Bach (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))

Bach (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))
by Malcolm Boyd

Bach (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: $13.39
You Save: $11.61 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Malcolm Boyd
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-20
ISBN: 0195307712
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Book Reviews of Bach (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))

Book Review: A Fair Read...
Summary: 5 Stars

Malcolm Boyd's Bach is nearly a classic at this point. It's a fair read, but frankly it leaves me a little flat. It's okay, but truth be told, Karl Geiringer's Bach is far, far better.

Summary of Bach (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))

Published in its first edition in 1983, Boyd's treatment of this canonical composer is essential reading for students, scholars, and everyone interested in Baroque music. In this third edition, biographical chapters alternate with commentary on the works, to demonstrate how the circumstances of Bach's life helped to shape the music he wrote at various periods. We follow Bach as he travels from Arnstadt and Muhlhausen to Weimar, C�then, and finally Leipzig, these journeys alternating with insightful discussions of the great composer's organ and orchestral compositions. As well as presenting a rounded picture of Bach, his music, and his posthumous reputation and influence, Malcolm Boyd considers the sometimes controversial topics of "parody" and arrangement, number symbolism, and the style and meaning of Bach's late works. Recent theories on the constitution of Bach's performing forces at Leipzig are also present. The text and the appendixes (which include a chronology, personalia, bibliography, and a complete catalogue of Bach's works) were thoroughly revised in this edition to take account of more recent research undertaken by Bach scholars, including the gold mine of new information uncovered in the former USSR.
Though he begins by bemoaning "the difficulty of writing anything on Bach remotely worthy of its subject," Malcolm Boyd goes on to do exactly that. This volume from the Master Musicians Series (which also includes Julian Budden on Verdi and Michael Kennedy on Richard Strauss) intermingles chapters on Bach's life with chapters on his music (also roughly chronological) in a delightfully clearheaded way. Boyd is perfectly willing to say whether he finds a piece of music to be substandard and freely takes issue with the scholarship of earlier analysts. Taking nothing for granted, Boyd disproves common assumptions about relative dates of compositions. The section on cantatas begins with brief notes on the genre, a few antecedents, and the subtypes of secular and sacred. Boyd then briskly reviews the surviving works, dwelling on a few for some enlightening and representative details. In "Canons and Counterpoint," he sorts out the Musical Offering in a remarkable few paragraphs before having a go at The Art of the Fugue. Boyd's charts are very easy to follow (appropriate for a composer whose music is often compared to architecture), and his musical examples--especially in the chapter titled "Orchestral, Instrumental, and Keyboard Music"--are spectacularly well chosen. There is room for a few choice incidental observations (e.g., cantatas for the winter months were shorter, sparing the choirboys time in the unheated organ lofts). A 22-page work list (revised in 1997), a life calendar, and a brief chapter on numerology round out a highly rewarding volume. --William R. Braun

History & Criticism Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in History & Criticism Books
KISS and Make-up ImageKISS and Make-up
by Gene Simmons
Crown; Published: 2001-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops: $25.95
Elvis Presley: A Life in Music : The Complete Recording Sessions ImageElvis Presley: A Life in Music : The Complete Recording Sessions
by Ernst Jorgensen
St Martins Pr; Published: 1998-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $199.48
The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool ImageThe Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, from Noisy Novelty to King of Cool
by Michael Segell
Picador; Published: 2006-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops: $16.00
Elvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley ImageElvis: My Best Man: Radio Days, Rock 'n' Roll Nights, and My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley
by George Klein, Chuck Crisafulli
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2011-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops: $15.00
Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings ImageBill Evans: How My Heart Sings
by Mr. Peter Pettinger
Yale University Press; Published: 1998-08-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $75.80
Microsound ImageMicrosound
by Curtis Roads
The MIT Press; Published: 2004-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops: $34.00
Hip Hop America ImageHip Hop America
by Nelson George
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.52
Price in other shops: $15.00
A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album ImageA Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album
by Ashley Kahn
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.74
Price in other shops: $16.00
Jazz Styles: History and Analysis (10th Edition) ImageJazz Styles: History and Analysis (10th Edition)
by Mark C. Gridley
Prentice Hall; Published: 2008-01-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $45.99
Price in other shops: $95.60
Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia ImageDark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia
by Robert Greenfield
It Books; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops: $14.99
Similar Books and other products
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid ImageGödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Baker and Taylor; Basic Books; Published: 1999-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.88
Price in other shops: $22.95
J.S. Bach: A Life in Music ImageJ.S. Bach: A Life in Music
by Peter Williams
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2007-03-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops: $38.00
Bach at Leipzig: A Play ImageBach at Leipzig: A Play
by Itamar Moses
Faber & Faber; Published: 2005-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops: $13.00
Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work ImageJohann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work
by Martin Geck
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2006-12-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops: $40.00
The Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text ImageThe Cantatas of J. S. Bach: With Their Librettos in German-English Parallel Text
by Alfred Dï¿1/2rr
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $83.48
Price in other shops: $99.00
The Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge Companions to Music) ImageThe Cambridge Companion to Bach (Cambridge Companions to Music)
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1997-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $28.77
Price in other shops: $33.00
Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge Music Handbooks) ImageBach: The Brandenburg Concertos (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
by Malcolm Boyd
Cambridge University Press; Published: 1993-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.75
Price in other shops: $32.00
Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment (P.S.) ImageEvening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment (P.S.)
by James R. Gaines
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-02-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops: $13.99
The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents ImageThe New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents
by Christoph Wolff
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1999-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops: $21.95
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician ImageJohann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
by Christoph Wolff
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2001-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.64
Price in other shops: $23.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories