| Contents |
Approaching Bach. What do we know about Bach? ; The grand old men of Bach biography. Forkel, Spitta, Schweitzer ; Transmission of the works -- Part one. The stations of Bach's life. From matins singer to Hofkapellmeister. Eisenach ; Ohrdruf ; Lüneburg ; Arnstadt ; Mühlhausen ; Weimar ; Cöthen -- Cantor at St. Thomas and city music director in Leipzig. The position and its new incumbent ; The early years in Leipzig ; The middle Leipzig period: "court composer" -- Director of the Collegium Musicum and composer of secular music. Aesthetic controversies, private initiatives ; The later Leipzig years: the universalist ; The Bach household -- Part two. The vocal music. The early and Weimar cantatas ; The Leipzig cantatas ; The passions ; Secular cantatas and the Christmas oratorio ; The Magnificat and the masses ; The motets -- Part three. The instrumental works. The art of the toccata ; The organ chorales ; The Cöthen demonstration cycles: inventions and sinfonias, The well-tempered clavier, six solos for violin ; The concertos ; The sonatas and suites ; The late cycles. The Goldberg variations ; The art of fugue ; The musical offering -- Part four. Horizons. Bach's art ; Bach as a Christian ; Rhetoric and symbolism ; Proportion and numerical relations in Bach's music ; Theological Bach research: between scholarship and faith-inspired learning. |
