J. S. Bach composed some of the best-loved and most moving music in Western culture. Surviving mostly in manuscript collections, his music also exists in special and unique publications that reveal much about his life and thoughts as a composer. In this book, Peter Williams, author of the acclaimed J. S. Bach: A Life in Music, revisits Bach's biography through the lens of his music. Reviewing all of Bach's music chronologically, Williams discusses the music collection by collection to reveal the development of Bach's interests and priorities. While a great deal has been written about the composer's vocal works, Williams gives the keyboard music its proper emphasis, revealing it as crucial to Bach's biography, as a young organist and a mature composer, as a performer in public and teacher in private, and as a profound thinker in the language of music.
- Examines and questions the received views on Bach's biography, employing the latest research
- Reviews and looks anew at some of the best-loved and most moving music in western culture
- Gives appropriate emphasis to Bach's keyboard music to show for the first time how and why this was such a major priority
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Reviews & endorsements
'A big read, stimulatingly rigorous, and an excellent follow-up from Williams's concise Life of Bach (2004).' Five stars, BBC Music Magazine
'The joy of this […] book is the human touch that underlines the title, a musical biography … Not only a fascinating read but brings a great composer and his art brilliantly to life.' Ken Walton, The Scotsman
'… the reader must be prepared to put in the hours to find these things. The going is not always easy, and the mixture of forensically researched and ingeniously practical considerations on which Williams bases his speculations are many and various, with many a tangent taken along the way. No doubt it is inevitable that a mind so crammed with Bachian detail should wander off the point from time to time, but the sheer accumulation of meticulously considered observations eventually makes its mark, leaving one in renewed wonder at this astonishing composer's compulsive intellectual drive, rumbling life-force and superhuman ability to move listeners with the sheer power of organised musical notes.' Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone
'Bach: A Musical Biography represents an important addition to Bach scholarship, and is a vital possession for the serious Bach enthusiast.' John Robert Brown, Classical Music
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Product details
- Date Published: December 2019
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781316504864
- length: 720 pages
- dimensions: 244 x 170 x 35 mm
- weight: 1.2kg
- contains: 2 maps 30 music examples
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Part I. Life and Works:
1. Early years, 1685–1703: background, family, studies
2. First appointments, 1703–1708: a young musician's activities and early works
3. Weimar, 1708–1717: the gifted player at a ducal court
4. Cöthen, 1717–1723: other opportunities for the maturing composer
5. Leipzig, the first years: a cantor's life, his duties, cantatas, Passions, publications
6. Leipzig, the middle years: other activities
7. Leipzig, the final years: a concentration on the language of music
Part II. Observations on the Life and Works:
8. What was said, what can be inferred
9. An epilogue.
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Author
Peter Williams, University of Edinburgh
Peter Williams (1937–2016) held the first Chair in Performance Practice in Britain at the University of Edinburgh, where he was first Director of the Russell Collection of Harpsichords and latterly Dean of Music. He was also the first Arts and Sciences Distinguished Chair at Duke University, North Carolina. His first book on Bach was for the BBC in 1970. After then, he focused chiefly on music for the organ (with the three-volume Organ Music of J. S. Bach, Cambridge, 1980–84); on music for the harpsichord (with Art of Fugue, 1986, and Bach: The Goldberg Variations, Cambridge, 2001); and on music for ensemble (with Musical Offering, 1986). In more recent years, he focused on biography, with The Life of Bach (Cambridge, 2003) and J. S. Bach: A Life in Music (Cambridge, 2007).