Johann Sebastian Bach (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining juvenile biography of J. S. Bach
Review: Having enjoyed Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series, I had some doubts about his World's Greatest Composers series for the simple reason that music does not have the same visual dimension as paintings (I figured that out all by myself). One of the strengths of the Artists series was that Venezia could provide examples of famous paintings by the likes of Rembrandt or Van Gogh and talk specifically about artistic technique. Consequently, more often than not, those volumes constituted mini-lessons in art appreciation for young readers. However, even when these Greatest Composers volumes are reduced to being just juvenile biographies, they still constitute a delightful look at a famous person.

In the case of Johan Sebastian Bach we find once again the delightful combination of historic paintings of Bach and his times, along with Venezia's wickedly funny but still informative cartoons (e.g., Bach as a tester and repairer of organs). Young readers will be astounded by the fact that Bach has 20 children, four of whom went out to be composers of note as well, but even more so by the revelation that Bach's music was not especially popular in his own time because it was too "new." Hopefully reading this volume will get young readers interested in the music of Bach: my strong suggestion would be that a youngster reading this book should also be able to listen to Bach's music. Any of the decent Bach collections of "greatest hits" should have "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and excerpts from "The Brandenburg Concertos," as well as examples of the various types of music composed by Bach and talked about in this volume. This would be true for any volume in this series, which includes volumes on great composers from Ludwig Van Beethoven to The Beatles!