Since Leonardo requested a posting about the great Bach I have tried to wrap my tiny mind around the Genius of this Giant. To be honest: I think you have to be a composer, a philosopher, a musician and a mathematician to really really really appreciate the depth of this Maestro. And he created a massive amount of ‘notes’. To know Bach means to spent days and weeks listening to a huge amount of music.
He is part of a great period of Germanic enlightenment: Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn - and many more. It was a time of restless Teutonic renewal and overall change in Europe (Age of Enlightenment). The period that laid the foundation for modern day democratic and humanitarian Europe. But it was also an age of wild romantic compassion and insight.
Cantata BWV 208 - Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!
You can feel still some old medieval Europe in Bach’s music - the devout churchgoing citizens. But these citizens are different, because they are slowly grabbing power from the old institutions like Holy-Mother Church and blue blooded Aristocracy.
Toccata And Fugue In D Minor For Organ BWV 565
Bach’s music is often very ‘churchy’ - but you can also find many intimate and passionate pieces that rival Beethoven’s later achievements in spirit and emotion.
Many of Beethoven’s compositions were deemed too erotic and too emotional in their days. But you already can hear that intimacy in Bach’s music - albeit not as explosive as "Freude schöner Götterfunken!".
Suite No. 1 For Solo-Cello In G-Major
More? Wikipedia and the Bach.org website.
PS: Leonardo - sorry, that’s all I can write from a personal perspective. I am simply not genius enough to drill through this Mountain. 
PPS: Anyone else out there with some more personal insights on Bach?
