Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven

My grandfather was an organist. As a boy growing up in Slovenia, he practiced in every spare moment and in his teenage years was already directing music at his church. When communist forces showed up in his village to purge the ranks of able-bodied men my grandfather stood in line and watched men and boys loaded into the back of a military transport which would eventually deposit them in mass graves hidden in the woods and far from scrutiny.When he was finally at the front of the line he was briefly interrogated at gunpoint. “And you, boy, what is your occupation?”He answered confidently and honestly, “I am a musician. An organist. I play the music of God.”His inquisitor lowered his rifle and gestured him away. “Go, then. Go and play God’s music as if it were for your life and salvation.”This is precisely what my grandfather would do. He was hidden among the nuns at a local parish until he was able to escape Slovenia through miles-long crude tunnels in the mountains. Through displaced persons camps and further arduous travels, he continued to pursue his music however possible knowing that it not only granted a brief reprieve to those around him, but that his very life had been spared so that he might honor his God with his talents.He would spend years hidden away as a refugee in Gratz, Austria where he had access to a beautiful pipe organ and could play rapturous music in times fraught with violence. Eventually he would immigrate to United States and continue to play music as though it were the very basis of his salvation.I grew up lurking in the choir loft of his old San Francisco church where he would direct music for over 50 years. I was fascinated to watch his hands move like lightning switching from one manual of his organ to the next, pulling out stops, simultaneously directing the chorus of voices to his left with jerking flat-handed darts of his wrist between chords. His feet kicked out booming bass notes that rattled my chest. It was a beautiful harmony of dexterity, practice, and brilliantly written music (much of it composed by my grandfather himself). I loved the complexity, depth, warmth, and variety that he could conjure from a single instrument.In college, I took an introductory music history course and was thrilled when the teacher played Bach’s Fugue in G-Minor (BMV 578). In the few short minutes that the song played I was transported back to those days in the choir loft and to my grandfather sitting straight backed at his piano practicing Bach’s music again and again until it was perfect. But this short piece of music was so complex with overlapping melodies played in overlapping rounds with hands and feet. I was enraptured and eager to explore Bach’s music further. What started as a love of his organ works expanded as I came to appreciate his versatility. In Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions I felt his brilliance on full display and suspected that he too may have found his salvation on a bench seat with his fingers poised over the keys of his organ which contained limitless possibilities.Turning to the book at hand, I was fascinated to learn more about the man himself. The book is impeccably and carefully researched--with somewhat scant biographical information, the author is careful to indicate what might be speculation and what is solid detail--for example extensive correspondence regarding remuneration, which was critically important for Bach (understandable for a man who fathered somewhere in the range of 20 children). Bach’s life was a struggle and his temper often taciturn, but his music transported him to another realm. His extraordinary talents as a performer actually scared a rival musician out of the city when a keyboardists’ duel was proposed.This book tends toward the technical at times and can get bogged down in financial details, but the author does well to keep the story moving along and it is fascinating to listen to the music Bach was composing while tracing the twists and turns of his personal life and career. Much like Bach’s music, this book has merit for its technical achievement alone. It is complex, composed with care, and has moments of pure beauty. Regarding Bach’s life, I am left with the impression of a man with an artists’ temperament who was driven to excel and gifted with mathematical and musical genius. The similarities to my grandfather are uncanny and reading this book helped me to connect not only with the life of this great composer, but also to my own story.BOh, Bach also wrote an awesome little song about coffee:Ah! How sweet coffee tastesMore delicious than a thousand kissesMilder than muscatel wine.Coffee, I have to have coffee,And, if someone wants to pamper me,Ah, then bring me coffee as a gift!

Well, its taken me a very long time to read this book and its not a fault of the book. This is part biography of Bach (though not as much as many may like), part biography of various pieces of his church music and the imagination that birthed it, and in large part evocative description of Bach's sacred music itself. There is much to commend here. Gardiner is one of the foremost experts on Bach today, and not because he has read nearly everything there is to read about Bach, although he has probably done so judging from the footnotes and endnotes (the former are all worth reading as they are full of gems, the latter are typically only citation details). Gardiner is himself a musician and conductor and has undertaken one of the most interesting and unique feats of musical exploration ever conducted (pardon the pun, and see below).Gardiner is a leader in the recent trend (since the '70s) in musical exploration which attempts to play the music of a particular composer or era (for Bach, the Baroque) in the way its original hearers would have experienced it. As such, performances will be played on period instruments (ie. gut strings rather than steel, instruments crafted using original techniques rather than modern, etc.) and played in the way they likely would have been originally played (ie. in churches rather than concert halls, unamplified, and often at a much quicker pace than modern sensibilities usually gravitate toward). Gardiner's "insider" perspective on Bach's music as interpreted through Bach's life and religious convictions as well as through having stood in Bach's place as conductor throughout a full church calendar cycle is really what makes this book special.Gardiner is at his best as an author when he is at his best as a conductor. The book describes at great length not only the musicology and the performance but also the psychology and theology of some of Bach's most well known works. These descriptions often sore along verbally, mirroring the score itself as it is playing back in the mind of the author. I have to admit that prior to reading this book, Bach was already my favourite composer. However, while reading this book, I purchased (or was given by a friend who himself masterfully plays Baroque music on period instruments) several CDs of Bach's music, as many as possible of which were conducted by Gardiner, performed by his famous Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists and recorded in churches or cathedrals. I have to advocate for this way of reading this book. Listening to the very work, performed (or as Bach might have preferred to think of it, offered) as close as possible to the way it would have originally been sung and played, while reading Gardiner's often emotional and spiritual descriptions of the works is among the closest experiences I've ever come to reading in four dimensions. Many will classify this as a biographical/historical work, but there are profound observations of psychology, theology, philosophy, liturgics and worship here as well. I did not always agree with Gardiner's rendering of Bach's Lutheran psychology or of Bach's own spiritual struggles. I thought perhaps where Gardiner sometimes detected doubt in Bach's scoring of a particular portion of the gospels or other Scripture, one could just as easily interpret a tried but steady faith or a determination to believe the promises of God despite the upheavals of this earthly life (Bach lost an uncle and both parents by the time he was 10, and he lost his first wife and several of his children - 10 if I recall). Or perhaps as is more likely, it is a combination of all of the above. But even where I wondered if Gardiner was misinterpreting the inspiration behind some of Bach's scores or some of his margin notes in his favourite Bible commentaries, I know that I am far richer for having had someone like Gardiner lead me into the inner world of Bach's mind and his music.Gardiner is somewhat uniquely qualified to write this book. Not only has Bach been in the forefront of his consciousness since he was a child and his family had a famous original portrait of Bach hanging in their stairwell, "overseeing" the home, but Gardiner set out on a unique and mind-blowing "Bach cantata pilgrimage" in 2000 with his orchestra and choir, playing all (yes, ALL) of Bach's sacred cantatas in a 52 week period in churches around Europe and the US. This meant that they performed nearly everyday for a year, sometimes more than once a day, something that Bach himself would have done in his post as Thomascantor in Leipzig. When one does this, one really get's inside the head and heart of the great master even as he himself was inhabiting the seasons of the church year, recounting and witnessing as they do to the history of redemption through the life and work of Christ.If someone wants a basic and general introduction to Bach, I highly recommend not this. If you want an in depth biography of the life of Bach this is also not your book. However, if you want to begin to understand Bach's sense of sacred mission, his motivations, and above all the tapestry of his sacred music itself in all its variation, complexity, energy and beauty, this deep-dive is your guide.

nao sei se é so o meu livro, mas quando voce abre a caba o livro começa no final e de cabeça pra baixo, colocaram a capa errada. mas o resto parece ser bom

Excelente MARAVILLOSO Libro,pero LIGERAMENTE maltratado.(NADA GRAVE, RASGUÑOS). No esperaron a que saliera por el producto y lo lanzaron por la reja. EXCELENTE TIEMPO DE ENTREGA.

Arrived late, but detailed and informative, this is an excellent biography. It never skimps on technical material, explaining the history and tradition of polyphonic music and sacred oral works, without talking over the reader’s head. An admirable balance. Bach’s massive output is explored in context. As a collector of books, with a very substantial music sub-collection, I highly recommend this text. Superb.

This is not a book to be merely "read", it's a book to be experienced with the music. Presumably people who read this book will already have some, if not most of the works mentioned in the book, but just in case, what you need to get the most out of the book is;- The Cantata Pilgrimage set (56CDs)- Christmas Oratorio- St John Passion- St Matthew Passion- Mass in B Minor- YouTube for looking up other music mentionedAll these works are discussed in depth in the book, and listening to them before, and after reading the corresponding chapters is truly enlightening. I gained a deeper appreciation for Bach's music through this book.Like all good books, though eager to continue to see what discovery came next, I was also sad to see the journey come to an end. It's a truly moving biography of Bach the man, and his work, by one of the most gifted interpreters of his music currently living.Now I'm hoping Sir John can write us a biography about Handel. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. : )

The best updated biography of Bach. Very much focused over singing compositions than instrumental. Made me discover a lot of wonderful things. Highly recommended.