Johann Sebastian Bach BBC Documentary part 1

[TreyRoque]

I read the Wolff bio and it sucked. Barely a paragraph on Bach's wife dying, and copious notes on churchy doings. *Yawn*.

[ShaneyElderberry]

@TreyRoque I think the information given in Christoph Wolff's biography was very important. We often like to forget that he had a very busy schedule, and was very devoted to his works. In his spare time, he was an amateur theologian, have a library full of both music and religious writings. J.S. Bach's musical life in Leipzig would require anybody writing a biography to explain the dates and liturgical schedule to really grasp his Cantata cycles.

[ShaneyElderberry]

@TreyRoque Many Music Historians create the illusion of knowing much about J.S. Bach's first wife. In honesty, little information remains, other than documentation pertaining to her illnesses and gifts given to her by her husband. Other information mostly pertains to her giving birth to children, and being musically inclined (though not nearly as professionally skilled as J.S. Bach's second wife). Wolff's book rightly suggests that we know little about his and her private lives (which is true).