Bach biography 2013 dodge
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
January 15, 2023
5 ⭐
Update 25/03/22: I mention somewhere in this review that the one thing this book could've done with more of was a deeper analysis of some of Bach's greatest works. Well, I have recently been made aware of a companion book, 'Bach's Musical Universe', written by the same author which I thought might be useful information for anyone considering reading this. What a shame, I'll have to immerse myself in Bach's music again! *sigh*
For Bach, the ultimate rationale for being a musician [was] “to make a well-sounding harmony to the honor of God and the permissible delectation of the soul”.
The Sun of Composers: A work by Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829), a German-born composer, showing Bach at the centre; the “man from whom all true musical wisdom proceeded”.
The Learned Musician is an ambitious and intensely focused display of musical scholarship from Christoph Wolff and, to many, has replaced Spitta’s 3 Volume biography (1873-1880) as the new standard Bach biography.
The source material for Bach bios is notoriously lacking; much of his correspondence and sheet music has been lost in the 272 years since his death; the amount of times Wolff utters, in parenthesis, the words ”the music has not survived” is truly saddening. Despite this, Wolff’s almost unbelievable depth of research and enviable musical expertise allows him to fill in the gaps, not so much with guesswork but, with deductions based on sound logic. The preface to the updated edition also gives new proof of times, places and events based on refreshed sources as well as demonstrating authenticity for works that were previously subject to scrutiny when the bio was first published. By the same token some works are stricken from Bach’s canon based on new discoveries.
On the odd occasion, the lack of solid info regarding Bach’s life can lead to a less-than-thrilling abundance of detailed minutiae about things as mundane as church layouts and renovations. I appreciate the effort but, honestly, I care not that the Himmelsburg acquired 13 new armchairs in October 1713, or that the Capellmeister’s own was newly upholstered just one year later.
Admittedly, a good percentage of the heavy lifting is assisted by Wolff’s frequent leaning on Bach’s obituary and quotes by one of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, which he uses as a sort of reference, or datum if you like, when the source material becomes too unbearably scarce. A scholarly safe haven as it were.
Finally, as far as Wolff goes, the man remains admirably objective throughout in all but one section regarding the early organisation/premature selection of Bach’s replacement in Leipzig a not-so-respectful amount of time before his passing. Actually, I’m not altogether against a bit of bias in biographies as it can add a humorous shade of… Well, shade when it comes to something the author is not very fond of; nevertheless, Wolff is refreshingly not so. Here, you will only find a completely factual, informative account of the life and times of JSB. Speaking of which, if you’d indulge a relatively fresh convert, or if you’re in the least bit interested…
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a musician-scholar, performer-composer, organ and clavier virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, consultant and widely recognized organological expert, capellmeister, cantor, director of Collegium Musicum, sought after private tutor, entrepreneurial businessman…. Compleat musician par excellence! To those of the early nineteenth century, he was the "lawmaker of genuine Composition (harmony)"
Bach exemplifies everything about the era in which he was active as a composer, the Baroque era (1600-1750). To paraphrase American composer Robert Greenberg, this era ushered in the beginning of modern science. Isaac Newton believed there was some sort of systemic order beneath the seemingly random chaos of the natural world and Baroque artistic/musical design mirrored this effort to reconcile surface complexity with underlying order and control. Bach’s music is about high-energy expression tempered by intellectual, almost mathematical, control; a non-stop barrage of notes regulated by a steadfast rhythm and strict harmonic control.
”… as Newton bought about fundamental changes and established new principles in the world of science, Bach did the same in the world of music, both in composition and in performance.”
Bach’s music is very academic, and exacting for both performer and listener; an exemplary display of ”facility, finesse, mastery and genius”. It demands all of your attention to hear and understand what Bach has achieved and I’m only too aware that with my current theoretical knowledge there are elements I can’t fully appreciate at this time, which is one of the key reasons Bach’s music is so endlessly re-listenable. I have family members who tell me that they find Bach's music a little stiff and, while I can certainly see how a casual listener might find, for example, a number of his keyboard works a little “rigid” (Bach doesn’t make the “clavier” - predominantly a harpsichord in his time, not a piano-forte - sing to the soul in, perhaps, the same way that later romantics such as Liszt or Chopin would do), there is, undoubtedly, something both incredibly gratifying and awe-inspiring about listening and recognising the overlapping complexities of Bach’s compositions and his way of “elaborating the musical ideas so as to penetrate the material deeply and exhaustively”.
"Art... imitates and perfects nature, but never destroys it."
All this is not to say, of course, that much of his music isn’t immediately agreeable to the majority of individuals who possess a pair of ears; even just a single ear I guess, though I would imagine this would make it all the more difficult to follow some of his fugues! One only need listen to a few bars of suite no.3 in D [Air](BWV1068), the prelude to cello suite no.1 in G Major (BWV1007) or any one of the beautiful violin concertos to be at once swept away to another time and place.
The fugue is the single most representative instrumental musical form to emerge from the Baroque era and in this form, Bach was, and is, King. A fugue investigates and catalogues the musical properties and capabilities of a chosen theme (a specially designed melody called a subject). The subject is first played in its most basic form and then repeated in different keys and in different voices, fragmented, turned upside down and inside out, elongated and compressed, played backwards with only the three smallest toes of the left foot, hung from a tree, submerged in water … You get the drift. It is a polyphonic construct, meaning, a work for two or more (usually more) simultaneous melodic parts of equal importance. Some of Bach’s greatest fugal works, but by no means an exhaustive list, include precisely half of ’The Well-Tempered Clavier’, ‘The Goldberg Variations’, parts of ‘The Mass in B minor’, and ‘The Art of Fugue. Unbelievably, all of these works preceded the first ever systematic treatise on fugal composition (Marpurg’s Abhandlung von der Fuge). A meeting between the two, around the time that Bach was preparing ‘The Art of Fugue’ suggests that Marpurg may have used, in many ways, Bach’s work as a point of departure.
In general, Wolff does an excellent job of explaining the intricacies of many of Bach’s works in a way that’s understandable to the layman (i.e. me) but, inevitably, there is some moderately-deep discussion on musical theory that may see one come unstuck. I have seen some lamentation in other’s reviews about the amount of discussion on Bach’s works but I actually feel quite the opposite; occasionally I would’ve liked Wolff to go a little deeper but then, where does one draw the line?
Some highlights were the discussion on Bach’s championing of Werckmeister's "well-tempered" tuning system (In a time when the unequal mean-tone scale still prevailed in old instruments) as well as the primary purpose of the Well-tempered clavier and Bach’s wish to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the individual keys; the discussion on ‘The Art of Fugue’ and subsequent explanation of counterpoint; the “parody” of pieces, a practice Bach used to convert old secular works into church works, not motivated by laziness but by the desire to preserve otherwise un re-usable material; Bach’s invention of the “clavier concerto” of which composers such as Beethoven and Mozart would later take full advantage; and charming anecdotal discussions on subjects as diverse as ‘The Goldberg Variations’, Bach’s ability to sight-read absolutely anything and that time he spent 1/5 of his annual salary on Rhine Wine!
Wolff tracks Bach’s life and activities from Eisenach – Ohrdruf – Lüneburg – Arnstadt – Mühlhausen – Weimar – Cothen – Leipzig, where finally he would settle for the remaining 27 years of his life. Remarkably, considering the lasting impact he has had, and very much unlike his contemporaries Handel and Telemann, Bach would never venture further than a few hundred miles from the town of his birth.
A tragic family life, losing multiple siblings and then both parents within a year of each other when he was only 9-10 years of age. He fathered 20 children by two wives with only 4 of Maria Barbara’s (his first wife who also passed in his lifetime) 7 and 6 of Anna Magdalena’s 13 children outliving early childhood.
His working life consisted, for the most part in various positions, such as Organist and Organ Consultant, Chamber Musician, Musical Director, Cantor and/or Capellmeister at Schools and City Churches. The ins and outs of his day-to-day roles, in each of these positions as well as his wages and negotiations are detailed extensively and when this is coupled with a swathe of Cantatas throughout the mid-section of the book, it can become a little tiresome.
"The ultimate goal of a regulated church music"
Bach was extremely prolific, even taking into account the large amount of his works that are believed to have never been recovered. This fact is even more astounding when you consider the ridiculously busy schedule that he had, particularly during the Leipzig years. At one stage he was all at once, "Capellmeister to the court of Weissenfels, Music Director at St.Thomas' and at St.Nicholas'" and director of the Collegium Musicum (1729-37)! With a minimum estimated work day of 15-16 hrs, including daily singing exercises, private vocal and instrumental lessons outside academic lecture periods, weddings and funerals, directorship of collegium musicum and cantata repertoire (he would produce some 60 cantatas per year in the early Leipzig years!), it’s almost unfathomable that he was able to complete any works outside of those for the church, yet, this was the era in which he completed some of his most refined compositions.
Well, I set out with every intention to make this review short and sharp while still covering all the points I intended to and I’ve failed miserably on both accounts. I figure only those already interested in reading a Bach bio will read this anyway so no harm done, right? For those looking for good recordings of Bach’s keyboard works, while there are many great ones, I really can’t stress the incredible clarity and virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s renditions enough; they’re not to be missed! Happy reading (and listening)! :)
… the choir surprised Mozart with the performance of the double chorus motet ‘Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied’ by Sebastian Bach. Mozart knew this master more by hearsay than by his works, which had become quite rare… Hardly had the choir sung a few measures when Mozart sat up, startled; a few measures more and he called out “what is this?” And now his whole soul seemed to be in his ears. When the singing was finished he cried out, full of joy: ”Now there is something we can learn from!”
Update 25/03/22: I mention somewhere in this review that the one thing this book could've done with more of was a deeper analysis of some of Bach's greatest works. Well, I have recently been made aware of a companion book, 'Bach's Musical Universe', written by the same author which I thought might be useful information for anyone considering reading this. What a shame, I'll have to immerse myself in Bach's music again! *sigh*
For Bach, the ultimate rationale for being a musician [was] “to make a well-sounding harmony to the honor of God and the permissible delectation of the soul”.
The Sun of Composers: A work by Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829), a German-born composer, showing Bach at the centre; the “man from whom all true musical wisdom proceeded”.
The Learned Musician is an ambitious and intensely focused display of musical scholarship from Christoph Wolff and, to many, has replaced Spitta’s 3 Volume biography (1873-1880) as the new standard Bach biography.
The source material for Bach bios is notoriously lacking; much of his correspondence and sheet music has been lost in the 272 years since his death; the amount of times Wolff utters, in parenthesis, the words ”the music has not survived” is truly saddening. Despite this, Wolff’s almost unbelievable depth of research and enviable musical expertise allows him to fill in the gaps, not so much with guesswork but, with deductions based on sound logic. The preface to the updated edition also gives new proof of times, places and events based on refreshed sources as well as demonstrating authenticity for works that were previously subject to scrutiny when the bio was first published. By the same token some works are stricken from Bach’s canon based on new discoveries.
On the odd occasion, the lack of solid info regarding Bach’s life can lead to a less-than-thrilling abundance of detailed minutiae about things as mundane as church layouts and renovations. I appreciate the effort but, honestly, I care not that the Himmelsburg acquired 13 new armchairs in October 1713, or that the Capellmeister’s own was newly upholstered just one year later.
Admittedly, a good percentage of the heavy lifting is assisted by Wolff’s frequent leaning on Bach’s obituary and quotes by one of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel, which he uses as a sort of reference, or datum if you like, when the source material becomes too unbearably scarce. A scholarly safe haven as it were.
Finally, as far as Wolff goes, the man remains admirably objective throughout in all but one section regarding the early organisation/premature selection of Bach’s replacement in Leipzig a not-so-respectful amount of time before his passing. Actually, I’m not altogether against a bit of bias in biographies as it can add a humorous shade of… Well, shade when it comes to something the author is not very fond of; nevertheless, Wolff is refreshingly not so. Here, you will only find a completely factual, informative account of the life and times of JSB. Speaking of which, if you’d indulge a relatively fresh convert, or if you’re in the least bit interested…
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) was a musician-scholar, performer-composer, organ and clavier virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, consultant and widely recognized organological expert, capellmeister, cantor, director of Collegium Musicum, sought after private tutor, entrepreneurial businessman…. Compleat musician par excellence! To those of the early nineteenth century, he was the "lawmaker of genuine Composition (harmony)"
Bach exemplifies everything about the era in which he was active as a composer, the Baroque era (1600-1750). To paraphrase American composer Robert Greenberg, this era ushered in the beginning of modern science. Isaac Newton believed there was some sort of systemic order beneath the seemingly random chaos of the natural world and Baroque artistic/musical design mirrored this effort to reconcile surface complexity with underlying order and control. Bach’s music is about high-energy expression tempered by intellectual, almost mathematical, control; a non-stop barrage of notes regulated by a steadfast rhythm and strict harmonic control.
”… as Newton bought about fundamental changes and established new principles in the world of science, Bach did the same in the world of music, both in composition and in performance.”
Bach’s music is very academic, and exacting for both performer and listener; an exemplary display of ”facility, finesse, mastery and genius”. It demands all of your attention to hear and understand what Bach has achieved and I’m only too aware that with my current theoretical knowledge there are elements I can’t fully appreciate at this time, which is one of the key reasons Bach’s music is so endlessly re-listenable. I have family members who tell me that they find Bach's music a little stiff and, while I can certainly see how a casual listener might find, for example, a number of his keyboard works a little “rigid” (Bach doesn’t make the “clavier” - predominantly a harpsichord in his time, not a piano-forte - sing to the soul in, perhaps, the same way that later romantics such as Liszt or Chopin would do), there is, undoubtedly, something both incredibly gratifying and awe-inspiring about listening and recognising the overlapping complexities of Bach’s compositions and his way of “elaborating the musical ideas so as to penetrate the material deeply and exhaustively”.
"Art... imitates and perfects nature, but never destroys it."
All this is not to say, of course, that much of his music isn’t immediately agreeable to the majority of individuals who possess a pair of ears; even just a single ear I guess, though I would imagine this would make it all the more difficult to follow some of his fugues! One only need listen to a few bars of suite no.3 in D [Air](BWV1068), the prelude to cello suite no.1 in G Major (BWV1007) or any one of the beautiful violin concertos to be at once swept away to another time and place.
The fugue is the single most representative instrumental musical form to emerge from the Baroque era and in this form, Bach was, and is, King. A fugue investigates and catalogues the musical properties and capabilities of a chosen theme (a specially designed melody called a subject). The subject is first played in its most basic form and then repeated in different keys and in different voices, fragmented, turned upside down and inside out, elongated and compressed, played backwards with only the three smallest toes of the left foot, hung from a tree, submerged in water … You get the drift. It is a polyphonic construct, meaning, a work for two or more (usually more) simultaneous melodic parts of equal importance. Some of Bach’s greatest fugal works, but by no means an exhaustive list, include precisely half of ’The Well-Tempered Clavier’, ‘The Goldberg Variations’, parts of ‘The Mass in B minor’, and ‘The Art of Fugue. Unbelievably, all of these works preceded the first ever systematic treatise on fugal composition (Marpurg’s Abhandlung von der Fuge). A meeting between the two, around the time that Bach was preparing ‘The Art of Fugue’ suggests that Marpurg may have used, in many ways, Bach’s work as a point of departure.
In general, Wolff does an excellent job of explaining the intricacies of many of Bach’s works in a way that’s understandable to the layman (i.e. me) but, inevitably, there is some moderately-deep discussion on musical theory that may see one come unstuck. I have seen some lamentation in other’s reviews about the amount of discussion on Bach’s works but I actually feel quite the opposite; occasionally I would’ve liked Wolff to go a little deeper but then, where does one draw the line?
Some highlights were the discussion on Bach’s championing of Werckmeister's "well-tempered" tuning system (In a time when the unequal mean-tone scale still prevailed in old instruments) as well as the primary purpose of the Well-tempered clavier and Bach’s wish to preserve the idiosyncrasies of the individual keys; the discussion on ‘The Art of Fugue’ and subsequent explanation of counterpoint; the “parody” of pieces, a practice Bach used to convert old secular works into church works, not motivated by laziness but by the desire to preserve otherwise un re-usable material; Bach’s invention of the “clavier concerto” of which composers such as Beethoven and Mozart would later take full advantage; and charming anecdotal discussions on subjects as diverse as ‘The Goldberg Variations’, Bach’s ability to sight-read absolutely anything and that time he spent 1/5 of his annual salary on Rhine Wine!
Wolff tracks Bach’s life and activities from Eisenach – Ohrdruf – Lüneburg – Arnstadt – Mühlhausen – Weimar – Cothen – Leipzig, where finally he would settle for the remaining 27 years of his life. Remarkably, considering the lasting impact he has had, and very much unlike his contemporaries Handel and Telemann, Bach would never venture further than a few hundred miles from the town of his birth.
A tragic family life, losing multiple siblings and then both parents within a year of each other when he was only 9-10 years of age. He fathered 20 children by two wives with only 4 of Maria Barbara’s (his first wife who also passed in his lifetime) 7 and 6 of Anna Magdalena’s 13 children outliving early childhood.
His working life consisted, for the most part in various positions, such as Organist and Organ Consultant, Chamber Musician, Musical Director, Cantor and/or Capellmeister at Schools and City Churches. The ins and outs of his day-to-day roles, in each of these positions as well as his wages and negotiations are detailed extensively and when this is coupled with a swathe of Cantatas throughout the mid-section of the book, it can become a little tiresome.
"The ultimate goal of a regulated church music"
Bach was extremely prolific, even taking into account the large amount of his works that are believed to have never been recovered. This fact is even more astounding when you consider the ridiculously busy schedule that he had, particularly during the Leipzig years. At one stage he was all at once, "Capellmeister to the court of Weissenfels, Music Director at St.Thomas' and at St.Nicholas'" and director of the Collegium Musicum (1729-37)! With a minimum estimated work day of 15-16 hrs, including daily singing exercises, private vocal and instrumental lessons outside academic lecture periods, weddings and funerals, directorship of collegium musicum and cantata repertoire (he would produce some 60 cantatas per year in the early Leipzig years!), it’s almost unfathomable that he was able to complete any works outside of those for the church, yet, this was the era in which he completed some of his most refined compositions.
Well, I set out with every intention to make this review short and sharp while still covering all the points I intended to and I’ve failed miserably on both accounts. I figure only those already interested in reading a Bach bio will read this anyway so no harm done, right? For those looking for good recordings of Bach’s keyboard works, while there are many great ones, I really can’t stress the incredible clarity and virtuosity of Glenn Gould’s renditions enough; they’re not to be missed! Happy reading (and listening)! :)
… the choir surprised Mozart with the performance of the double chorus motet ‘Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied’ by Sebastian Bach. Mozart knew this master more by hearsay than by his works, which had become quite rare… Hardly had the choir sung a few measures when Mozart sat up, startled; a few measures more and he called out “what is this?” And now his whole soul seemed to be in his ears. When the singing was finished he cried out, full of joy: ”Now there is something we can learn from!”