Bach, a Learned Musician

I will be reviewing a book in the fall for our local music teachers. The title of the book is "Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff. When I read the book this past winter, I was totally taken with the scholarship of the author and his adherence to the sources that are extant and never to my knowledge did he try to fabricate incidences in Bach's life purely on conjecture and speculation. The book is quite technical with numerous citations of Bach's extant as well as his lost works. If I could summarize a very in depth work in a few sentences, I would say that Christoph Wolff portrays the essence of Bach as being one who not only knew and developed musical composition into an art that has yet to be duplicated, but he also knew the technical workings of all the instruments for which he composed. He tuned and maintained his own instruments. Bach was also a teacher par excellence and had the opportunity to develop "teaching" manuals which he reworked over a long period of time so they were eventually in a pedagogical form that was near perfection. He had a vast knowledge of Christian theology and of the hymnody that expressed the theology. His skills as an impresario were unparalleled as he organized and led two collegia musica in the city of Leipzig along with the host of other responsibilities that came with his position at the St. Thomas School and the churches for which he composed so much sacred music. Bach was renowned as an improviser especially at the pipe organ. Bach came from a long line of town musicians and was honed at an early age to take his place among the greatest composers ever. Johann Sebastian Bach's signature phrase on all of his music was "Soli Deo Gloria," for the glory of God alone. Christoph Wolff does a wonderful job in conveying this signature throughout the life of Bach. I highly recommend the book, but be prepared to dig deeply and concentrate hard.

(The picture in the insets is of the Zimmer Organ in the Church of Mepkin Abbey, South Carolina. To my surprise, after I had played the instrument, I discovered that the instrument is a combination of pipe and digital sounds. As a purist, I was taken aback with the idea, but as an organist I was totally enthralled and delighted with the sound.)