Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment - Hardcover

Gaines, James

4.07

1,160 ratings by Goodreads

9780007153923: Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007153929 ISBN 13: 9780007153923

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2005

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In one corner, a godless young warrior, Voltaire’s heralded ‘philosopher-king’, the It Boy of the Enlightenment. In the other, a devout if bad-tempered old composer of ‘outdated’ music, a scorned genius in his last years. The sparks from their brief conflict illuminate a turbulent age.

Behind the pomp and flash, Prussia's Frederick the Great was a tormented man, son of an abusive king who forced him to watch as his best friend (probably his lover) was beheaded. In what may have been one of history's crueler practical jokes, Frederick challenged "old Bach" to a musical duel, asking him to improvise a six-part fugue based on an impossibly intricate theme (possibly devised for him by Bach's own son).

Bach left the court fuming, but in a fever of composition, he used the coded, alchemical language of counterpoint to write A Musical Offering in response. A stirring declaration of faith, it represented ‘as stark a rebuke of his beliefs and world view as an absolute monarch has ever received,’ Gaines writes. It is also one of the great works of art in the history of music.

Set at the tipping point between the ancient and the modern world, the triumphant story of Bach's victory expands to take in the tumult of the eighteenth century: the legacy of the Reformation, wars and conquest, the birth of the Enlightenment. Brimming with originality and wit, ‘Evening in the Palace of Reason’ is history of the best kind – intimate in scale and broad in its vision.

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Review:

'Gaines has a keen eye for colour, and enjoys himself greatly regaling us with anecdotes ...Evening in the Palace of Reason is a wonderful work of popular history, intelligent, stylish, wryly witty, serious yet never solemn, and above all passionate in its celebration of a great composer' John Banville, Guardian

'An intriguing book.' Sunday Times

‘The author presents us with a piece of theatre that is witty, instructive and often bizarre’ Independent on Sunday.

'Gaines' style is readable, crisp and compelling. He is an excellent guide: informed, unpretentious and frank...A story told with wit, knowledge, the odd flight of fancy and love.' TLS

From the Back Cover:

Johann Sebastian Bach created what may be the most celestial and profound body of music in history; Frederick the Great built the colossus we now know as Germany, and along with it a template for modern warfare. Their fleeting encounter in 1757 signals a unique moment in history where belief collided with the cold certainty of reason. Set at the tipping point between the ancient and modern world, Evening in the Palace of Reason captures the tumult of the eighteenth century, the legacy of the Reformation, and the birth of the Enlightenment in this extraordinary tale of two men.

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