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What Hacker News says
- John Eliot Gardner's "Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven" is a sort of musical biography featuring a (very) deep dive on the cantatas.
- Bach's life is so hidden from us in terms of letters from him, but we know enough to write some pretty good biographies. My personal favorite is Music in the Castle of Heaven, by John Eliot Gardiner the conductor. Who knows Bach better than those who know his music so intimately?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17883941-bach
I also recommend learning a few notes on the keyboard and playing something of his, perhaps the first prelude of the collection they mention in the article. It's magnificent, how he plays with time and harmony.
- It's not a blockbuster but I really do love "Music in the Castle of Heaven" by John Eliot Gardiner. Maybe a little academic - but the drama!
- About Bach's involvement and contributions in organ building technology of his age, the point of view comes from here discussed at length:
"Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven" by John Eliot Gardiner. He is a reliable source. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Eliot_Gardiner
A detailed comparison with modern music comes from a recent author whose name slips my mind. He taught at Columbia University, a journalist, his entire book is on the relationship of Bach with all kinds of recorded music in digital age.
- English Conductor Sir. John Eliot Gardiner, who grew up singing and learning Bach cantatas as a child, he has published a lovely book "Bach: Music in the Castle of heaven". I think these lines from the very opening of his book will also enlighten us --
"Bach the musician is an unfathomable genius; Bach the man is all too obviously flawed, disappointingly ordinary and in many ways still invisible to us. In fact we seem to know less about his private life than about that of any other major composer of the last 400 years. Unlike, say, Monteverdi, Bach left behind no intimate family correspondence, and very little beyond the anecdotal has come down to us that can help in painting a more human portrait or to allow a glimpse of him – as son, lover, husband or father. Perhaps there was a fundamental reluctance in him 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. The limited, heavily edited version that we have inherited is one he himself spun and handed down to his children. It is not surprising some have concluded that Bach the man is something of a bore."
- Review of the book Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner. A couple other reviews in the NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/04/books/bach-music-in-the-ca...
...and the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-revie...
The Bach piece that most moves me is the 2nd movement (Largo) of Harpsicord Concerto No. 5 in F-minor (BWV 1056) here played by Glen Gould in 1957 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0zPokdN2wg [video]
What Bach work moves you?
