The Reception of Bach's Organ Works from Mendelssohn to Brahms

by Russell Stinson

Overview

In this penetrating study, Russell Stinson considers how four of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century-Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms-responded to the model of Bach's organ music. His book represents a major step forward in the literature on the so-called Bach revival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195346862
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/06/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

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 Orgelbüchlein (reissued by Oxford, 1999), and The Bach Manuscripts of Johann Peter Kellner and His Circle.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Youth / The Grand Tour / Young Adulthood / The Leipzig Bach Recital /
The Final Years)
Chapter 2: Robert Schumann (Leipzig / Dresden and Beyond)
Chapter 3: Franz Liszt (The Traveling Virtuoso / Weimar / Transcriptions / Relationship with A. W. Gottschalg /
The Master Teacher)
Chapter 4: Johannes Brahms (An Overview / Brahms as a Scholar of Bach's Organ Works / Theoretical Sources
/ The Influence of Spitta's Bach Biography / Brahms's Inscriptions in the Organ-Music Volumes of the Bachgesellschaft Edition / The Marking of Themes and Motives / The Marking of Musical Form / The Marking of Rhythmic, Harmonic, Melodic, and Contrapuntal Irregularities Comparative Readings, Suggested Readings, and Corrections / The Marking of Ornamentation / Fingerings / Miscellaneous Annotations / Brahms as Scholar-Composer: the Eleven Chorale Preludes, op. 122 . )
Appendix: Johannes Brahms's Study Score of the Fantasy in G Major, BWV 572
Notes
Literature Cited

Editorial Reviews

"Stinson presents a well-focused study of a narrow field, making the book attractive to amateur musicians and Bach enthusiasts." —Music and Letters

"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

"This book will captivate you and hold your attention as it takes you on a journey into the minds and lives of four early receiveres and promoters of the Bach tradition." —CrossAccent

From the Publisher