Details
Synopsis
In this biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, a Harvard professor of music attempts to penetrate the mysterious circumstances of the classical composer's life. Additionally, the author chronicles Bach's musical development, noting his achievements both as an artist and technician.
| Size | | Length: | 599 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.5 in | | Weight: | 38.4 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: "By an auspicious coincidence, Sebastian Nagel, town piper of Gotha and friend of Johann Ambrosius Bach, happened to be in Eisenach on the third weekend in March 1685."
Industry Reviews
"Wolff's biography--now the best in English--might have gone farther in exploring the nature of the musical science, and less far in its understandable tendencies to hail Bach's ''perfection.'' But no matter. Wolff suggests new sets of biographical connections, convincingly speculates in the face of meager evidence and scrupulously accumulates the details of daily life. And however astonishing is what remains of Bach's production (at one point Wolff says it 'borders on the incredible'), Wolff also shows just how much greater it must have been."
New York Times Book Review - Edward Rothstein (03/09/2000)
"JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: THE LEARNED MUSICIAN is likely to be the standard one volume Bach biography for some time to come. It is a solid, richly informative treatment, presenting the copious details of Bach's life in a coherent, readable narrative. The book can be seen as the capstone of a long tradition of musical biography a fundamentally nineteenth century heroic tradition. It is time now to bring Bach biography into the twentieth century not to mention the twenty first."
New York Review of Books - Robert L. Marshall (06/15/2000)
"[This book] contains a number of useful tables in which the fruits of recent scholarly research are laid out handsomely, and digestibly, for the reader. Dates and details that will be of immense use to the specialist are thus presented, and the whole text is generously footnoted. There are an excellent chronology and an extremely interesting appendix covering the value of numerous units of currency that allows comparison of the cost of living in Bach's time with present-day norms."
Los Angeles Times - Ted Libbey (04/09/2000)
"Mr. Wolff's book is...important regarding the facts and details of Johann Sebastian's life and times. I recommend it most highly."
Wall Street Journal - Anthony Newman (08/03/2000)
"It is not, perhaps, a book for a beginner. Those who are familiar with Bach's music and wish to know about the social, theological and political contexts in which it was written are clearly the target audience. The technical descriptions of music, always so intimidating to the untrained, are couched in happily familiar and comprehensible terms. Those embarking on a journey through Bach's work will find this book a useful companion, and one that becomes more relevant and illuminating the further they travel."
Literary Review - Simon Heffer (04/20/2000)
"A lack of a written record poses significant challenges to the biographer, which Wolff meets by formulating an extensive historical survey of the composer's epoch. By this method, the author has formed some very credible theories regarding many of the missing details of Bach's life. Bringing expansive historical and intellectual commentary to bear on Bach's art, Wolff emphasizes the genius for integration in Bach, a genius expressed as much in singular scientific rigor as in communal spiritual solace."
Boston Book Review (05/20/2000)
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