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Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
Although we have heard 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 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 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.
640 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2000
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About the author
Christoph Wolff
113 books20 followersChristoph Wolff is a German-born musicologist, who is best known for his works on the music, life, and times of Johann Sebastian Bach. Christoph Wolff has been on the faculty of Harvard University since 1976 and director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig since 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
January 15, 2023
5 ⭐
Update 25/03/22: I mention somewhere in this review that the one thing this book could've done with more of was a deeper analysis of some of Bach's greatest works. Well, I have recently been made aware of a companion book, 'Bach's Musical Universe', written by the same author which I thought might be useful information for anyone considering reading this. What a shame, I'll have to immerse myself in Bach's music again! *sigh*
For Bach, the ultimate rationale for being a musician [was] “to make a well-sounding harmony to the honor of God and the permissible delectation of the soul”.
The Sun of Composers: A work by Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829), a German-born composer, showing Bach at the centre; the “man from whom all true musical wisdom proceeded”.
The Learned Musician is an ambitious and intensely focused display of musical scholarship from Christoph Wolff and, to many, has replaced Spitta’s 3 Volume biography (1873-1880) as the new standard Bach biography.
The source material for Bach bios is notoriously lacking; much of his correspondence and sheet music has been lost in the 272 years since his death; the amount of times Wolff utters, in parenthesis, the words ”the music has not survived” is truly saddening. Despite this, Wolff’s almost unbelievable depth of research and enviable musical expertise allows him to fill in the gaps, not so much with guesswork but, with deductions based on sound logic. The preface to the updated edition also gives new proof of times, places and events based on refreshed sources as well as demonstrating authenticity for works that were previously subject to scrutiny when the bio was first published. By the same token some works are stricken from Bach’s canon based on new discoveries.
On the odd occasion, the lack of solid info regarding Bach’s life can lead to a less-than-thrilling abundance of detailed minutiae about things as mundane as church layouts and renovations. I appreciate the effort but, honestly, I care not that the Himmelsburg acquired 13 new armchairs in October 1713, or that the Capellmeister’s own was newly upholstered just one year later.
Admittedly, a good percentage of the heavy lifting is assisted by Wolff’s frequent leaning on Bach’s obituary and quotes by one of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, which he uses as a sort of reference, or datum if you like, when the source material becomes too unbearably scarce. A scholarly safe haven as it were.
Finally, as far as Wolff goes, the man remains admirably objective throughout in all but one section regarding the early organisation/premature selection of Bach’s replacement in Leipzig a not-so-respectful amount of time before his passing. Actually, I’m not altogether against a bit of bias in biographies as it can add a humorous shade of… Well, shade when it comes to something the author is not very fond of; nevertheless, Wolff is refreshingly not so. Here, you will only find a completely factual, informative account of the life and times of JSB. Speaking of which, if you’d indulge a relatively fresh convert, or if you’re in the least bit interested…
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a musician-scholar, performer-composer, organ and clavier virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, consultant and widely recognized organological expert, capellmeister, cantor, director of Collegium Musicum, sought after private tutor, entrepreneurial businessman…. Compleat musician par excellence! To those of the early nineteenth century, he was the "lawmaker of genuine Composition (harmony)"
Bach exemplifies everything about the era in which he was active as a composer, the Baroque era (1600-1750). To paraphrase American composer Robert Greenberg, this era ushered in the beginning of modern science. Isaac Newton believed there was some sort of systemic order beneath the seemingly random chaos of the natural world and Baroque artistic/musical design mirrored this effort to reconcile surface complexity with underlying order and control. Bach’s music is about high-energy expression tempered by intellectual, almost mathematical, control; a non-stop barrage of notes regulated by a steadfast rhythm and strict harmonic control.
”… as Newton bought about fundamental changes and established new principles in the world of science, Bach did the same in the world of music, both in composition and in performance.”
Bach’s music is very academic, and exacting for both performer and listener; an exemplary display of ”facility, finesse, mastery and genius”. It demands all of your attention to hear and understand what Bach has achieved and I’m only too aware that with my current theoretical knowledge there are elements I can’t fully appreciate at this time, which is one of the key reasons Bach’s music is so endlessly re-listenable. I have family members who tell me that they find Bach's music a little stiff and, while I can certainly see how a casual listener might find, for example, a number of his keyboard works a little “rigid” (Bach doesn’t make the “clavier” - predominantly a harpsichord in his time, not a piano-forte - sing to the soul in, perhaps, the same way that later romantics such as Liszt or Chopin would do), there is, undoubtedly, something both incredibly gratifying and awe-inspiring about listening and recognising the overlapping complexities of Bach’s compositions and his way of “elaborating the musical ideas so as to penetrate the material deeply and exhaustively”.
"Art... imitates and perfects nature, but never destroys it."
All this is not to say, of course, that much of his music isn’t immediately agreeable to the majority of individuals who possess a pair of ears; even just a single ear I guess, though I would imagine this would make it all the more difficult to follow some of his fugues! One only need listen to a few bars of suite no.3 in D [Air](BWV1068), the prelude to cello suite no.1 in G Major (BWV1007) or any one of the beautiful violin concertos to be at once swept away to another time and place.
The fugue is the single most representative instrumental musical form to emerge from the Baroque era and in this form, Bach was, and is, King. A fugue investigates and catalogues the musical properties and capabilities of a chosen theme (a specially designed melody called a subject). The subject is first played in its most basic form and then repeated in different keys and in different voices, fragmented, turned upside down and inside out, elongated and compressed, played backwards with only the three smallest toes of the left foot, hung from a tree, submerged in water … You get the drift. It is a polyphonic construct, meaning, a work for two or more (usually more) simultaneous melodic parts of equal importance. Some of Bach’s greatest fugal works, but by no means an exhaustive list, include precisely half of ’The Well-Tempered Clavier’, ‘The Goldberg Variations’, parts of ‘The Mass in B minor’, and ‘The Art of Fugue. Unbelievably, all of these works preceded the first ever systematic treatise on fugal composition (Marpurg’s Abhandlung von der Fuge). A meeting between the two, around the time that Bach was preparing ‘The Art of Fugue’ suggests that Marpurg may have used, in many ways, Bach’s work as a point of departure.
In general, Wolff does an excellent job of explaining the intricacies of many of Bach’s works in a way that’s understandable to the layman (i.e. me) but, inevitably, there is some moderately-deep discussion on musical theory that may see one come unstuck. I have seen some lamentation in other’s reviews about the amount of discussion on Bach’s works but I actually feel quite the opposite; occasionally I would’ve liked Wolff to go a little deeper but then, where does one draw the line?
Some highlights were the discussion on Bach’s championing of Werckmeister's "well-tempered" tuning system (In a time when the unequal mean-tone scale still prevailed in old instruments) as well as the primary purpose of the Well-tempered clavier and Bach’s wish to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the individual keys; the discussion on ‘The Art of Fugue’ and subsequent explanation of counterpoint; the “parody” of pieces, a practice Bach used to convert old secular works into church works, not motivated by laziness but by the desire to preserve otherwise un re-usable material; Bach’s invention of the “clavier concerto” of which composers such as Beethoven and Mozart would later take full advantage; and charming anecdotal discussions on subjects as diverse as ‘The Goldberg Variations’, Bach’s ability to sight-read absolutely anything and that time he spent 1/5 of his annual salary on Rhine Wine!
Wolff tracks Bach’s life and activities from Eisenach – Ohrdruf – Lüneburg – Arnstadt – Mühlhausen – Weimar – Cothen – Leipzig, where finally he would settle for the remaining 27 years of his life. Remarkably, considering the lasting impact he has had, and very much unlike his contemporaries Handel and Telemann, Bach would never venture further than a few hundred miles from the town of his birth.
A tragic family life, losing multiple siblings and then both parents within a year of each other when he was only 9-10 years of age. He fathered 20 children by two wives with only 4 of Maria Barbara’s (his first wife who also passed in his lifetime) 7 and 6 of Anna Magdalena’s 13 children outliving early childhood.
His working life consisted, for the most part in various positions, such as Organist and Organ Consultant, Chamber Musician, Musical Director, Cantor and/or Capellmeister at Schools and City Churches. The ins and outs of his day-to-day roles, in each of these positions as well as his wages and negotiations are detailed extensively and when this is coupled with a swathe of Cantatas throughout the mid-section of the book, it can become a little tiresome.
"The ultimate goal of a regulated church music"
Bach was extremely prolific, even taking into account the large amount of his works that are believed to have never been recovered. This fact is even more astounding when you consider the ridiculously busy schedule that he had, particularly during the Leipzig years. At one stage he was all at once, "Capellmeister to the court of Weissenfels, Music Director at St.Thomas' and at St.Nicholas'" and director of the Collegium Musicum (1729-37)! With a minimum estimated work day of 15-16 hrs, including daily singing exercises, private vocal and instrumental lessons outside academic lecture periods, weddings and funerals, directorship of collegium musicum and cantata repertoire (he would produce some 60 cantatas per year in the early Leipzig years!), it’s almost unfathomable that he was able to complete any works outside of those for the church, yet, this was the era in which he completed some of his most refined compositions.
Well, I set out with every intention to make this review short and sharp while still covering all the points I intended to and I’ve failed miserably on both accounts. I figure only those already interested in reading a Bach bio will read this anyway so no harm done, right? For those looking for good recordings of Bach’s keyboard works, while there are many great ones, I really can’t stress the incredible clarity and virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s renditions enough; they’re not to be missed! Happy reading (and listening)! :)
… the choir surprised Mozart with the performance of the double chorus motet ‘Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied’ by Sebastian Bach. Mozart knew this master more by hearsay than by his works, which had become quite rare… Hardly had the choir sung a few measures when Mozart sat up, startled; a few measures more and he called out “what is this?” And now his whole soul seemed to be in his ears. When the singing was finished he cried out, full of joy: ”Now there is something we can learn from!”
Update 25/03/22: I mention somewhere in this review that the one thing this book could've done with more of was a deeper analysis of some of Bach's greatest works. Well, I have recently been made aware of a companion book, 'Bach's Musical Universe', written by the same author which I thought might be useful information for anyone considering reading this. What a shame, I'll have to immerse myself in Bach's music again! *sigh*
For Bach, the ultimate rationale for being a musician [was] “to make a well-sounding harmony to the honor of God and the permissible delectation of the soul”.
The Sun of Composers: A work by Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829), a German-born composer, showing Bach at the centre; the “man from whom all true musical wisdom proceeded”.
The Learned Musician is an ambitious and intensely focused display of musical scholarship from Christoph Wolff and, to many, has replaced Spitta’s 3 Volume biography (1873-1880) as the new standard Bach biography.
The source material for Bach bios is notoriously lacking; much of his correspondence and sheet music has been lost in the 272 years since his death; the amount of times Wolff utters, in parenthesis, the words ”the music has not survived” is truly saddening. Despite this, Wolff’s almost unbelievable depth of research and enviable musical expertise allows him to fill in the gaps, not so much with guesswork but, with deductions based on sound logic. The preface to the updated edition also gives new proof of times, places and events based on refreshed sources as well as demonstrating authenticity for works that were previously subject to scrutiny when the bio was first published. By the same token some works are stricken from Bach’s canon based on new discoveries.
On the odd occasion, the lack of solid info regarding Bach’s life can lead to a less-than-thrilling abundance of detailed minutiae about things as mundane as church layouts and renovations. I appreciate the effort but, honestly, I care not that the Himmelsburg acquired 13 new armchairs in October 1713, or that the Capellmeister’s own was newly upholstered just one year later.
Admittedly, a good percentage of the heavy lifting is assisted by Wolff’s frequent leaning on Bach’s obituary and quotes by one of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, which he uses as a sort of reference, or datum if you like, when the source material becomes too unbearably scarce. A scholarly safe haven as it were.
Finally, as far as Wolff goes, the man remains admirably objective throughout in all but one section regarding the early organisation/premature selection of Bach’s replacement in Leipzig a not-so-respectful amount of time before his passing. Actually, I’m not altogether against a bit of bias in biographies as it can add a humorous shade of… Well, shade when it comes to something the author is not very fond of; nevertheless, Wolff is refreshingly not so. Here, you will only find a completely factual, informative account of the life and times of JSB. Speaking of which, if you’d indulge a relatively fresh convert, or if you’re in the least bit interested…
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a musician-scholar, performer-composer, organ and clavier virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, consultant and widely recognized organological expert, capellmeister, cantor, director of Collegium Musicum, sought after private tutor, entrepreneurial businessman…. Compleat musician par excellence! To those of the early nineteenth century, he was the "lawmaker of genuine Composition (harmony)"
Bach exemplifies everything about the era in which he was active as a composer, the Baroque era (1600-1750). To paraphrase American composer Robert Greenberg, this era ushered in the beginning of modern science. Isaac Newton believed there was some sort of systemic order beneath the seemingly random chaos of the natural world and Baroque artistic/musical design mirrored this effort to reconcile surface complexity with underlying order and control. Bach’s music is about high-energy expression tempered by intellectual, almost mathematical, control; a non-stop barrage of notes regulated by a steadfast rhythm and strict harmonic control.
”… as Newton bought about fundamental changes and established new principles in the world of science, Bach did the same in the world of music, both in composition and in performance.”
Bach’s music is very academic, and exacting for both performer and listener; an exemplary display of ”facility, finesse, mastery and genius”. It demands all of your attention to hear and understand what Bach has achieved and I’m only too aware that with my current theoretical knowledge there are elements I can’t fully appreciate at this time, which is one of the key reasons Bach’s music is so endlessly re-listenable. I have family members who tell me that they find Bach's music a little stiff and, while I can certainly see how a casual listener might find, for example, a number of his keyboard works a little “rigid” (Bach doesn’t make the “clavier” - predominantly a harpsichord in his time, not a piano-forte - sing to the soul in, perhaps, the same way that later romantics such as Liszt or Chopin would do), there is, undoubtedly, something both incredibly gratifying and awe-inspiring about listening and recognising the overlapping complexities of Bach’s compositions and his way of “elaborating the musical ideas so as to penetrate the material deeply and exhaustively”.
"Art... imitates and perfects nature, but never destroys it."
All this is not to say, of course, that much of his music isn’t immediately agreeable to the majority of individuals who possess a pair of ears; even just a single ear I guess, though I would imagine this would make it all the more difficult to follow some of his fugues! One only need listen to a few bars of suite no.3 in D [Air](BWV1068), the prelude to cello suite no.1 in G Major (BWV1007) or any one of the beautiful violin concertos to be at once swept away to another time and place.
The fugue is the single most representative instrumental musical form to emerge from the Baroque era and in this form, Bach was, and is, King. A fugue investigates and catalogues the musical properties and capabilities of a chosen theme (a specially designed melody called a subject). The subject is first played in its most basic form and then repeated in different keys and in different voices, fragmented, turned upside down and inside out, elongated and compressed, played backwards with only the three smallest toes of the left foot, hung from a tree, submerged in water … You get the drift. It is a polyphonic construct, meaning, a work for two or more (usually more) simultaneous melodic parts of equal importance. Some of Bach’s greatest fugal works, but by no means an exhaustive list, include precisely half of ’The Well-Tempered Clavier’, ‘The Goldberg Variations’, parts of ‘The Mass in B minor’, and ‘The Art of Fugue. Unbelievably, all of these works preceded the first ever systematic treatise on fugal composition (Marpurg’s Abhandlung von der Fuge). A meeting between the two, around the time that Bach was preparing ‘The Art of Fugue’ suggests that Marpurg may have used, in many ways, Bach’s work as a point of departure.
In general, Wolff does an excellent job of explaining the intricacies of many of Bach’s works in a way that’s understandable to the layman (i.e. me) but, inevitably, there is some moderately-deep discussion on musical theory that may see one come unstuck. I have seen some lamentation in other’s reviews about the amount of discussion on Bach’s works but I actually feel quite the opposite; occasionally I would’ve liked Wolff to go a little deeper but then, where does one draw the line?
Some highlights were the discussion on Bach’s championing of Werckmeister's "well-tempered" tuning system (In a time when the unequal mean-tone scale still prevailed in old instruments) as well as the primary purpose of the Well-tempered clavier and Bach’s wish to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the individual keys; the discussion on ‘The Art of Fugue’ and subsequent explanation of counterpoint; the “parody” of pieces, a practice Bach used to convert old secular works into church works, not motivated by laziness but by the desire to preserve otherwise un re-usable material; Bach’s invention of the “clavier concerto” of which composers such as Beethoven and Mozart would later take full advantage; and charming anecdotal discussions on subjects as diverse as ‘The Goldberg Variations’, Bach’s ability to sight-read absolutely anything and that time he spent 1/5 of his annual salary on Rhine Wine!
Wolff tracks Bach’s life and activities from Eisenach – Ohrdruf – Lüneburg – Arnstadt – Mühlhausen – Weimar – Cothen – Leipzig, where finally he would settle for the remaining 27 years of his life. Remarkably, considering the lasting impact he has had, and very much unlike his contemporaries Handel and Telemann, Bach would never venture further than a few hundred miles from the town of his birth.
A tragic family life, losing multiple siblings and then both parents within a year of each other when he was only 9-10 years of age. He fathered 20 children by two wives with only 4 of Maria Barbara’s (his first wife who also passed in his lifetime) 7 and 6 of Anna Magdalena’s 13 children outliving early childhood.
His working life consisted, for the most part in various positions, such as Organist and Organ Consultant, Chamber Musician, Musical Director, Cantor and/or Capellmeister at Schools and City Churches. The ins and outs of his day-to-day roles, in each of these positions as well as his wages and negotiations are detailed extensively and when this is coupled with a swathe of Cantatas throughout the mid-section of the book, it can become a little tiresome.
"The ultimate goal of a regulated church music"
Bach was extremely prolific, even taking into account the large amount of his works that are believed to have never been recovered. This fact is even more astounding when you consider the ridiculously busy schedule that he had, particularly during the Leipzig years. At one stage he was all at once, "Capellmeister to the court of Weissenfels, Music Director at St.Thomas' and at St.Nicholas'" and director of the Collegium Musicum (1729-37)! With a minimum estimated work day of 15-16 hrs, including daily singing exercises, private vocal and instrumental lessons outside academic lecture periods, weddings and funerals, directorship of collegium musicum and cantata repertoire (he would produce some 60 cantatas per year in the early Leipzig years!), it’s almost unfathomable that he was able to complete any works outside of those for the church, yet, this was the era in which he completed some of his most refined compositions.
Well, I set out with every intention to make this review short and sharp while still covering all the points I intended to and I’ve failed miserably on both accounts. I figure only those already interested in reading a Bach bio will read this anyway so no harm done, right? For those looking for good recordings of Bach’s keyboard works, while there are many great ones, I really can’t stress the incredible clarity and virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s renditions enough; they’re not to be missed! Happy reading (and listening)! :)
… the choir surprised Mozart with the performance of the double chorus motet ‘Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied’ by Sebastian Bach. Mozart knew this master more by hearsay than by his works, which had become quite rare… Hardly had the choir sung a few measures when Mozart sat up, startled; a few measures more and he called out “what is this?” And now his whole soul seemed to be in his ears. When the singing was finished he cried out, full of joy: ”Now there is something we can learn from!”
October 17, 2016
I think that if you are going to read one biography of Bach (and if you like music - any kind of music - you owe it to yourself to read at least one), then this one is it. It is engaging, interesting, not overly intellectual and gives you a real appreciation for the genius of the artist and the complexity of the human being. Christoph Wolff is probably the preeminent scholar at this point on "old Bach" and this biography is truly one of my favourite composer biographies. A must read.
June 1, 2025
I wanted to be fair to the author, so, before publishing a 1 star review, I climbed my way up to the very top of this gargantuan rock of a book, to see if — in any minuscule crevices of the mountain — I could find a blade of grass, a tiny tuft of moss or even any lichens.
Nothing. Not even the bones of previous climbers to give the faint and remote idea of vital signs. Everything on this mountain is lifeless.
If I wasn’t so disappointed, I’d simply say this work is as dry as a phone book (like many other readers said), but, for crying out loud, this is a book about one of greatest musical geniuses in history! Music! As in “the heavenly vibrations that make our soul sing”. Have you ever heard it? It's astonishing music!
Nothing. All that Wolff cares about is to get as many dates, names and facts as accurate as possible, with the obsessive pettiness of an autistic librarian. Page after page, chapter after chapter, the reader can’t help but feel like a barely standing Rocky Balboa, under the violent barrage of facts that Ivan Drago / Christoph Wolff relentlessly punches him with: KA-POW! KA-POW!
[fictional sentence] “There should be little doubt that Bach visited the famous organist Wilhelm Pinkerpergerstoffen on April 12th of 1708 at 2.13 pm, and not on May 27th or May 28th as it’s sometimes reported, because if we subtract the number of days that it took him to cross the distance between Karschwatz and Sontranch-Grabfeld that subsequent summer from the age of his 13th child, divide that by the number of notes in his first prelude in C sharp, as it’s recorded in a letter found in the Geseimhauptstadtpepperpimpenvehllernen museum archives in 1897, and then multiply that result by the times Bach paid his real estate taxes in 1709, it’s simply impossible that the visit could have taken place any later than mid-April. Also, as we all remember, 1708 was a leap year.”
I’m. Not. Joking.
This is how the book goes. On and on and on.
To the point that I’m flabbergasted by the 5 stars reviews, and even skeptical: have those reviewers actually read the book? Or just skimmed through it? Because no one who is not insane can “love” this arid chain of facts, this monochromatic nightmare, this avalanche of saharan sand that, for its inspirational value, could only be compared to the “Proterozoic geology of Western North America and Siberia” by Paul K. Link.
Look, I get it, ok? I see that, from a historiography point of view, this might be an important book, because it’s the most comprehensive biography of Bach by the man known for being “the foremost expert on Bach in the galaxy”.
But …. who the heck is this book written for? It’s crystal clear that it’s not for a regular person who happens to love Bach, “regular” being the key word here.
You could be forgiven if you wrote a biography in this robotic style if the subject matter was such an intense rollercoaster per se, that you could not take away any soul from it even if you tried. Example: Martin Luther King’s life. David Garrow did that with his “Bearing the cross”, in which the data-dump style is compensated by the adventurous nature of MLK’s time on this Earth.
But here we’re talking about a pious German composer of the 18th century who, though a towering and indisputable genius, did almost NOTHING in his life aside from studying, reading, composing and teaching music. So, dumping cold data onto the page as if it was fresh concrete is absolutely not the way to handle this material, unless you do it as an academic work for people who have no real interest in Bach’s music, and all they care about is to compete on “who gets that detail right” (which is exactly what this book sounds like).
I don’t even know how I managed to read through this to the end.
Should it not be clear yet, I do not recommend this book, unless you are the google algorithm, or an AI engine.
Read the John Gardiner biography instead, it’s a hundred times better, and at least it’s got some soul.
Or, for another suggestion, recently I was very lucky to find “The Cello suites” by Eric Siblin, a book not only full of soul, but also generous enough to condensate the Wolff biography in a very readable and concise manner.
P.S. Or, even better, the historic fiction “The Great Passion”: great book.
Nothing. Not even the bones of previous climbers to give the faint and remote idea of vital signs. Everything on this mountain is lifeless.
If I wasn’t so disappointed, I’d simply say this work is as dry as a phone book (like many other readers said), but, for crying out loud, this is a book about one of greatest musical geniuses in history! Music! As in “the heavenly vibrations that make our soul sing”. Have you ever heard it? It's astonishing music!
Nothing. All that Wolff cares about is to get as many dates, names and facts as accurate as possible, with the obsessive pettiness of an autistic librarian. Page after page, chapter after chapter, the reader can’t help but feel like a barely standing Rocky Balboa, under the violent barrage of facts that Ivan Drago / Christoph Wolff relentlessly punches him with: KA-POW! KA-POW!
[fictional sentence] “There should be little doubt that Bach visited the famous organist Wilhelm Pinkerpergerstoffen on April 12th of 1708 at 2.13 pm, and not on May 27th or May 28th as it’s sometimes reported, because if we subtract the number of days that it took him to cross the distance between Karschwatz and Sontranch-Grabfeld that subsequent summer from the age of his 13th child, divide that by the number of notes in his first prelude in C sharp, as it’s recorded in a letter found in the Geseimhauptstadtpepperpimpenvehllernen museum archives in 1897, and then multiply that result by the times Bach paid his real estate taxes in 1709, it’s simply impossible that the visit could have taken place any later than mid-April. Also, as we all remember, 1708 was a leap year.”
I’m. Not. Joking.
This is how the book goes. On and on and on.
To the point that I’m flabbergasted by the 5 stars reviews, and even skeptical: have those reviewers actually read the book? Or just skimmed through it? Because no one who is not insane can “love” this arid chain of facts, this monochromatic nightmare, this avalanche of saharan sand that, for its inspirational value, could only be compared to the “Proterozoic geology of Western North America and Siberia” by Paul K. Link.
Look, I get it, ok? I see that, from a historiography point of view, this might be an important book, because it’s the most comprehensive biography of Bach by the man known for being “the foremost expert on Bach in the galaxy”.
But …. who the heck is this book written for? It’s crystal clear that it’s not for a regular person who happens to love Bach, “regular” being the key word here.
You could be forgiven if you wrote a biography in this robotic style if the subject matter was such an intense rollercoaster per se, that you could not take away any soul from it even if you tried. Example: Martin Luther King’s life. David Garrow did that with his “Bearing the cross”, in which the data-dump style is compensated by the adventurous nature of MLK’s time on this Earth.
But here we’re talking about a pious German composer of the 18th century who, though a towering and indisputable genius, did almost NOTHING in his life aside from studying, reading, composing and teaching music. So, dumping cold data onto the page as if it was fresh concrete is absolutely not the way to handle this material, unless you do it as an academic work for people who have no real interest in Bach’s music, and all they care about is to compete on “who gets that detail right” (which is exactly what this book sounds like).
I don’t even know how I managed to read through this to the end.
Should it not be clear yet, I do not recommend this book, unless you are the google algorithm, or an AI engine.
Read the John Gardiner biography instead, it’s a hundred times better, and at least it’s got some soul.
Or, for another suggestion, recently I was very lucky to find “The Cello suites” by Eric Siblin, a book not only full of soul, but also generous enough to condensate the Wolff biography in a very readable and concise manner.
P.S. Or, even better, the historic fiction “The Great Passion”: great book.
April 29, 2012
Reading this book exposed a lot of my own failings. I don't know German or have a sophistocated understanding of music theory and history. But I really like to listen to the works of J.S Bach. So I read this biography in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the man and his music.
Wolff's biography is designed for music scholars or for someone with a better understanding of music theory and composition than I have. Wolff spends a great deal of time and effort explaining how changes made by Bach changed music itself. To get the most out of this book, you need some expertise.
Since Bach was German, all of the titles of the works appear in German with an occasional translation. However the major works like Mass in B minor, St. Matthew's Passion, The Well Tempered Clavier,and The Goldberg Variations are all referenced in English.
Wolff uses Bach's obituary as a touchstone through out the work. Obviously, it is very difficult to write a biography of someone who lived in the 1700's. Wolff has throughly researched his subject by combing through business records, correspondence, newpaper articles, and letters to learn about Bach.
As a reader, you appreciate Bach's genius but also become aware of the politics of the time and the living conditions in the 1700's. It is sad that when Bach died, his widow and remaining minor children were not better taken care of by the town fathers.
It is also tragic that so much of what Bach wrote has been lost. He was recognized as a genius in his own time. Yet his estate was divided among his adult children and his widow. His widow had to sell the compositions that he had left to her so she would be able to take care of herself and the children. Bach had 13 children. His first wife died young and left him with four young children. He remarried and had nine children with his second wife. He died when he was 66. Bach passed his musical gifts on the a couple of his sons. Like Bach they secured postions as cantors or organists for the Luthern churches in Germany. His son Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach is responsible for much of Bach's music that survived the centuries.
Reading this biography, makes one wish that just for a Sunday, they could hop in a time machine and be present to hear Bach the organ virtuoso play some of his own compositions in church at Lepizig!
Wolff's biography is designed for music scholars or for someone with a better understanding of music theory and composition than I have. Wolff spends a great deal of time and effort explaining how changes made by Bach changed music itself. To get the most out of this book, you need some expertise.
Since Bach was German, all of the titles of the works appear in German with an occasional translation. However the major works like Mass in B minor, St. Matthew's Passion, The Well Tempered Clavier,and The Goldberg Variations are all referenced in English.
Wolff uses Bach's obituary as a touchstone through out the work. Obviously, it is very difficult to write a biography of someone who lived in the 1700's. Wolff has throughly researched his subject by combing through business records, correspondence, newpaper articles, and letters to learn about Bach.
As a reader, you appreciate Bach's genius but also become aware of the politics of the time and the living conditions in the 1700's. It is sad that when Bach died, his widow and remaining minor children were not better taken care of by the town fathers.
It is also tragic that so much of what Bach wrote has been lost. He was recognized as a genius in his own time. Yet his estate was divided among his adult children and his widow. His widow had to sell the compositions that he had left to her so she would be able to take care of herself and the children. Bach had 13 children. His first wife died young and left him with four young children. He remarried and had nine children with his second wife. He died when he was 66. Bach passed his musical gifts on the a couple of his sons. Like Bach they secured postions as cantors or organists for the Luthern churches in Germany. His son Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach is responsible for much of Bach's music that survived the centuries.
Reading this biography, makes one wish that just for a Sunday, they could hop in a time machine and be present to hear Bach the organ virtuoso play some of his own compositions in church at Lepizig!
May 7, 2009
Holy crap I finished it. I have to imagine it's rough writing a biography of someone for whom nothing but the barest facts of his day-to-day life exist. Unfortunately, when this is all you have, this is all you can talk about, and as a result The Learned Musician gets awfully caught up in the minutiae, including charts of concert schedules, extensive details of Bach's salary, and on and on. Of course what you *want* is insight into his creative process, and a peek into a type of life (and lifelong pursuit) that largely no larger exists, but such it is. Perhaps in the future, when historians are resignedly poring through our blogs and facebook pages, people will wish we had just written down how many pails of beer we earned in the calendar year 2007.
October 28, 2012
Bach is a giant in music and Christoph Wolff successfully explains why. Wolff's book is an excellent work of scholarship. His thesis is that Bach worked within historical musical frameworks to let his original musical genius emerge. He worked to become a virtuoso of several instruments and then had the humility to put in the untold hours in took to become a true master of counterpoint and the fine art of composition. Not every musician has the spark of ability to create a melody, guess who had it. Bach worked tirelessly and one is amazed at the unflagging effort and devotion he gave to music.
Every assertion made by Wolff is backed up immediately with primary source material and explained clearly in prose understandable to the musician and listener alike.
As a character from Tom Wolfe's books is often defined by his time, friends and surroundings, Bach emerges here as the man who successfully incorporated all he learned about music and musical instruments, all that was going on in neighboring regions (particularly Vivaldi), and systematically applied his knowledge through his innate genius to composition. He then frequently revisited his work, making minute but important improvements.
In introducing Bach as a man emblematic of his time, Wolff succeeds in portraying life in the early 18th century especially as lived by musicians. Life in Europe was heavily dominated by the Church and music was revered as a pathway to praising God's creation and to revealing something of the glory of God. This prevailing attitude gave musicians a chance to have their works heard and to earn a living as musician in a way that is no longer viable today. It is not necessary to believe in the same or any God to admire the pursuit of Godly perfection that motivated Bach's music but that was the genesis for much of it.
I came in loving the music and came out of this read liking the man tremendously as well.
I listened to Bach's music often on CD and also frequently on youtube during this (two month) read which enhanced this read considerably.
Every assertion made by Wolff is backed up immediately with primary source material and explained clearly in prose understandable to the musician and listener alike.
As a character from Tom Wolfe's books is often defined by his time, friends and surroundings, Bach emerges here as the man who successfully incorporated all he learned about music and musical instruments, all that was going on in neighboring regions (particularly Vivaldi), and systematically applied his knowledge through his innate genius to composition. He then frequently revisited his work, making minute but important improvements.
In introducing Bach as a man emblematic of his time, Wolff succeeds in portraying life in the early 18th century especially as lived by musicians. Life in Europe was heavily dominated by the Church and music was revered as a pathway to praising God's creation and to revealing something of the glory of God. This prevailing attitude gave musicians a chance to have their works heard and to earn a living as musician in a way that is no longer viable today. It is not necessary to believe in the same or any God to admire the pursuit of Godly perfection that motivated Bach's music but that was the genesis for much of it.
I came in loving the music and came out of this read liking the man tremendously as well.
I listened to Bach's music often on CD and also frequently on youtube during this (two month) read which enhanced this read considerably.
March 28, 2021
A solid 4-stars for Bachbusters, maybe 3-stars if you're not a music scholar and were looking for something a bit more, well, biographical. I'm in the latter group. I can't complain too far, though. Bach just didn't have a very eventful life. Like the Jane Austen bio, I recently read, a good scholar does the best with what we have in the way of evidence and documentation. Probably the most unboring thing you might discover here about Bach was that he liked his drink. He never strayed further than Hamburg. He had a pretty dull family life, two wives (not all at once, so don't get your hopes up that Bach as a secretive serial bigamist), a bunch of kids, and so on.
The best bits are the early parts which situate Bach in his wider, very musical family. It's kind of astonishing that local counts could wail about "needing a Bach", because the extended family was so much in demand and justifiably so. Bach's education and mastery of the organ and its mechanisms were neat to read about. However, to warn you, much of this work is given over to not-too-exhaustive looks at his compositions and theoretical practice. Good historical context is always present and Wolff is a fine scholar, THE scholar, I guess? But there isn't much meat to Bach...
The best bits are the early parts which situate Bach in his wider, very musical family. It's kind of astonishing that local counts could wail about "needing a Bach", because the extended family was so much in demand and justifiably so. Bach's education and mastery of the organ and its mechanisms were neat to read about. However, to warn you, much of this work is given over to not-too-exhaustive looks at his compositions and theoretical practice. Good historical context is always present and Wolff is a fine scholar, THE scholar, I guess? But there isn't much meat to Bach...
April 3, 2012
This biography is both a compelling narrative--of Bach's training, career, creative output, and important musical and personal relationships--and deep scholarship. Wolff's angle is to emphasize Bach as scholar, first of Latin, and then of the complexities of instrument building and musical architecture, which he advanced considerably. Hard to recommend it enough! Bach's birthday is March 21st, so a good time to learn more about this unmatched, complete artist.
April 25, 2020
What a wonderful comprehensive and factual guide to the life and works of Bach. I found the author did a great job giving a thorough insight into his works and balanced nicely a look at his personal life and the lives of other Bach family members. As a piano teacher this will be a staple for me that I’ll plan to re read in the future as well!
January 29, 2010
What sin the boring biography?
On the one hand, this was often an extremely tedious book to read. On the other hand, I learned a lot of things I’m glad now to know about Bach’s life, and, by extension, the life of musicians in Lutheran Germany in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
On the one hand, Wolff’s portrayal of Bach only just qualifies as literary characterization; the other personages don’t get personalities. (C.P.E. Bach, however, is quoted enough to shine through as a dedicated, talented, and passionate son.) On the other hand, Bach was genuinely not inclined to pour out his thoughts and feelings in letters or conversation (unlike C.P.E.), and his era is a less documented one than later centuries.
However, Wolff’s more subjective intrusions into his sober account of Bach’s life and music usually fall flat. While Wolff is not the first writer to argue that Bach and Isaac Newton are kindred spirits, I would appreciate it if he were the last. Yes, Bach’s compositions are often rigorous, highly formal, and pedagogical; but does this make him a musical “scientist” doing “research”? I don’t think so. There are also lousy passages on Vivaldi (unconvincing motivic analysis), suspiciously emphatic ones enlisting Bach as an academic intellectual (so is Wolff!), and gushy, redundant ones about Bach’s perfectly perfect contrapuntal perfection (not that I’d argue otherwise, but...).
But. It’s a great reference for Bach-related information. Wolff’s colossal data dump does deserve a long shelf life and a few stars.
On the one hand, this was often an extremely tedious book to read. On the other hand, I learned a lot of things I’m glad now to know about Bach’s life, and, by extension, the life of musicians in Lutheran Germany in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
On the one hand, Wolff’s portrayal of Bach only just qualifies as literary characterization; the other personages don’t get personalities. (C.P.E. Bach, however, is quoted enough to shine through as a dedicated, talented, and passionate son.) On the other hand, Bach was genuinely not inclined to pour out his thoughts and feelings in letters or conversation (unlike C.P.E.), and his era is a less documented one than later centuries.
However, Wolff’s more subjective intrusions into his sober account of Bach’s life and music usually fall flat. While Wolff is not the first writer to argue that Bach and Isaac Newton are kindred spirits, I would appreciate it if he were the last. Yes, Bach’s compositions are often rigorous, highly formal, and pedagogical; but does this make him a musical “scientist” doing “research”? I don’t think so. There are also lousy passages on Vivaldi (unconvincing motivic analysis), suspiciously emphatic ones enlisting Bach as an academic intellectual (so is Wolff!), and gushy, redundant ones about Bach’s perfectly perfect contrapuntal perfection (not that I’d argue otherwise, but...).
But. It’s a great reference for Bach-related information. Wolff’s colossal data dump does deserve a long shelf life and a few stars.
August 2, 2019
Bach was an intensely religious, modest scion of a well-known musical family, making a career as Church cantor in a part of Europe still scarred by the Thirty Years War. Despite not being university-educated, he was able to absorb and improve on pretty much all the contemporary music of his time. We know few details about his life, but Wolff squeezes out everything we have (sometimes making for dry reading). This book doesn't explain much about Bach's techniques, and the musically ignorant reader may be slightly at sea. But it is a reverent, detailed biography, likely to remain the gold standard.
January 4, 2018
The man was simply outstanding. In his lenghty life, Bach had 2 wives, 20 children (9 of it survived to adulthood) and lived in the most important cities of what we call today Germany: Berlin, Weimar, Dresden, Leipzig, Köthe, Hamburg. He worked incessantly and set standards to all classic musiciand than came along after him. A life devoted to Arts, thy name is Johann Sebastian Bach.
February 7, 2024
Inizialmente ho trovato questo libro molto prolisso, e sicuramente non hanno aiutato la veste tipografica (interlinea strettissimo e qualità della carta veramente pessima) nonostante in apparenza fosse un libro “di lusso” con copertina rigida e sovraccoperta.
Però poi, andando avanti nella lettura, ho avuto il piacere di avere un’esperienza per certi versi gradevolmente immersiva nel mondo e nella cultura del musicista sassone. E’ noto, come già lamentava il figlio Carl Philip Emanuel, che il grande Bach avesse lasciato pochissime notizie autobiografiche o riferite alla propria estetica; tutto quello che si sa di lui lo si sa grazie alle fonti circostanti, che ne ricostruiscono la figura come una specie di negativo fotografico. Ed il mondo che ne emerge è quello dei piccoli ducati o principati sassoni, un’amalgama di staterelli e autorità comunali ben lontani anche culturalmente dalle grandi capitali europee dove si faceva la storia. Cosa che, per certi aspetti, è stata anche la loro fortuna; tra le varie notizie che questo libro riporta, c’è il fatto che in certi luoghi di quell’arcipelago l’istruzione elementare era gratuita ed obbligatoria per tutti. Non so in quanti grandi stati nazionali, per non parlare degli staterelli preunitari italiani, si potesse dire lo stesso.
Ed è quindi dagli archivi di queste istituzioni, che hanno fatto da cornice alla vicenda musicale ed esistenziale di Bach, che emergono le informazioni utili a ricostruire la sua figura e per certi versi il suo pensiero: corrispondenze, lettere di incarico, articoli di giornale. E’ la prima volta, in effetti, che leggo una biografia di Bach in cui non si lavora pesantemente di fantasia, in cui non si cerca di riempire gli spazi vuoti con disegnini apocrifi; al contrario, le deduzioni dell’autore paiono sempre alquanto documentate e supportate da documenti concreti. Ne emerge la figura di un omaccione di evidenti capacità musicali e professionali, con un certo spirito godereccio (consumava birra e altri alcolici in quantità industriali), molto socievole (la sua casa era aperta ad ospiti musicali, allievi che di fatto vivevano con lui come apprendisti, per non parlare della pletora di figli e probabilmente di personale di servizio), che già i suoi contemporanei paragonavano a Newton per il suo genio nel campo musicale (io l’ho spesso paragonato ad Einstein per gli stessi motivi) e che si doveva barcamenare politicamente non poco in un universo politico-amministrativo assai poco centralizzato in cui non dovevi servire un unico padrone; a Lipsia, per dire, università, autorità comunali, rappresentanti del governo sassone di Dresda da cui la città dipendeva facevano di tutto per affermare la propria autorità gli uni sugli altri; una situazione in cui o si avevano evidenti capacità politiche per sopravvivere, o non si sarebbe sopravvissuti, e Bach evidentemente le aveva.
Questo libro non sembra nemmeno dare ragione alla leggenda romantica del grande artista dimenticato dopo la sua morte e riesumato molti anni dopo ai tempi di Mendelssohn. I suoi contemporanei sapevano bene chi fosse, e lo seppero anche nei decenni dopo la sua morte; semplicemente, lo stile musicale di moda era diventato un altro, quello galante su cui si è poi sviluppato il classicismo, molto semplificato e molto poco contrappuntistico, ma i grandi cultori della musica che sapevano vedere oltre le mode momentanee, o che continuavano ad apprezzare l’arte del contrappunto, non lo dimenticarono. Mozart, per dire, ne trascrisse delle fughe per quartetto d’archi, che venivano eseguite con piacere nei circoli cultural-nobiliari viennesi.
Però poi, andando avanti nella lettura, ho avuto il piacere di avere un’esperienza per certi versi gradevolmente immersiva nel mondo e nella cultura del musicista sassone. E’ noto, come già lamentava il figlio Carl Philip Emanuel, che il grande Bach avesse lasciato pochissime notizie autobiografiche o riferite alla propria estetica; tutto quello che si sa di lui lo si sa grazie alle fonti circostanti, che ne ricostruiscono la figura come una specie di negativo fotografico. Ed il mondo che ne emerge è quello dei piccoli ducati o principati sassoni, un’amalgama di staterelli e autorità comunali ben lontani anche culturalmente dalle grandi capitali europee dove si faceva la storia. Cosa che, per certi aspetti, è stata anche la loro fortuna; tra le varie notizie che questo libro riporta, c’è il fatto che in certi luoghi di quell’arcipelago l’istruzione elementare era gratuita ed obbligatoria per tutti. Non so in quanti grandi stati nazionali, per non parlare degli staterelli preunitari italiani, si potesse dire lo stesso.
Ed è quindi dagli archivi di queste istituzioni, che hanno fatto da cornice alla vicenda musicale ed esistenziale di Bach, che emergono le informazioni utili a ricostruire la sua figura e per certi versi il suo pensiero: corrispondenze, lettere di incarico, articoli di giornale. E’ la prima volta, in effetti, che leggo una biografia di Bach in cui non si lavora pesantemente di fantasia, in cui non si cerca di riempire gli spazi vuoti con disegnini apocrifi; al contrario, le deduzioni dell’autore paiono sempre alquanto documentate e supportate da documenti concreti. Ne emerge la figura di un omaccione di evidenti capacità musicali e professionali, con un certo spirito godereccio (consumava birra e altri alcolici in quantità industriali), molto socievole (la sua casa era aperta ad ospiti musicali, allievi che di fatto vivevano con lui come apprendisti, per non parlare della pletora di figli e probabilmente di personale di servizio), che già i suoi contemporanei paragonavano a Newton per il suo genio nel campo musicale (io l’ho spesso paragonato ad Einstein per gli stessi motivi) e che si doveva barcamenare politicamente non poco in un universo politico-amministrativo assai poco centralizzato in cui non dovevi servire un unico padrone; a Lipsia, per dire, università, autorità comunali, rappresentanti del governo sassone di Dresda da cui la città dipendeva facevano di tutto per affermare la propria autorità gli uni sugli altri; una situazione in cui o si avevano evidenti capacità politiche per sopravvivere, o non si sarebbe sopravvissuti, e Bach evidentemente le aveva.
Questo libro non sembra nemmeno dare ragione alla leggenda romantica del grande artista dimenticato dopo la sua morte e riesumato molti anni dopo ai tempi di Mendelssohn. I suoi contemporanei sapevano bene chi fosse, e lo seppero anche nei decenni dopo la sua morte; semplicemente, lo stile musicale di moda era diventato un altro, quello galante su cui si è poi sviluppato il classicismo, molto semplificato e molto poco contrappuntistico, ma i grandi cultori della musica che sapevano vedere oltre le mode momentanee, o che continuavano ad apprezzare l’arte del contrappunto, non lo dimenticarono. Mozart, per dire, ne trascrisse delle fughe per quartetto d’archi, che venivano eseguite con piacere nei circoli cultural-nobiliari viennesi.
August 8, 2007
Well, I finally got around to finish this one up, and by finish, I mean flip through the last half of the book looking for the parts of interest to me. The sections on his construction of some of his longer pieces (Goldberg, Well-Tempered Clavier, Art of Fugue) were a little interesting, but the book disappointed me on a whole, especially after Maynard Solomon's "Mozart: A life," which I found highly engaging. "Bach" spent a lot of itself beginning sentences, "He could have..." and the like, to fill in for the lack of information as to the composers early life, and was generally painful to read. Even if you are completely absorbed by his music, there is only so much you can really absorb about organ building and design before things get tedious. Wolff's take on the life of this legendary composer seemed to lack any passion what-so-ever, and dragged on and on until it finally petered out with a few pages about Bach's death: "We cannot reconstruct what actually happened on Bach's deathbed ..."
August 17, 2017
Just outstanding and beautifully written. It did take me some time to read because I patiently took my time to listen to all off the music that are mentioned in this book by Bach on YouTube. For me it was a lot of fun to read and listen to.I hope others can enjoy it the same as way as it was for me.
November 24, 2013
LA biografía de Bach. Detalladísima sin ser cansina, integral sin ser demasiado prolija, abarca todos los aspectos de su vida y está escrita con un estílo entretenidísimo, como pocos escritores-periodistas sabrían hacer. ¡Que admirables los conocimientos del Dr. Wolff, y qué bien los sabe expresar!. Qué pena que la edición española no le haga justicia, llena de errores tipográficos impropios de una edición tan cara, y con una partición por volúmenes absolutamente arbitraria, que hace muy incómoda la consulta de referencias dentro del propio libro y confunde en las notas y demás aparato crítico. Aún así, se merece las cinco estrellas.
February 26, 2012
In line with all the other reviews: this is a real hard yakka read. Not to say it doesn't come with its rewards though.
There are some really intriguing elements, though the trouble that I'd assume presents most readers is: awareness of Bach's comprehensive catalogue. In all honesty this book would be perfect in multimedia format on an iPad (or similar) allowing readers to hear audio examples as they read. Until that day comes though I begrudgingly (out of respect for the author) have to limit my rating in line with its current presentation.
There are some really intriguing elements, though the trouble that I'd assume presents most readers is: awareness of Bach's comprehensive catalogue. In all honesty this book would be perfect in multimedia format on an iPad (or similar) allowing readers to hear audio examples as they read. Until that day comes though I begrudgingly (out of respect for the author) have to limit my rating in line with its current presentation.
January 31, 2009
While listed as a biography, the author acknowledges that there is a great deal not known about Bach's life. The book therefore is more about musical theory than about the man himself. The style is pedantic, and more than a passing knowledge of music and organs is needed to keep up with this tome.
January 25, 2012
Very informative, but due to the fact that we have so little first hand knowledge of Bach's live the book is a bit dry. However, it bothered me less how little information we about his personal life in contrast with the many references to music he wrote, but have been lost.
September 18, 2014
I learned a trmendous amunt about the man and the composer from reading this book. Not that any of that helps me play his violin music, but it certainly helps me appreciate the genius and hard work that went nto creating that music.
March 2, 2011
Tons of details from the contemporary letters, documents and press releases. A nice reconstruction of the life of the most important composer.
April 2, 2014
I really did enjoy this book. There were some spots that got bogged down in lists of details which is the only reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars. Overall though a very well written biography.
June 4, 2014
Best book I've read on Bach. Far more accessible than the recent "Castles of Heaven."
October 1, 2024
This Bach biography (I think Wolff calls it an essay) is probably the best way to get a reasonably accurate account of Bach's life and why and when he wrote his key works. Anybody expecting a relentless page turner is going to need to readjust though. Excited to receive this in the mail, I started reading it a few years ago. Life just wasn't affording me the kind of bandwidth I needed to keep up with the flurry of names (lots of Johann's!), places, nobility, electorates, churches, etc. flew by. The first order of business is Bach's ancestry, siblings and cousins, which requires a couple of tables to keep straight. I crashed and burned about 85 pages in. A couple of years later I started again, ready to take notes and keep to a steady regimen of reading a half-dozen pages a day if possible.
The fact is, not enough documentation of Bach's life is available to make a compelling VH1 Behind the Music. But what Wolff has done is take everything available to allow the reader to assemble the pieces in their mind and form a picture of Bach's world and work. I think one needs to really care about having that understanding of Bach's m.o. to get much out of this book. It's impeccably written but undeniably dry. There are many life stories that are accounted with sensitivity and a good sense of narrative, but one is left to imagine the gravity of seemingly constant familial loss all along the way. Wolff has no problem spending a page talking about furniture purchases at the Thomaskirche or the technical configurations of pipe organs. The text sticks to a line of thought until it's fully covered. As a result, it's often not linear, and things will jump back by years after a topical thread has been exhausted. Thankfully, Wolff doesn't shy away from uncertainties, meticulously using phrases such as "there's reason to believe" or "it's probable that" to keep the overall picture from becoming hopelessly vague and fragmented. As for technical music discussions, I was a music major with a graduate degree. There are a few musical examples and discussions of form that may pass by a novice, but they're somewhat optional as this isn't primarily about the nitty-gritty of Bach's compositions.
Although I'm grateful for Wolff's work, I would say there's a space for a reorganization of this material for the more casual but earnest layperson.
The fact is, not enough documentation of Bach's life is available to make a compelling VH1 Behind the Music. But what Wolff has done is take everything available to allow the reader to assemble the pieces in their mind and form a picture of Bach's world and work. I think one needs to really care about having that understanding of Bach's m.o. to get much out of this book. It's impeccably written but undeniably dry. There are many life stories that are accounted with sensitivity and a good sense of narrative, but one is left to imagine the gravity of seemingly constant familial loss all along the way. Wolff has no problem spending a page talking about furniture purchases at the Thomaskirche or the technical configurations of pipe organs. The text sticks to a line of thought until it's fully covered. As a result, it's often not linear, and things will jump back by years after a topical thread has been exhausted. Thankfully, Wolff doesn't shy away from uncertainties, meticulously using phrases such as "there's reason to believe" or "it's probable that" to keep the overall picture from becoming hopelessly vague and fragmented. As for technical music discussions, I was a music major with a graduate degree. There are a few musical examples and discussions of form that may pass by a novice, but they're somewhat optional as this isn't primarily about the nitty-gritty of Bach's compositions.
Although I'm grateful for Wolff's work, I would say there's a space for a reorganization of this material for the more casual but earnest layperson.
May 1, 2020
The book helped me understand the genius and importance of Johann Sebastian Bach in musical history (He was very dedicated to his craft and also a good husband and friend beside the genius part). Such a combination of traits is surely hard to encounter throughout history. I feel that he is an example and a model for men in general not only in the musical field. The book itself is quite hard to read, the author being very knowledgeable and giving a lot of details about his life.
Overall it was a nice read (a little too detailed for the average reader) and it surely helps to understand what drove a person such as Bach becoming who he became.
Overall it was a nice read (a little too detailed for the average reader) and it surely helps to understand what drove a person such as Bach becoming who he became.
March 14, 2020
Een geweldig boek. Niet alleen een levensbeschrijving van deze grote componist maar ook een uitgebreid naslagwerk waarin al zijn werken worden besproken. Blijft bij de piano liggen.
December 1, 2023
Wolff's biography of JS Bach is quite technical but fantastic. JS Bach was a one of a kind Christian composer who lived in a Christian world that cared a lot more about music than the emotional blabber for tenor and drum kit that we praise today. Three cheers for Bach!
November 10, 2010
This is a long book and not an easy read, particularly for non-musicians. There is a tremendous amount of detail about Bach's day to day life and his relationships w/ family, friends, employers, etc. which is often of interest but at times tedious. Like others I was skimming through some of the more detailed discussion of the actually works - could go on for pages. Now, the book is good and extremely well researched, and probably would deserve a 4* rating from me if I were occupied in a more musical profession. I plan to keep the book and as others have suggested pull it from the shelf as I'm listening to my large Bach collection and read the appropriate sections on the compositions. Recommended with reservations - for those uncertain, I would suggest trying to locate a library loan first before a purchase.
Read
January 3, 2017Actually, I'm still slowly making my way through this, but nothing could induce me to knock down its five stars on what I've read so far. I think the WSJ reviewed it by saying that its writing was well-suited to its subject matter. It's true: Christoph Wolff writes the book a bit like Bach composes music. It's definitely becoming one of my favorite books.
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