J. S. Bach by Calvin R. Stapert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"When asked whether the St. Matthew Passion is the greatest work ever composed, Masaki Suzuki, conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan, responded affirmatively [...]"

While attempts to identify "the greatest work ever composed" are rather frivolous, if one were to treat them seriously no other composer would be more frequently mentioned by musicologists than Johann Sebastian Bach, and the St. Matthew Passion would certainly be close to the top, if not at the very top of their choices. The Erbarme dich, mein Gott aria for contralto from Passion is certainly the most beautiful piece of music I know, transcendent and sublime (look for Delphine Galou's performance on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBeXF... ). And, of course, Bach is my favorite composer.

J.S. Bach (2009) by Calvin R. Stapert is the second Bach's biography I have recently read, after Geck's Bach. Life & Times and I like this one a bit more, mainly because the author does not offer annoying running commentary to his own text as the other book does. Still, the author (or maybe it is the publisher) insists on typographical affectation of frequently repeating the most important sentences of the text at the top of the page.

The main emphasis of this biography is on religious roots of Bach's music. The author writes:

"I have made the assumption that Bach's thinking, indeed his whole being, was shaped by theology [of the Lutheran Reformation], a theology that he inherited from his ancestors and was given expression in the texts he set to music."

When discussing vocal works the author focuses on the theological content of the texts. He writes that he takes the theology expressed in those texts as "the key to Bach's own thoughts and feelings."

It is obviously very difficult to try to summarize Bach's tremendous opus in a few short phrases, yet the author does a good job when he states that the composer had always been working towards the goal of "well-regulated church music," and repeats this phrase in two different places of the text. Another key feature of Bach's work is noted as well

"[... these works] exhibit Bach's 'summa' mentality, that is his drive to do something comprehensively, to provide a 'summation', or to bring something to the 'summit' of its development."

I like the author's treatment of Bach's cantatas - the chronology, complexity of their form, and intense involvement with the chorale. My most favorite cantata (BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme) is mentioned as well. I have also enjoyed some personal tidbits about Bach's life: the funny story about his troubles with students in Arnstadt, and even funnier incident of Bach being reprimanded for having a young woman visit him in the choir loft. I also like the author's perhaps surprising observation in the Epilogue:

"The extraordinary quality that posterity has heard in Bach's music makes a stark contrast not only with how most of his contemporaries heard it but also with the ordinariness of Bach's life."

An interesting, worthwhile read, and a "must read" for any J.S. Bach fan.

Three-and-a-half stars.

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