This took me quite a while to read as it was incredibly detail dense, filled with a huge amount of information. I really enjoyed (paid link) Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician by Christoph Wolff despite how long it took me to navigate my way through the mass of detail.
This was a very scholarly biography, and the author obviously spent an enormous amount of time on research, examining every connection and piece of information available. He did an incredible job teasing information from, given the period and apparent lack of records, every available source.
This was a very well written biography, and it was fascinating to explore Bach the man, with Bach the composer, and Bach the virtuoso musician. His developments with regard to the organ and the high esteem in which he was held regarding the design and construction of many of the major organs of the time were highly interesting. He seemed to have a hand in so much of what was happening in the musical world at that point.
It seemed that a very common phrase was music lost. It seems like a crime that so much of his work has been lost to history, but indicative of what a huge volume of work he produced given what has come down to us.
The extent of the innovations that he introduced in musical composition and theory, and in the production of his music, building the foundations of modern music so profound and we have much to thank him for.
I really enjoyed reading this book, even though it took me a good while to make my way through the immense detail contained within.
I would very much recommend it to anyone that wants to understand where much of the music that we now have comes from.
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