Manuscripts, scores, and landmark editions of Johann Sebastian Bach's masterpieces evoke the remarkable creative journey of one of history's greatest composers, from sacred music to the enduring works that shaped Western musical tradition. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) stands among the defining figures in the history of Western music. During his lifetime, he was admired primarily as a formidable organist, improviser, and teacher. The full scale of his achievement as a composer became widely recognized only in later generations, when his music began to exert a decisive influence on composers across radically different periods and traditions. Bach brought the language of the Baroque to its highest point of structural refinement and expressive depth. His command of counterpoint was inseparable from a profound understanding of drama, faith, movement, and human feeling. From The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations to the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B mi...
A curated collection of writings on music, its creators, and the ideas behind it.