The first major biographies ofJohann Sebastian Bach, including those byJohann Nikolaus Forkel andPhilipp Spitta, were published in the 19th century. Many more were published in the 20th century by, among others,Albert Schweitzer,Charles Sanford Terry,Christoph Wolff and Klaus Eidam.
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Little was published about Bach's life in the 18th century, his "Nekrolog" (obituary) being the most extended biographical note about the composer's life.
No writings by Johann Sebastian Bach were published during his lifetime. He declinedJohann Mattheson's invitation to write an autobiographical sketch for inclusion in theEhrenpforte.[1] There is little biographical material to be found in thecompositions published during his lifetime: the glimpse perceived from the dedication ofThe Musical Offering toFrederick the Great being a small exception. There are however some letters by the composer in which he gives autobiographical detail, including the letter he wrote in 1730 to Georg Erdmann, and the letter he had joined to the score ofhis Mass for the Dresden court in 1733.[2] Other contemporary sources include archived reports, like those of the decisions of the Leipzig city council.[3]
Contemporary publications, like Johann Mattheson'sBeschützte Orchestre,Johann Adolph Scheibe'sCritischer Musicus andLorenz Christoph Mizler'sMusikalische Bibliothek, rather write about Bach's music than about his life.[4][5][6] Bach's entry inJohann Gottfried Walther's 1732Lexikon is a rare exception in giving biographical information on the composer.[7]
Bach's "Nekrolog" was published in 1754 in the fourth volume of Mizler'sMusikalische Bibliothek.[8] With less than 20 pages it is the most comprehensive 18th-century publication on the composer's life.
For the remainder of the century short biographies of the composer appeared in reference works likeJohann Adam Hiller'sLebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neurer Zeit,[9]Ernst Ludwig Gerber'sHistorisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler[10] and Friedrich Carl Gottlieb Hirsching'sHistorisch-literarisches Handbuch.[11] The descriptions in such biographical articles were nearly exclusively based on the "Nekrolog", often copied with errors.[12]
Occasionally Bach appears in other writings, likeJohann Friedrich Köhler [wikisource:de]'s 1776 manuscript on the history of schools in Leipzig, which gives a short account of Bach falling out withJohann August Ernesti, conrector of theSt. Thomas School.[13] In print Bach is mentioned as teacher of some musicians of the next generation, for instanceChristoph Nichelmann.[14]
Forkel's biography was published shortly after the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, and concentrated mostly on an analysis of his compositions. The first biography based on an extensive research of primary sources was published by Spitta in the second half of the 19th century.
Johann Nikolaus Forkel'sUeber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work) appeared in Leipzig in 1802. Its biographical material expands what is already in the "Nekrolog" with details Forkel collected from Bach's eldest sons. An English translation, expanded with updates in footnotes and appendices, was published in 1920 byCharles Sanford Terry.[15]
A century after the composer's death two short biographies were published. Joh. Carl Schauer publishedJoh. Seb. Bach's Lebensbild : Eine Denkschrift auf seinem 100 jährigen Todestag, den 28. Jul. 1850, aus Thüringen, seinem Vaterlande,[16] and Carl L. Hilgenfeldt publishedJohann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Wirken und Werke: ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Johann Sebastian Bach's life, influence and works: a contribution to the art history of the 18th century) "als Programm zu dem am 28. Julius 1850 eintretenden Säculartage des Todes von Johann Sebastian Bach" (as a program for the centennial days of Johann Sebastian Bach's death, starting 28 July 1850).[17]
In 1865Karl Hermann Bitter published a two-volume Bach biography. The biography contains some documents from Bach's time that had not been published before, presented with a wealth of historical inferences and personal reflections.[18] An abridged English translation of the biography appeared in 1873. Shortly after becomingPrussian minister of finance in 1879, Bitter published an enlarged reworking in four volumes of the biography.[19]
Philipp Spitta'sJohann Sebastian Bach was published in Leipzig in two volumes, in 1873 and 1880 respectively. Its English translation was published by Novello in three volumes.
In his introduction Spitta dismisses all previous biographies apart from the "Nekrolog", Forkel, and part of Gerber.[20] He is particularly harsh on Bitter.[21] Spitta's biography went down in history as "... the most ... comprehensive and important single work on Johann Sebastian Bach".[22] It eclipsed the previous biographies and laid down premises and methodology for future Bach scholarship.[23]
In the United Kingdom the 19th-centuryBach Revival was inscribed in existing traditions respecting baroque music.[24] The Bach-biographies that were published in English were throughout the century largely based on German examples. An amateurish[25] translation of Forkel had appeared in London in 1820.[26]Edward Francis Rimbault had published his Hilgenfeldt/Forkel adaptation in 1869.[27] An abridged version of Bitter's first edition had appeared in 1873.[28] In 1882 the first original English biography appeared,Reginald Lane Poole'sSebastian Bach.[29] Lane Poole bases the biographical data entirely on Spitta, and adds a chronological list of 200 church cantatas by Bach.[30] By the mid-1880s the translation of Spitta's volumes was complete.[31]
Richard Batka published his biography of the composer in 1892, as part of theMusiker-Biographien series.[32]
New biographies were written by Schweitzer and Terry in the first half of the 20th century. Only by the end of the century, quarter of a millennium after the composer's death, new major biographies appeared by Eidam and Wolff.
By the end of the 19th century theBach Gesellschaft had completed its task of publishing all known works by Bach. The first decade of the new century brought new significant biographies of the composer.
Albert Schweitzer'sJohann Sebastian Bach, le musicien-poète appeared in 1905. It analyses Bach's works primarily from a religious perspective.[33] Its 1908 German edition was enlarged, and more content was added to the 1911 English version.[34]
In 1906André Pirro published a Bach-biography in France. The biography became available in English in 1957, based on the 1949 enlarged French edition.[35]
In 1909 a new English-language biography of Bach appeared, written byHubert Parry.[36] In its preface the author pays his homage to Spitta and excuses him for his specialised technicalities: for his new biography Parry proposes a more condensed survey of the topic.[37] Parry shows Bach chauvinism by designating everything what was composed in the 17th century as immature.[38]
In 1925Esther Meynell publishedThe Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach, fictitiously telling the story of Bach's life through the eyes of his second wifeAnna Magdalena Bach.[39]The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, a 1968 film featuringGustav Leonhardt as Johann Sebastian Bach, took the same perspective.[40]
Charles Sanford Terry's Bach biography of 1928 focusses on the places where Bach lived.[33] It is the first biography that contains biographical documents not yet included in Spitta's.[41]
Bach's 250th birthday was remembered with a short biography byWilibald Gurlitt, "Niederschrift des Jubiläumsvortrages bei der Bach-Feier des Ev. Studentenpfarramtes der Universität Freiburg i.Br. im Sommersemester 1935" (written out version of the jubilee speech at the Bach feast of the evangelical student community of the university ofFreiburg im Breisgau, in the summer semester of 1935). Published in 1936, it was translated in English in 1957. An enlarged German edition was published in 1980.[42]
In 1950, two centuries after the composer's death,Wolfgang Schmieder published theBWV catalogue. The decades followingWorld War II also saw the publication of a number of biographical works.
Hans Theodor David [de] andArthur Mendel publishedThe Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents in 1945. It was revised asThe New Bach Reader byChristoph Wolff in 1998.[43]
Swiss musicologist Antoine-Elisée Cherbuliez (1888–1964)[44] derives the biographical material for his 1946 Bach biography essentially from the "Nekrolog", and the biographies by Forkel, Spitta and Terry.[45]
Werner Neumann, from 1951 director of the East-German section of theNeue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA), published several biographies of the composer. In 1953Auf den Lebenswegen Johann Sebastian Bachs, acclaimed byAlfred Dürr, the director of the West-German section of the NBA.[46] An enlarged German edition was issued in 1962.[47] In 1960Bach: eine Bildbiographie was published. These two works were translated asBach and his world andBach: A Pictorial Biography[48]
Under Neumann's direction, from its founding in 1950 until he retired in 1973, the LeipzigBach Archive published biographical material about Bach, for instance in 1970 theKalendarium zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs (time table to the history of Johann Sebastian Bach's life).[49]Hans-Joachim Schulze, Neumann's successor as director of the Archive, revised thisKalendarium for its second edition in 1979.[50]
In 1962 Russell Hancock Miles publishedJohann Sebastian Bach: an Introduction to His Life and Works.[51]
In 1966Karl and Irene Geiringer publishedJohann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of An Era.[52]
Walter Blankenburg published an essay collection, with contributions by scholars such as Dürr and David, in 1970.[53] In 1976 Barbara Schwendowius and Wolfgang Dömling published a collection of eleven essays by, among others, Wolff and Dürr under the titleJohann Sebastian Bach : Zeit, Leben, Wirken. The next year the book was translated asJohann Sebastian Bach: Life, Times, Influence.[54]
Around 1980Alberto Basso published the two volumes of his Italian Bach-biographyFrau Musika.[55] The biography largely follows Spitta's model, with updates to intermediate research.[56]
In the years leading up to Bach's 300th birthday in 1985 some new biographies were published. Malcolm Boyd'sBach appeared in 1983.[57]Denis Arnold'sBach appeared the next year,[58] as well as a new French biography by Roland de Candé,[59] and a German one byWerner Felix. That last one was translated into English in 1985.[60]Piero Buscaroli's Italian biography appeared in 1985.[61]
Around the 250th anniversary of Bach's death (2000) several new biographies were published, along with reprints and revised editions of earlier publications.
John Butt collaborated to several publications on Bach. In 1997 he was the editor of theCambridge Companion to Bach, with chapters written by Malcolm Boyd, Ulrich Siegele, Robin A. Leaver, Stephen A. Crist,Werner Breig, Richard D. P. Jones,Laurence Dreyfus, Stephen Daw, George B. Stauffer and Martin Zenck.[62]
Klaus Eidam's 1999Das Wahre Leben des Johann Sebastian Bach (The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach) tries to correct some misconceptions that crept in the biographical writing on the composer, based on a new perusal of primary sources.[33]
Christoph Wolff, a Bach scholar, wrote his major biographical work on Bach,Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, in 2000.[63] In 1998 Wolff had revised David and Mendel'sBach Reader intoThe New Bach Reader.[64] In 1999 a compilation of Bach-related essays Wolff wrote between 1963 and 1988 had its fourth reprint.[65][66]
Also in 2000Martin Geck publishedBach: Leben und Werk, six years later translated asJohann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work.[67] A previous shorter work by Geck, with a focus on illustrative material, was translated asBach in 2000.[68]
Maarten 't Hart's biography, focussing on Bach's cantatas, appeared in Dutch and German in 2000.[69]
In the 21st century a sizeable portion of biographical material on Johann Sebastian Bach became available on-line, including full scans of older biographies that were no longer copyrighted.Andreas Glöckner's revised edition of the 1970sKalendarium was published in 2008.[70] This, in turn, formed the basis for thejsbach website, presenting data about Bach's life in time table format.[71] New biographies were written by Williams and Gardiner.
In 2004 a new English biography of Bach, written byPeter Williams, was published by theCambridge University Press.[72] In 2007 Williams publishedJ. S. Bach: A Life in Music.[73] Williams'sBach: A Musical Biography was published posthumously in September 2016.[74]
John Eliot Gardiner'sMusic in the castle of heaven was published in 2013.[75]
David Schulenberg's biography,Bach, was published in 2020.[76]
Apart from the biographies that take the reader from Bach's birth in 1685 to his death in 1750, several studies highlight specific aspects of the composer's life.[77]
Johann Sebastian Bach's life was the subject of several films.[78]
| Original title | English title | Date | Director | Actor playing Bach | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach | The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach | 1968 | Jean-Marie Straub Danièle Huillet | Gustav Leonhardt | Story told from the perspective ofAnna Magdalena Bach The New York Times: "While this 'Chronicle' ... is a testament to [Bach's] ever-living music, it is, unfortunately, lifeless as biography"[40] |
| Johann Sebastian Bach [de] | 1985 | Lothar Bellag [de] | Ulrich Thein | East-German TV biopic in four parts.Klaus Eidam [de] collaborated to the script.[33] | |
| Bach's Fight for Freedom | Bach's Fight for Freedom | 1995 | Stuart Gillard | Ted Dykstra | Bach's last year in Weimar (1717) |
| Mein Name ist Bach | My Name Is Bach | 2003 | Dominique de Rivaz [de] | Vadim Glowna | Swiss film about Bach's 1747 visit toPotsdam, meetingFrederick the Great.[79][80] |
| Sebastian (Bach - the animated series) | Sebastian (Bach - the animated series) | 2018- | Fielding, Peter | Fielding, Peter | Italian series of cartoons about Bach's life.[81] |
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