Was Bach Autistic?

Abstract: Marie Curie, Charles Darwin, Emily Dickinson, Albert Einstein, Immanuel Kant, Isaac Newton, and Benedict de Spinoza—what do these figures have in common? There is a threefold answer: they were intelligent, they were original thinkers, and they are suspected to have been autistic. While acknowledging that all claims pertaining to the psychology of historical subjects are conjectural, this article explores the possibility that Johann Sebastian Bach's name belongs on the above list. Initially, it considers whether Bach exhibited autistic behaviors, with reference to diagnostic criteria (while acknowledging that the pathological conception of autism implicit in such criteria is, for many, problematic). Subsequently, it explores ways in which the qualitative properties of Bach's music might reflect an autistic thinking style. A prominent theme is that many autistics work "hyper-systematically": they pursue operative and/or constructive principles to degrees that can seem excessive. Analyses of the Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor BWV 795 and the Fugue in C Major, Well-Tempered Clavier Book I highlight the remarkable structural sophistication, and resultant aesthetic character, of Bach's music. To at least some of Bach's peers, his music was distastefully overcomposed. Since the nineteenth-century revival era, though, his instantly recognizable "voice" has been regarded by many as an exemplar of genius. What led Bach to write music that was more attractive to the listening sensibilities of later ages than to those of his own age? Tentatively, this article suggests that Bach's apparent prescience reflects autism and considers some implications of this contentious idea.