Bach (Master Musicians Series)

• Publisher:   Oxford University Press, USA
• Number Of Pages:   344
• Publication Date:   2001-01-18
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0195142225
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780195142228

The year 2000 has been declared a "Bach Year," marking the 250th anniversary of the great composer's death. Around the world, there will be major celebrations in honor of his astonishing body of work. This major biography of Bach, now completely revised and boasting 25% more material, is published to coincide with these events.
In the new edition of this widely acclaimed study, biographical chapters alternate with commentary on the works, to demonstrate how the circumstances of Bach's life helped to shape the music he wrote at various periods. We follow Bach as he travels from Arnstadt and Muhlhausen to Weimar, Cothen, and finally Leipzig, these journeys alternating with insightful discussions of the great composer's organ and orchestral compositions. As well as presenting a rounded picture of Bach, his music, and his posthumous reputation and influence, Malcolm Boyd considers the sometimes controversial topics of "parody" and arrangement, number symbolism, and the style and meaning of Bach's late works. Recent theories on the constitution of Bach's performing forces at Leipzig are also present. The text and the appendixes (which include a chronology, personalia, bibliography, and a complete catalogue of Bach's works) have been thoroughly revised to take account of the research undertaken by Bach scholars, including the gold mine of new information recently uncovered in the former USSR.
An authoritative account of the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach, this volume will be essential reading for everyone interested in the classical composers.

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

Malcolm Boyd's Bach is nearly a classic at this point. It's a fair read, but frankly it leaves me a little flat. It's okay, but truth be told, Karl Geiringer's Bach is far, far better.

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.

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.

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

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