Arnstadt in the context of "Bach"

Ilmenau (German pronunciation: [ˈɪlmənaʊ] ) is a town in Thuringia, central Germany. It is the largest town within the Ilm district with a population of 38,600, while the district capital is Arnstadt. Ilmenau is located approximately 33 km (21 miles) south of Erfurt and 135 km (84 miles) north of Nuremberg within the Ilm valley at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest at an elevation of 500 metres (1,640 feet).

The most important institution in Ilmenau is the Technische Universität Ilmenau, a public research university and Thuringia's only "Technical University" with about 4,900 students and an emphasis on engineering disciplines, computer science, mathematics, natural sciences, economics, and media studies. Its precursor was founded in 1894 and developed into a university in 1992. Since 1990, many research institutes have been established in the vicinity making Ilmenau an important hub of technological research.

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

The Bach family had already produced several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius, in Eisenach. After being orphaned at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, then continued his musical education in Lüneburg. In 1703 he returned to Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. Around that time he also visited for longer periods the courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and the reformed court at Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. By 1723 he was hired as Thomaskantor (cantor with related duties at St Thomas School) in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and Leipzig University's student ensemble, Collegium Musicum. In 1726 he began publishing his organ and other keyboard music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer. This situation was somewhat remedied when his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland, granted him the title of court composer of the Elector of Saxony in 1736. In the last decades of his life, Bach reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died due to complications following eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Four of his twenty children, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian, became composers.

The Gera (German pronunciation: [ˈɡeːʁa] ) is a river in Thuringia, Germany.

The Gera is a right tributary of the Unstrut. It originates in the Thuringian Forest, west of Ilmenau. The Gera is formed in Plaue, by the confluence of the Wilde Gera and the Zahme Gera. It empties into the Unstrut in Straußfurt. The total length of the Gera (including Wilde Gera) is 85 km (53 mi). The largest towns along the Gera are Arnstadt and Erfurt. The city Gera is not situated along the River Gera.

The Thuringian Forest (Thüringer Wald in German pronounced [ˈtyːʁɪŋɐ ˈvalt] ) is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side is the Werra valley. On the other side of the Forest is an upper outcrop of the North German Plain, the Thuringian Basin, which includes the city of Erfurt. The south and south-east continuation of the range is the highland often called the Thuringian-Vogtlandian Slate Mountains.

Among scattered foothills at its northern foot are the towns Eisenach, Gotha and Arnstadt. The towns of Ilmenau and Suhl sit in slight dips on the range itself to the north and south respectively.

Plaue (German pronunciation: [ˈplaʊə] ) is a town in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Gera, 11 km north of Ilmenau, and 8 km southwest of Arnstadt. The former municipality Neusiß was merged into Plaue in January 2019. Plaue station lies on the Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway.