Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Map of Northern Germany in the time of J. S. Bach
- Map of Thuringia and Saxony in the time of J. S. Bach
- 1 Early years 1685–1703
- 2 First appointments 1703–8
- 3 Weimar 1708–17
- 4 Cöthen 1717–23
- 5 Leipzig, the first years
- 6 Leipzig, the middle years
- 7 Leipzig, the final years
- 8 Observations, descriptions, criticisms
- Epilogue
- Postscript
- Glossary
- List of references
- Index of works (BWV)
- Index of names
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Map of Northern Germany in the time of J. S. Bach
- Map of Thuringia and Saxony in the time of J. S. Bach
- 1 Early years 1685–1703
- 2 First appointments 1703–8
- 3 Weimar 1708–17
- 4 Cöthen 1717–23
- 5 Leipzig, the first years
- 6 Leipzig, the middle years
- 7 Leipzig, the final years
- 8 Observations, descriptions, criticisms
- Epilogue
- Postscript
- Glossary
- List of references
- Index of works (BWV)
- Index of names
Summary
This approach to the imperfectly known work and life of Johann Sebastian Bach makes particular use of the Obituary (Nekrolog) in newly translated excerpts, as a thread leading through the maze of fact and conjecture about him. Presumed to have been drafted in the months following the composer's death and not published until some four years later, it joined two other obituaries in a periodical edited by one of his former Leipzig pupils (see List of references). A delay of four years was not uncommon at the time and need not imply faint public interest in its subject, although there does remain a question whether there had been difficulty in getting it published.
Apart from some closing memorial verses in the form of a cantata-text, the Obituary has two main sections, now attributed to two other former pupils: a factual-biographical part by the composer's second surviving son Carl Philipp Emanuel (here ‘Emanuel’) and a shorter critical-evaluatory part by another former pupil, Johann Friedrich Agricola (here ‘Agricola’). I have followed this plan, first expanding the biographical part in Chapters 1 to 7, then the evaluatory part in Chapter 8, and finally adding a brief epilogue and a glossary. In the course of this, questions are raised to which the present book often provides no clear answer, partly because so often one simply does not know, partly because the way a question is framed can imply a possible answer.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- J. S. BachA Life in Music, pp. viii - ixPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007