Music in the castle of Heaven A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach Gardiner, John Eliot

ohann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who seems so ordinary, so opaque - and occasionally so intemperate?

In this remarkable book, John Eliot Gardiner distils the fruits of a lifetime's immersion as one of Bach's greatest living interpreters. Explaining in wonderful detail how Bach worked and how his music achieves its effects, he also takes us as deeply into Bach's works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.

Contents
List of Illustrations
A Note on the Text
Abbreviations
Map
Preface
1 Under the Cantor’s Gaze
2 Germany on the Brink of Enlightenment
3 The Bach Gene
4 The Class of ’85
5 The Mechanics of Faith
6 The Incorrigible Cantor
7 Bach at His Workbench
8 Cantatas or Coffee?
9 Cycles and Seasons
10 First Passion
11 His ‘Great Passion’
12 Collision and Collusion
13 The Habit of Perfection
14 ‘Old Bach’
Inset
Notes
Chronology
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin

List of Illustrations
INSET
1. Georgenkirche, Eisenach (photo: Constantin Beyer)
2a & b. Neues vollständiges Eisenachisches Gesangbuch, 1673 (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
3a. ‘The Whole World in a Cloverleaf’ (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
3b. ‘Buno’s Dragon’ (Universitätsbibliothek Halle: AB 51 21/ K.22)
4. Heinrich Schütz (Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek / bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
5a & b. Organ tablature transcriptions (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Fol 49/11 [3, 2]. Photos: Olaf Mokansky)
6. Concordia Cantata, title page (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
7a & b. The Dukes of Saxe-Weimar (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KGr/04542, KGr1982/00171)
7c. Wilhelmsburg, Weimar, c. 1730 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen KHz/01388. Photo: Sigrid Geske)
8. Himmelsburg (interior), c. 1660 (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen G 1230. Photo: Roland Dreßler)
9. Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1723 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2808 a)
10. Thomasschule and Thomaskirche, 1749 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 2708 e)
11. Six Leipzig burgomasters: Abraham Christoph Platz, Gottfried Lange, Adrian Steger, Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, Jacob Born, Gottfried Wilhelm Küstner (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Porträt A 1a, A 42, A 76c, A 39, A 48b, A 50a)
12–13. Calov Bible: title page and annotation (courtesy of Concordia Seminary Library, St Louis, Missouri. All rights reserved.)
14. The Lutheran Liturgical Year (courtesy of James Thrift)
15. Bach’s First Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1723/4 (courtesy of James Thrift)
16. Bach’s Second Leipzig Cantata Cycle, 1724/5 (courtesy of James Thrift)
17. Christian Romstet, ‘The Tree of Life’ (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
18. Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1746 (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, XX11/48)
19. Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748 (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)
20. Viola d’amore, with inset of the opening phrase of ‘Erwäge’ (photo courtesy of Catherine Rimer)
21. Oboe da caccia (photo: Robert Workman)
22. Violoncello piccolo by A. & H. Amati, Cremona, c. 1600. On loan to the Royal Academy of Music Museum from the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation (photo: Simon Way. Image reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Amaryllis Fleming Foundation and the Royal Academy of Music, London)
23. Violoncello piccolo obbligato (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)
24. Mendelssohn’s watercolour of the Thomascantorei, 1838 (courtesy of Sotheby’s)
Endpapers: Matthew Passion, fair copy in Bach’s hand, Nos. 23–4 (see pp. 414–15) (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
A. F. C. Kollmann, ‘The Sun of Composers’ (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
Eisenach and the Wartburg (courtesy of the Bachhaus Eisenach / Neuen Bachgesellschaft)
Johann Hermann Schein, five-part circular canon (Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv – Staatsarchiv Oldenburg, Best. 297 J, N. 36, Bl. 10)
Adam Gumpelzhaimer, six-part retrograde cruciform canon (courtesy of the Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester)
Johann Ambrosius Bach (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv / Carola Seifert)
Georg Philipp Telemann (akg-images)
Johann Mattheson (bpk / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
Crosses inscribed in BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden (courtesy of Mark Audus)
Johann Theile, Harmonischer Baum (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, D-B/Am. B 451)
Heinrich Müller, engraving from Himmlischer Liebes-Kuss, ‘The Battle with Death’ (© The British Library Board. 1560/303, pl 23)
Leipzig street music (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig)
Endzweck (courtesy of Stadtarchiv Mühlhausen, StadtA Mühlhausen 10/*(Stern) Fach 1/2 No 2a fol. 34)
Extract from the draft charter for the Thomasschule (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 235)
Assessment of thirteen boy altos (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 247 v)
Division of choristers into four choirs for five city churches (Stadtarchiv Leipzig, Stift. VIII B. 2d, Bl. 549)
Bach’s MS of the Sanctus, BWV 232iii, with sketched melody for BWV 133, Ich freue mich in dir (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
Aide-mémoire from BWV 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
‘Entwurff’ (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
Copyist’s slip in BWV 135, Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
Wilhelm Friedemann’s errors in BWV 127, Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)
Copyist errors in BWV 140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig, Leihgabe des Thomanerchors)
Sperontes, Singende Muse an der Pleisse (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
Street lighting in Leipzig (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, S/23/2001)
Market square, Leipzig, with celebrations for Friedrich August II of Saxony (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, 802)
Zimmermann’s coffee-house (Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig, Mü.III/42 b)
Seating plan of the Thomaskirche, 1780 (Courtesy of Breitkopf & Härtel)
Johann David Heinichen, Musicalischer Circul, with key breakdown of the John Passion (redrawn by James Thrift)
Interior of the Thomaskirche, Herbert Stiehl (Beiträge zur Bach-Forschung, Vol. 3 (1984)) (courtesy of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig)
Matthew Passion, Gerne will ich mich bequemen, with square brackets added (courtesy of Mark Audus)
Jesu, meine Freude, structure.
Haussmann, Portrait of Bach, 1748: three details (courtesy of William H. Scheide, Princeton, New Jersey)
Canon triplex à 6 voci (detail, stave with middle note and two clefs, p. 548) (courtesy of Howard Moody)
Fuga a 3 soggetti, Contrapunctus XIV (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv)
Heinrich Müller, engraving from Himmlischer Liebes-Kuss, ‘Earthly/Heavenly Concert’ (© The British Library Board. 1560/303, pl 26)

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