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Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque—and occasionally so intemperate?
John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents� house, where it hung for safety during World War II. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer’s greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime’s immersion are distilled in this remarkable book, grounded in the most recent Bach scholarship but moving far beyond it, and explaining in wonderful detail the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects—and what it can tell us about Bach the man.
Gardiner’s background as a historian has encouraged him to search for ways in which scholarship and performance can cooperate and fruitfully coalesce. This has entailed piecing together the few biographical shards, scrutinizing the music, and watching for those instances when Bach’s personality seems to penetrate the fabric of his notation. Gardiner’s aim is “to give the reader a sense of inhabiting the same experiences and sensations that Bach might have had in the act of music-making. This, I try to show, can help us arrive at a more human likeness discernible in the closely related processes of composing and performing his music.�
It is very rare that such an accomplished performer of music should also be a considerable writer and thinker about it. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach’s works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.Ìý
John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents� house, where it hung for safety during World War II. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer’s greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime’s immersion are distilled in this remarkable book, grounded in the most recent Bach scholarship but moving far beyond it, and explaining in wonderful detail the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects—and what it can tell us about Bach the man.
Gardiner’s background as a historian has encouraged him to search for ways in which scholarship and performance can cooperate and fruitfully coalesce. This has entailed piecing together the few biographical shards, scrutinizing the music, and watching for those instances when Bach’s personality seems to penetrate the fabric of his notation. Gardiner’s aim is “to give the reader a sense of inhabiting the same experiences and sensations that Bach might have had in the act of music-making. This, I try to show, can help us arrive at a more human likeness discernible in the closely related processes of composing and performing his music.�
It is very rare that such an accomplished performer of music should also be a considerable writer and thinker about it. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach’s works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.Ìý
672 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 2013
673 people are currently reading
6,102 people want to read
About the author
John Eliot Gardiner
24Ìýbooks35ÌýfollowersSir John Eliot Gardiner is an English conductor.
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February 25, 2025
Let's hear it for seriously joyful music!
You know, there is always SO much to love in this vastly entertaining, musically nerdy and very thick book. I think I could lose myself in its beauties indefinitely.
So much good stuff here, and I now have:
Such a wealth of appreciation for the music: music that’s pretty basic in form, but outrageously complex in feeling!
Such a breadth of admiration for this man Bach’s incredible achievements in - to take but one example - single-handedly developing Western music, without any help at all, to a limit necessitating a total discard of other ancient musical modes - still prevalent before his oeuvre became dominant!
Such an amazement at this single composer, who repeated so many subtle tricks with the diatonic scale - becoming an old Isaac Newton to modern music’s iconoclastic Einsteins - that he developed a plug-‘n-play point which today’s young pop composers are still picking up for their own present-day creations... right where he left off!
Such a humble bending of this knee to this one single, ingenious musical polymath whose capacious mind seemed always ready to transmute any random incident into a thundering monolith of pure stentorian sound!
(Say, who was this old guy anyway, who without making much biographical noise in his life, totally KNOCKS THE SOCKS OFF any one of his lucky listeners - luckier still, if we are blessed with enough of the rudiments of tonality and performance to GIVE VOICE to any one of this Olympian’s works?)
Just a quiet, pious, bargain-basement dull-type dude who minded his own business and ONLY DID MUSIC.
Johann Sebastian Bach is sorta like the dull guy in a corner who puzzles for hours over a grossly abstruse mathematical conundrum...
Or the kind of family guy who would rather play the same basic form of frisbee, with fancier and fancier loop-de-loops multiplying as the lazy Sunday afternoon turned to dusk, just himself - with his dogs and his laughing kids and in-laws around a warming barbecue...
Or like a puny choir boy who’s not afraid to sing “thanks be to God� at the top of his voice when his turn finally comes. And really mean it!
This guy was like - really, I mean REALLY, SQUARE.
And how many modern composers are gonna start off in one key - and digressing through endless meanderings, variations and permutations without number - return to the same old ordinary key in the end? And always respect the laws of tonality?
Not many, but if you’re dumb old Bach - practically ALWAYS.
Bach is predictable. But awe-inspiring.
Chromatic. But conservative with regard to never straying far from home (like a well-trained husband)?
Hideously complicated. But delightfully simple-hearted.
World, meet Bach.
A quiet, trustworthy chap who practises what he preaches. A guy you’d trust your grandkids with.
An unassuming nondescript man whose colossal compositions could rock the Pillars of Hercules off their foundations.
A nice, ordinary guy who wrote PHENOMENALLY superhuman music.
You know, John Dryden once said that music will eventually untune the skies.
When that final day ultimately comes, I hope the angels play from a universal soundtrack...
And I think they will choose Bach’s great Art of Fugue after the trumpet of Judgement peals out over humanity.’s lost, errant ways -
For, as the Scrolls containing our individual judgements are unsealed, and we cower in shame in the audience, those 21 sententious notes of Bach’s masterpiece will be ominously repeated -
Until the Blue Cerulean sky cracks wide open, leaving only Percy Byshe Shelley’s “White Radiance of Eternity!�
Forever and Ever.
You know, there is always SO much to love in this vastly entertaining, musically nerdy and very thick book. I think I could lose myself in its beauties indefinitely.
So much good stuff here, and I now have:
Such a wealth of appreciation for the music: music that’s pretty basic in form, but outrageously complex in feeling!
Such a breadth of admiration for this man Bach’s incredible achievements in - to take but one example - single-handedly developing Western music, without any help at all, to a limit necessitating a total discard of other ancient musical modes - still prevalent before his oeuvre became dominant!
Such an amazement at this single composer, who repeated so many subtle tricks with the diatonic scale - becoming an old Isaac Newton to modern music’s iconoclastic Einsteins - that he developed a plug-‘n-play point which today’s young pop composers are still picking up for their own present-day creations... right where he left off!
Such a humble bending of this knee to this one single, ingenious musical polymath whose capacious mind seemed always ready to transmute any random incident into a thundering monolith of pure stentorian sound!
(Say, who was this old guy anyway, who without making much biographical noise in his life, totally KNOCKS THE SOCKS OFF any one of his lucky listeners - luckier still, if we are blessed with enough of the rudiments of tonality and performance to GIVE VOICE to any one of this Olympian’s works?)
Just a quiet, pious, bargain-basement dull-type dude who minded his own business and ONLY DID MUSIC.
Johann Sebastian Bach is sorta like the dull guy in a corner who puzzles for hours over a grossly abstruse mathematical conundrum...
Or the kind of family guy who would rather play the same basic form of frisbee, with fancier and fancier loop-de-loops multiplying as the lazy Sunday afternoon turned to dusk, just himself - with his dogs and his laughing kids and in-laws around a warming barbecue...
Or like a puny choir boy who’s not afraid to sing “thanks be to God� at the top of his voice when his turn finally comes. And really mean it!
This guy was like - really, I mean REALLY, SQUARE.
And how many modern composers are gonna start off in one key - and digressing through endless meanderings, variations and permutations without number - return to the same old ordinary key in the end? And always respect the laws of tonality?
Not many, but if you’re dumb old Bach - practically ALWAYS.
Bach is predictable. But awe-inspiring.
Chromatic. But conservative with regard to never straying far from home (like a well-trained husband)?
Hideously complicated. But delightfully simple-hearted.
World, meet Bach.
A quiet, trustworthy chap who practises what he preaches. A guy you’d trust your grandkids with.
An unassuming nondescript man whose colossal compositions could rock the Pillars of Hercules off their foundations.
A nice, ordinary guy who wrote PHENOMENALLY superhuman music.
You know, John Dryden once said that music will eventually untune the skies.
When that final day ultimately comes, I hope the angels play from a universal soundtrack...
And I think they will choose Bach’s great Art of Fugue after the trumpet of Judgement peals out over humanity.’s lost, errant ways -
For, as the Scrolls containing our individual judgements are unsealed, and we cower in shame in the audience, those 21 sententious notes of Bach’s masterpiece will be ominously repeated -
Until the Blue Cerulean sky cracks wide open, leaving only Percy Byshe Shelley’s “White Radiance of Eternity!�
Forever and Ever.
October 13, 2014
Still a book about Bach, the musician of the musicians, the boss. Why one moreover and what news? The author. John-Eliot Gardiner. An institution. The English chief was the student (and also the heir) of Nadia Boulanger. He was one of the heroes of the baroque revolution.This movement began in Holland and Germany at the end of the Seventies. The goal was to play again the Baroque music with more close to the authenticity: instrument of time, diapason with 451 herz, cord in bowel..Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs� This period is very well told in the book of Richard Powers. It is the American chief, William Christie, which started again the baroque opera with Atys de Lully. I have a particular tenderness for Leonhardt. To allure my wife I took her along to listen to him to play of harpsichord at the Sainte-Chapelle.The setting sun lit the stained glasses of this jewelry Gothic. The tart sound of the harpsichord rose in the vaults. That went.
Gardiner was one of the leaders of this revolution. With his chorus Monteverdi choir (in the great British tradition) and his orchestra English Baroque Solist, he has recorded many references of this repertoire, in particular of Monteverdi, the integral of the cantatas of Bach. When I was student in Lyon, he was chief of the Opera. I saw many of his concerts. With him we discovered "Les Boreades" of Rameau, "Scylla and Glaucus" of Léclair..He has also created the "Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra" for the more recent repertoire. He has even endangered him in directing Pélléas which is the most boring Opera of the repertoire. The libretto is of a terrible silliness. It is the only one which managed to make it audible.
Gardiner is undoubtedly the best person to write on Bach. He passed all his childhood in a farm of Dorset under the severe glance of Bach. the most famous portrait had been entrusted to his parents by German refugees (the destiny).
Gardiner is an expert of the music.. He shows us Bach in all his truth : a man irritable, perfectionist, require, high worker. Scorned by the middle-class of Leipzig, ihe complains him to an inhuman work. Gardiner places us in the middle of the creative process, because he knows it by the interior.
He traces to us the portrait of a so human man that he becomes to us close to him, far from the usual chromos.
I advise you a film. Chronicles of Maria Magdalena Bach drawn from the chronicles of the same name.It is known recently that the second woman of Bach did not write it. It is apocryphal book written in the USA at the beginning of XX. The film is in black and white, austere like all those of Straub and Huillet. There are long plan-sequence with hieratic characters. Leonarhdt plays Bach and Harnoncourt his student.
Gardiner was one of the leaders of this revolution. With his chorus Monteverdi choir (in the great British tradition) and his orchestra English Baroque Solist, he has recorded many references of this repertoire, in particular of Monteverdi, the integral of the cantatas of Bach. When I was student in Lyon, he was chief of the Opera. I saw many of his concerts. With him we discovered "Les Boreades" of Rameau, "Scylla and Glaucus" of Léclair..He has also created the "Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra" for the more recent repertoire. He has even endangered him in directing Pélléas which is the most boring Opera of the repertoire. The libretto is of a terrible silliness. It is the only one which managed to make it audible.
Gardiner is undoubtedly the best person to write on Bach. He passed all his childhood in a farm of Dorset under the severe glance of Bach. the most famous portrait had been entrusted to his parents by German refugees (the destiny).
Gardiner is an expert of the music.. He shows us Bach in all his truth : a man irritable, perfectionist, require, high worker. Scorned by the middle-class of Leipzig, ihe complains him to an inhuman work. Gardiner places us in the middle of the creative process, because he knows it by the interior.
He traces to us the portrait of a so human man that he becomes to us close to him, far from the usual chromos.
I advise you a film. Chronicles of Maria Magdalena Bach drawn from the chronicles of the same name.It is known recently that the second woman of Bach did not write it. It is apocryphal book written in the USA at the beginning of XX. The film is in black and white, austere like all those of Straub and Huillet. There are long plan-sequence with hieratic characters. Leonarhdt plays Bach and Harnoncourt his student.
December 8, 2016
Yet another book on Bach, are you kidding Fino? Well, yes and this one is really really good! John Eliot Gardner is one of the world's greatest performers of baroque music and this book provides insight into what for me would be the otherwise completely inaccessible world of Bach's choral music - all written in what is for me incomprehensible German. He has a great, entertaining writing style and I learned so much and loved learning about how I could appreciate the music despite not understanding the words. I even went to a performance of the Passion of Saint John at the Madeleine Church in Paris and was blown away (it did help to have printed programs with German on one side and French translation on the other but I was pissed off at a few of the editorial choices of the conductor who cut out some of the coolest parts that Gardiner had gotten me all would up about!). Needless to say, I would recommend reading Wolff's excellent Bach biography first but I would also insist that this book is a passionate and incredibly informative read as well.
November 27, 2016
Four months to read this book! Some brilliant things here, but also very frustrating. Gardiner strongly believes that Bach's religious music, specifically the prodigious cantata cycles, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, and the B minor Mass, are at the absolute center of Bach's accomplishment and identity. Fine, but he neglects Bach's stupendous "abstract" music, and really fails to address how those not attached to Bach's Lutheran variant of Christianity - how those who may not be religious at all - may find Bach's work to be the most important musical accomplishment of the last millennium.
This is not a standard biography; again that is fine, but if you want to know the basic data of Bach's life, this is not the place to start. (In spite of the book's 560 pages of text, Gardiner really does not touch upon J.S. Bach's family life at home, which is a little peculiar for a man whose wives went through twenty full-term pregnancies.)
Gardiner is an important and extremely accomplished musician, and it is very valuable to read this appreciation of the great composer written by someone who approaches him from that angle, from someone who understands how Bach's genius is expressed through performance. Just be aware that this should not be the first, and definitely not the last, book about Bach that you read.
This is not a standard biography; again that is fine, but if you want to know the basic data of Bach's life, this is not the place to start. (In spite of the book's 560 pages of text, Gardiner really does not touch upon J.S. Bach's family life at home, which is a little peculiar for a man whose wives went through twenty full-term pregnancies.)
Gardiner is an important and extremely accomplished musician, and it is very valuable to read this appreciation of the great composer written by someone who approaches him from that angle, from someone who understands how Bach's genius is expressed through performance. Just be aware that this should not be the first, and definitely not the last, book about Bach that you read.
August 30, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s detailed and full, from a conductor who has spent his whole career mastering Bach.
It dropped 1 star for the underlying “doubts� about Bach. Otherwise it’s great.
It dropped 1 star for the underlying “doubts� about Bach. Otherwise it’s great.
February 20, 2016
È stato davvero interessante leggere questo saggio, incentrato sulla produzione sacra di Bach, che dà poco spazio alla stretta biografia e solo nella misura in cui inquadra l'artista, uomo talvolta servile con i potenti (la sua vita dipendeva dalle loro grazie e commissioni, come biasimarlo), irascibile, in disputa per i compensi, stakanovista (per anni compose una Cantata a settimana lavorando senza sosta) intimamente religioso. La musica di Bach è incentrata su vita � morte � Dio e il suo fine, come noto, elevare l'anima a Dio e renderGli lode. Questa intima predisposizione per il sacro di Bach, certo non fu slegata dalle vicende biografiche: perse entrambi i genitori da bambino, la prima moglie all'improvviso, diversi figli ancora infanti. La morte era una realtà che conosceva bene.
L'autore � noto direttore d' orchestra inglese � è un fautore della musica barocca, benché i suoi interessi spazino dal Medioevo al Romanticismo, si può certamente dire che il barocco è il suo ambito musicale preferito, è stato lui a riportare in auge questo periodo della musica classica, abbastanza trascurato negli ultimi decenni. L'ha fatto con passione smisurata e raffinata dedizione, adottando per l'esecuzione dei brani, strumenti d'epoca, al fine di riprodurre nella maniera più fedele possibile le opere così come composte da Bach.
La sua passione è evidentissima in questo saggio volto a far comprendere il genio di Bach, la sua simmetria armoniosa, il suo anelito spirituale, la sua innovazione musicale - tanto più sorprendente in quanto Bach rimase tutta la vita un provinciale, non uscì mai dai confini tedeschi - con l'introduzione del contrappunto e di strumenti inusuali per l'epoca, quali l'oboe, il corno e l'utilizzo innovativo dei cantori. Passione, quella di Gardiner, che traspare nel metodo adottato, dottissimo e accurato � agli occhi di un lettore medio, assai ignorante di tecnica musicale, nel novero dei quali mi includo - oserei dire perfino troppo accurato, addirittura filologico è il metodo con cui commenta ogni singola strofa, delle opere più importanti del suo (nostro) amatissimo compositore tedesco. Ciò risulta sia un pregio sia un difetto, la lettura è a volte un po' rallentata, eccessivamente appesantita, laddove appare � spesso � lettura per musicisti esperti di Bach, più che per semplici ammiratori.
Il lettore medio, assai ignorante di musica, trae comunque diletto dall'immensa erudizione storica e teologica di Gardiner, ad esempio ho trovato eccellente la cornice storica della Germania post bellica, periodo in cui nacque Bach, ove si intende la terribile Guerra dei Trent'anni, talmente funesta e disastrosa da aver lasciato tracce profonde nella società anche a decenni di distanza, portando come eredità territori e città rase al suolo, miseria diffusa, famiglie decimate dalla guerra e dalla carestia e dalla peste, insieme a terribili ricordi di efferati delitti e soprusi e atti inumani quali, perfino, il cannibalismo, come narrate anche da Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen nel suo “L'avventuroso Simplicissimus�. Ugualmente accurata e interessante è il tratteggio della società tedesca del periodo (fine seicento, metà del settecento), come anche la diversa fruizione della musica sacra, eseguita in contesti molto più mondani e variegati di quanto non accada ai nostri tempi. Coltissimo Gardiner anche in materia teologica (a Cambridge ha studiato anche storia e lingua araba), mi ha molto colpito per la sua accuratezza, una nota sull'Arcangelo Michele, cui Bach ha dedicato una serie di cantate, tra le quali spicca la bellissima BWV 130 Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir Cantata per la festa di San Michele Arcangelo e tutti gli Angeli, dove si rende lode e gloria a Dio per aver creato gli angeli e dove, tra armoniosi gorgheggi e squilli di trombe prima, e trombe, basso continuo e timpani in seguito, si descrivono gli angeli danzanti in parata, prima della battaglia contro L'Angelo caduto e tutta la Geenna, e inseguito la battaglia vera e propria “battaglia che viene descritta non come evento passato ma come pericolo sempre incombente causato dal “vecchio dragone� che brucia di invidia e rimugina sempre su nuovi mali� (Cit, pag 482).
Insomma, un saggio che i profondi conoscitori del musicista apprezzeranno moltissimo e che gli altri troveranno stimolante e interessante, sorvolando magari sui tecnicismi dettagliatissimi � ma vivaddio, finalmente qualcuno che parla con cognizione di causa di argomenti che conosce a fondo. Per me è stato di stimolo a ricercare, tra i miei CD, quelli dedicati al genio teutonico, io gli ho sempre preferito il più frizzante Mozart, o di lui apprezzando la musica profana, “Concerti Brandeburghesi� e “Variazioni Goldberg� adesso comincerò a porre rimedio, con tutto il resto della sua vastissima, simmetricissima e paradisiaca musica. Mit himmlischer Freude!
August 4, 2014
The book offers musical insights into Bach's sacred music, and also into his time and place. We are presented with the results of a lot of fascinating (and on-going) research.
I love the cantatas, passions, masses... and have them all. I took helpful notes on what to listen out for in those cantatas I'm not familiar with. The Passions and the B Minor Mass are treated towards the end and I gave up at the end of the Kyrie. Reading about the B Minor Mass is a task for another time.
I thought that John Eliot Gardiner's enthusiastic prose could have done with some editing but occasionally there were inspiring passages of considerable beauty.
Because of the density and convolutions of the prose style, the smallness of the typeface and the over 660 pages I found this an eye-and-wrist-straining read.
April 27, 2023
Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach [2013] � ★★★★
In this biography, Gardiner strikes at the very heart of J. S. Bach’s genius, presenting to us a complex and sometimes contradictory musician who was also a very empathetic man.
“I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well�. Johann Sebastian Bach
The music of Bach is complex, inventive, awe-inspiring and brimming with mathematical precision and religious fervour. The man behind it appears equally stern and unapproachable. But, who was Johann Sebastian Bach really and how it came about that a cantor operating in a small region of Germany managed to compose music of such brilliant contours, imaginative force and spiritual depth? In this non-fiction, British conductor John Eliot Gardiner aims to shed light on these puzzling questions. Music in the Castle of Heaven is an illuminating account of Bach’s life and music that starts from the premise that to understand Bach’s art, we have to first immerse ourselves in the very essence of his time and place of birth. Numerous factors influenced Bach and made him into a musician we know today � familial, historic, socio-economic, cultural, educational � and without knowing these we cannot even begin to fathom the workings of Bach’s mind.
Gardiner presents a non-linear narrative of Bach’s life, which, though at times confusing, is still insightful. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach in the heart of the Thuringian forest, southern Germany. Like Mozart, he was born into a musical family, but had a strict Lutheran upbringing and lost both of his parents when he was still young. This trauma probably contributed to him becoming so withdrawn, but also resilient later in life. This resilience, but also strict discipline, faith and belief in his own abilities, played a role in his later professional success. Bach’s cousin, Christoph Bach, was one of the biggest influences on Bach as a child, demonstrating to young Bach that music can be “a receptacle in which to pour all of his life’s anguishes, one’s faith…and one’s passion and [it can] act as a…vehicle for self-expression� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 74].
We read about the influence of Bach’s first teachers and his early aspirations to become a virtuoso organist. And, in his life, Bach did manage to become an esteemed and admired court, school and municipal organist, cantor, composer and music director. The author provides fascinating episodes from Bach’s daily life, and we get the feel for Bach’s temperament and habits, and how these shaped him as a musician and composer, influencing his music. Gardiner is adamant that the historic, socio-economic and cultural atmosphere in which Bach lived and worked had a decisive say in his music. Much like Beethoven, Bach had to work in an intricate, “hierarchical urban environment� [2014: 248], being heavily reliant on the system of patronage, and also battling bureaucratic and ecclesiastical regulations in work production. It is in this difficult environment that he came up with pieces of pure technical and inventive brilliance, and his previous thorough training in canon-singing must have been of immeasurable help: “his knowledge of harmony was so profound that it was practically mathematical in effect. He knew how every single note and key related to each other, what could be done with every chord and with every change in direction� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 210].
Bach composed a large amount of religious music, but he was also living in times when Church was the focal point of the individual, family and community’s lives. His schooling was indistinguishable from both religious and musical schooling: “his earliest experiences in music were…indivisible from its role in acts of worship…� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 55]. This is important to bear in mind to understand Bach as a man and as a composer, and later we also learn just how central religion was to Bach’s psychology and philosophy. Bach dedicated much of his work to God’s glory, and “a high proportion of Bach’s music, unlike that of his peers, was addressed to a church congregation, rather than a lay audience� [Gardiner, 2014: 126]. The appeal of Bach’s music to religious followers must have been extraordinary, but the curiosity here is that the secular segment of society (and society was growing secular in Bach’s time) was also finding Bach’s music quite entrancing (it was heard both in churches and coffee-houses). We are all concerned with human matters because we are all human, and Bach’s music talks about our humanity and our struggles. It is on this basis that it feels so transcendental, enabling even non-religious listeners to appreciate its beauty, nuances, depth of vision and unshakeable belief: Bach’s music “carried a universal message of hope that can touch anybody regardless of culture , religious denomination or musical knowledge, it springs from the depths of the human psyche�;…“his art celebrates the fundamental sanctity of life, an awareness of the divine and a transcendent dimension as a fact of human existence� [Gardiner, 2014: 15, 523].
The final part of the book dissects Bach’s famous pieces, including his Cantatas (for example, Actus Tragicus and Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister), Mass in B minor, St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, providing much insight and historical context into each of these masterworks.
🎹 Although Gardiner is needlessly repetitive in the book’s second half, Music in the Castle of Heaven is still an accessible book which will delight both Bach’s admirers and those simply curious about his music. The author understands the importance of the effect of the immediate society on a composer and their development, showing us clearly how Bach’s environment and different factors from his childhood, schooling and work contributed to the man’s standing and psychology, essential elements to grasp in order to comprehend Bach’s music. Gardiner’s goal is achieved � J. S. Bach finally comes across as a human being, a man with ordinary faults and troubles, rather than some distant and isolated genius destined for success.
In this biography, Gardiner strikes at the very heart of J. S. Bach’s genius, presenting to us a complex and sometimes contradictory musician who was also a very empathetic man.
“I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well�. Johann Sebastian Bach
The music of Bach is complex, inventive, awe-inspiring and brimming with mathematical precision and religious fervour. The man behind it appears equally stern and unapproachable. But, who was Johann Sebastian Bach really and how it came about that a cantor operating in a small region of Germany managed to compose music of such brilliant contours, imaginative force and spiritual depth? In this non-fiction, British conductor John Eliot Gardiner aims to shed light on these puzzling questions. Music in the Castle of Heaven is an illuminating account of Bach’s life and music that starts from the premise that to understand Bach’s art, we have to first immerse ourselves in the very essence of his time and place of birth. Numerous factors influenced Bach and made him into a musician we know today � familial, historic, socio-economic, cultural, educational � and without knowing these we cannot even begin to fathom the workings of Bach’s mind.
Gardiner presents a non-linear narrative of Bach’s life, which, though at times confusing, is still insightful. Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685 in Eisenach in the heart of the Thuringian forest, southern Germany. Like Mozart, he was born into a musical family, but had a strict Lutheran upbringing and lost both of his parents when he was still young. This trauma probably contributed to him becoming so withdrawn, but also resilient later in life. This resilience, but also strict discipline, faith and belief in his own abilities, played a role in his later professional success. Bach’s cousin, Christoph Bach, was one of the biggest influences on Bach as a child, demonstrating to young Bach that music can be “a receptacle in which to pour all of his life’s anguishes, one’s faith…and one’s passion and [it can] act as a…vehicle for self-expression� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 74].
We read about the influence of Bach’s first teachers and his early aspirations to become a virtuoso organist. And, in his life, Bach did manage to become an esteemed and admired court, school and municipal organist, cantor, composer and music director. The author provides fascinating episodes from Bach’s daily life, and we get the feel for Bach’s temperament and habits, and how these shaped him as a musician and composer, influencing his music. Gardiner is adamant that the historic, socio-economic and cultural atmosphere in which Bach lived and worked had a decisive say in his music. Much like Beethoven, Bach had to work in an intricate, “hierarchical urban environment� [2014: 248], being heavily reliant on the system of patronage, and also battling bureaucratic and ecclesiastical regulations in work production. It is in this difficult environment that he came up with pieces of pure technical and inventive brilliance, and his previous thorough training in canon-singing must have been of immeasurable help: “his knowledge of harmony was so profound that it was practically mathematical in effect. He knew how every single note and key related to each other, what could be done with every chord and with every change in direction� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 210].
Bach composed a large amount of religious music, but he was also living in times when Church was the focal point of the individual, family and community’s lives. His schooling was indistinguishable from both religious and musical schooling: “his earliest experiences in music were…indivisible from its role in acts of worship…� [Gardiner, Penguin Books, 2014: 55]. This is important to bear in mind to understand Bach as a man and as a composer, and later we also learn just how central religion was to Bach’s psychology and philosophy. Bach dedicated much of his work to God’s glory, and “a high proportion of Bach’s music, unlike that of his peers, was addressed to a church congregation, rather than a lay audience� [Gardiner, 2014: 126]. The appeal of Bach’s music to religious followers must have been extraordinary, but the curiosity here is that the secular segment of society (and society was growing secular in Bach’s time) was also finding Bach’s music quite entrancing (it was heard both in churches and coffee-houses). We are all concerned with human matters because we are all human, and Bach’s music talks about our humanity and our struggles. It is on this basis that it feels so transcendental, enabling even non-religious listeners to appreciate its beauty, nuances, depth of vision and unshakeable belief: Bach’s music “carried a universal message of hope that can touch anybody regardless of culture , religious denomination or musical knowledge, it springs from the depths of the human psyche�;…“his art celebrates the fundamental sanctity of life, an awareness of the divine and a transcendent dimension as a fact of human existence� [Gardiner, 2014: 15, 523].
The final part of the book dissects Bach’s famous pieces, including his Cantatas (for example, Actus Tragicus and Leichtgesinnte Flattergeister), Mass in B minor, St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, providing much insight and historical context into each of these masterworks.
🎹 Although Gardiner is needlessly repetitive in the book’s second half, Music in the Castle of Heaven is still an accessible book which will delight both Bach’s admirers and those simply curious about his music. The author understands the importance of the effect of the immediate society on a composer and their development, showing us clearly how Bach’s environment and different factors from his childhood, schooling and work contributed to the man’s standing and psychology, essential elements to grasp in order to comprehend Bach’s music. Gardiner’s goal is achieved � J. S. Bach finally comes across as a human being, a man with ordinary faults and troubles, rather than some distant and isolated genius destined for success.
May 27, 2024
Appassionata biografia di Bach, scritta da un compositore e direttore d’orchestra che conosce la musica di Bach (soprattutto le sue cantate) come il palmo della sua mano.
Data la scarsità di informazioni che abbiamo sulla vita di Bach, l’autore fa quello che può per strizzare al massimo le fonti che abbiamo, in una maniera che mi sembra onesta e molto ben documentata.
Bach era un genio, su questo non ci sono tanti pareri discordanti, ma c’� ancora oggi una specie di stereotipo secondo il quale, mentre Mozart, Beethoven e altri erano personaggi un po� bizzarri e fuori dal comune, Bach era uno “noioso�. Gardiner sfata questo mito, evidenziando gli episodi che dimostrano la testardaggine di Bach e una sua certa irascibilità . Più di una volta si scontrò con i suoi datori di lavoro e con varie autorità , soprattutto quelle ecclesiastiche, perche' pare che nel suo breve periodo alla corte di un conte calvinista le cose andassero molto piu' lisce (c'e' anche da dire che i calvinisti non permettevano musica orchestrale nelle loro liturgie, percio' in quei 4 anni Bach compose musica "non da chiesa", anche se lui rimase sempre un luterano convinto e scrisse sempre con Dio nella mente e nel cuore).
Gardiner poi si tuffa in una serie di capitoli in cui analizza alcune opere di Bach, incluse le due immense Passioni e la Messa in Si minore. Non bisogna essere musicisti per capire questi capitoli, ma se, come me, siete solo dei pischelli della musica, vi consiglio vivamente di ascoltare le opere di cui parla, mentre leggete questi capitoli.
Queste analisi sono molto dettagliate e approfondite, un vero piacere da leggere mentre si ascolta la musica divina del genio sassone.
Ciò che risulta chiaro da queste analisi è che Bach non era solo “più avanti� rispetto ai musicisti suoi contemporanei, ma era proprio su tutto un altro pianeta.
A volte, Gardiner si fa un po� troppo prendere dalla voglia di leggere nel pensiero di Bach, e confonde la forza della musica di Bach con la forza della narrazione biblica usata nei testi delle sue cantate. È vero che Bach usava spesso il suo genio per fondere il messaggio religioso con quello della sua musica, ma a volte ho l’impressione netta che Gardiner esageri un po� con le sue speculazioni.
Un libro straordinario che consiglierei assolutamente a chiunque.
Data la scarsità di informazioni che abbiamo sulla vita di Bach, l’autore fa quello che può per strizzare al massimo le fonti che abbiamo, in una maniera che mi sembra onesta e molto ben documentata.
Bach era un genio, su questo non ci sono tanti pareri discordanti, ma c’� ancora oggi una specie di stereotipo secondo il quale, mentre Mozart, Beethoven e altri erano personaggi un po� bizzarri e fuori dal comune, Bach era uno “noioso�. Gardiner sfata questo mito, evidenziando gli episodi che dimostrano la testardaggine di Bach e una sua certa irascibilità . Più di una volta si scontrò con i suoi datori di lavoro e con varie autorità , soprattutto quelle ecclesiastiche, perche' pare che nel suo breve periodo alla corte di un conte calvinista le cose andassero molto piu' lisce (c'e' anche da dire che i calvinisti non permettevano musica orchestrale nelle loro liturgie, percio' in quei 4 anni Bach compose musica "non da chiesa", anche se lui rimase sempre un luterano convinto e scrisse sempre con Dio nella mente e nel cuore).
Gardiner poi si tuffa in una serie di capitoli in cui analizza alcune opere di Bach, incluse le due immense Passioni e la Messa in Si minore. Non bisogna essere musicisti per capire questi capitoli, ma se, come me, siete solo dei pischelli della musica, vi consiglio vivamente di ascoltare le opere di cui parla, mentre leggete questi capitoli.
Queste analisi sono molto dettagliate e approfondite, un vero piacere da leggere mentre si ascolta la musica divina del genio sassone.
Ciò che risulta chiaro da queste analisi è che Bach non era solo “più avanti� rispetto ai musicisti suoi contemporanei, ma era proprio su tutto un altro pianeta.
A volte, Gardiner si fa un po� troppo prendere dalla voglia di leggere nel pensiero di Bach, e confonde la forza della musica di Bach con la forza della narrazione biblica usata nei testi delle sue cantate. È vero che Bach usava spesso il suo genio per fondere il messaggio religioso con quello della sua musica, ma a volte ho l’impressione netta che Gardiner esageri un po� con le sue speculazioni.
Un libro straordinario che consiglierei assolutamente a chiunque.
September 11, 2017
“here is what many of us consider the most beautiful and profound manifestation that man is capable of in complex harmonious sounds that capture in an inexplicable way the joys and suffering we experience in our earthly lives�
John Eliot Gardiner, a man who spent much of his life conducting and interpeting Bach's music wrote this to explain what he thought was the most representative part of Bach's body of work - his Leipzig cantatas - and why they are important. He presents Bach's life and work from a number of points of view: his family and the overwhelming presence of death in the 17th century; his devout Lutheranism; the state of his craft at the time; the politics of his workplace; what's known of his work methods; as well as an analysis of some of the works. What emerges is a man who was uniquely fitted to express aspects of the human condition as movingly as perhaps can be done.
As well as giving me insight into a great artist it also opened my eyes to the cantatas which I now see as a very large body of rich and varied music. Up until now my interest in Bach had been for his keyboard music.
The book has two difficulties. If I were to tell any of my friends that I know a great 700 page book about church music I don't think any of them would ask for the title. Also there's a couple of hundred pages of relatively light musicology. But for people who find Bach's music moves them in a way they don't experience otherwise, it might be worth a try.
John Eliot Gardiner, a man who spent much of his life conducting and interpeting Bach's music wrote this to explain what he thought was the most representative part of Bach's body of work - his Leipzig cantatas - and why they are important. He presents Bach's life and work from a number of points of view: his family and the overwhelming presence of death in the 17th century; his devout Lutheranism; the state of his craft at the time; the politics of his workplace; what's known of his work methods; as well as an analysis of some of the works. What emerges is a man who was uniquely fitted to express aspects of the human condition as movingly as perhaps can be done.
As well as giving me insight into a great artist it also opened my eyes to the cantatas which I now see as a very large body of rich and varied music. Up until now my interest in Bach had been for his keyboard music.
The book has two difficulties. If I were to tell any of my friends that I know a great 700 page book about church music I don't think any of them would ask for the title. Also there's a couple of hundred pages of relatively light musicology. But for people who find Bach's music moves them in a way they don't experience otherwise, it might be worth a try.
May 5, 2022
Didn't understand a word of the musical phraseology, but remained captivated by the (self)conception of our enigmatic Thomaskantor as striving to both fulfill the human role once played by the Davidic concerts of yore and herald the divine role whose fulfillment is hoped for in a heavenly concert. S.D.G.
Right on, Gardiner - apologies for listening to Herreweghe more.
Right on, Gardiner - apologies for listening to Herreweghe more.
July 23, 2019
Gardiner has devoted a decent chunk of his life to the dissection, conducting and promotion of the works of Bach, particularly the sacred vocal pieces, and so it makes sense that this book is a love letter to this music he is so enraptured by. There's biography here and a strong sense of Bach's character, but what makes up the bulk of this book is a forensic, deep, loving, exhaustive and necessarily speculative analysis of the sacred works: the Passions, the Mass, and particularly the 200-ish cantatas. It's more than a life's work and it's a pleasure and privilege to read. Delightful, heavy and really quite brilliant.
May 3, 2020
Occasionally tiresome prose but v. interesting, especially the early chapters on context before the musical analysis of individual pieces (which were impenetrable for the layman).
August 29, 2018
Scarcely ever have I read a work of nonfiction written so passionately as this one. Gardiner's work tells the story of Bach's life (insofar as its events can be discerned) from its beginning through to its end, all the while examining selections from his oeuvre in detail.
The most common criticism of this book I've seen in the press and on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is that it glosses over most of Bach's instrumental works. This is true. The book focuses almost exclusively on Bach's choral works and particularly focuses on his compositions for the church. However, the treatment of these choral works is positively forensic, and this book serves as just about as comprehensive a guide to them as any non-scholarly reader might ever ask for.
Gardiner is clearly a devotee of Bach's music, and he spells out the meaning behind various pieces extremely vividly. It is often said that the skill of a good teacher lies in making the students interested (in essence, in showing enough passion in the subject to make it come alive), rather than choosing interesting things to teach. In this, I found Gardiner profoundly succesful. I'm not sure that I had ever even thought about Bach's chuch cantatas before reading this book, but by the end I have listened to a great deal of them, and have a list as long as my arm of pieces still to listen to. It's a fascinating and diverse genre that is often overlooked in the twenty-first century.
Sadly, scholars don't know a great deal about the actual details of Bach's life. Where he worked and lived and by which dates he had composed which pieces - these are all things we know more than a little about, but in terms of his character and the day to day details of his life, unfortunately very little is known. Gardiner does an admirable job telling the story with the material available, but this book as a whole is primarily a musical examination of his life, rather than a strictly biographical one.
One of the more unusual anecdotes from the text is included below. Bach, although certainly a brilliant man, was not always a nice one.
We now move forward a few years to an episode in Bach’s first full-time post � to the saga of the recalcitrant bassoon. On one of the few occasions when Bach actually complied with the consistory’s desire for him to compose figural music, he came up with what may have been a first draft of a cantata (BWV 150), or, if not, then something very similar to it, involving a difficult bassoon solo. Setting the music in front of his raw student ensemble, the twenty-year-old Bach had either seriously miscalculated or was being deliberately provocative. His novice bassoonist, three years his senior, was Johann Heinrich Geyersbach. In rehearsal he evidently made a hash of it, and Bach showed his annoyance. As the son of a municipal music director, Bach would have been familiar with the values shared by Saxony’s instrumentalists, who were always told to be wary of Pfuscher (‘bunglers�), Störer (‘troublemakers�) and Stümpler (‘botchers�). If this was the result of having done his best to make music with an unruly lot of what would now be called late-maturing students, it merely confirmed all his misgivings. Geyersbach, for his part, was beleidigt (that superbly expressive German word which signifies both taking offence and feeling hurt), stung by the public dressing down he had received at the hands of a stuck-up young organist, known to be paid exceptionally well for doing remarkably little. The word Stümpler may have crossed Bach’s mind; instead, he called him a Zippel Fagottist. Even in recent biographies this epithet continues to be translated euphemistically as a ‘greenhorn�, a ‘rapscallion� or a ‘nanny-goat bassoonist�, whereas a literal translation suggests something far stronger: Bach had called Geyersbach ‘a prick of a bassoonist�.
The most common criticism of this book I've seen in the press and on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is that it glosses over most of Bach's instrumental works. This is true. The book focuses almost exclusively on Bach's choral works and particularly focuses on his compositions for the church. However, the treatment of these choral works is positively forensic, and this book serves as just about as comprehensive a guide to them as any non-scholarly reader might ever ask for.
Gardiner is clearly a devotee of Bach's music, and he spells out the meaning behind various pieces extremely vividly. It is often said that the skill of a good teacher lies in making the students interested (in essence, in showing enough passion in the subject to make it come alive), rather than choosing interesting things to teach. In this, I found Gardiner profoundly succesful. I'm not sure that I had ever even thought about Bach's chuch cantatas before reading this book, but by the end I have listened to a great deal of them, and have a list as long as my arm of pieces still to listen to. It's a fascinating and diverse genre that is often overlooked in the twenty-first century.
Sadly, scholars don't know a great deal about the actual details of Bach's life. Where he worked and lived and by which dates he had composed which pieces - these are all things we know more than a little about, but in terms of his character and the day to day details of his life, unfortunately very little is known. Gardiner does an admirable job telling the story with the material available, but this book as a whole is primarily a musical examination of his life, rather than a strictly biographical one.
One of the more unusual anecdotes from the text is included below. Bach, although certainly a brilliant man, was not always a nice one.
We now move forward a few years to an episode in Bach’s first full-time post � to the saga of the recalcitrant bassoon. On one of the few occasions when Bach actually complied with the consistory’s desire for him to compose figural music, he came up with what may have been a first draft of a cantata (BWV 150), or, if not, then something very similar to it, involving a difficult bassoon solo. Setting the music in front of his raw student ensemble, the twenty-year-old Bach had either seriously miscalculated or was being deliberately provocative. His novice bassoonist, three years his senior, was Johann Heinrich Geyersbach. In rehearsal he evidently made a hash of it, and Bach showed his annoyance. As the son of a municipal music director, Bach would have been familiar with the values shared by Saxony’s instrumentalists, who were always told to be wary of Pfuscher (‘bunglers�), Störer (‘troublemakers�) and Stümpler (‘botchers�). If this was the result of having done his best to make music with an unruly lot of what would now be called late-maturing students, it merely confirmed all his misgivings. Geyersbach, for his part, was beleidigt (that superbly expressive German word which signifies both taking offence and feeling hurt), stung by the public dressing down he had received at the hands of a stuck-up young organist, known to be paid exceptionally well for doing remarkably little. The word Stümpler may have crossed Bach’s mind; instead, he called him a Zippel Fagottist. Even in recent biographies this epithet continues to be translated euphemistically as a ‘greenhorn�, a ‘rapscallion� or a ‘nanny-goat bassoonist�, whereas a literal translation suggests something far stronger: Bach had called Geyersbach ‘a prick of a bassoonist�.
February 26, 2025
I listened to this on Audible. While I didn't enjoy the reader, I kept coming back for more! I especially enjoyed the chapter on the St Matthew Passion. This is the kind of book I want to buy in hard copy, audio alone is not enough.
March 27, 2016
While Bach has been part of my life since childhood, I haven't thought for more than a moment about him as opposed to his music since hearing a tape called "Mr Bach Comes to Call" when I was eight or nine. (But I heard that tape a lot. I could still recite bits of it, no question.) Gardiner's main interpretive scheme is that Bach, the man, is inferrable from Bach, the composer. Even leaving aside the intentional fallacy, which is sort of inevitable in a book that's both biography and criticism, I was surprised to find that I'm really not that interested in Bach's personal character. Given that, this was largely a slog. I also didn't quite have the theory background to follow many of the detailed arguments: I could hear what Gardiner was talking about, usually, if I heard a recording, but I couldn't infer it from the page.
So why keep reading, at such length? (Besides "Lenten discipline", which, okay.) Mostly, Gardiner does what I want in a critic. He gives me a compelling reason to check out something new, and fresh insights into works I already know. There's so much Bach I haven't heard, all in principle worthwhile; but it takes something like this to make me put together a Spotify playlist of "Gardiner's Bach" and work through it. And while I've got my personal response to the major works I do know, Gardiner's close attention to Bach's creative and collaborative process do in fact provide compelling angles on the music itself.
The early chapters also have some of Gardiner's own autobio, which I found intriguing in its own right. My parents, both sometime professional musicians, came of age musically in the late seventies, so Historically Informed Practice was part of the deal. My dad, famous family story, asked my mom if she wanted a diamond or a baroque oboe when he proposed, and she picked the oboe. They were obsessed for a while with a film I knew only as "the viola da gamba movie". All the Bach recordings I grew up on were from that same vein, as were the ensembles I first sang Bach in: Sprightly tempos, lean forces, North German-style organs. Part of growing up is realizing your family history is, in fact, a history. Gardiner's story made that visible to me in one small but telling way.
So why keep reading, at such length? (Besides "Lenten discipline", which, okay.) Mostly, Gardiner does what I want in a critic. He gives me a compelling reason to check out something new, and fresh insights into works I already know. There's so much Bach I haven't heard, all in principle worthwhile; but it takes something like this to make me put together a Spotify playlist of "Gardiner's Bach" and work through it. And while I've got my personal response to the major works I do know, Gardiner's close attention to Bach's creative and collaborative process do in fact provide compelling angles on the music itself.
The early chapters also have some of Gardiner's own autobio, which I found intriguing in its own right. My parents, both sometime professional musicians, came of age musically in the late seventies, so Historically Informed Practice was part of the deal. My dad, famous family story, asked my mom if she wanted a diamond or a baroque oboe when he proposed, and she picked the oboe. They were obsessed for a while with a film I knew only as "the viola da gamba movie". All the Bach recordings I grew up on were from that same vein, as were the ensembles I first sang Bach in: Sprightly tempos, lean forces, North German-style organs. Part of growing up is realizing your family history is, in fact, a history. Gardiner's story made that visible to me in one small but telling way.
January 23, 2021
'Perhaps there was a fundamental reluctance in [Bach] to pull back the curtain and reveal himself; unlike most of his contemporaries, he turned down the opportunity to submit a written account of his life and career when the opportunity arose.' If only the same were true of John Eliot Gardiner. As charming and well-researched as this survey of the Bach’s choral music may be, I can't help but feel an underlying self-indulgence throughout—a sense that, behind the ostensible portrait of the Cantor of Leipzig, lies a self-portrait of Gardiner himself, ever eager to share with his readers the magnitude of his musical undertakings and the calibre of his professional credentials.
The intended audience is also something of a mystery to me: is this a book for the literate musician, who is starved almost entirely of musical dots throughout, or for those, in Bach's own words, 'not presentable in music', who will no doubt find the lengthy passages of musical description/analysis a tad off-putting.
That said, there are many redeeming features: the brilliant exploration of the John Passion as music-drama, the refreshing foray into the milieu of Leipzig's coffee houses, the biographical rigour worthy of any Bach scholar. And, yes, the writing style, which is occasionally verbose but always full of life—a good recipe for that slightly curious genre of popular musicology.
The intended audience is also something of a mystery to me: is this a book for the literate musician, who is starved almost entirely of musical dots throughout, or for those, in Bach's own words, 'not presentable in music', who will no doubt find the lengthy passages of musical description/analysis a tad off-putting.
That said, there are many redeeming features: the brilliant exploration of the John Passion as music-drama, the refreshing foray into the milieu of Leipzig's coffee houses, the biographical rigour worthy of any Bach scholar. And, yes, the writing style, which is occasionally verbose but always full of life—a good recipe for that slightly curious genre of popular musicology.
June 19, 2016
This could have used a lot of editing. Gardiner's talent given its due, his story and career do not belong in a bio of Bach. And while I find the examination of the musical culture as influenced by a religious climate interesting, it is honestly not necessary to go into a history of the forest of Thuringia or to spend chapters discussing obscure Bach relatives before getting to the absolute little sure known about Bach.
March 11, 2023
John Elliot Gardner analyzes Bach’s life through his music. For that reason, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone that isn’t already decently-versed in music, unless you’re willing to do a lot of research to understand what is being said.
The book provides a lot of food for thought, especially when it comes to Bach’s religion and how he praised God through music, and also helped praise others through music.
The author also provides interesting discourse with how Bach was not perfect by any means- which is difficult to see in a composer that is seen as so amazing.
There is a lot more to unpack in this biography, and it is clear that Gardiner has an extremely thorough knowledge of Bach and his works. I can’t possibly cover everything in this review, but the book is definitely worth the read.
Notable quotes:
“Bach, the epitome of a musician who strobe all life long and finally acquired the ‘habit of perfection� was a thoroughly imperfect human being- something we usually don’t tolerate in one of our heroes� pg.525
“He is the one who blazes a Raul, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music: to make divine things human and human things divine� p.558
The book provides a lot of food for thought, especially when it comes to Bach’s religion and how he praised God through music, and also helped praise others through music.
The author also provides interesting discourse with how Bach was not perfect by any means- which is difficult to see in a composer that is seen as so amazing.
There is a lot more to unpack in this biography, and it is clear that Gardiner has an extremely thorough knowledge of Bach and his works. I can’t possibly cover everything in this review, but the book is definitely worth the read.
Notable quotes:
“Bach, the epitome of a musician who strobe all life long and finally acquired the ‘habit of perfection� was a thoroughly imperfect human being- something we usually don’t tolerate in one of our heroes� pg.525
“He is the one who blazes a Raul, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music: to make divine things human and human things divine� p.558
April 4, 2020
I feel that I learned so much and I feel I spent weeks in the presence of a great book but these feelings are limited by my own lack of musical understanding.
Gardner’s work (biography interwoven with analysis) is full of musical terminology that I have no experience with myself. That’s my fault- not Gardner’s- but for the other non-musicians out there, consider yourself warned.
The best of this book, for me, was the moments of pure history, psychology, and theology. I feel, gratefully, to have a stronger appreciation for one of humankind’s best musicians and I have a list of philosophers, painters, and authors (all used by Gardner to better explain Bach) to look up and explore.
Gardner’s work (biography interwoven with analysis) is full of musical terminology that I have no experience with myself. That’s my fault- not Gardner’s- but for the other non-musicians out there, consider yourself warned.
The best of this book, for me, was the moments of pure history, psychology, and theology. I feel, gratefully, to have a stronger appreciation for one of humankind’s best musicians and I have a list of philosophers, painters, and authors (all used by Gardner to better explain Bach) to look up and explore.
December 2, 2017
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, part biography of his music and the imagination that birthed it, and 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 soar 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) in 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 I've ever come to reading in four dimensions [perhaps to be compared with reading C.S. Lewis's "A Grief Observed", while working through the delayed grieving process two years after my mother's death and finding that my favourite author had struggled with much of the same thoughts and feelings, or reading some of the Psalms or parts of Job or Ecclesiastes and finding my heart or mind crying out in unison with the sacred speaker, or being caught up into worship upon wrestling through a demanding text of Scripture or theology...but I digress]. I've classified this as a biographical/historical work, but there are profound observations of psychology, theology, philosophy and doxology 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 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 gets 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 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.
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 soar 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) in 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 I've ever come to reading in four dimensions [perhaps to be compared with reading C.S. Lewis's "A Grief Observed", while working through the delayed grieving process two years after my mother's death and finding that my favourite author had struggled with much of the same thoughts and feelings, or reading some of the Psalms or parts of Job or Ecclesiastes and finding my heart or mind crying out in unison with the sacred speaker, or being caught up into worship upon wrestling through a demanding text of Scripture or theology...but I digress]. I've classified this as a biographical/historical work, but there are profound observations of psychology, theology, philosophy and doxology 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 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 gets 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 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.
June 21, 2022
How can anyone know this much about anything!? At times, this book was long, fussily pretentious, and overstuffed. Five stars anyway—it’s absolutely stuffed with insight into the music of Bach, written by a man of tremendous musical accomplishment, whose breadth and depth of knowledge is unmatched. Gardiner shows a deep respect and understanding for every facet of Bach’s life and work, even his religious beliefs (which he doesn’t share). A tremendous accomplishment, but be ready to give it a LOT of your attention.
April 6, 2021
I've been slowly reading this tome for over a year. An incredible study of Bach's major choral works that requires a deep familiarity with the music in question. Good stuff, but pace yourself!
Shelved as 'didn-t-finish'
February 24, 2019Es un libro bastante exhaustivo sobre Bach y el panorama musical de su época, especialmente en Alemania.
Tras leer 200 páginas he decidido no continuar leyéndolo. Buscaba un libro que me introdujese a la figura de Bach asà como su música. Sin embargo, creo que para leer este libro ya debes de tener ciertos conocimientos previos de los que carezco. No es un mal libro, pero creo que no me encuentro entre la potencia audiencia a la que va dedicada: amantes de la música clásica que quieren profundizar en el personaje de Bach y tienen tiempo para dedicárselo a la lectura pausada de este libro.
Quién sabe, igual lo remote en un futuro.
Tras leer 200 páginas he decidido no continuar leyéndolo. Buscaba un libro que me introdujese a la figura de Bach asà como su música. Sin embargo, creo que para leer este libro ya debes de tener ciertos conocimientos previos de los que carezco. No es un mal libro, pero creo que no me encuentro entre la potencia audiencia a la que va dedicada: amantes de la música clásica que quieren profundizar en el personaje de Bach y tienen tiempo para dedicárselo a la lectura pausada de este libro.
Quién sabe, igual lo remote en un futuro.
December 12, 2018
A long, detailed book, full of wonder at Bach’s genius without painting him as an inaccessible saint. Gardner balances between the earlier romanticization of Bach and the more recent stripping Bach of his faith. He attempts to show how Bach is compelling both spiritually and musically and delights both the believer and nonchristian listener. There is much in-depth exploration, and it is worth it to read and consider every detail.
September 10, 2019
Abandoned - too dry and flowery.
Read
April 6, 2022Gardiner eloquently defends Bach and analyzes his choral works with an attitude of passion and reverence that I find very endearing. His analyses are deep, and come from a well of immense musical knowledge. His discussion of the small piece of music Bach holds in his famous portrait really ignited my imagination with its puzzle like complexity. My one complaint would be that I don’t agree with his characterization of Bach as some sort of anti-establishment rebel. Gardiner seems to me an impassioned conservative who wants to be seen as a progressive. He treats his choirs� use of historically-accurate instruments as a forward-looking, rebellious act, instead of as reactionary, which it clearly is. Likewise, he hardly mentions Bach’s use of outdated forms such as the fugue. Glenn Gould says that Bach was decades behind his time. Gardiner brushes past this for the sake of his portrayal of Bach as a progressive revolutionary.
November 30, 2019
Het leven van Bach is op een paar bladzijden verteld. John Eliot Gardiner doet er bijna 700 over. Hij schetst de context van Thüringen aan de vooravond van de Verlichting, en hoe de Verlichting grotendeels voorbij ging aan de bekrompen protestante wereld waarin Bach leefde en werkte. Het boeiendst zijn de passages waarin Gardiner in het hoofd van de beroemde cantor kruipt en de omstandigheden tot leven wekt waarin hij moest werken. Voor de melomanen die, net als ik, muzikaal ongeschoold zijn en voor wie muziek een fascinerende geheimtaal blijft, is het vaak doorbijten: de hoofdstukken waarin Gardiner de grote vocale werken analyseert zijn taaie brokken. Maar aan het eind is het ontzag voor de vijfde evangelist alleen maar toegenomen, en is hij een mens van vlees en bloed geworden. Geen gemakkelijke mens trouwens, de oude Bach!
October 2, 2022
This is a book which was a journey for me. It took me ages to finish, reading it on and off for 7 months. I’ve been in awe of J.S. Bach’s compositions for as long as I can remember. In this book, Gardiner manages to paint a picture of the man, the husband, the father, the teacher, the musician, the composer, the human Bach. With his shortcomings and his talent, his devotion and obsessions. Highly recommended, but at least basic knowledge about musical theory is necessary to understand this book.
March 4, 2021
no commet
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