Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician - Hardcover

Wolff, Christoph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019816534X ISBN 13: 9780198165347

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2000

Synopsis

Although we have heard of the music of J.S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author and leading Bach scholar, here Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era.

This engaging new biography portrays Bach as the living, breathing, and sometimes imperfect human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances of the last half-century of Bach scholarship. Wolff demonstrates the intimate connection between the composer's life and his music, showing how Bach's superb inventiveness pervaded his career as a musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher. And throughout, we see Bach in the broader context of his time: its institutions, traditions, and influences. With this highly readable book, Wolff sets a new standard for Bach biography.

About this title

Review

The Learned Musician is an apt subtitle for this intellectual biography, which assesses the career of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) with the scholarly rigour one would expect from a Harvard professor. Opening with a 1737 attack by a critic who labelled Bach a pedant who spoiled the natural beauty of his creations with "an excess of art", Christoph Wolff cogently compares the German composer to English scientist Isaac Newton. Both men "brought about fundamental changes and established new principles" in their chosen fields, he argues; both sought to reveal God's harmonious ordering of their world. While Wolff conscientiously covers the basics of Bach's life, including his two marriages and the musical achievements of his gifted family, the author's primary focus is on his performing (Bach was an unrivalled organist) and composing. From the Goldberg Variations through the Brandenburg Concertos to Art of the Fugue, Wolff carefully analyses Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint, placing them in the context of European musical and social history rendered in nicely atmospheric detail. Casual readers may find this dense tome a bit daunting, but serious music lovers will relish the deeper understanding it conveys of a genius who transformed Western music. --Wendy Smith

Review

weighty and authorative work ... an important contribution to the Bach bibliography (Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 16/4/00)

marvellously detailed analysis ... Wolff recapitulates what is known about his subject's life in a lively style and deduces a great deal more by dint of diligent detective- work. (Raymond Deane, Irish Times, 22/4/00)

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 019816534X
• ISBN 13: 9780198165347
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 616