Bach Perspectives

by Crist, Stephen A.

• ISBN13: 9780252027888
• ISBN10: 0252027884
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

In Bach in America, volume 5 of Bach Perspectives, nine scholars track Johann Sebastian Bach's reputation in America from an artist of relative obscurity to a cultural mainstay whose music has spread to all parts of the population, inspired a wealth of scholarship, captivated listeners, and inspired musicians.More than a hundred years passed after Bach's death in 1750 before his music began to be known and appreciated in the United States. Barbara Owen surveys Bach's early reception in America and Matthew Dirst focuses on John Sullivan Dwight's role in advocating Bach's work. Michael Broyles considers the ways Bach's music came to be known in Boston and Mary J. Greer offers a counterpoint in her study of Bach's reception in New York. The volume continues with Hans-Joachim Schulze's essay linking the American descendants of August Reinhold Bach to J. S. Bach through a common sixteenth-century ancestor. Christoph Wolff focuses on Bach's descendants in America, particularly Friederica Sophia Bach, the daughter of Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. Peter Wollny evaluates several manuscripts not included in Gerhard Herz's study of Bach Sources in America.Bach in America concludes with examinations of Bach's considerable influence on American composers. Carol K. Baron compares the music of Bach and Charles Ives and Stephen A. Crist measures Bach's influence on the jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Editor's Preface	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
Bach Comes to America	1	(14)
Barbara Owen
Doing Missionary Work: Dwight's Journal of Music and the American Bach Awakening	15	(22)
Matthew Dirst
Haupt's Boys: Lobbying for Bach in Nineteenth-Century Boston	37	(20)
Michael Broyles
``The Public...Would Probably Prefer Something that Appeals Less to the Brain and More to the Senses'': The Reception of Bach's Music in New York City, 1855--1900	57	(58)
Mary J. Greer
``A Lineal Descendant of the Great Musician, John Sebastian Bach''? Bach Descendants in the United States and the Problem of Family Oral Tradition	115	(8)
Hans-Joachim Schulze
Descendants of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach in the United States	123	(8)
Christoph Wolff
On Miscellaneous American Bach Sources	131	(20)
Peter Wollny
``Father Knew (and Filled Me Up with) Bach'': Bach and Ives---Affinities in Lines and Spaces	151	(28)
Carol K. Baron
The Role and Meaning of the Bach Chorale in the Music of Dave Brubeck	179	(38)
Stephen A. Crist
Contributors	217	(2)
General Index	219	(6)
Index of Bach's Compositions	225