Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach composed over 1,100 works, including The Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, and Mass in B Minor, establishing the architecture of tonal harmony still used today. His mastery of counterpoint and fugue set the foundational grammar of Western classical music, with his St. Matthew Passion performed over 5,000 times since its revival by Mendelssohn, a figure 25% higher than the average Baroque composer's most performed work. This technical rigor is faster than the average Baroque composer's yield of 500 works, but his relative obscurity during life contrasts sharply with the immediate fame of #1 Beethoven, whose works saw over 50,000 performances in his lifetime alone.