaire never believed that the titled aristocrats of France were wiser or better than he, and his audience learned that the so-called “divine right of kings” was a lot of nonsense. Although Voltaire himself was far from a modern-style democrat (he tended to prefer a strong but enlightened monarch), the main thrust of his ideas was plainly opposed to any form of hereditary rule. It is therefore not surprising that most of his followers came to favor democracy. His political and religious ideas were thus in the mainstream of the French Enlightenment, and they contributed substantially to the French Revolution of 1789.

Voltaire was not himself a scientist, but he was interested in science and was a firm supported of the empirical outlook of Francis Bacon and John Locke. He was also a serious and capable historian. One of his most important works was his universal history, the Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations. This book differed from most previous histories in two main respects: first, Voltaire recognized that Europe was only a small part of the world, and he therefore devoted a considerable portion of his work to Asian history; second, Voltaire took the view that cultural history is, in general, far more important than political history. His book is therefore concerned more with social and economic conditions and the development of the arts, than with kings and the wars they fought.

Voltaire was not as original a philosopher as several others on this list. To a considerable extent, he took the ideas of other men, such as John Locke and Francis Bacon, restated them, and popularized them. However, it was through Voltaire’s writings, more than anyone else’s that the ideas of democracy, religious toleration, and intellectual freedom were disseminated throughout France, and for that matter, throughout much of Europe. Though there were other important writers (Diderot, d’Alembert, Rousseau, Montesquieu, etc.) in the French Enlightenment, it is fair to say that Voltaire was the preeminent leader of that movement. In the first place, his pungent literary style, long career, and voluminous output assured him a far greater audience than any of the other writers. In the second place, his ideas were characteristic of the entire Enlightenment. And in the third place, Voltaire preceded all the other important figures in point of time. Montesquieu great work, The Spirit of the Laws, did not appear until 1748; the first volume of the famed Encyclopedia came out in 1751; and Rousseau’s first essay was written in 1750. By contrast, Voltaire’s Letters on the English was published in 1734, and he had already been famous for sixteen years when that appeared.

Voltaire’s writings, with the exception of the short novel Candide, are little read today. They were, however, very widely read during the eighteenth century, and Voltaire therefore played an important role in the changing climate of opinion that ultimately resulted in the French Revolution. Nor was his influence confined to France: Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin were also acquainted with his works, and many of Voltaire’s ideas have become part of the American political tradition.