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"An unprecedented book about one of the greatest of all composers, by his greatest modern interpreter. Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famously unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque--and occasionally so intemperate? John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents' house, where it hung for safety during the Second World War. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer's greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime's immersion are now distilled in this remarkable book, which explains in wonderful detail how Bach worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects--and what it can tell us about Bach the man. It is grounded in all the most recent Bach scholarship but moves far beyond it, and takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. This is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists"-- "From one of Bach's greatest living interpreters: a landmark study which explains in wonderful detail how the composer worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects--and what it can tell us about Bach the man. Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most famously unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque--and occasionally so intemperate? John Eliot Gardiner has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and the fruits of this lifetime's immersion are now distilled in this remarkable book. It is grounded in all the most recent Bach scholarship but moves far beyond it as well, taking us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. This is an unparalleled book about one of the greatest of all creative artists"--… (more)
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It isn't excessively technical: You're not very likely to want to read a book like this unless you already have quite some background knowledge of the passions and cantatas either as a listener or a performer, and I think anyone who has got that far will already be familiar enough with musical terminology to be able to follow what Gardiner is saying. But I certainly felt when I got to the end of the book that I would have to come back to some of the chapters and work through them slowly again with a score or a CD to get the full benefit.
Points of interest: JSB already being hired as consultant on new organ design at age 18; how slight musical alterations can express difference between Catholic & Lutheran beliefs; that JSB also wrote for Catholics though a passionate Protestant; how much documentation there is on the details of his activities, even though some whole works are lost; pettifogging beastliness of so many minor officials, bureaucrats, teachers, priest - no wonder he had a temper!
This is not a standard biography; again that is fine, but if you want to know the basic data of Bach's life, this is not the place to start. (In spite of the book's 560 pages of text, Gardiner really does not touch upon J.S. Bach's family life at home, which is a little peculiar for a man whose wives went through twenty full-term pregnancies.)
Gardiner is an important and extremely accomplished musician, and it is very valuable to read this appreciation of the great composer written by someone who approaches him from that angle, from someone who understands how Bach's genius is expressed through performance. Just be aware that this should not be the first, and definitely not the last, book about Bach that you read.
Every morning and evening, John Eliot
I've come to the conclusion most critics maybe didn't read, well let's say quite of all it. You can imagine their thoughts as the book thudded through the door - 'it's by John Eliot Gardiner, it's really long and it's about Bach. It has to be a masterpiece and if I am really quick I can be the first one to use the word “magisterial”’. Well it's not a masterpiece, but there are obviously some insights. Maybe more editing could have helped but one suspects (just a feeling obviously given his relaxed and democratic approach to rehearsing) that JEG was probably not sympathetic to being rewritten. Oh well. There probably aren't many Dorest farmers who have written a book on Bach who are also conducting at the Coronation.