Product Description

Bach's music has made an indelible mark on all those who compose for the organ, and in the nineteenth century, Bach's music was revived, revered, and brought to life for a musical public. In this fascinating study, Bach scholar and organist Russell Stinson examines how four major composers of the nineteenth century--Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms--responded to the model of Bach's organ music. Whether for keyboard, voice, orchestra, or chamber ensemble, these composers not only borrowed from Bach's organ works in creating their own masterpieces, but also reacted significantly to the music as performers, editors, theorists, and teachers. The book reveals how these four titans influenced one another as "receptors" of this repertory and how their mutual acquaintances--especially Clara Schumann--contributed as well.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #967618 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review

"Stinson presents a well-focused study of a narrow field, making the book attractive to amateur musicians and Bach enthusiasts."-Music and Letters
"Stinson presents a well-focused study of a narrow field. Indeed, the chief strength of the monograph, as one might expect from Stinson's earlier books, is its detailed discussions of musical texts and their transmission." -James Garratt, University of Manchester
"This fascinating study combines history, biography, and musical analysis in revealing the signal importance of J. S. Bach's organ music in the lives and work of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. Conversely, it defines the crucial role of these four masters in the Bach renaissance of the 19th century. Stinson's splendid book is absorbing, eminently readable, and arguably the most impressive contribution yet to the growing field of Bach reception."--Robert L. Marshall, Sachar Professor of Music emeritus, Brandeis University
"Stinson takes us on a stimulating and often surprising journey through countless sources recording the infectious enthusiasm that Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms felt for Bach's organ music. Many of these materials, together with the insights that Stinson derives from them, are entirely new, and throughout we gain a vivid impression of what it must have been like to encounter Bach's organ music for the first time. Stinson's book will surely teach us that music from that past need not be relegated to an exhausted, mummified state, and that our changing perspectives--just like those of these nineteenth-century pioneers--furnish us with the enduring potential to experience it afresh and thereby stimulate our own creative potential."--John Butt, Gardiner Professor of Music, University of Glasgow

About the Author

Russell Stinson is the Josephine Emily Brown Professor of Music and College Organist at Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. He is the author of J. S. Bach's Great Eighteen Organ Chorales (Oxford, 2001), Bach: The Orgelbuchlein (reissued by Oxford, 1999), and The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and His Circle.