"In 1727, Stefan Silbermann is a grief-stricken thirteen-year-old, struggling with the death of his mother and his removal to a school in distant Leipzig. Despite his father's insistence that he try not to think of his mother too much, Stefan is haunted by her absence, and, to make matters worse, he's bullied by his new classmates. But when the school's cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil's beautiful singing voice and draws...

Every famous piece of art has an origin story--even Bach's Goldberg Variations! When the richest dude in town can't sleep, he hires a much-less-rich dude named Johann Gottlieb Goldberg to play him lullabies on the harpsichord. Goldberg does an OK job, but as the Rich Dude hollers for Goldberg each night, he wakes up the whole town in the process. As the town gets sleepier and sleepier and grumpier and grumpier, Goldberg worries he may be out of a...

This landmark book was revised in 2013 to include new knowledge discovered after its initial publication. Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this towering figure of the Baroque era....

A brief biography of the prolific eighteenth-century composer and organist who created some of the world's greatest instrumental and religious music.

"A comprehensive and fascinating study of the overall creative output of Johann Sebastian Bach, capturing the essence of his art. In this companion volume to his Pulitzer Prize-finalist biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, leading Bach scholar Christoph Wolff contextualizes his famous subject by delving deeply into the composer's rich collection of music. Emerging from this complex and massive oeuvre, Bach's Musical Universe is...

"Dan Moller grew up listening to heavy metal in the Boston suburbs. But something changed when he dug out his mother's records of 'The Art of the Fugue,' inexplicably wedged between 16 ABBA Hits and Kenny Rogers. Moller became fixated on Bach and his music, but only learned to play it for himself as an adult. In 'The Way of Bach,' Moller draws us into the strange and surprisingly funny world of the composer and his milieu. Did you know 'The Goldberg...

Focuses on the childhood and early musical training of the prolific eighteenth-century German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach's Operas of the Soul is the first introduction for the general music lover to Bach's sacred cantatas to appear in nearly half a century. In clear and accessible language, Mark Ringer examines this vast output of masterpieces as the great musical dramatic creations that they are in order to open these works to a wider audience.0Bach's sacred cantatas represent an almost superhuman artistic and spiritual achievement, arguably the richest investment...

Join Scott Yoo, renowned violinist and conductor of the Mexico City Philharmonic, in, a new four-part documentary miniseries presented by Great Performances that merges music, storytelling, and travel, as he chases the secret histories of some of the greatest music ever written.