San Antonio College Library

The 16 essays collected here of two kinds: stylistic and historical inquiries, and studies of the original sources. The articles deal with the music and shed new light on the composer's life. Part 1 reconsiders Bach's historical position and assesses the cultural significance of his achievement; Parts 2, 3 and 4 draw upon the original sources to explore the compositional process, questions of authenticity and chronology, and controversial issues of...

Johann Sebastian Bach devoted a significant portion of his life to the composition of stylized dance music and music based on dance rhythms. Although the music of this very special genre has long been a part of every serious musician's repertoire, very little has been written about it. In Part I, the authors describe the French dance practices in the cities and courts in which Bach lived. It also introduces terminology and analytical tools necessary...

With scholarship and the musical intuition of practiced performance, the author presents an internal reading of Bach's keyboard works. In the absence of interpretive directions, he seeks for clues to performance in the texture of the music itself, and his readings supply striking evidence that Bach was an accomplished law-breaker whenever tradition threatened to hamper his artistic insights. The eighty years from Bach's death to the year of Mendelssohn's...

This book sets forth the provocative theories of a musician who has been called the outstanding harpsichordist of this century.