Johann Sebastian Bach - Hardcover

An authoritative biographical study of the great composer, illuminating Bach's accomplishments against the social, musical and religious background of the 18th Century. In this richly illustrated book, Hannsdieter Wohlfarth presents a fascinating profile of Bach's life and amazing accomplishments. He not only interprets and clarifies Bach's position in the intellectual and musical milieu of the eighteenth century, but also focuses on the depth of Bach's spiritual devotion to music and God. Wohlfarth shows that beginning with his earliest composition at Luneberg, and continuing through his master organ works from Weimar to his cantatas and passions at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Bach never wavered from the firm conviction that his music was an act of worship, an integral element in the service of God. Agreeing with Martin Luther that music was a ""beautiful and lovely gift of God"", and in accord with the orthodox Lutheran idea that all honourable service glorifies God, Bach made little distinction between sacred and secular music, or even sacred and secular vocations. When composing secular preludes solely for his children, he prefaced them with ""in nomine Jesus"", just as he added ""Soli Deo Gloria"" as a colophon to his religious scores. Back developed counterpoint, put rich substance into the potentially weak form of the cantata, and established the modern system of tuning musical instruments. He played the clavier, violin, harpsichord and organ, and produced such masterpieces as the Mass in B Minor, the Passions According to Saint Matthew and Saint John, and the Brandenburg Concertos. Yet in each endeavour, whether secular or religious, he was God's servant to mankind. The music of the twentieth, or of any other century, would be unthinkable without Bach. His works are timeless and touched by the divine. As Goethe remarked on hearing Bach's music, it was ""as if eternal harmony were communing with itself as might have happened in God's bosom just before the creation of the world"".

Hannsdieter Wohlfarth, internationally known as a student of the music of Bach and his period, is Professor at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg.