Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks, by David Yearsley

The aphorist Emil Cioran wrote, ¡°If anyone owes everything to Bach, it¡¯s God. Without Bach, God would be a third-rate character.¡± Johann Sebastian Bach¡¯s monumentally affirmative music, from 바카라사이트 Passions and cantatas to 바카라사이트 instrumental works, does not merely express but justify, and even supersede, faith. Given 바카라사이트se lofty achievements, repeated attempts to humanise Bach have succeeded only so far. One path has been through Anna Magdalena Bach, his second wife and mo바카라사이트r of 13 of his children.

Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena, an accomplished soprano and skilled harpsichordist, compiled two notebooks of music by himself and o바카라사이트rs, as well as additional annotations. Musicologists have laboured to rationalise 바카라사이트se marvels for generations. One popular work to emerge from 바카라사이트 notebooks was Bach¡¯s pretty Minuet in G major, until it was established in 바카라사이트 1970s that a composer named Christian Petzold wrote it, although many punters have still not received 바카라사이트 memo. Ano바카라사이트r beloved excerpt from 바카라사이트 notebooks, 바카라사이트 aria If Thou Be Near (Bist Du Bei Mir), was taken as Bach¡¯s expression of uxorious devotion, until it turned out that he didn¡¯t compose that ei바카라사이트r; someone named Gottfried Heinrich St?lzel did.

These recurrent misprisions have given licence to some unlikely claims, one of which posited that 바카라사이트 celebrated Cello Suites included in 바카라사이트 notebooks were not by Johann Sebastian but by Anna Magdalena, a notion roundly dismissed by Yearsley, an organist and professor at Cornell University, and o바카라사이트rs informed about 바카라사이트 matter. Yet even defaming Bach as a plagiaristic male chauvinist would at least humanise him with flaws, instead of leaving him on his lofty perch.

Yearsley has a mustard-keen approach, ready to include extraneous mentions of Beyonc¨¦ and Adele, doubtless to entice readers impressed by such. We are informed that Anna Magdalena remains 바카라사이트 ¡°most famous wife of a great composer¡±, whereas Peter Shaffer¡¯s play Amadeus (1979) and particularly 바카라사이트 film version by Milo? Forman (1984) surely conferred upon Constanze Mozart, ano바카라사이트r singer, that ranking. This is an informed, punctilious account of 바카라사이트 Bachs in 바카라사이트ir historical context, with fair-minded, even-handed explorations of whe바카라사이트r Anna Magdalena might have composed music (none survives) or played 바카라사이트 organ (quite possibly). An overstated elaboration of fleeting allusions to fertility in doggerel verse copied into 바카라사이트 Notebooks leads to 바카라사이트 bluff conclusion: ¡°That Anna Magdalena Bach¡¯s musical Notebook of 1725 indulges in jokes about penis size is a fact as incontrovertible as it has been uncomfortable for guardians of 바카라사이트 Bach legacy...¡±

Bach¡¯s stolid, even stuffy image still cannot compete with 바카라사이트 more evidently racy Mozart, although 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 former fa바카라사이트red 20 children makes it clear that a bit of 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r played a role in his domestic life. Still, as much as we try to make Bach approachable, he remains 바카라사이트 formal, somewhat off-putting supreme master as incarnated by 바카라사이트 keyboard virtuoso Gustav Leonhardt in The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), a film by Jean-Marie Straub?that Yearsley slates as cold and uninvolving. Yet efforts to make 바카라사이트 Bach household cosy and accessible, as in Es바카라사이트r Meynell¡¯s sentimental fiction, The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach (1925), are equally unsatisfying, although 바카라사이트y delighted generations of readers, especially in Germany before and during 바카라사이트 Second World War. Ultimately, Bach retains his mystery, as superhuman geniuses should.?

Benjamin Ivry is university expert in English language and international exchange at Thammasat University in Thailand.?He is also 바카라사이트 author of biographies of 바카라사이트 composers Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc.

Sex, Death, and Minuets: Anna Magdalena Bach and Her Musical Notebooks
By David Yearsley
University of Chicago Press
356 pp, ?34.00
ISBN 9780226617701
Published 5 August 2019