E-Book Overview
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.
E-Book Content
T H E
M A S T E R
M U S I C I A N S
BACH
Series edited by Stanley Sadie
T H E
M A S T E R
M U S I C I A N S
Titles Available in Paperbac k Berlioz Brahms
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Hugh Macdonald
Malcolm MacDonald
Britten
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Michael Kennedy
Bruckner
Derek Watson
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Chopin Handel
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Mahler
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Jim Samson
Donald Burrows
Liszt Mendelssohn
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Derek Watson
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Michael Kennedy •
Rachmaninoff Rossini
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Schubert
Geoffrey Norris
Richard Osborn John Reed
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Sibelius
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Robert Layton
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Richard Strauss Tchaikovsky
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Edward Garden
Vaughan Williams Verdi
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Michael Kennedy
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James Day
Julian Budde n
Philip Radcliffe
Vivaldi
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Michael Talbot
Denis Arnold
Wagner
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Barry Millington
Monteverdi
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Purcell
J. A. Westrup
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Titles Available in Hardcover Bach Beethoven
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Malcolm Boyd
Handel
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Donald Burrows
Barry Cooper
Schütz
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Basil Smallman
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Chopin Elgar
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Jim Samson
Robert Anderson
Richard Strauss Stravinsky
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Michael Kennedy
Paul Griffiths
Titles In Preparation Bartók
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Malcolm Gillies
Puccini
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Julian Budden
Dvo˘rák
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Jan Smaczny
Schumann
Musorgsky
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David Brown
Tchaikovsky
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Eric Frederick Jensen •
R. John Wiley
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M A S T E R
M U S I C I A N S
BACH å
Malcolm Boyd
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