Bach, Johann Sebastian Books

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 245 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.

Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.

The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. --Richard Dragan

Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence.

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas Hofstadter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

One of the biggest influences in my life, and a classic. 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Douglas Hofstadter uses the art of M.C. Escher, the music of J.S. Bach, and Kurt Goedel's mathematics as the centerpieces for a magnificent inquiry into the nature of the mind. Along the way you will encounter Bertrand Russel, Carroll Lewis, particle physics, molecular biology, Magritte's paintings, and Zen koans. These are all used to probe recursion and the mystery of how we form thoughts. But the list of topics alone is not what makes this book great, it's the playful, joyful sense that characterize's Hofstadter's treatment of this. This sense of wonder is critical, as without it this highly challenging book would be very frustrating. The book's style itself is based on Bach's canons, and the chapters are interspersed with dialogues between the Tortois and the Hare, in the style of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The result is an artistic as well as scientific or philisophical masterpiece. I am currently a triple-major in molecular biology, physics, and philosophy, and much of my curriculum has been influenced by the beauty of Hofstadter's book. This will go down as one of the 20th Century's bests books.

Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician

Christoph Wolff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Learned Musician is an apt subtitle for this intellectual biography, which assesses the career of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) with the scholarly rigor one would expect from a Harvard professor. Opening with a 1737 attack by a critic who labeled Bach a pedant who spoiled the natural beauty of his creations with "an excess of art," Christoph Wolff cogently compares the German composer to English scientist Isaac Newton. Both men "brought about fundamental changes and established new principles" in their chosen fields, he argues; both sought to reveal God's harmonious ordering of their world. While Wolff conscientiously covers the basics of Bach's life, including his two marriages and the musical achievements of his gifted family, the author's primary focus is on his performing (Bach was an unrivaled organist) and composing. From the Goldberg Variations through the Brandenburg Concertos to Art of the Fugue, Wolff carefully analyzes Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint, placing them in the context of European musical and social history rendered in nicely atmospheric detail. Casual readers may find this dense tome a bit daunting, but serious music lovers will relish the deeper understanding it conveys of a genius who transformed Western music. --Wendy Smith

Johann Sebastian Bach (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

Mike Venezia

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Books 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

All of the Venezia books are really great. They are funny yet informative and really help children to learn about Artists and Composers.

Funny and fabulous 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book has both my boys (ages 6 & 4) laughing and singing (there is a made-up ditty about Heinrich the Pizza Man) and wanting to read the whole book repeatedly. The silly illustrations along with actual images make Bach's history understandable and interesting to the very young. Now we're all listening to the Brandenberg Concertos!

Editorial Review:

Presents a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach

Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach: Expanded Edition

Meredith Little, Natalie Jenne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Stylized dance music and music based on dance rhythms pervade Bach's compositions. Although the music of this very special genre has long been a part of every serious musician's repertoire, little has been written about it. The original edition of this addressed works that bore the names of dances--a considerable corpus. In this expanded version of their practical and insightful study, Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne apply the same principals to the study of a great number of Bach's works that use identifiable dance rhythms but do not bear dance-specific titles.Part I describes French dance practices in the cities and courts most familiar to Bach. The terminology and analytical tools necessary for discussing dance music of Bach's time are laid out. Part II presents the dance forms that Bach used, annotating all of his named dances. Little and Jenne draw on choreographies, harmony, theorists' writings, and the music of many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century composers in order to arrive at a model for each dance type. In Appendix A all of Bach's named dances are listed in convenient tabular form; included are the BWV number for each piece, the date of composition, the larger work in which it appears, the instrumentation, and the meter. Appendix B supplies the same data for pieces recognizable as dance types but not named as such. More than ever, this book will stimulate both the musical scholar and the performer with a new perspective at the rhythmic workings of Bach's remarkable repertoire of dance-based music.

Bach's Goldberg Variations

Anna Harwell Celenza

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

lessons in Bach and Baroque music 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The legendary-like story behind Bach's immortal "Goldberg Variations" is told accompanied with fancy, often baroque-like illustrations with golden touches. The musically-talented orphan Johann Gottlieb Goldberg was taken in by a German Count. The Count directs him to play something new for him each week; and then later calls on him to do a "piece filled with dances and difficult runs...canons and something quite new...[and] a surprise that will trick me." To meet this demanding challenge, Johann has to turn to his mentor Bach, whose composition in answer to the Count's demand later came to be named after the orphan. The orphan Johann remains the focus of the tale, with Bach giving him musical information and guidance so that readers learn something about the technicalities and style of the "Goldberg Variations." Ages 4-7.

The easiest Celenza to read while listening 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

We have Celenza's Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky) and Farewell Symphony (Haydn), and the kids love them all. I find that this Goldberg Variations, however, lends itself better to reading WHILE the kids are listening to the CD (included) than the others do. Her Farewell Symphony makes a great story, but it is difficult to enjoy and appreciate the music at all while the story is in progress. By contrast, the Goldberg Variations themselves create a delightful backdrop to this engaging story. Warning: Don't expect to learn much about Bach himself in the course of the book; for that, turn to the Classical Kids CD "Mr. Bach Comes to Call."

Bach's Cello Suites: Analyses and Explorations

Allen Winold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Introduction to Music Theory and Composition 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I do not play cello; nor do I have any background in music theory. Rather I have been trying to learn classical guitar and eventually the Prelude to the First Cello Suite was assigned. I found about a half dozen different guitar transcriptions that all varied and I could not understand why nor put together enough understanding of the piece to make it more than many measures of moving notes to try to memorize - and forget about being able to do any nice phrasing or dynamics. So I jumped at the chance to purchase this when I saw it for sale.

What Dr. Winold has done in this pair of books - one text, the other annotated musical examples keyed to the text and including all six suites in their entirety (note to guitarists - in bass clef and in the original cello keys, of course!) - is provide a miniature course in music theory and composition. He walks through each suite movement by movement and defines the overall structure of the dance forms Bach used for the suites; he compares what is here by Bach with other music of the same time frame; he goes over how musical tension can be created and then resolved within the music; he describes how groups of notes can be repeated in a piece and ways that the patterns can be varied as phrases are developed; he shows how various harmonies and counterpoints are implied rather than fully stated since the cello can typically only play one note at a time. (It is in how they convert this implication of harmony for cello into the multiple notes that a guitar can play at once that the guitar transcriptions all seem to differ - with precedent since Bach did the same thing when he transcribed such music to lute or keyboard.)

I find it fascinating. The books may be a broad overview of music theory with not quite enough material to fully cover any one topic, but there are enough references to additional information that it enables you to get excited about something here and then go learn more - and not so much info presented that you forget that you started looking into all this to better appreciate what are really some wonderfully sounding pieces of music!

If I knew how I'd send a thank you note to Dr. Winold for the month of pleasure I've had with these books.

Editorial Review:

Extensive analyses of the most beloved of Bachs works

Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work

Martin Geck

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Two hundred and fifty years after his death, Johann Sebastian Bach remains one of the most compelling figures in the history of classical music. In this major study of the composer's life and work, Martin Geck follows the course of Bach's career in rich detail--from his humble beginnings as an organ tuner and self-taught court musician to his role as Kapellmeister and cantor of St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig. Geck explores Bach's relations with the German aristocracy, his position with regard to the Church and contemporary theological debates, his perfectionism, and his role as the devoted head of a large family.

The focus in this comprehensive, thoroughly researched book is on the extraordinary work that came of the composer's life. From the Goldberg Variations to the Brandenburg Concertos to the Art of the Fugue, Geck carefully analyzes Bach's innovations in harmony and counterpoint, placing them in the context of European musical and social history. Always fresh and stimulating, this definitive work reintroduces Bach's enormous oeuvre in all its splendor.

Bach: Chorale Harmonization and Instrumental Counterpoint

Malcolm Boyd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Makes some helpful observations 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

As a music student who was looking for a good resource to better understand Bach's style, I decided to pick up this book. I found it made many helpful observations that aided in my understanding of Bach's style in his chorales and instrumental music (i.e. favored progressions, voice leading). It is designed for students who have already studied Harmony (and Counterpoint for the second half of the book) and who require more detail on what Bach would or would not have done in different situations. Exercises are also provided, starting with an existing soprano and bass part where the student adds the alto and tenor, followed by many more where only the soprano is provided and the student adds the three other voices. As there are so many different ways to harmonize a melody, answers are not provided, and a teacher will be required to correct the work.

The quibble that prevents this book from getting 4 or 5 stars in this review is that there is no included Bach Anthology. I had hoped for the price that there would at least be some chorales and some Bach keyboard pieces for harmonic and countrapuntal analysis. In fact the book makes the point that the reader should analyse several Bach chorales before even attempting the given exercises, yet there are none included in the book. Also several examples say things like "see chorale no 19 measure 10 for an example of this". Therefore, in order for this book to be of use, you'll need to also purchase Bach's 371 chorales for the first half and his 2-part inventions and 3-part sinfonias for the second half.

Editorial Review:

Malcolm Boyd’s lucid text investigates how often various chords and progressions occur, in what contexts and (where possible) for what reasons. Following methods known to have been adopted by Bach himself, the exercises are graded in such a way as to encourage the student to develop both technique and imagination within a closely defined framework.

Ornamentation in Baroque and Post-Baroque Music, with Special Emphasis on J.S. Bach

Frederick Neumann

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A detailed discussion of Baroque sources of ornamentation 5 out of 5 stars.
25 of 26 people found this review helpful.

Books concerning performance practice are by their very nature controversial, and we can't ask Bach, Handel, or Telemann what they actually meant when they used a short-hand symbol or expected a performer to improvise a decoration. Or can we? Professor Neumann has compiled a volume based on writings in the Baroque era that attempts (successfully in my opinion) to provide some clues to the sketchy musical notations of busy and prolific composers in the Baroque era. His ideas are indeed controversial, but I think that they are well-reasoned and often brilliant. His knowledge of sources in the Baroque is magnificent, and his arguments are keenly-reasoned. This is a book of somewhat limited readership. Performers and scholars who play or edit Baroque music will find this to be a useful reference with a strong idex, a good bibliography, and a helpful guide to solving questions of decoration. Those who don't have an active involvement with Baroque music will find the book cryptic.

Editorial Review:

Ornaments play an enormous role in the music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and ambiguities in their notation (as well as their frequent omission in the score) have left doubt as to how composers intended them to be interpreted. Frederick Neumann, himself a violinist and conductor, questions the validity of the rigid principles applied to their performance. In this controversial work, available for the first time in paperback, he argues that strict constraints are inconsistent with the freedom enjoyed by musicians of the period.