J.S. Bach: A Life in Music

In this 2006 text, Peter Wiliams approaches the life and music of arguably the most studied of all composers, interpreting both Bach's life by deconstructing his original Obituary in the light of additional information, and his music by evaluating his priorities and irrepressible creative energy. How, though belonging to musical families on both his parents' sides, did he come to possess so bewitching a sense of rhythm and melody, and a mastery of harmony that established nothing less than a norm in western culture? In considering that the works of a composer are his biography, the book's title A Life in Music means both a life spent making music and one revealed in the music itself. A distinguished scholar and performer, Williams re-examines Bach's life as an orphan and a family man, as an extraordinarily gifted composer and player, and an energetic and ambitious artist who never suffered fools gladly.