The Cambridge companion to Bach

Description

The Cambridge Companion to Bach, first published in 1997, goes beyond a basic life-and-works study to provide a late twentieth-century perspective on J. S. Bach the man and composer. The book is divided into three parts. Part One is concerned with the historical context, the society, beliefs and the world-view of Bach's age. The second part discusses the music and Bach's compositional style, while Part Three considers Bach's influence and the performance and reception of his music through the succeeding generations. This Companion benefits from the insights and research of some of the most distinguished Bach scholars, and from it the reader will gain a notion of the diversity of current thought on this great composer. Title Page Contents Introduction 1 The historical context society beliefs and worldview 7 The Bach family 9 Bach and the domestic politics of Electoral Saxony 17 Music and Lutheranism 35 Bachs metaphysics of music 46 A mind unconscious that it is calculating? Bach and the rationalist philosophy of Wolff Leibniz and Spinoza 60 Profiles of the music 73 Composition as arrangement and adaptation 154 Bachian invention and its mechanisms 171 Influence and reception 193 Bach as teacher and model 195 Changing issues of performance practice 203 Bach reception some concepts and parameters 218 Reinterpreting Bach in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 226 Notes 251 The early works and the heritage of the seventeenth century 75 The mature vocal works and their theological and liturgical context 86 The instrumental music 123 The keyboard works Bach as teacher and virtueso 136 Select bibliography 294 General Index 306 Index of works 318 Copyright