Bach: Essays on His Life and Music

by Christoph Wolff

Book Overview

Johann Sebastian Bach holds a singular position in the history of music. A uniquely gifted musician, he combined outstanding performing virtuosity with supreme creative powers and remarkable intellectual discipline. More than two centuries after his lifetime, Bach's work continues to set musical standards.

The noted Bach scholar Christoph Wolff offers in this book new perspectives on the composer's life and remarkable career. Uncovering...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674059263
• ISBN13: 9780674059269
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Seriously interested in Bach's Life & Music?

Then read this book. Christoph Wolff is one of the - if not THE - foremost Bach scholars alive today. His earlier Biography of J.S. Bach is one of the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and readable presentations of the great Master's Life. Now this book of Essays collects shorter articles and speeches Wolff has given over the years, exploring a wide variety of subjects having to do with Bach's music, primarily, as illuminated by recent historical findings and analysis of his music.For instance: 1)did Bach really leave his Art of the Fugue unfinished, or did he actually complete it? 2)What do Bach's own markings on his personal copies of several of his works tell us? 3)How did he adapt an aria from one of the cantatas to have it function as the Agnus Dei in the Mass in B Minor? 4) Who tacked the chorale onto the end of the Art of the Fugue, and why? 5) What does the structure and import of his Musical Offering really imply as a message to Frederick the Great, to whom it was dedicated? Of more interest to the serious musician, who wants to understand in greater depth the art of arguably the greatest composer in the Western World, than to the casually interested reader, this book is a must for any serious lovers and devotees of his music.