Rating: 
Summary: Detailed and Learned but Ultimately Unrewarding
Review: This is a very detailed book covering a great deal about the life of Bach. A great deal of insight is on offer regarding the great man's life and times as well as the likely basis under which he produced his work. I have found that reading and re-reading this book has significantly enahnced my understanding of Bach's world - Thuringia in the first half of the 18th century.There is more detail here in terms of how Bach lived and his day to day relations, both personal and professional, than anyone could possibly need. In terms of factual aspects concerning Bach and his life one could not expect or need anything more that this book and in this regard the book is successful; Christolph Wolff has been more than thorough in his research. So many points of detail are listed that I thought that I would come across one of Bach's laundry lists if I read for long enough. It could be said that there is actually too much detail here which doesn't significantly more forward one's understanding of Bach the man or Bach the musician. However, in an academic book such as this it is generally accepted that a surfeit of information does not constitute a lapse of quality. Concise is not an adjective which could be applied to the author. However, there are two drawbacks for me in this book. The first is a relatively minor point but the second is very significant. The first drawback is that the content of the book is, at times, meandering. Wolff seems to move around subjects and themes within a single chapter leaving the reader confused and unsatisfied. While there is plenty of information - sometimes too much even - the underlying structure is confused and confusing. This can appear as a meandering text which sometimes seems to lose the idea of the point it is pursuing. This is more a matter of style than an outright criticim however. The second drawback is far more significant for me. Most people who would go to the extent of buying and reading this book would have a specific interest in Bach; that is his music represents something special to them. Many such readers will view Bach as a great genius; I am in that camp myself, no doubt so is Christolph Wolff. The main point about Bach is his musical, expecially compositorial skill. Why then is there no analysis of Bach's genius? How and where did it originate and how did it develop in his lifetime? How, in the view of the author, does Bach's genius manifest itself in his works. What is it about Bach which has raised his work to such an exalted level - how is this different to his contemporaries? The author scant regard to where Bach's creativity ebb and flow and how this manifested itself in his work. Little effort seems to be made in this book to consider the work of Bach in terms of how it could be analysed and contrasted - surely this is of primary importance in understanding Bach and his music. I'm afraid that the dry factual/quantative approach which Wolff takes with regard to Bach's creative process is ultimately unrewarding for me. Most people who listen to Bach would be interested to hear the different musical aspects of, say the Masses. Why is the B Minor Mass considered great and how could it be compared in musical terms to the Mass in F for instance.
Which of Bach's cantatas are the ones to focus on when trying to expand one's understanding of his oeuvre? Merely listing the various Cantata cycles is not sufficient in terms of understanding the qualitative aspects of the music. While this book gets behind the day to day Bach it does not give any insight into the creative core of Bach. This is certainly not easy given the essentially unknowable aspects of creative genius and the elapsed time since Bach's life - however I would have appreciated some effort on this front. No book can serve the purposes of all potential readers and what this book covers it does in quality and detail. However an analysis of Bach's life should never be divorced from an analysis of his genius which the author seems to have done here. Christolph Wolff is clearly a man who understands the life and times of Bach in great detail but I would have preferred to see more focus on the qualitative aspects of Bachs music. In summary, then an informative and useful factual book but one which misses the opportunity to inform the reader as to the practicalities of the works of the great genius Bach.
Rating: 
Summary: The Bach biography
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Bach biography
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Bach biography
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Time for Wolff to Go Back to the Woods
Review: To say that Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff is a summary of the life of Bach is an understatement. Not only does Wolff scrutinize every little detail of Bach's life, death, and career, but he goes on to provide exact details about the lives, deaths, and careers of many people that come in contact with Bach. This book is neither short nor concise. This makes it very difficult for the reader to even find the date of birth, date of death, place of birth, and place of death of Bach. Bach, who was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21st, 1685, and died in Leipzig, Germany on March 28th, 1750, is said to be "a wondrous pathfinder for musical creativity" by Isaac Stern. Wolff's thesis, that Bach was a genius as a composer, performer, teacher, theologian, and entrepreneur , is poorly proved in proportion to the other meaningless information given in the book.
Wolff does, however, try to relate his thesis of Bach's genius to a genius of another time, Isaac Newton . "Here, for the first time, a parallel is drawn between Bach and Isaac Newton-- not by constructing analogies between Bach's music and Newtonian science, but by explaining that Bach's music is best appreciated by real connoisseurs, just as Newton's writings are best understood by readers with a deep knowledge of science." This statement made by Wolff in the Prologue actually gives the reader the "stuck-up" sense that they cannot appreciate Bach's music due to their "amateur knowledge of the science of music." After knowing this, the reader is turned off to both the book and the author, and is more likely to venture into the rest of the book with a pessimistic state of mind. Wolff leads the reader through several pages of comparison between the two. Wolff does not, however, give enough detail of why Bach is equal to Newton's genius. Wolff actually gives more information on Newton rather than Bach. Thus, Wolff only partially proves his thesis, foreshadowing a constantly disappointing book.
In the epilogue, Wolff once again tries to back-up his thesis by quoting Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's pronouncement of Bach, and also by comparing Bach to yet another genius of a different field of study, William Shakespeare . But Wolff does not completely prove his thesis, which should not surprise the now disappointed and time-consumed reader. Schubart states that, "Johann Sebastian Bach was a genius of the highest degree; his spirit is so unique and individual, so immense that it will require centuries to really reach him.... The original genius of Bach is readily recognizable." Although Schubart's remark is well-founded, Wolff does not use it in the context of which his thesis is based. Schubart in no way emphasizes the genius of Bach in his activities as a composer, teacher, etc. Nor is this found in the comparison between Bach and Shakespeare. Wolff obviously has developed a trend for failing to prove his thesis.
One of the many examples of the meaningless information given is an account of Bach's expenses at a certain inn while visiting a church in Halle, Germany. This account lacks necessity and is out of context in relativity to the rest of the chapter. Wolff states that "Bach ate and drank well," which is the only possible conclusion that one can find for Wolff's placement of this "blemish." And while the reader does realize Bach's craving for 32 quarts of beer in the time period of less than one week, this information in no way relates to Wolff's thesis that Bach was a creative genius. It is perhaps just his way of "showing off." This irrelevancy is just one of the many examples of the garbage that fills this book.
Wolff also gave the reader too much reading by filling one and one-half pages of the Cothen Court Capelle of 1717-1723 roster, in which Bach was the Capellmeister. The roster tells who played what instrument, but it also gives the unnecessary information of whether they were a court or town musician, when they left, or in some cases died, and who they replaced or who replaced them when they left. Why does the reader need to know this, and how does this even remotely relate to Wolff's thesis? The paragraph leading up to the roster fails to mention even Bach, with the exception of one sentence. The paragraph, as well as the entire page plus many preceding pages, consists mostly of information about Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, followed by a painting of Leopold, filling the rest of the page. This lack of relevancy to the original thesis leaves the reader tired and ready to put the book down. Once again, only one conclusion of why Wolff decided to fill more than one page with this useless information can be determined: To show that Bach had control as capellmeister over a large group of professionals, merely skimming over the original thesis. Once again, Wolff almost completely fails to prove his original thesis.
To say that Johann Sebastian Bach was a genius is an understatement. Bach was as much a genius in his field of study as Newton and Shakespeare were in theirs. Wolff proved this, but he did not prove Bach's true genius, as a musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher, which was his original thesis. Wolff gave the reader more than they wanted and, thus, made the book less desirable to read. Wolff's admiration of Bach is obvious, but this admiration pushes Wolff to exceed the desired amount of information and turns a well written novel into a disappointment for those craving an understanding of Bach's true genius. If Bach's genius is proved in this book, it is not concise enough for an average reader to fully understand. The fact that Wolff gave so much meaningless information causes the reader to wonder if Wolff knew that he was not going to be able to prove his thesis, and that by impressing the reader with his vast knowledge of Bach, Wolff would instead be able to subdue the reader into thinking that Bach was a genius. Wolff failed yet again. According to Wolff, Bach's genius has been accepted only by "connoisseurs," but not by average readers. It is actually readers who base their opinions on this book that do not understand Bach's true genius. This book, although full of information about Bach, is an insult to his true genius and not worthy of being read. Critique by:
Brian E. Rodenbeck
16 years old
Rating:
Summary: It's Time for Wolff to Go Back to the Woods
Review: To say that Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff is a summary of the life of Bach is an understatement. Not only does Wolff scrutinize every little detail of Bach's life, death, and career, but he goes on to provide exact details about the lives, deaths, and careers of many people that come in contact with Bach. This book is neither short nor concise. This makes it very difficult for the reader to even find the date of birth, date of death, place of birth, and place of death of Bach. Bach, who was born in Eisenach, Germany on March 21st, 1685, and died in Leipzig, Germany on March 28th, 1750, is said to be "a wondrous pathfinder for musical creativity" by Isaac Stern. Wolff's thesis, that Bach was a genius as a composer, performer, teacher, theologian, and entrepreneur , is poorly proved in proportion to the other meaningless information given in the book.
Wolff does, however, try to relate his thesis of Bach's genius to a genius of another time, Isaac Newton . "Here, for the first time, a parallel is drawn between Bach and Isaac Newton-- not by constructing analogies between Bach's music and Newtonian science, but by explaining that Bach's music is best appreciated by real connoisseurs, just as Newton's writings are best understood by readers with a deep knowledge of science." This statement made by Wolff in the Prologue actually gives the reader the "stuck-up" sense that they cannot appreciate Bach's music due to their "amateur knowledge of the science of music." After knowing this, the reader is turned off to both the book and the author, and is more likely to venture into the rest of the book with a pessimistic state of mind. Wolff leads the reader through several pages of comparison between the two. Wolff does not, however, give enough detail of why Bach is equal to Newton's genius. Wolff actually gives more information on Newton rather than Bach. Thus, Wolff only partially proves his thesis, foreshadowing a constantly disappointing book.
In the epilogue, Wolff once again tries to back-up his thesis by quoting Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's pronouncement of Bach, and also by comparing Bach to yet another genius of a different field of study, William Shakespeare . But Wolff does not completely prove his thesis, which should not surprise the now disappointed and time-consumed reader. Schubart states that, "Johann Sebastian Bach was a genius of the highest degree; his spirit is so unique and individual, so immense that it will require centuries to really reach him.... The original genius of Bach is readily recognizable." Although Schubart's remark is well-founded, Wolff does not use it in the context of which his thesis is based. Schubart in no way emphasizes the genius of Bach in his activities as a composer, teacher, etc. Nor is this found in the comparison between Bach and Shakespeare. Wolff obviously has developed a trend for failing to prove his thesis.
One of the many examples of the meaningless information given is an account of Bach's expenses at a certain inn while visiting a church in Halle, Germany. This account lacks necessity and is out of context in relativity to the rest of the chapter. Wolff states that "Bach ate and drank well," which is the only possible conclusion that one can find for Wolff's placement of this "blemish." And while the reader does realize Bach's craving for 32 quarts of beer in the time period of less than one week, this information in no way relates to Wolff's thesis that Bach was a creative genius. It is perhaps just his way of "showing off." This irrelevancy is just one of the many examples of the garbage that fills this book.
Wolff also gave the reader too much reading by filling one and one-half pages of the Cothen Court Capelle of 1717-1723 roster, in which Bach was the Capellmeister. The roster tells who played what instrument, but it also gives the unnecessary information of whether they were a court or town musician, when they left, or in some cases died, and who they replaced or who replaced them when they left. Why does the reader need to know this, and how does this even remotely relate to Wolff's thesis? The paragraph leading up to the roster fails to mention even Bach, with the exception of one sentence. The paragraph, as well as the entire page plus many preceding pages, consists mostly of information about Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, followed by a painting of Leopold, filling the rest of the page. This lack of relevancy to the original thesis leaves the reader tired and ready to put the book down. Once again, only one conclusion of why Wolff decided to fill more than one page with this useless information can be determined: To show that Bach had control as capellmeister over a large group of professionals, merely skimming over the original thesis. Once again, Wolff almost completely fails to prove his original thesis.
To say that Johann Sebastian Bach was a genius is an understatement. Bach was as much a genius in his field of study as Newton and Shakespeare were in theirs. Wolff proved this, but he did not prove Bach's true genius, as a musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher, which was his original thesis. Wolff gave the reader more than they wanted and, thus, made the book less desirable to read. Wolff's admiration of Bach is obvious, but this admiration pushes Wolff to exceed the desired amount of information and turns a well written novel into a disappointment for those craving an understanding of Bach's true genius. If Bach's genius is proved in this book, it is not concise enough for an average reader to fully understand. The fact that Wolff gave so much meaningless information causes the reader to wonder if Wolff knew that he was not going to be able to prove his thesis, and that by impressing the reader with his vast knowledge of Bach, Wolff would instead be able to subdue the reader into thinking that Bach was a genius. Wolff failed yet again. According to Wolff, Bach's genius has been accepted only by "connoisseurs," but not by average readers. It is actually readers who base their opinions on this book that do not understand Bach's true genius. This book, although full of information about Bach, is an insult to his true genius and not worthy of being read. Critique by:
Brian E. Rodenbeck
16 years old
Rating:
Summary: A fitting present for the Bach anniversary year!
Review: 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 have been mainly motivated by his striving for musical excellence and only rarely left those boundaries. Only after the description of Bach's career up to 1740 do we find a chapter on his family life which I enjoyed very much both on the basis of its factual accuracy as well as on that of its great sense of tact. The Muscial Biography finds it conclusion with the description of Bach's last decade in which he mainly concentrated on the Mass in B and on the Art of the Fugue. The entire biographical core is framed in by Wolff's preface, prologue and epilogue. One of the main ideas presented in these sections is that of Bach's role as musical equivalent to Isaac Newton's striving as a physicist in this era of exploration of the turn of the 17th to the 18th century.
Rating: 
Summary: The last great Bach hagiography
Review: Wolff stands last in a long line of writers (Spitta, Schweitzer) whose heads are bent so far forward in genuflection that they can't see Bach's foibles. As a result, Bach becomes a bland, benevolent character for Wolff. The insult leading to his duel -- surely an event that shows Bach to be rather feisty -- is translated as 'greenhorn bassoonist' rather than the dialectically correct (and certainly more likely to be grounds for a swordfight) 'prick of a bassoonist', for example. It's a decent book, and thorough, but Wolff's comparison of Bach to Newton is strained and grows tiresome. Future biographies of Bach will undoubtedly do their best to drag their subject back to earth, and will be all the better for it.
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