The True Life of J.S. Bach [Hardcover]

Klaus Eidam (Author), Hoyt Rogers (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2001

In this new biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Klaus Eidam brings the icon of Baroque music into focus as never before.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This engagingly eccentric biography by German playwright and television scriptwriter Klaus Eidam performs the valuable service of knocking off the dust accumulated around Bach (1685-1750) by generations of writers more concerned with their own musical, religious, or political theories than the particulars of the composer's life. Eidam has as little use for Marxist scholars declaring Bach "the musician of the Enlightenment" as he does for their precursors who declared the composer to be so devout that he viewed his art only as a means to praise God. His aim is to restore Bach to the general public as a musician first and foremost, well versed in the techniques and instruments of his day, deeply immersed in his artistic goals.

To this end, Eidam spends a good deal of time quarreling with previous biographers about everything from whether or not Bach's second marriage was a love match to the precise circumstances under which he departed his post at Weimar. Although it's accessibly written and thorough, this is not really the book for readers seeking a recital of the accepted facts about Bach's life. Biography connoisseurs, however, will relish Eidam's marvelous bluntness, as when he comments of an alleged Bach authority's ideas, "Such claims provoke me to so much head-shaking they make me suspect I suffer from Parkinson's disease," and his valuable reality checks on predecessors' insufficiently documented speculations. (Translator Hoyt Rogers has maintained the author's contentious tone in English.)

Locating Bach firmly in the context of the gritty intrigues by which composers got and kept musical positions in 18th-century Germany, Eidam also manages to convey appreciation for his timeless genius. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

Munich-based TV documentary scriptwriter Eidam offers a new interpretation of the great organist and composer, Bach. His writing can be clunky, such as when he refers to his own change of interest: "I had long since distanced myself from the organ as thoroughly as Offenbach had distanced himself from the synagogue." Such pretentious stretches aside, this new book provides a plainspoken reexamination of basic conditions of the composer' s life. Eidam reminds readers repeatedly that Bach, considered today to be a divinely inspired and peerless composer, did not make enough money to pay for his own gravestone. Treated as a lackey by noble employers, Bach was also saddled with lazy and inept musicians who were uninterested in his perfectionist goals: he got into a street brawl with one whom he termed "a prick bassoonist." As an organist, Eidam offers a particularly interesting account of Bach's most famous organ work, the mighty Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, pointing out that it was most likely written for an organ inspection, which explains the work's great instrumental range, and how the very title of the piece is a misnomer, "since the fugue is seamlessly integrated with the toccata." He also praises Bach for controlling his anger on many occasions, while other biographers have found the composer too hot-tempered. A provocative, if sometimes flawed, alternative to standard studies by scholars like Malcolm Boyd and John Butt.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465018610
• ISBN-13: 978-0465018611
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,239,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Bach, Johann Sebastian

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Bach as a real person, November 16, 2003

By 

J. Brian Watkins (Laie, Hawaii) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The True Life of J.S. Bach (Hardcover)

Although I do not have a musicological background, I have loved the music of Bach for years and have read many of the extant biographies: Boyd, Wolff, Spitta, etc. Of all the biographies, I found Mr. Eidam's to be the best at creating an understanding of the man who created such divine music without perpetuating myths or attempting to explain Bach's personality based upon his musical art. Mr. Eidam admirably highlights the irony inherent in the fact that Bach produced such sublime art in the face of continual opposition from lesser intellects.

I did not find the language of the english translation to be distracting and found the work to be refreshingly free of musical theory that while interesting does not increase one's understanding of the man himself. Instead, the reader is left with a deep and abiding appreciation for Bach's untiring efforts, in the face of incredible opposition, to share with the world a miraculous music that only he could hear.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a wonderful read and necessary corrective, December 22, 2008

By 

Mark Ringer "Mark" (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The True Life of J.S. Bach (Hardcover)

This is the only biography of Bach to create a three dimensional figure out of him. Eidam's style is engaging, lively and (despite the over finicky qualms of an earlier reviewer) splendidly translated. Eidam necessarily chides earlier scholarship which has tended to leech the humanity out of Bach's story. He creates a portait built out of careful reading of sources, original scholarship, coupled with (and here lies Eidam's real contribution) an intelligent understanding of artistic creativity and its endless struggle against bureaucracy; which lies at the core of Bach's 'passion'.

It is no exaggeration that virtually all other biographers over the years have tended to sympathize in some way with Bach's tormentors: be they philistine provincial town councils, jealous colleagues, or bullying autocrats. Their message being that a genius of Bach's stature should have exhibited Job-like patience when all of his artistic drives where being delibrately subverted. Most other biographies are so desperate to read him as a product of his time that they inadvertantly attempt to minimize his originality and unique voice. Eidam corrects these misconceptions. His description of Bach's end and his widow's struggles may well move the reader to tears. This comes from clear scholarship and good writing, as well as a unique, genuine sympathy with the subject of the biography. Bach deserves as much.

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric revisionism, entertaining, July 25, 2001

By 

P. Nagy "revreader" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The True Life of J.S. Bach (Hardcover)

This comprehensive biography clears up 250 years' worth of legend with a new reading of the documentary evidence around Bach's life as uncovered through the author's extensive research. Engagingly and eccentric in opinion it makes us wonder that much of what we think we know of the composers and their music is more fiction and fancy that biography and social history, enough so that I wonder along with the author about the lives of other composers. The picture of Bach is one of a struggling musician who made some serious career move mistakes which if it did not noticeably affect his art at least cause injury to his social standing and livelihood. Well worth a read for the context it puts the creation of his music in to.