Booklist 17:52 N ’20 + Ind 104:248 N 13 ’20 60w
FORKEL, JOHANN NIKOLAUS. Johann Sebastian Bach; his life, art, and work. il *$4.50 Harcourt
20–23005
Although Forkel was not the first to assemble the known facts of Bach’s career he was the first in appreciation of the preeminence of his genius. His monograph is not a “life” in the biographic sense but a “critical appreciation of Bach as player, teacher, and composer, based upon the organ and clavier works, with which alone Forkel was familiar.” (Introd.) The present volume is a revision of the first English version published in 1820 and is edited with copious annotations by Charles Sanford Terry. The appendices occupy nearly half of the volume and contain: Chronological catalogue of Bach’s compositions; The church cantatas arranged chronologically; The Bachgesellschaft editions of Bach’s works; Bibliography of Bach literature; A collation of the Novello and Peters editions of the organ works; Genealogy of the family of Bach; Index.
“Forkel’s text takes up only about a quarter of Dr Terry’s book; the rest is an extremely valuable collection of learned information. It is a pity that Dr Terry’s mental attitude appears to be—shall I say?—that of a creeper on a ruin. We badly need in English a book on Bach somewhat after the lines of the French monographs on composers.” E: J. Dent
+ − Ath p384 S 17 ’20 1500w + Boston Transcript p5 N 27 ’20 420w
“Dr Sanford Terry, whose services to church music are too well known to need commendation, has made a valuable addition to the Bach literature by his new translation of Forkel’s biography, hitherto only available in the imperfect version published in 1820. He has added an excellent supplementary chapter on Bach at Leipzig. The portraits and illustrations are well chosen and reproduced.”
+ Spec 125:819 D 18 ’20 320w The Times [London] Lit Sup p585 S 9 ’20 100w + The Times [London] Lit Sup p610 S 23 ’20 1100w