Bach (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "THE LANDSCAPE OF THURINGIA, THAT REGION OF CENTRAL Germany lying just south of the Harz Mountains, has altered little since Bach's time..." (more)
Key Phrases: director musices, violino piccolo, ritornello structure, Art of Fugue, Anna Magdalena, Prince Leopold (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Though he begins by bemoaning "the difficulty of writing anything on Bach remotely worthy of its subject," Malcolm Boyd goes on to do exactly that. This volume from the Master Musicians Series (which also includes Julian Budden on Verdi and Michael Kennedy on Richard Strauss) intermingles chapters on Bach's life with chapters on his music (also roughly chronological) in a delightfully clearheaded way. Boyd is perfectly willing to say whether he finds a piece of music to be substandard and freely takes issue with the scholarship of earlier analysts. Taking nothing for granted, Boyd disproves common assumptions about relative dates of compositions. The section on cantatas begins with brief notes on the genre, a few antecedents, and the subtypes of secular and sacred. Boyd then briskly reviews the surviving works, dwelling on a few for some enlightening and representative details. In "Canons and Counterpoint," he sorts out the Musical Offering in a remarkable few paragraphs before having a go at The Art of the Fugue. Boyd's charts are very easy to follow (appropriate for a composer whose music is often compared to architecture), and his musical examples--especially in the chapter titled "Orchestral, Instrumental, and Keyboard Music"--are spectacularly well chosen. There is room for a few choice incidental observations (e.g., cantatas for the winter months were shorter, sparing the choirboys time in the unheated organ lofts). A 22-page work list (revised in 1997), a life calendar, and a brief chapter on numerology round out a highly rewarding volume. --William R. Braun --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Forty pages longer than its predecessor, this edition of a standard work on J.S. Bach, first published in England in 1983, includes information obtained from Eastern European sources inaccessible to scholars a decade ago. In some cases, whole chapters have been recast, and Bach scholar Boyd (The Oxford Composer's Companion: Johann Sebastian Bach) embraces the current emphasis in Bach scholarship on the interplay between Bach's social setting and his music. This 250th-anniversary year of Bach's death is producing many Bach works, including Christoph Wolff"s singular Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (LJ 3/15/00). Boyd's work is authoritative and provides commentary on a wide body of Bach scholarship. This edition supersedes the other editions, though libraries owning the 1997 American second edition may cringe at having to replace it so soon.DBonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Libs.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (January 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195142225
• ISBN-13: 978-0195142228
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #652,125 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Biography of Bach, November 15, 1998

By	[e-mail] (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bach (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

Bach scholarship was turned upside down in the 1950s by the acceptance of new scholarship by Alfred Durr and Georg Dadelsen which established a new chronology and authenticity for Bach's music. It took about 30 years for Bach biography to catch up and digest the implications of the new discoveries. Bach biographies published before 1960 are frequently inaccurate in many details, and this include Spitta's famous 3 volume study. Of the recent books on Bach, Professor Boyd's book is one of the very best and the place for anyone with an interest in Bach to start their exploration of his life and work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine summary of the life and works of J.S.Bach., September 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bach (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

This book provides an analyical and important summary of the greatest of all 18th century composers. Boyd succeeds in providing the life of Bach in context with the musical conditions of 18th century Germany, but adds his own perspective as seen from the end of the 20th century. I found this book most enjoyable, along the likes of other biographies of Bach, including Spitta and Schweitzer. To be added to the Bach Plucked! web site's recommended reading list.

Michael Stitt

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not bad, but there are better bios of bach, November 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bach (Master Musicians Series) (Hardcover)

This is not a bad introduction to the life and music of J.S. Bach, however it is nowhere as well written or informative as Christoph Wolff's biography. I found myself falling to sleep reading Boyd, but the Wolff kept me interested all the way. Wolff also presents the death of Bach's parents as a much more central experience, which I found Boyd tended to place less significance on. This is not a poor book, it is just that the Wolff bio is so much better.