Bach : A Musical Biography

by Peter Williams

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.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

704 pages, Hardcover

Published October 27, 2016

About the author

Full name Peter F. Williams; publishes as Peter Williams

University of Edinburgh 1962-1985
Duke University 1985-1997
University of Cardiff 1996-

Reviews

[John Gillies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific book, but targeted at readers who are much more familiar with Bach’s work than the “ordinary” listener.
There are a couple of interesting approaches that the author takes. First, he is very sceptical of all generalizations about Bach, which I find very refreshing. In other words, he does not assume that every work by Bach is one of surpassing genius. Second, he pays a great deal of attention to Bach’s keyboard works, on the basis - not unreasonably - that there is more of it than there is choral music. He says that critics tend to focus on Bach’s “intent” with choral music, whereas we can never know what that intent really was.
There is much in-depth analysis of various pieces, so one needs to have a very broad familiarity with all such music. For the those who have that familiarity, this is a wonderful book. Regrettably, I don’t. I nonetheless enjoyed much of the description.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14822237

[Lester · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should not be anyone's first encounter with a Bach bio. But if you are familiar with the basics of his life and works, you will find this interesting, if not always entertaining. This author is scholarly and thorough, and amplifies CPE Bach's valuable Obituary of his father with objectivity and in a historically attuned way. It's good to have a bio that devotes equal time to the lesser works as much as the big hits, especially regarding keyboard music. Bach biographies are hard to write due to the lack of so much information, and years of misinformation that have accrued. But this one clears away a lot of cobwebs (as do Gardiner and Wolff)--but this may be the least of these in terms of accessibility.

[Robert Costin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very worthy book, as to be expected by such a highly regarded Bach scholar. It is based on his previous book's method of exploring Bach's life through the CPE Bach/Agricola obituary. I found it quite hard going in places and, curiously, it didn't always project a love of Bach, though I admit this may have been me. He seems intent on bringing the balance back from the choral works to the keyboard works, so perhaps there is an element of proving a point. A fine book but perhaps not your first Bach biography.