In Three Volumesby Philipp Spitta
[FIRST EDITION] London: Novello and Co., 1899. Three volume hardcover set in embossed green buckram cloth boards with gilt lettering to front covers and spines. First edition, first printing in English. Each measures 9 x 6-1/4 inches; 1,812 pages total: [v.1] xvi, 656; [v.2] 721; [v.3] 419 pp., illustrated throughout with musical notation with engraved portrait frontispiece to Volume 1. Includes a chronological account of Bach's life with scholarly discussion of Bach's compositions at the time they were composed. Considered the most comprehensive and important single work on Johann Sebastian Bach, German music historian Philipp Spitta (1841-1894) first published this masterwork in German in two volumes, in 1873 and 1880. This is a first edition of the 1899 English translation by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland.
Contents:
- I. Bach's Ancestors
- II. The Childhood and Early Years of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685–1707
- III. The First Ten Years of Bach's 'Mastership'
- IV. Cöthen, 1717–1723
- V. Leipzig, 1723–1734
- VI. The Final Period of Bach's Life and Work
- Appendices
Complete first edition set in good overall condition with some rippling/wavering to cloth of rear board (could be improved with ironing, if desired); typical age-toning and occasional light mottling to text but no owner marking, not ex-library.
German composer and musician of the late Baroque period Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is known for his orchestral music such as the Brandenburg Concertos; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schubler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.