The humble Google Doodle is used to honor important lives, events, and other pop-culture references, and now the company is celebrating the life of legendary German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. The Doodle isn’t just nice to look at either — it’s an interactive experience that allows users to compose two-measure melodies.
This Doodle also goes a step further — not only can you create your own melody, but the Doodle will also take that melody and create harmonies for it in the style of Bach. Within the Doodle, you can do things like start with a simple melody, change the key, and more. You can also learn about the life of Bach.
The Doodle itself will run for 48 hours from March 21 to 22, and can be seen in most of the 77 markets in which Google Doodles are available. Google isn’t just launching the Doodle — the company will also debut a behind-the-scenes video exploring the making of the Bach Doodle. You’ll also be able to explore Bach and his life on Google Arts & Culture.
Google has used its Doodles to honor various people and groups of people in the past few months. Last year, the company ran a Doodle honoring Veterans Day, in which it highlighted various military service stories spanning across the different branches of the military. In the Doodle, a range of different themes were present, including those of friendship, hope, loss, and hardship. The company also created its first virtual reality Google Doodle, in which Google paid tribute to filmmaker Georges Méliès, who created pioneering movies like A Trip to the Moon. Last but not least, Google celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Doodle that played popular searches over the past two decades.
Google has been using the Google Doodle to celebrate figures and events for years now. The first Google Doodle celebrated Burning Man in 1998, and since then Google has used the Doodle to celebrate the lives of Andy Warhol, Albert Einstein, Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, and many others.
The new Google Doodle in celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach can now be viewed on both desktop and mobile devices. To check it out for yourself, simply head to the Google homepage.