Christoph Wolff

A magnificent biography of one of the towering figures in classical music. Bach inspires me as he does so many and this biography is inspirational in its own way. It provides details that challenge the reader and yet, heeding this challenge pays off through the intensity of those details and the resulting increase in one's knowledge of Bach's life and music and its influence on subsequent musical development.

2021 - As I work my way through [b:Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day|35405026|Year of Wonder Classical Music for Every Day|Clemency Burton-Hill|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1507318390l/35405026._SX50_.jpg|56776210] this year, I thought it might be good to find a highly recommended biography for each composer and plop them onto a shelf.

I don't know if a person with my current music level can ever consider this book "read." The first sections involving the history and life of Bach are really interesting but this book is really intense. It is hard to make your way through unless you are already a Bach scholar. I have already forgotten 3/4the the information already and expect to lose the rest in the coming weeks because my brain is just not capable of remembering all the incredible details :)

This is the classic biography of J S Bach and provides a wonderful overview of his life a work. I actually used the book as a travel guide when I took a tour of all of the places where Bach had worked. Based upon a reference in this book, I visited the city archives in Mullhausen and got to see the original employment contract of Bach as well as one of his travel expense reports.