Two Centuries Of Bach

by Friedrich Blume

English, German (translation)

Genres: Music

85 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1978

Reviews

[Kurt Gottschalk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This slim volume (85 pages) doesn't seem to much be remembered in the digital age. That may be due to the scholarship but if that's the case, I'm not scholar enough to know. It might also be because it's so brief, rather dry and a bit disjointed. Nevertheless, it's a quick and informative read. The first 2/3 are better, dealing with the remarkably slow process of getting Bach's work recognized and published in the century after his death. This part of the book could be seen as a prologue to Paul Elie's wonderful "Reinventing Bach" (which concerns Bach's third century). The final section deals briefly with the Bach literature up to the point of the book's publication in 1950. There are other texts out there that cover the same material, but this is a quick and informative read.