Item #7697 Oxford Composer Companion: J.S. Bach. Malcolm Boyd.

Oxford Composer Companion: J.S. Bach

Publisher: Oxford University Press, June 17, 1999.
Edition: First
Book Condition: New
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0198662084 / 9780198662082

This superb reference work on Johann Sebastian Bach is the first volume in a new series of Oxford Companion volumes focused on major composers.
Illustrated with twenty-four black-and-white plates, this volume features over a thousand alphabetically arranged entries covering Bach's music, his life and times, scholarship on Bach, and the performance of his music. Readers will find entries on the various genres that Bach worked in (including chorales, fantasia, sonata, concerto, missa), his many individual works (such as St. John's Passion, The Goldberg Variations, Brandenburg Concertos, Passacaglia, Well-Tempered Clavier, The Christmas Oratorio, and The Art of Fugue), places important to his career (such as Muhlhausen, Weimar, and Leipzig), and important contemporaries (Handel, Rameau, Vivaldi, Telemann, among others). It also includes entries on instruments (harpsichord, organ, clavier, and so on), Bach performance practice, stylistic influences on his work, and other biographical details. The book concludes with a family tree, a chronology of Bach's life, a list of his works, and a glossary of terms.
Bach was one of the giants of classical music, a composer of astonishing powers of invention. In The Oxford Composer Companion: J.S. Bach, music aficionados will have at their fingertips a treasure chest of information on this major figure.

From Library Journal

Organized alphabetically, this reference includes over 1000 entries by 28 scholars and performers on every conceivable subject even remotely relating to J.S. Bach: his compositions, family, era, musical instruments of the period, and past and present interpreters. Appendixes include a list of Bach's compositions (including BWV numbering, date of composition, scoring, first publication date, location of the autograph score, and page in the complete works publications), text incipits, chronologies of lives and compositions, a glossary of terms, a map of Bach's Germany, and a family tree. The entries range from a hundred words to several pages, and some subjects are singled out for longer essays, for example, fugue, number symbolism, reception, and revival. Most entries are clearly written, although the analytical material can be quite technical. Editor Boyd was on the editorial team of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1995). This is an excellent first volume of a new series of extensive composer-based reference books from Oxford. At Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Oxford University Press is inaugurating a new series of composer companions with an impressive work on J. S. Bach. Edited by the noted Bach scholar Boyd, this first English-language A^-Z encyclopedia on Bach has more than 900 entries written by 44 contributors. The contributors are well chosen, writing on their interests — Russell Stinson wrote the entry on the Orgel-Buchlein ("Little Organ Book") and has also completed a book on the same collection of organ chorales. The consultant editor is John Butt, who edited The Cambridge Companion to Bach (1997), which includes essays on Bach's life and works as well as on his influence on modern music.

The Oxford volume provides short and long entries, many with bibliographies, on aspects of Bach's life, family, pupils, and employers; musical and technical terms; and individual works. Short articles describe cadenza fantasia, timpani, and watermarks. The book also includes entries on current Bach festivals and twentieth-century musicians noted for Bach interpretations, such as Glenn Gould and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

Extensive essays cover Bach's major works (Brandenburg Concerto, Mass in B Minor) and types of compositions (chorale, fugue). One of the longest entries, reception and revival, surveys Bach's impact on various national musical traditions. Another discusses recordings. Black-and-white illustrations of Bach, his sons, places important in his life, a family tree, manuscripts of his works, and a map of his Germany enhance the text. The appendices list Bach's works by category and title, with both BC (Bach Compendium) and BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) catalog numbers. A "Thematic Overview" at the beginning of the volume lists entries by topic. It also includes a brief glossary of musical terms. This volume is a significant resource for the study of one of the most amazing composers who ever lived. Recommended for academic, public, and, of course, music libraries.

Review

"[O]rients readers well to current issues in Bach scholarship...Offers many fascinating insights."--Books & Culture

 

"This is an excellent first volume of a new series of extensive composer-based reference books from Oxford."--Library Journal

 

"Black-and-white illustrations of Bach, his sons, places important in his life, a family tree, manuscripts of his works, and a map of his Germany enhance the text.... A significant resource on one of the most amazing performers who ever lived."--Booklist

 

"A vast storehouse of information on almost everything you could want to know about this most universally revered of composers. Up to date with recent scholarship and research, it deals very readably with an immense field of subjects--Bach's life, family, friends, pupils and contemporaries, places connected with him, sources of his works, instruments (with specifications of organs he played), musical forms, publishers, scholars, and much more. Every single one of the cantatas is examined in considerable detail, as well as the Passions and many other works, such as the Brandenburg Concertos, the Art of the Fugue or the Clavier-Ubung."--Gramophone


Book Description

Introducing a new series of Oxford Companion--an authoritative, browsable reference work on Johann Sebastian Bach

From the Back Cover

More than 900 entries, arranged A-Z for ease of reference and supplemented by illustrations, music examples, and diagrams, bring together an unparalleled range of information on a vast array of Bach-related subjects, from individual works to the historical events of his day, liturgy to performance practice, the composers who influenced Bach to those who were influenced by him.

About the Author

Malcolm Boyd is the author of numerous books on music, particularly on Bach. He was a member of the editorial team for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and is a frequent contributor to periodicals and reviews. He lives in the United Kingdom.

Item #7697

Price: $42.97

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