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He probably wasn't ignorant to his talents, but it was not a priority for him. Its the culture during this period that contributed to this. Musicians were hired servants and were treated as such (you can read his contract and disciplinary notes from his employers). Bach himself destroyed all the music of the organist before him, as expected of all new organist to do. The preservation of music were not priorities in the Baroque period. Bach during his life was known mostly as an organist, a great organist, but mainly an organist. It took the rise of celebrity status for composers during the romantic period did his genius was recognized fully.