Bach Biography
Discussions - Part 1

Bach Biography: History, Topics; Recent, New Perspectives

William L. Hoffman wrote (February 15, 2020):
Bach Biography

Little is known about the life of Johann Sebastian Bach, based on information during his lifetime, except for a few letters and others' accounts found in the New Bach Reader and other documents.¹ Bach himself was the source of much information, as found in the Bach Nekrology (1754 obituary, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach%27s_Nekrolog). This provided the foundation for Johann Nicholaus Forkel's pioneering 1802 biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach:_His_Life,_Art,_and_Work), which also relied on information Forkel obtained from Bach's two oldest sons, Friedemann and Emanuel. Subsequently, various biographies were been published (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biographies_of_Johann_Sebastian_Bach), based on extensive research into various aspects of his life and music.
Bach's biography has been compared to Shakespeare's, where little first-hand, source-critical information is extant. In both cases, secondary information involves formative contextual studies of topics such as the works, education, life-style, learning, politics, and the arts.² German musicology was brought to bear in the earliest Bach biographies. Forkel (1749-1818, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nikolaus_Forkel), the founder of historical musicology, sought to have published Bach's keyboard music but the project was unfinished http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Music/Literature/ForkelTerry/en/JohannSebastianBach.html). Forkel possessed various Bach memorabilia from the two sons but had little knowledge of areas such as Bach's vocal music, relying on the Amalian Library in Berlin for his listing of Bach's cantatas. The first substantive accounting of Bach's music is found in Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt's Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Influence and Works (Leipzig: 1850),³ which appeared as the Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe began to be print the music and utilize similar sources. The standard for Bach biographies was set with Philipp Spitta's 1884-85 Johann Sebastian Bach.⁴ Spitta (1841-1894, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Spitta), explored sources throughout central Germany, uncovering considerable documentation, although he erred when misdating Bach's chorale cantatas to the 1740s instead of 1724-25, and thought that the Lucas Passion, BWV 246, was Bach's work (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV246-Gen.htm, Thomas Braatz's "Historical Background on the Issue of Authenticity"). "Coming from a Protestant background himself, he [Spitta] is able, like Albert Schweitzer after him, to give insight in the religious context of Bach's time," says Wikipedia (Ibid.).
Schweitzer in 1911 contributed a biography of Bach in two volumes which gained favor in its English translation by Ernest Newman,⁵ particularly its accessible, romantic style of writing, and was prominent in the 20th century public Bach Revival. The first volume is primarily a personal biography which concludes with Chapter XII, "Death and Resurrection," which for almost half a century fostered two Bachian myths: that Bach's music was rediscovered only a half century after his death and that Bach's spiritual pursuits in his music made him the "Fifth Evangelist."

The first original, substantial English-language Bach biography was written in 1928 by Charles Sanford Terry,⁶ with a historical emphasis on Bach's career, using 72 pictorial illustrations and photographs primarily of places where Bach lived, documents not found in Spitta. Terry in 1920 had produced a definitive English-language version of Forkel's biography (https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Life-Work-ebook/dp/B004TRNSOA). Terry's biography also has "The Family of Bach Musicians" (Appendix 1; see below, Bach Family books). A related, most-welcomed contemporary study of Bach places is Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall's Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach.⁷
In the 1950s, Bach biography expanded into related research and contextual fields with the Bach Reader of documents, which stimulated the source-critical Bach Dokumente (still being published) and Christoph Wolff's expanded version in 1998 (Ibid.). The next significant English-language Bach biography was Karl Geiringer's Johann Sebastian Bach: Culmination of an Era,⁸ which relied extensively on the new Bach works dating and cataloguing, with a study of Bach's music, including lost works. Geiringer also produced the seminal The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius and music from the Alt-Bachisches Archiv.⁹ Geiringer's efforts led to other Bach Family publications.¹⁰
The Bach Tercentenary in 1985 produced a plethora of new biographical books with unique perspectives as well as special studies. Malcolm Boyd's Bach (Oxford University Press, 1983) follows the traditional format of integrating life and music with a 1999 updated works list and bibliography. Two pictorial biographies are Hans Conrad Fischer's Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life in Pictures and Documents with CD,¹¹ and Hansdieter Wohlfarth, Johann Sebastian Bach, trans. Albert L. Blackwell (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985); https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Hannsdieter-Wohlfarth/dp/3451195046.

The next watershed event was the 250th anniversary of Bach's death in 2000 which inaugurated new, specialized publications, non-traditional biographies, and even a fictional account, as well as CD "complete" recorded collections of Bach's works. Two special book collections near the turn of the century from leading Bach British publishers are The Cambridge Companion to Bach, ed John Butt (Cambridge University Press, 1997), essays by leading Bach scholars (https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-bach/BB71E9799CBE6751307BE0ECBC24C132), and Oxford Composer Companions, ed. Malcolm Boyd (Oxford University Press, 1999), an encyclopedia of Bach terminology, people, places, musical essays, and an alphabetical summary of Bach's cantatas (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/Book-Boyd-Oxford.htm). A topical, anecdotal, personal account of Bach and his world with illustrations is Otto L. Bettmann's Johann Sebastian Bach as His World Knew Him (New York: Carol Publishing , 1995; https://www.abebooks.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-World-Knew-Bettmann/308267682/bd).

Several new Bach biographies took notable perspectives. Christoph Wolff's 2000 comprehensive biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, became a best seller, forging new paths and was updated in 2013 (New York: Norton, https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393322569). John Eliot Gardiner's BACH: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Knopf, 2013; https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/books/bach-music-in-the-castle-of-heaven-by-john-eliot-gardiner.html) offers selective thematic chapters on the man and his music. Martin Geck's Johann Sebastian BACH: Life and Work, Eng. trans. JohHargraves (Orlando FL: Harcourt, 2006) offers other unique perspectives (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/BuckleyWmF.t.html). The late British Bach organ music specialist Peter Williams set a record with three Bach biographies in the early 21st century: The Life of Bach, Musical lives (Cambridge University Press, 2004; https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Life_of_Bach.html?id=wX-rF2_k_S8C) which uses as a starting point the 1754 Obituary); J. S. Bach: A Life in Music (Cambridge University Press, 2007, https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/music/seventeenth-century-music/j-s-bach-life-music?format=HB&isbn=9780521870740), further deconstructs the Obituary in Williams iconoclastic style; and Bach: A Musical Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2016; http://4hlxx40786q1osp7b1b814j8co-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/david-schulenberg/files/2017/10/Williams_Bach_2016_review_for_web.pdf) is an extended conversational study with special insight into Bach's music beyond the traditional perspectives.
Several unusual but very welcomed, specialized studies far beyond the biographical mold are James R. Gaines' Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment (New York: Harpercollins, 2005; https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/08/highereducation.history), a fictional account of the iconic encounter between two noted men and their worlds; Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community, ed. Carol K. Baron (Rochester NY: University of Rochester, 2006 (https://boydellandbrewer.com/bach-s-changing-world.html) has nine essays on Bach's life in Leipzig; and David Yearsley's Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019; https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0220.htm), which fils a major gap in Bach's second wife and her musical connections. In a class of their own are several significant and intriguing Bach studies: The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Raymond Erikson, Aston Magna Academy Book (New York: Amadeus Press, 2008; https://books.google.bi/books?id=-Q83JGT_Jt0C&pg=PR7&hl=fr&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false), has 11 extended essays by noted Bach scholars with illustrations); Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece (New York: Grove Press, 2009; https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/books/01book.html) conflates the music with parts of Pablo Casals' life and other interpreters; Paul Elie's Reinventing Bach (New York: Farrar, 2012; https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/books/reinventing-bach-by-paul-elie.html), is a blend of Bach history and reception involving "the story of how one composer precipitated two revolutions in music and technology"; The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Robin A. Leaver (London: Routledge, 2017; https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Research-Companion-to-Johann-Sebastian-Bach-1st-Edition/Leaver/p/book/9781409417903: "Contents"), is a series of essays on the life and music of Bach by leading scholars instead of the typical research companion crammed with bibliography but only a smattering of comment; and Bach 333: Life, in J. S. Bach: The New Complete Edition (Berlin: Deutsche Grammophon, 2018), illustrated biography of Dorothea Schröder and 13 new biographical essays from leading Bach scholars at the Leipzig Bach Archive.

ENDNOTES

¹ The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, ed. Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel, rev. and enlarged Christoph Wolff (New York: Norton, 1998; https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/Bach-Reader[Mendel].htm), and Bach Dokumente (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1969-2017; https://www.baerenreiter.com/programm/gesamt-und-werkausgaben/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/supplement/).
² See Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (New York: Norton, 2004, https://ebooks-free-download-pdf-2c7a8.firebaseapp.com/zQeV5pzb6pDxPX/Will%20In%20The%20World%20How%20Shakespeare%20Became%20Shakespeare%20PDF.pdf) and Jonathan Bate, Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare (New York: Random House, 2009; https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/books/05kaku.html).
³ Carl Ludwig Hilgenfeldt's Johann Sebastian Bach's Life . . . https://unm-on-worldcat-org.libproxy.unm.edu/search?queryString=au%3DHilgenfeldt%2C%20C%20L&databaseList=2328,2007,1533,2006,1697,3413,2268,2201,2267,1672,3036,638,2264,2263,2262,1271,2261,2260,2281,143,2237,2259,1487,203,3201,1708#/oclc/2826412.
⁴ Philipp Spitta, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750, trans. Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland (London: Novello, 1884-85; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitta%27s_Johann_Sebastian_Bach).
⁵ Albert Schweitzer, J. S. Bach, 2 vols., trans. Ernest Newman (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1911); https://www.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-1-Albert-Schweitzer/dp/1406724513: "Look inside."
⁶ Charles Sanford Terry, Bach: A Biography, 2nd and rev. ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Biography-Terry/dp/B0000BOINZ.
⁷ Robert L. and Traute M. Marshall, Exploring the Worlds of J. S. Bach: A Traveler's Guide (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016); https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0217.htm.
⁸ Karl and Irene Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach: Culmination of an Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966); https://books.google.com/books/about/Johann_Sebastian_Bach.html?id=4csQAQAAMAAJ&source=kp_book_description.
⁹ Bach Family: Karl and Irene Geiringer, The Bach Family: Seven Generations of Creative Genius (New York, Oxford University Press, 1954), https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Family-History.htm; Alt-Bachisches Archiv, Music of the Bach Family: An Anthology, ed. Karl Geiringer (Cambridge MA: Harvard University, 1955), https://unm-on-worldcat-org.libproxy.unm.edu/search?sortKey=BEST_MATCH&databaseList=2328%2C2007%2C1533%2C2006%2C1697%2C3413%2C2268%2C2201%2C2267%2C1672%2C3036%2C638%2C2264%2C2263%2C2262%2C1271%2C2261%2C2260%2C2281%2C143%2C2237%2C2259%2C1487%2C203%2C3201%2C1708&queryString=kw%3A%28Bach+family+anthology%29&changedFacet=scope&overrideStickyFacetDefault=&selectSortKey=BEST_MATCH&subscope=wz%3A208%3A%3Azs%3A35803&format=all&year=all&yearFrom=&yearTo=&author=all&topic=all&database=all&language=all#/oclc/19798185.
¹⁰ Bach Family Publications: Percy M. Young: The Bachs, 1500-1850 (New York: Crowell, 1970), https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Bachs_1500_1850.html?id=9Ie0AAAAIAAJ; Christoph Wolff et al, The New Grove Bach Family (New York: Norton, 1983), https://books.google.com/books/about/The_New_Grove_Bach_Family.html?id=ywcAtmEreWQC; Christoph Wolff et al, Bach family, Grove Music Online, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040023; J. S. Bach and His Sons, essays, ed. Mary Oleskiewicz, Bach Perspectives 11, American Bach Society (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017), https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Perspectives-11-His-Sons/dp/0252041488).
¹¹Hans Conrad Fischer, Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life in Pictures and Documents with CD, Eng. tran. Silvia Lutz (Holzgerlingen: Hänssler, 1985); https://books.google.com/books?id=uIywTGVw_j4C&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Hand+Conrad+Fischer+bach+biography&source=bl&ots=gcYkgmVRdo&sig=ACfU3U0OOfL4bDUQlKgnR4JnbYWdy4RxpA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwignojuxs_nAhWMhJ4KHZuNAIwQ6AEwAHoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=Hand%20Conrad%20Fischer%20bach%20biography&f=false.

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To Come: Perspectives on Bach biography: Recent, Current.

Bach Biography: History, Topics, etc., Addendum

William L. Hoffman wrote (February 18, 2020):
One biographically-related topic is Bach and religion, based primarily on Bach's tenure as cantor in Leipzig (see BCW "Articles about J.S. Bach, his Religion & his Music," http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Links/Links-Articles.htm). Two important studies at the Bach Cantatas Website are the articles: "Liturgy and Music in Leipzig’s Main Churches by Martin Petzoldt" (Thomas Braatz translation, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Leipzig-Churches-Petzold.pdf), and "Theology" (William L. Hoffman, https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Articles/Theology[Hoffman].htm). The Bach Cantatas Website also has a substantial Bach biography.¹

The great debate over Bach's spirituality was ignited in the early 1960s by the leading Protestant music writer, Friedrich Blüme in 1962 in "Outlines of a New Picture of Bach" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/731236?seq=1), regarding the depth and even sincerity of Bach’s spirituality that had grown to the point that early in the Twentieth Century Bach was called the “Fifth Evangelist.” With the new dating of Bach’s three-plus annual church service cycles in the late 1950s, showing that Bach had composed most of his cantatas in the first four years as Cantor at Leipzig, beginning in 1723, not throughout his tenure that ended with his death in 1750.

Blüme argued that this new creative picture shows that Bach was not consumed by sacred music and his calling of a “well order sacred music to the glory of God,” but that he had other temporal, worldly interests in his musical art, particularly a broad spectrum of instrumental music. In effect, Blüme, living in Easter German in Bach country ruled by Communism, perhaps went beyond political dogma (doctrine, and perhaps dialectic!) intentionally to challenge Bach scholars, especially those who were content to accept the spiritual and traditional Lutheran image wrought in the earlier 20th century by the venerable Albert Schweitzer, Friedrich Smend, and Arnold Schering, in order to think beyond the canonized image of Sebastian Bach.

This lead to many published essays and studies under the auspices of the Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für theologische Bach Forschung (International working group for theological Bach research), beginning in 1976 “largely through the efforts of Walter Blankenburg and Christoph Trautmann,” says Mel Unger in his American Bach Society’s “Notes” Fall 2000 review of the organization’s first 20 years by editor Renata Steiger (see http://www.americanbachsociety.org/Newsletters/Newsletter00Fall.html, Book Review). The organization subsequently disbanded with the unification of Germany and because it had achieved its goal.

Theologian and Bach scholar Günther Stiller produced the milestone response to Blüme in 1970 in German, finally published in English in 1984, JSB and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (St. Louis MO: Concordia Publishing). Meanwhile, other special yet accessible books have been produced. English music critic, musicologist and composer Wilfrid Mellers (1914-2008) offers an insightful theological and philosophical view of major Bach instrumental and vocal works in Bach and the Dance of God (London: Faber, 1980; https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1981/10/08/a-bachward-glance/). Lutheran Theologian Jaroslav Pelikan (1923-2006, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bach_Among_the_Theologians/5GVLAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover) in Bach Among the Theologians (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986) examines Bach's Lutheran tradition and several major works (https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Among-Theologians-Jaroslav-Pelikan/dp/1597522775). A study of the Lutheran theology of music is Joyce Irwin's Neither Voice nor Heart Alone: German Lutheran Theology of Music in the Age of the Baroque (Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock, 1993; https://www.google.com/books/edition/Neither_Voice_nor_Heart_Alone/e_BGDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover) has a final chapter, "Johann Sebastian Bach — A Musician, Not a Theologian." A wide range of Bach's sacred music from a Calvinist catechism perspective is explored in Calvin R. Stapert's My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance and Discipleship in the Music of J. S. Bach (Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmann's, 2000; https://www.amazon.com/Only-Comfort-Deliverance-Discipleship-Liturgical/dp/0802844723: Look Inside). A liturgical lectionary perspective of presenting Bach's sacred vocal music is found in John S. Setterlund's BACH Through the Year: The Church Music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the Revised Common Lectionary (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2013).

The late Martin Petzoldt (1946-2014) was the leading Bach scholar concerning the biblical and theological sources of Bach's sacred music. His legacy is the four volumes of Bach Kommentar (Commentary; Theologisch-Musikwissenschaftliche Kommentierung der geistlichen Vokalwerke Johann Sebastian Bachs [Theological and musicological commentary on the spiritual vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach]; Kassel: Bärenreiter; https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.baerenreiter.com/shop/produkt/details/BVK1743/&prev=search): Vol. 1, Sacred Cantatas: Trinity Time, 2004; Vol. 2, Sacred Cantatas, Advent to Trinityfest (feast day o— BWV 248, 249, 11), 2007; Vol. 3, Passions, feast day and occasional cantatas, 2019; Vol. 4, motets, Latin church music, forthcoming. An English language edition of Bach's cantata sources is Melvin Unger's Handbook to Bach's Sacred Cantata Texts: An Interlinear Translation with Reference Guide to Biblical Quotations and Allusions (Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996).

Other recent, special publications are Tanya Kevorkian's Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650-1750 (London: Routledge, 2007; https://www.amazon.com/Baroque-Piety-Religion-Society-1650-1750/dp/1138269603): Look inside), notably her "theory of fields" (Introduction: 7), the arena of stakeholders and reception responses; Michael Marissen's Bach & God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016; https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0215.htm); and Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion, ed. Robin A. Leaver, Bach Perspectives 12, American Bach Society (Urbana: University if Illinois Press, 2018; https://www.americanbachsociety.org/perspectives.html).

ENDNOTES

¹ A substantial Bach biography is found at the Bach Cantatas Website, http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian.htm, divided into four parts: 1. Life (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian.htm#Part01, with the nine communities where he lived and Iconography and Bach Portraits; 2. Works (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian-2.htm), by genre; 3. Bibliography and Links (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian-3.htm, in 12 sections, especially "G: Biography: Special studies"; and 4. List of Works (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian-4.htm). The primary source are the writings of Christoph Wolff (Brive Music on Line). The List of Works is being expanded in the Bach Werke Verzeichnis 3, to be published in 2020 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Johann_Sebastian_Bach).

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To Come: Perspectives on Bach biography: Recent, Current.

Holger Hilsenitz wrote (February 18, 2020):
[To William L. Hoffman] the fourth Volume of Petzold´s Bach Commentary has recently been released.
https://www.baerenreiter.com/shop/produkt/details/BVK2398/

Bach Biography: Christoph Wolff, John Eliot Gardiner, Music Studies

William L. Hoffman wrote (February 20, 2020):
Bach biography has found significant new directions in the past 40 years, led by Christoph Wolff, probably the leading Bach scholar following the death of Alfred Dürr (1918-2011, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dürr). Wolff, who turns 80 this year and has written extensively on Bach (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Wolff-Christoph.htm), began his writing on Bach biography in 1978 with the initial draft of what would become his 1984 essay "New Perspectives on Bach Biography," the first chapter in the section, Outlines of a Musical Portrait, while Wolff in 2000 produced what could be considered the first new Bach biography in decades.¹ Soon after several other new biographies were produced, taking different perspectives. Most notably John Eliot Gardiner's BACH: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Knopf, 2013; https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/books/bach-music-in-the-castle-of-heaven-by-john-eliot-gardiner.html) offers selective thematic chapters on the man and his music. Martin Geck's Johann Sebastian BACH: Life and Work, Eng. trans. John Hargraves (Orlando FL: Harcourt, 2006) provides other unique perspectives (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/books/review/BuckleyWmF.t.html).

Christoph Wolff Bach Biography

Since his first Bach biography in 2000, Wolf has spent the past two decades writing a major musical biography, which also fills a vital gap. In an evening conversation with recording specialist and Bach music chronicler Nicholas Kenyon on 9 July 2019 at the Bach Network Ninth Johann Sebastian Bach Dialogue Meeting (https://www.bachnetwork.org/dialogue/DM9Programme.pdf), Wolff said he had just submitted to his publisher, W. W. Norton, a study of major works, "Bach's Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work," to be published 24 March 2020 (https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Composer-Music/dp/0393050718). These major works include the Orgelbüchlein, Inventions & Sinfonias, Chorale Cantata Cycle, Clavierübung, the oratorios, Art of Fugue, and B-Minor Mass, as well as the Well-Tempered Clavier, violin and cello solos, Brandenburg Concertos and St. Matthew Passion. Wolff talked abut his early studies emphasizing the medieval period and Bach's organ works while having an interdisciplinary background in the humanities that influenced his research on Bach's musical library (see http://bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Concerts-3.htm: "Re: Bach Network Dialogue Meeting").

Wolf first explored the concept of a new Bach biography in his essay, "New Perspectives on Bach Biography." The essential ingredients involve a study of Bach's works in their historical context as well as his life, with "traces of a historical figure" requiring the "unavoidable merging of objective facts and subjective interpretation" in a "many-layered interrelationship," says Wolff (Ibid.: 3). He cites the basic biographical picture of Bach's life and music beginning with Philipp Spitta's 1884 Johann Sebastian Bach, a "critical-historical biography which combined extensive source-studies with large-scale inquiries into the historical background and general cultural, specifically humanistic ('geistgeschichtlichen') [spirit of history] context." Other major biographies followed for a century, "still based on Spitta's premises and methodology," until the Bach tercentenary in 1985. At that time, biographies in general began to consider "sociological" and, particularly, psychological elements," causing "a necessary de-idealization of historic figures" such as "the great composer." Subsequent musicological critics have found that Wolff didn't go far enough into the psychological and sociological environments. Wolff himself in this initial essay points out significant, scholarly source-critical achievements in Bach studies, including the dating of many works (still a challenge in Shakespearean studies), the publication of secondary Bach sources in the Bach Dokumente (https://www.baerenreiter.com/programm/gesamt-und-werkausgaben/bach-johann-sebastian/nba/supplement/), continuing to this day, and the significant fields of reception history and Contextual Bach Studies (https://rowman.com/Action/SERIES/_/CBA/Contextual-Bach-Studies).

Beyond the lack of Bach biographical letters and early history documentation (1700-1714) is the overall challenge of periodization, says Wolff (Ibid.: 6), that is "thorganization of life and works into logical narrative units and chronological periods." Spitta's division into a five-part periodization of Bach's life (youth-education, 1685-1707; Mühlhausen-Weimar, 1708-1717; Cöthen, 1717-23; and Leipzig, 1723-1750) presented challenges. Each of these periods entails both distinctive Bach occupations and creative activities. Thus, the earliest period yielded keyboard works, Weimar organ, Cöthen instrumental, and Leipzig vocal music. The German concept of Geschichte (history) embraces within a scientific-grounded framework specific, convenient "periods," now possibly called "silos." The historical imperative necessitates selectivity as the activities, events, and products are segmented, dissected and autopsied. Subsequently, lines are blurred and subsections distorted or overlapped. While seminal works and formative activities were found, especially in the later periods, the historical quest for motive, method and opportunity becomes a subjective exercise. Myths created in the past engender cottage industries of specialized studies. Meanwhile, certain topics need further clarification, such as the genesis of early keyboard works, the revision or transcription of concertos, and the actual cycles of sacred cantatas, Wolff suggests.

Bach's initial collection of church pieces is lost while his calling also documented in 1708 of a "well-regulated church music to the glory of God" needs to be thoroughly examined. In lieu of the church pieces are the early keyboard manuscripts with repertory "well beyond the German tradition," says Wolff (Ibid.: 10). Bach's visit to Lübeck in the winter of 1705/06 "requires some reassessment." Some Bach scholars recently have suggested that Bach may have encountered Handel in Hamburg at that time, notably Ton Koopman (http://bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Koopman-T-Profile.htm: last paragraph, "Koopman concluded . . . ."). "The manifold overlappings of similar [compositional] data and developments in Bach's Leipzig years are among the most problematic issues in Bach biography," Wolff finds. The decade of the 1730s shows Bach's "preoccupation" with the local Collegium Musicum while Bach in the 1740s "entered a kind of self-styled retirement in order to be free for projects that interested him personally, not in his capacity as cantor," he says (Ibid.: 11), which was "the period of largely free creative enterprise." "This diversity and breadth of interests stimulated without a doubt Bach's compositional ambitions," Wolff says (Ibid.: 12). "His uncompromising attitude is reflected by the degree of elaboration, the technical demands, and the general difficulty of his works." Wolff concludes (Ibid.: 13): "Analysis of sources and synthesis of ideas complement one another in the conscientious search for a truthful picture of Bach, which — for lack of evidence — will always be far from a psychological character image. A genuine, enlightened, and lively musical portrait is, however, a realistic goal."

The chapter headings in Wolff's Bach biography emphasize his theme of a "Learned Musician" (listed chronologically): "Springs of Musical Talent and Lifelong Influences," "Bypassing a Musical Apprenticeship," "Exploring 'Every Possible Artistry'," and "Musician and Scholar." The history and challenge of Bach biography also is chronicled in Robert L. Marshall's 2000 review of Wolff's Bach biography (https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2000/06/15/in-search-of-bach/). Wolff "is one of the most prolific contributors" to Bach scholarship" (section 2: 4) and "has had a part in every major discovery of materials bearing on Bach," such as the Neumeister organ chorales," BWV 1090-1120. Wolff's Bach biography "can be characterized as primarily an institutional history and the chronicle of a career." "Wolff is particularly resourceful in reconstructing Bach's early whereabouts and musical experiences," says Marshall. Meanwhile, his account of Bach's personality and character "belongs squarely to the nineteenth century tradition of inspirational, indeed hagiographical, composer biographies," lacking "modern developments in biographical writing about creative genius, such as psychological approaches" and making "little attempt to demythologize" Bach. Also lacking in Wolff's Bach biography is "Bach's treatment of theological issues," some "of the most impressive research in recent years." Wolff's analysis of Bach composition is "a major intellectual and ideological pillar in Wolff's case for Bach the Learned Musician," says Marshall.

Johan Eliot Gardiner's Bach Biography

However, "To begin with, we must not cleanse the [biographical] sources," says Marshall (Ibid.: 6). To that end, Marshall finds John Eliot Gardiner's Bach biography² satisfying as "dispassionate scholarly inquiry and a passionate personal statement" as well as an extensive account of Bach's sacred music. In Gardiner's "topical rather than chronological" organization, there are opportunities for subjective, personal assessments such as "a brief, highly entertaining, and often critical, history" of the "Early Music Movement" of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly the obsession with "Historically Informed Performances" (Ibid.: 11) and its foibles and fetishes. Gardiner's pursuit of Bach's "unfathomable genius" (Ibid.: xxv) yields chapters "devoted to the several historical and cultural contexts" in "wide-ranging surveys [that] are well researched." Gardiner at times parts the learned curtain behind Wolff's perspective to offer special insights such as Bach Thuringian homeland "untouched by emerging Enlightenment thought," and the early source of Bach's Lutheran theology (review: 92). Gardiner seeks to "humanize" Bach's portrait and "to pierce through the accumulated mythical hagiography. These efforts are thoroughly refreshing and often persuasive," says Marshall (Ibid.: 93). Gardiner explores both Bachian genetic and environmental factors while showing an "infectious enthusiasm" for Bach sacred music," with his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage 2000 (https://monteverdi.co.uk/recent-projects/bach-cantata-pilgrimage) stirring "a network of stylistic interconnections and recurrent theological themes," says Marshall (Ibid.: 98), as revealed in Gardiner's recording liner notes. Gardiner shows "Bach's craftsmanship and inventiveness, and, above all, how these breathtaking skills are harnessed to produce music of unprecedented dramatic and expressive powers."

New, Recent Bach Musical Publications, Projects

This year several significant new Bach books on his music are due for publication. Already published is the fourth and final edition of Martin Petzoldt's BACH Kommentar on the Latin Church Music and Motets (https://www.baerenreiter.com/en/shop/product/details/BVK2398/), completing the last two Christological Cycles of Bach five cycles of church pieces. Besides Wolff's Bach musical biography to be published in March, this year the Bach Archive in Leipzig is scheduled to publish the third edition of the Bach Werke Verzeichnis. Added to the works catalogue are the BVW 1129-1175 works, involving theoretical works as well as music with only the texts or references extant (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/BWVSystem-4.htm), while many of the doubtful and inauthentic works have been removed to the Appendices A-D. The recent BACH 333, J. S. Bach: The New Complete Edition (https://www.bach333.com/en/) includes a BWV Index Book, which summarizes the findings in the BWV³ as well as sections on "Cantatas by Liturgical Use," BWV "Works A-Z" alphabetical, and BACH 333 recording "Artists A-Z."

Another BACH 333 book is Bach: The Music, with an introductory essay from Christoph Wolff, "Complete Bach: What is Missing? The BWV³ "serves as the basis for many of the dein the present essay," says Wolff (Ibid.: 5). "Many of his works never reached a definitive form, but underwent a process of transformation during their pre-1750 performance history. Discoveries of this sort shed light for the first time on the lively manner in which Bach treated his works, thereby touching on an essential but often neglected aspect of his music. In the final analysis, our picture of his full oeuvre is incomplete." Wolff repeats the still-disputed statement that Bach composed five cycles of church cantatas and as to where the "100 extra four-part chorale harmonizations come from if not from cantata and cantata-like compositions?" Other lost works involve chamber music; vocal music such as the Cöthen funeral music, BWV 1143=244a, the St. Mark Passion, BWV 247, and the drammi per musica, BWV 1161=Anh. 13; and "the lack of original autography scores for Bach's early organ and clavier works," which may have been destroyed when replaced by later versions.

Wolff acknowledges (Ibid.: 8) that "the total number of musical discoveries over the greater part of a century is relatively modest." Meanwhile a few works initially rejected have now been restored to the BWV canon, such as the motet, Ich lasse dich nicht," BWV 1164=Anh. 159, and the chamber works BWV 1038 and 1025. Some works previously attributed to Bach are now the music of others, such as the St. Luke Passion, BWV 246, and Cantatas BWV 15, 53, 141, 142, 145, 160, 189, and 200. Still these apocryphal works have merit, as do the 19 Johan Ludwig Bach cantatas and a cantata cycle of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel that Bach performed in Leipzig. The latter "casts the relevant source studies of Bach Leipzig church activities in a new light," says Wolff (Ibid.: 8). Several Latin church compositions have been rejected while others involving Bach interventions are now found in the BWV canon, such as BWV 1082 and 1083. "The remaining works of doubtful authorship will probably exercise scholars for a long time to come," says Wolff (Ibid.: 9), particularly the "problematic" and the "large body on workmanlike organ chorales that lack idiomatic stylistic traits pointing clearly to Bach and offer no form clues in their source transmission." The authenticity of some organ works are still debated at the Leipzig Bach Archive, while Wolff and Hans-Joachim Schulze have catalogued Bach Compendium numbers (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Ref/IndexRef-BC.htm) J (Free Organ Works and K (Chorale-based Organ Works) (see http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/CompleteOrgan.pdf).

Reconstructions based upon reliable models can assist in recovering or realizing lost models, says Wolff. The St. Mark Passion as an obvious parody (new text underlay) has engendered numerous reconstructions while the narrative is the most problematic and various solutions have been accomplished (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Vocal/BWV247.htm). Wolff cautions that Bach "never transferred the existing music as it stood, but took liberties and made alterations in order to accommodate it to the new work." "It is therefore especially regrettable that we are unable to retrace the musical evolution of Bach's dramatic settings of the Biblical Passion story from" the gospels of John (1724), Matthew (1727) and Mark (1731), all existing in various versions. Wolff also cautions that the original solo instrument in concertos cannot be exactly determined and here again Bach would have made various adjustments. He acknowledges that there are fine examples of reconstructions and that a "latter reworking of heterogeneous models [BWV 1041, 1044, 894 and 527/2] illustrates the great breadth of Bach's creative imagination."

Wolff also acknowledges that there are many vocal works that have various versions. Meanwhile, Bach realizations have existed since Wilhelm Rust in the Bach Gesellschaft published works edition reconstructed concertos. Realizations of fragmented works such as Cantata 197a and others have been accomplished by scholars such as Diethard Hellmann while recently Ton Koopman and Masaaki Suzuki in their "complete" cantata recordings have provided missing parts or sections. There are three recent reconstructions of the Cöthen funeral music (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV244a.htm) and Alexander Grychtolik also has reconstructed a source-critical version of the St. Mark Passion (published by Peters), two Cöthen serenades BWV 36a and 66a (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Performers/Grychtolik-A.htm#C1) and Leipzig Cantatas BWV 216 and 210 (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/BWV216-D3.htm).

Bach Scholarship Cautionary Concerns

Returning to the challenges of Bach narrative and musical studies, various still-controversial topics were outlined in Hans-Joachim Schulze's 2004 essay, "Bach in the Early Twenty-first Century,"³ a cautionary assessment of Bach scholarship and challenges in the future. Schulze seems skeptical of the OVPP (one-voice-per-part) concept, the "current vogue for 'updating' and reinterpreting" works, the failure to use both the "why" and "how" (motive and method) questions in studies, the search for hidden meanings such as "abstract numerical relationships," the reconstruction of lost works such as the St. Mark Passion, and equal temperament. Schulze advocates "a close collaboration of scholarship and practice."

ENDNOTES

¹ Christoph Wolff, Bach: Essays on his Life and Music (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1991; https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Essays-His-Life-Music/dp/0674059263); Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (New York: W. W. Norton) with his 2013 updated edition (https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Musician-Paperback-ebook/dp/B002GKGBLE).
² John Eliot Gardiner, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (New York: Knopf, 2013); Marshall review, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43489891?seq=1.
³ Hans- Joachim Schulze, Afterword: "Bach in the Early Twenty-first Century," in The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Raymond Erickson, Aston Magna Academy Book (New York: Amadeus Press, 2009: 291ff).

Aryeh Oron wrote (February 20, 2020):
[To William L. Hoffman] The noted German musicologist, Michael Maul, who is on the research staff of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, informed me recently that he is preparing a pictorial Bach biography, which will be published German/English in June 2020.

William L. Hoffman wrote (February 22, 2020):
Bach Biography: Maul pictorial biography: https://www.bookdepository.com/Bach-Michael-Maul/9783957971012

Bach Biography: Contrasting Musical, Historical perspectives

William L. Hoffman wrote (March 1, 2020):
Two noteworthy Bach essay collections offer significant, contrasting perspectives on Bach musical and historical biography in the past century. The first is a collection of essays spanning a half century (1935-85) of historical-musicological studies of Bach by a German emigrant which outlines advances of Bach research in the 20th century and the second is a collection of illustrated essays based on significant findings since 1985 of Bach in context. Gerhard Herz's 1985 Essays on J. S. Bach1 was one of the first such study publications written by this German-born Bach scholar (1911-2000) who spent his final six decades in America researching and teaching Bach's music (https://louisville.edu/artsandsciences/about/hallofhonor/inductees/gerhard-herz). Herz's 1935 dissertation, "Johann Sebastian B's Survival in the Age of Rationalism and Early Romanticism," was the first significant Bach reception history study. His 1970 article, "Toward a New Image of Bach," was the first to take a new view of Bach on the basis of significant research beginning in 1950. Raymond Erickson's The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach is a 2009 academic interdisciplinary collection of 10 chapters by leading scholars with more than 200 illustrations in two parts that explores Bach in context from academic topics to ones impacting Bach:2 The Context for Bach (general historical, religious, architecture, musician novels, acting, dance) and Bach in Context (religion, big city lure, Leipzig, Bach in the early 21st century).

Herz in his dissertation initially shows the 19th German Romantic musicological perspective of Philipp Spitta and Albert Schweitzer, with Herz's strong emphasis on Bach's music and spirituality. 3 Using Bach Jahrbuch studies from the early 20th century, notably essays of Bernard Friedrich Richter, Herz probed sources of Bach sons Friedemann in Halle and Emanuel in Berlin, as well as publication sources, to show that some 45 Bach vocal works actually were performed from 1750 to 1800, particularly in Bach circles in Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg, and vienna. http://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.355/SET=8/TTL=51/CMD?ACT=SRCH&IKT=1016&SRT=RLV&TRM=Gerhard+Herz&MATCFILTER=N&MATCSET=N&NOABS=Y.4 "This is a very important document for its time and represents one of the earliest attempts to document Bach reception," says the late Anne Leahy.5 Herz particularly relied on the second generation of musicologists Arnold Schering, Friedrich Smend and Charles Sanford Terry, she says (Ibid.: 65). His "dissertation may be regarded as an important historical document showing where Bach research and reception stood in the mid-1930s," says Leahy (Ibid.). "In my view, Herz's most important contribution to Bach scholarship has been the identification of the [progressive] lombardic rhythm" in the "Domine Deus" of the Mass (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZZxamoyoWs), says Leahy (Ibid.: 70). Initially, Herz (as all other Bach scholars) did not initially recognize the progressive music in Bach's B-Minor Mass, particularly the stile galant of the "Laudaumus Te" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGAsTaIGOlg) and the Empfindsamer Stil of the "Benedictus" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzIk-Qix_xg), says Leahy (Ibid.: 65).

Herz's other major contribution to Bach scholarship is his 1971 essay, "Towards a New Image of Bach" (BACH 1970/71), which he retitled "The Changing Image of Bach: Four Decades of New Findings" as his 1978 retirement lecture. This essay, reprinted in 1985 (Ibid.: 149-84), discusses the advances in Bach research since the 1930s. The old image of Bach from the 19th century revival centered on the old chronology of his works from Spitta, in Leipzig composing a cantata monthly. The new, greatly compressed dating of 1723-27, is based on manuscript handwriting and watermarks and lead to Friedrich Blüme's "picture of a radically secularized" Bach that "was overdrawn," says Herz (Essays: 163). Meanwhile, scholarly studies of Bach major vocal works and his cantatas, as well as Bach's spirituality, suggest a new, more complex image. Herz in his essay still retains the older subjective, poetic Romantic view of Bach struggling in Leipzig, suggesting that in 1725 he curtailed cantata production and sought other musical outlets, turning in 1730 to keyboard publication and other musical interests. Bach's last decade produced his final versions of the Passions and new works using both old and new styles, written for posterity, which Leahy finds are both didactic and "living music" (Ibid.: 73). Herz concludes with the subtitled section, "Bach as a tragic figure" (Essays: 179), withdrawing from civic life and composing masterpieces. "As a scholar Herz will be remembered as one of those who played an important role in the formation of the modern American musicology," says Leahy (Ibid.: 74), as shown in her appendix bibliography of Herz's Bach-related writings (Ibid.: 76-70). Herz also contributed to the new scholarly studies with two monograph Norton Critical Scores of Cantatas 4 and 140,6 as well as the 1973 essay, "The Performance History of Bach's B Minor Mass."

Worlds of Bach

The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach goes far beyond the traditional Bach personal and musical biography to explore the contexts of the worlds in which Bach lived and their direct influences.7 Erickson, whose specialty is Bach interpretation, mines documents and sources studied systematically during the Bach tricentenary in 1985, as well as subsequent discoveries following the watershed Bach 250th anniversary of his death in the year 2000. In his Preface, Erickson emphasizes the English-language contribution to Bach studies, an area increasingly accepted in Bach German studies which now often translate findings into English. The 1985 events explored Bach in context, a perspective rarely pursued previously, except for German theological studies of Bach. Significant recent events impacting Bach studies were the fall of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe in 1989 that opened up vast areas of studies, the New Bach Edition Revised and the Bach Dokumente, and most recently the Leipzig Bach Archive (https://www.bach-leipzig.de/en/neutral/about-us).
The most impressive ingredients of The Worlds of Bach are Erickson's "Introduction: The Legacies of J. S. Bach" and his significant descriptions of the 200-plus accompanying illustrations. The legacies involve the family, religion, and Western musical traditions from the Renaissance to Baroque with musical subtopics on the organ, French and Italian influences and Bach the progressive and synthesizer. The first two-thirds of the book (six chapters) deal with Part 1, The Context for Bach, with essays from Bach and other specialists. The only previous such interdisciplinary study is the series Music and Society, The Late Baroque Era: From the 1680s to 1740 (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780333516034). Of particular note are the chapters by Bach specialists: Robin A. Leaver, "Religion and Religious Currents"; Stephen Rose, "Musician-Novels of the German Baroque"; and Meredith Little, "Courtly, Social, and Theatrical Dance." Each has written about topics related to Bach: Leaver on the Lutheran Reformation and its music, Rose on novelists such as Bach's predecessor, Johann Kuhnau, and Little with a brief closing subsection on "Bach and His Dancing World." Each also has written monographs in their perspective fields related to Bach.8 The other Part I chapters are Norman Rich, "The Historical Setting: Politics and Patronage"; Christian F. Otto, "Architectural Settings"; and Simon Williams, "The Cradle of Herman Acting." All are academic surveys of their particular fields.9 Rich's historical inquiry deals with the various Bach governing bodies from the Holy Roman Empire and the Saxon principality and its conflicts to the various duchies and independent towns, as well as a subsection on "Bach and the Politics of Patronage" in the various places he served. Otto emphasizes the structures of the institutions Bach served: church, court, municipality. Williams stresses Leipzig as the provincial incubator of theatrical acting and the various factional conflicts of learned authors such as Bach librettist Johann Christoph Gottsched (https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Gottsched.htm).

Bach in Context

The most rewarding chapters of The Worlds of Bach are the three in Part II, Bach in Context. Robert L. Marshall's "Bach and Luther" begins withthe impact of Luther's hymns on Bach's settings in the organ chorale collections (Orgelbüchlein, the "Great 18" chorales, the Clavierübung III German Organ Mass and Catechism, and the Variations on "Von Himmel hoch") as well as the chorale cantata cycle. Other topics include Luther's gifts as a poet and musician, the now unrivaled connection between the two men, and Bach's affinity for the Reformer, both musically and theologically. George B. Stauffer's "Bach and the Lure of the Big City" focuses on the three major German cities which Bach visited and their mutual attraction and musical connections — Hamburg, Berlin, and Dresden — rather than the smaller towns and courts where Bach lived and worked. Organ music was the primary motivation for Bach's residence in Lüneberg and visits to Hamburg in Northern Germany, studying with Dietrich Buxtehude and improvising before Johann Adam Reincken. Bach's trips to Berlin are documented in 1719 when he picked up a harpsichord manufactured there and three times in his last decade, most notably his encounter in 1747 with Friedrich the Great, son Emanuel's employer. The Saxon capital of Dresden was Bach's most frequented venue, once from Leipzig in 1717 and six from Leipzig between 1725 and 1741. It had many attractions, including well-known musicians, its cultural life, important patrons at the court, and son Friedemann's employment at the Church of Our Lady.

In Christoph Wolff's "Bach in Leipzig," various integrated illustrations with extended, descriptive captions attest to the impact of the city on Bach and vice versa. The prosperous community, crossroads of European commerce, trade, and travel, also was the heart of Lutheran orthodoxy with many churches that Bach served, an intellectual hub of a thriving University of Leipzig involving law, classical studies, and theology, and growing outdoor and indoor venues as well as Collegium musicum ensembles. Bach responded to his calling with a wealth of "well-regulated church music to the glory of God," in five cycles of Christological works as well as profane drammi per musica and comic pieces, and learned studies of musical collections of chorales and counterpoint. Bach's range of commitments, activities, and interests defined his non-musical, historical biography with complementary teaching, stewardship of church properties in a "collegial system with a strict rank order," Wolff (Ibid.: 272), and the raising of a large family. Musically, Bach the "compleat musician" expanded his orchestras with new instruments, created "a new and large repertory of church music that would serve for decades to come" (Ibid.: 273), performed ancillary sacred responsibilities for life's passages and special events as well as public concerts in the 1730s, taught private students, "an area in which he had little if any competition from among his composers anywhere in Europe" (Ibid.: (281f), and fashioned "a sense of his own place in history" in his final decade, says Wolff" (Ibid.: 286) with legacy compositions.

ENDNOTES

¹ Gerhard Herz, Essays on J. S. Bach (Ann Arbor MI: UMI Research Press, 1985); Contents, https://unm-on-worldcat-org.libproxy.unm.edu/search?queryString=no:8273776#/oclc/8273776: "View Description."
² The Worlds of Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Raymond Erickson, Aston Magna Academy Book (New York: Amadeus Press, 2009); review, http://www.classical.net/music/books/reviews/1574671669a.php.
³ From draft outline of proposed Master's thesis, "Nurturing Bach's Vocal Music Legacy, 1750-1800," correspondence submitted to Gerhard Herz, 10 June 1994.
⁴ See Bach Bibliography (http://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.355/SET=8/TTL=51/NXT?FRST=61&ADI_LND=&NOABS=Y] Nos. 18, 20, 38, 39, 55.
⁵ Anne Leahy, "The American Image of Bach from a German Emigré's Perspective: Gerhard Herz and the Modern American Bach Movement," in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Vol. 40, No. 1, 2009 (Berea OH: 64), https://www.jstor.org/stable/41640581?seq=1, accessed 29 February 2020.
⁶ Norton Critical Scores, Gerhard Herz: Bach Cantata No. 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden: Historical Background, Analysis, Views and Comments (New York: W. W. Norton, 1967), https://www.amazon.com/Cantata-No-Norton-Critical-Scores/dp/0393097617, and Bach Cantata No. 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme: The New Chronology of Bach's Vocal Music (significant source), Historical Background, Analysis, Views and Comments (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971), https://www.amazon.com/Cantata-No-Norton-Critical-Scores/dp/039309555X.
⁷ Also see Robert L. and Traute Marshall, Exploring the World of J. S. Bach, American Bach Society (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016), https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Books/B0217.htm.
⁸ Perspective fields of Bach studies: Robin A. Leaver ed., The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach (Abingdon GB: Routledge, 2017; Leaver "Introduction," "Churches," Chorales"; https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Research-Companion-to-Johann-Sebastian-Bach/Leaver/p/book/9781409417903); Stephen Rose, Musical Authorship from Schütz to Bach (Cambridge University Press, 2019; https://www.amazon.com/Musical-Authorship-Schütz-Performance-Reception/dp/1108421075); and Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne, Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach, enlarged ed. ( Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001; https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16xwc0p).
⁹ Academic fields, further reading: Music at German Courts, 1715-60: Changing Artistic Priorities, various eds., 15 essays (Woodbridge BG: Boydell Press, 2011; https://www.amazon.com/Music-German-Courts-1715-1760-Priorities/dp/1843835983); Bach's Changing World: Voices in the Community, ed. Carol K. Baron (University of Rochester (NY) Press, 2006, https://boydellandbrewer.com/bach-s-changing-world.html); Otto Bettmann, Johann Sebastian Bach: As His World Knew Him (New York: Carol Publishing, 1995; https://www.amazon.com/Johann-Sebastian-Bach-World-Knew/dp/1559722797); and Andrew Talle, Beyond Bach: Music and Everyday Life in the Eighteenth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017; https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Bach-Everyday-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0252040848).

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To Come: Bach and Handel: competitive synchronicity and contrasts in biography and music