Bach is considered by many people to have been the greatest composer in the history of Western music. Bach's main achievement lies in his synthesis and advanced development of the primary contrapuntal idiom of the late Baroque, and in the basic tunefulness of his thematic material. He was able to successfully integrate and expand upon the harmonic and formal frameworks of the national schools of the time: German, French, Italian, and English, while retaining a personal identity and spirit in his large output. Bach is also known for the numerical symbolism and mathematical exac...