Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician

J.S. Bach has been my longtime favorite classical composer, but while I knew he was one of the most influential composers in history, I never quite knew why. Moreover, he always seemed to have a tacit reputation as being rule-bound and stern, unlike the more dynamic, perhaps more charismatic, figures of Mozart and Beethoven (the latter's horrible temper notwithstanding). Cristoph Wolff's book has at last provided me with a fuller picture of Bach and his influence.The subtitle "The Learned Musician" sets a primary theme for the work, namely Bach as the scholar-musician, who was able to pass rigorous theology exams in Latin and whose mastery of organ building was a significant achievement of engineering, math and acoustics, to say nothing of raw musical genius. A motif that crops up in this book is the comparison between Bach and Newton (which was made in Bach's time). Bach thought that there were rules of causality in canons just like there is causality in Nature, and used other musical pieces to explore theological concepts. Musical science is no mere metaphor applied by Wolff to Bach, but is something that the composer himself took very serious, and this was realized even by some of his contemporaries. Likewise Wolff also points out that this does not mean that Bach was some soulless theoretician either. Rather, Bach's work worked within rules of composition, but also broke and surpassed them when necessary. Bach refused to divorce theory from practice, so his collections of music like the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Art of the Fugue served to show how a particular form of music (e.g., the keyboard or the fugue) could be applied in just about any combination imaginable. These compositions were theoretical statements, albeit ones without words. Wolff does not get too bogged down in musical terms: this layman did struggle periodically, and I would understand more if I were a musician, but a lack of music theory would not destroy this books value to you.Throughout the book Wolff shows how Bach's methodical perfectionism formed a powerful combination when joined with Bach's surprisingly passionate, joyful life. Just as his music was rigorous, Wolff also points out the profound, genuine emotion that goes into them. He also writes about some of Bach's comic cantatas--one in particular was written for a coffeehouse, and was written on coffee addiction. This did much to endear Bach to this college graduate's heart!Just as important, Wolff presents Bach's musical odysseys within the context of his personal life. Troubles and triumphs with jobs, Bach's family life and personal anecdotes appear throughout the book with a special chapter at the end also dedicated to Bach's later home life. We learn of a man who always entertained guests despite a brutal work schedule, and who also managed to find time to buy his wife singing birds and flowers. Much of his life would sound quite familiar in America (e.g., rebellious sons, moving to a city with a better-pay

This is unquestionably the single volume Bach biography for non-specialists, although musicologists will find it invaluable as well. Wolff has done a lot of debunking of various Bach myths (i.e., "Bach died while writing the final fugue in Art of Fugue, and dictated the chorale in his last breath"), but stilll has never lost his sense of wonder about this giant. Wolff also does a better job than most of placing Bach in European intellectual history as a whole, not just musical history. His comparison of Bach to Newton, while not original, is apt and insightful. The best thing about this book, however, is that it led me back to the music with several new insights. For example, Wolff's analysis of the famous d minor tocatta (BWV 565) led me to realize just how advanced this very early work is. Highly reccomended.

With this new Bach biography, Wolff presents us with his thorough establishment of an updated Bach image that might well become the new standard work! Although Wolff's writing style is very readable, it might be a good idea to thoroughly study the Appendix and the Table of Contents of this book before venturing into reading. Thus equipped, one will find that Wolff proceeds very systematically and logically. Let me not describe to you what this book is not but rather what it is: An excellent biography of the development of Bach's musical mind and of all his musical gifts--those of the harpsichordist, organist, organ expert, music teacher, composer, conductor and music director, as this is also reflected in the sub-title of the English original: The Learned Musician. Wolff relies on original documents, early records such as the Necrologue (started by Bach, completed by his son C.P.E. Bach and Agricola), Forkel's biography of 1802, still relevant findings of Spitta and later writers, however, also on his own research of several decades, including his 1999 discovery of the Bach family documents in Kiew. In tracing the musical heritage of the Bach family, Bach's own development during his childhood at Eisenach, his youth at Ohrdruf and Lunenburg, Wolff carefully develops before us a picture of the basis upon which Bach could build his musical career as an adult. Also in his further description of Bach's development as organist at Arnstadt, Mühlhausen and at the Weimar Court, in his Weimar promotion to Concert Master, in his work as Kapellmeister at Köthen, and right into his activity as Leipzig Thomaskantor, Bach's musical growth and maturation is described to us in a clear, systematic and understandable manner, since the development of every pre-requisite of ever musical progress is described just as systeatically and understandably. As a serious musicologist Wolff concentrates--of course!--mainly on the history of Bach's musical development, and in doing so, the biographical-anecdotal is only referred to in such a manner as it, first of all, can be considered reliable and, secondly, is relevant. Since the appendix also provides a thorough time table, one never needs to be at a loss with respect to mere bare-bone facts of Bach's curriculum vitae. Wolff's manner of proceeding, however, ensures that the musical-biographical tension of his argument never lets up! Thus we learn easily how Bach, during his early adult years (at Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, Weimar and Köthen), developed into a master composer and music teacher who would also continue to challenge himself in his (by others often considered a 'decline' of sorts) position as Leipzig Thomas Cantor, such as in his extensive Cantata work and the Passion works of the 1720's, but also his additional activity as Director Musices of the Collegium Musicum during the 1730's. Wolff argues very convincingly and understandably that Bach's alleged stubbornness might ha

For those who have read the many earlier works by Prof. Christoph Wolff on Bach, this is the long-anticipated culmination of the author's immense scholarship. Wolff, the dean of Bach scholars, gives us a detailed, sympathetic narrative, filled with interesting details. I now know how much a pint of beer costs in Arnstadt in the early 1700s, what Bach must have felt like when thrown into the clinker for youthful insubordination, and how disappointed Bach must have been when Louis Marchand failed to show up for the much-anticipated organ shoot-out. Wolff gives us many useful tables and charts, putting music, musicians, family history, and other complicated matters into context. Many of the stories familiar to students of Bach are richly and vividly retold: Bach's 250-mile trek to hear Buxtehude, his bouts with small-minded city bureacrats and smaller-minded princes and dukes, the desperate, but futile attempt to save his eyesight during the last months of Bach's life. What I came to appreciate most was the author's ability to put the corpus of Bach's work into persepctive. Wolff is most impressive in his final chapter, putting Bach rightly in his place: the creative genius, the foundation of Western music. If you love Bach, you will definitely cherish this book.

Of all of the books on Bach that I have in my library, the new biography by Christoph Wolff is first rate. In addition to presenting a full biography of Bach's life, Wolff also gives us other interesting information such as tables showing the plan of the Orgelbüchlein or one of the annual cantata performance schedules. We are also given insight into what Bach's working day might have been like in Leipzig, balancing the duties at St. Thomas with the Collegium musicum and all of his private students. There are also some pictures of the churches where Bach was employed that are often not included in other sources, including a couple of computer enhanced pictures showing what the gallery of St. Thomas might have looked like in Bach's time. The book includes the latest research on recent Bach discoveries such as the Neumeister Chorales.This is a book that deserves to be in every library and in the hands of everyone interested in J. S. Bach.