Biographies of Johann Sebastian Bach#19th century

File:Musikalische Bibliothek (Mizler) 1736 Titel.jpg's {{Interlanguage link multi|Musikalische Bibliothek|de|3=Musikalische Bibliothek|lt=Musikalische Bibliothek}} (1739). Its fourth part (first published in April 1738) contained an article defending Bach's art against the criticism Johann Adolph Scheibe had published in May 1737. The 1754 last volume of the Musikalische Bibliothek (IV, 1) contained Bach's obituary.]]

Little was published about Bach's life in the 18th century, his "Nekrolog" (obituary) being the most extended biographical note about the composer's life.

No writings by Johann Sebastian Bach were published during his lifetime. He declined Johann Mattheson's invitation to write an autobiographical sketch for inclusion in the Ehrenpforte.Spitta 1899 [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb03spituoft#page/228/mode/1up III, p. 228] There is little biographical material to be found in the compositions published during his lifetime: the glimpse perceived from the dedication of The Musical Offering to Frederick the Great being a small exception. There are however some letters by the composer in which he gives autobiographical detail, including the letter he wrote in 1730 to Georg Erdmann, and the letter he had joined to the score of his Mass for the Dresden court in 1733.Eidam 2001, chapter XVIII Other contemporary sources include archived reports, like those of the decisions of the Leipzig city council.Eidam 2001, chapter XIV

Contemporary publications, like Johann Mattheson's Beschützte Orchestre, Johann Adolph Scheibe's Critischer Musicus and Lorenz Christoph Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek, rather write about Bach's music than about his life.Johann Mattheson. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_4CVDAAAAcAAJ#page/n259/mode/1up Das Beschützte Orchestre, oder desselben Zweyte Eröffnung, footnote p. 222] Hamburg: Schiller, 1717.Johann Adolf Scheibe. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_KVpDAAAAcAAJ#page/n86/mode/1up pp. 46–47] in Critischer Musicus VI, 14 May 1737. Quoted in Eidam 2001, Chapter XXII.Lorenz Christoph Mizler. [https://archive.org/stream/MusikalischeBibliothek1.band1736-38/MizlerMusikalischeBibliothekBd11736-39#page/n314/mode/1up Musikalische Bibliothek. Volume I, Part 4, pp. 61–73.] Leipzig, April 1738. Includes a reprint of Johann Abraham Birnbaum's [http://www.koelnklavier.de/quellen/scheibe-birnb/_index.html Unpartheyische Anmerckungen über eine bedenckliche stelle in dem Sechsten stück des Critischen Musicus.] published early January of the same year. Bach's entry in Johann Gottfried Walther's 1732 Lexikon is a rare exception in giving biographical information on the composer.Johann Gottfried Walther [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_7_k-AAAAcAAJ#page/n85/mode/1up Musicalisches Lexicon oder Musicalische Bibliothec, p. 64.] Leipzig, W. Deer. 1732.

{{Further|Bach's Nekrolog}}

Bach's "Nekrolog" was published in 1754 in the fourth volume of Mizler's Musikalische Bibliothek."Nekrolog" 1754 With less than 20 pages it is the most comprehensive 18th-century publication on the composer's life.

For the remainder of the century short biographies of the composer appeared in reference works like Johann Adam Hiller's {{lang|de|Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neurer Zeit}},Johann Adam Hiller. [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10623247?page=27 "Bach (Johann Sebastian)", pp. 9–29] in [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10623247-1 Lebensbeschreibungen berühmter Musikgelehrten und Tonkünstler neurer Zeit, Vol. 1.] Leipzig: Dyk, 1784. Ernst Ludwig Gerber's Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der TonkünstlerErnst Ludwig Gerber. [https://archive.org/stream/historischbiogra01ger#page/n62/mode/1up "Bach (Joh. Sebastian)", column 86 ff.] in [https://archive.org/details/historischbiogra01ger Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler.] Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1790. and Friedrich Carl Gottlieb Hirsching's Historisch-literarisches Handbuch.{{Interlanguage link multi|Friedrich Carl Gottlob Hirsching|de|3=Friedrich Karl Gottlob Hirsching}}. [https://web.archive.org/web/20160305041116/http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/goToPage/bsb10070332.html?pageNo=91 "Bach, Johann Sebastian", pp. 77–80] in [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10070332-5 Historisch-literarisches Handbuch berühmter und denkwürdiger Personen, welche in dem 18. Jahrhunderte gestorben sind: oder kurzgefaßte biographische und historische Nachrichten von berühmten Kaisern, Königen, Fürsten, großen Feldherren ... und andern merkwürdigen Personen beyderley Geschlechts. Erster Band: A - Brindley.] Leipzig: Schwickert, 1794. The descriptions in such biographical articles were nearly exclusively based on the "Nekrolog", often copied with errors.Spitta 1899, [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb01spituoft#page/n11/mode/2up I, pp. ii–iii]

Occasionally Bach appears in other writings, like {{Interlanguage link multi|Johann Friedrich Köhler|wikisource:de|3=ADB:Köhler, Johann Friedrich}}'s 1776 manuscript on the history of schools in Leipzig, which gives a short account of Bach falling out with Johann August Ernesti, conrector of the St. Thomas School.Spitta 1899, [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb03spituoft#page/11/mode/1up/search/Kohler III, pp. 11–12] In print Bach is mentioned as teacher of some musicians of the next generation, for instance Christoph Nichelmann.

{{cite web

| url = http://christoph-nichelmann.de/christoph-nichelmann/marpurg-%C3%BCber-nichelmann/

| title = Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg. Historisch-kritische Beyträge zur Aufnahme der Musik.

| publisher = christoph-nichelmann.de

| year = 1754

| language = German

| access-date = 5 December 2012

}}

Forkel's biography was published shortly after the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, and concentrated mostly on an analysis of his compositions. The first biography based on an extensive research of primary sources was published by Spitta in the second half of the 19th century.

{{Further|Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work}}

Johann Nikolaus Forkel's Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke (Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work) appeared in Leipzig in 1802. Its biographical material expands what is already in the "Nekrolog" with details Forkel collected from Bach's eldest sons. An English translation, expanded with updates in footnotes and appendices, was published in 1920 by Charles Sanford Terry.Forkel 1920

A century after the composer's death two short biographies were published. Joh. Carl Schauer published Joh. Seb. Bach's Lebensbild : Eine Denkschrift auf seinem 100 jährigen Todestag, den 28. Jul. 1850, aus Thüringen, seinem Vaterlande,Schauer 1850 and Carl L. Hilgenfeldt published Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Wirken und Werke: ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts (Johann Sebastian Bach's life, influence and works: a contribution to the art history of the 18th century) "als Programm zu dem am 28. Julius 1850 eintretenden Säculartage des Todes von Johann Sebastian Bach" (as a program for the centennial days of Johann Sebastian Bach's death, starting 28 July 1850).Hilgenfeldt 1850, title page

In 1865 Karl Hermann Bitter published a two-volume Bach biography. The biography contains some documents from Bach's time that had not been published before, presented with a wealth of historical inferences and personal reflections.Spitta 1899, [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb01spituoft#page/n13/mode/2up I, pp. iv–v] An abridged English translation of the biography appeared in 1873. Shortly after becoming Prussian minister of finance in 1879, Bitter published an enlarged reworking in four volumes of the biography.Bitter

{{Further|Spitta's Johann Sebastian Bach}}

Philipp Spitta's Johann Sebastian Bach was published in Leipzig in two volumes, in 1873 and 1880 respectively. Its English translation was published by Novello in three volumes.

In his introduction Spitta dismisses all previous biographies apart from the "Nekrolog", Forkel, and part of Gerber.Spitta 1899, [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb01spituoft#page/n14/mode/1up I, p. v] He is particularly harsh on Bitter.Spitta 1992 Vol. I, p. xiii Spitta's biography went down in history as "... the most ... comprehensive and important single work on Johann Sebastian Bach".Spitta 1992 Vol. I, p. xix It eclipsed the previous biographies and laid down premises and methodology for future Bach scholarship.Wolff 1991 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8WFNr4EZk2cC&pg=PA4 pp. 4–5]

In the United Kingdom the 19th-century Bach Revival was inscribed in existing traditions respecting baroque music.McKay, Cory. [http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~cmckay/papers/musicology/BachReception.pdf "The Bach Reception in the 18th and 19th century"] at {{url|www.music.mcgill.ca}} The Bach-biographies that were published in English were throughout the century largely based on German examples. An amateurishForkel/Terry 1920 [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian01terrgoog#page/n24/mode/1up pp. xix–xxi] translation of Forkel had appeared in London in 1820.Forkel 1820 Edward Francis Rimbault had published his Hilgenfeldt/Forkel adaptation in 1869.Rimbault 1869 An abridged version of Bitter's first edition had appeared in 1873.Bitter 1873 In 1882 the first original English biography appeared, Reginald Lane Poole's Sebastian Bach.Spitta 1992 Vol. I, p. xviii Lane Poole bases the biographical data entirely on Spitta, and adds a chronological list of 200 church cantatas by Bach.[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1882/07/29/page/9/article/the-life-of-sebastian-bach "The Life of Sebastian Bach"] in Chicago Tribune. July 29, 1882, p. 9. By the mid-1880s the translation of Spitta's volumes was complete.Spitta 1884–1885

Richard Batka published his biography of the composer in 1892, as part of the {{lang|de|Musiker-Biographien}} series.{{sfn|Batka|1892}}

New biographies were written by Schweitzer and Terry in the first half of the 20th century. Only by the end of the century, quarter of a millennium after the composer's death, new major biographies appeared by Eidam and Wolff.

By the end of the 19th century the Bach Gesellschaft had completed its task of publishing all known works by Bach. The first decade of the new century brought new significant biographies of the composer.

Albert Schweitzer's Johann Sebastian Bach, le musicien-poète appeared in 1905. It analyses Bach's works primarily from a religious perspective.Eidam 2001, Introduction Its 1908 German edition was enlarged, and more content was added to the 1911 English version.Schweitzer

In 1906 André Pirro published a Bach-biography in France. The biography became available in English in 1957, based on the 1949 enlarged French edition.Pirro

In 1909 a new English-language biography of Bach appeared, written by Hubert Parry.Parry 1909 In its preface the author pays his homage to Spitta and excuses him for his specialised technicalities: for his new biography Parry proposes a more condensed survey of the topic.Parry 1909, [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastianb00parruoft#page/n14/mode/1up p. v-vi] Parry shows Bach chauvinism by designating everything what was composed in the 17th century as immature.Stephen A. Crist. [http://symposium.music.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2099:beyond-bach-centrism-historiographic-perspectives-on-johann-sebastian-bach-and-seventeenth-century-music Beyond "Bach-Centrism": Historiographic Perspectives on Johann Sebastian Bach and Seventeenth-Century Music] at {{url|symposium.music.org}}

In 1925 Esther Meynell published The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach, fictitiously telling the story of Bach's life through the eyes of his second wife Anna Magdalena Bach.Meynell 1925 The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, a 1968 film featuring Gustav Leonhardt as Johann Sebastian Bach, took the same perspective.A. H. Weiler. [https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F04E4D81E39E63ABC4F53DFB2668382679EDE "Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)"] in The New York Times, April 7, 1969

Charles Sanford Terry's Bach biography of 1928 focusses on the places where Bach lived. It is the first biography that contains biographical documents not yet included in Spitta's.Wolff 1991 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8WFNr4EZk2cC&pg=PA4 p. 4]

Bach's 250th birthday was remembered with a short biography by Wilibald Gurlitt, "Niederschrift des Jubiläumsvortrages bei der Bach-Feier des Ev. Studentenpfarramtes der Universität Freiburg i.Br. im Sommersemester 1935" (written out version of the jubilee speech at the Bach feast of the evangelical student community of the university of Freiburg im Breisgau, in the summer semester of 1935). Published in 1936, it was translated in English in 1957. An enlarged German edition was published in 1980.Gurlitt

In 1950, two centuries after the composer's death, Wolfgang Schmieder published the BWV catalogue. The decades following World War II also saw the publication of a number of biographical works.

{{Interlanguage link multi|Hans Theodor David|de}} and Arthur Mendel published The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents in 1945. It was revised as The New Bach Reader by Christoph Wolff in 1998.David & Mendel

Swiss musicologist Antoine-Elisée Cherbuliez (1888–1964)Wolfgang W. Müller. [https://books.google.com/books?id=eA7nDmV13OMC&dq=cherbuliez+Bach+%221888%22&pg=PA49 Suche nach dem Unbedingten: spirituelle Spuren in der Kunst, p. 49.] Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2008. {{ISBN|9783290200466}} derives the biographical material for his 1946 Bach biography essentially from the "Nekrolog", and the biographies by Forkel, Spitta and Terry.Cherbuliez 1946, p. 13

Werner Neumann, from 1951 director of the East-German section of the Neue Bach-Ausgabe (NBA), published several biographies of the composer. In 1953 Auf den Lebenswegen Johann Sebastian Bachs, acclaimed by Alfred Dürr, the director of the West-German section of the NBA.Alfred Dürr. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41113433 Review of Auf den Lebenswegen Johann Sebastian Bachs by Werner Neumann] in Die Musikforschung 9/2, 1956, pp. 231-233 An enlarged German edition was issued in 1962.Neumann 1953 In 1960 Bach: eine Bildbiographie was published. These two works were translated as Bach and his world and Bach: A Pictorial BiographyNeumann 1960

Under Neumann's direction, from its founding in 1950 until he retired in 1973, the Leipzig Bach Archive published biographical material about Bach, for instance in 1970 the Kalendarium zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs (time table to the history of Johann Sebastian Bach's life).Bach-Archiv 1970 Hans-Joachim Schulze, Neumann's successor as director of the Archive, revised this Kalendarium for its second edition in 1979.[http://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.355/PPNSET?PPN=1150197463&PRS=HOL&HILN=888&INDEXSET=21 Kalendarium zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs, 2nd revised edition] at Online Bach Bibliography website.

In 1962 Russell Hancock Miles published Johann Sebastian Bach: an Introduction to His Life and Works.Miles 1962

In 1966 Karl and Irene Geiringer published Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of An Era.Geiringer 1966

Walter Blankenburg published an essay collection, with contributions by scholars such as Dürr and David, in 1970.Blankenburg 1970 In 1976 Barbara Schwendowius and Wolfgang Dömling published a collection of eleven essays by, among others, Wolff and Dürr under the title Johann Sebastian Bach : Zeit, Leben, Wirken. The next year the book was translated as Johann Sebastian Bach: Life, Times, Influence.Schwendowius & Dömling

Around 1980 Alberto Basso published the two volumes of his Italian Bach-biography Frau Musika.Basso, 1979 (I) and 1983 (II) The biography largely follows Spitta's model, with updates to intermediate research.Eleanor Selfridge-Field. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/854808 Review of Frau Musika: la vita e le opere di J. S. Bach. Vol. 2: (1723-1750) by Alberto Basso] in Music & Letters Vol. 66, No. 2. April 1985. pp. 129–131.

In the years leading up to Bach's 300th birthday in 1985 some new biographies were published. Malcolm Boyd's Bach appeared in 1983.{{OCLC|10139466}} Denis Arnold's Bach appeared the next year,Arnold 1984 as well as a new French biography by Roland de Candé,de Candé 1984 and a German one by Werner Felix. That last one was translated into English in 1985.Felix Piero Buscaroli's Italian biography appeared in 1985.Buscaroli 1985

Around the 250th anniversary of Bach's death (2000) several new biographies were published, along with reprints and revised editions of earlier publications.

John Butt collaborated to several publications on Bach. In 1997 he was the editor of the Cambridge Companion to Bach, with chapters written by Malcolm Boyd, Ulrich Siegele, Robin A. Leaver, Stephen A. Crist, Werner Breig, Richard D. P. Jones, Laurence Dreyfus, Stephen Daw, George B. Stauffer and Martin Zenck.{{OCLC|829742314}}

Klaus Eidam's 1999 Das Wahre Leben des Johann Sebastian Bach (The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach) tries to correct some misconceptions that crept in the biographical writing on the composer, based on a new perusal of primary sources.

Christoph Wolff, a Bach scholar, wrote his major biographical work on Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, in 2000.{{OCLC|433700566}} In 1998 Wolff had revised David and Mendel's Bach Reader into The New Bach Reader.David & Mendel 1998 In 1999 a compilation of Bach-related essays Wolff wrote between 1963 and 1988 had its fourth reprint.Wolff 1991Alfred Dürr. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/897888 Review of Bach: Essays on His Life and Music by Christoph Wolff] in Notes Vol. 49, No. 2. December 1992, pp. 508-510

Also in 2000 Martin Geck published Bach: Leben und Werk, six years later translated as Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work.Geck 2006 A previous shorter work by Geck, with a focus on illustrative material, was translated as Bach in 2000.Geck 1993

Maarten 't Hart's biography, focussing on Bach's cantatas, appeared in Dutch and German in 2000.{{OCLC|907016747}}

In the 21st century a sizeable portion of biographical material on Johann Sebastian Bach became available on-line, including full scans of older biographies that were no longer copyrighted. Andreas Glöckner's revised edition of the 1970s Kalendarium was published in 2008.Bach-Archiv 2008 This, in turn, formed the basis for the jsbach website, presenting data about Bach's life in time table format.[https://jsbach.de/en jsbach biografie online] at jsbach.de website. {{Retrieved|access-date=14 March 2021}} New biographies were written by Williams and Gardiner.

In 2004 a new English biography of Bach, written by Peter Williams, was published by the Cambridge University Press.Williams 2004 In 2007 Williams published J. S. Bach: A Life in Music.Williams 2007 Williams's Bach: A Musical Biography was published posthumously in September 2016.[https://www.cambridge.org/be/academic/subjects/music/eighteenth-century-music/bach-musical-biography?format=HB&isbn=9781107139251 Bach: A Musical Biography] at Cambridge University Press website.

John Eliot Gardiner's Music in the castle of heaven was published in 2013.Gardiner 2013

David Schulenberg's biography, Bach, was published in 2020.Schulenberg 2020

Apart from the biographies that take the reader from Bach's birth in 1685 to his death in 1750, several studies highlight specific aspects of the composer's life.[http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian-3.htm#G Biography: Special studies] at {{url|www.bach-cantatas.com}}

Johann Sebastian Bach's life was the subject of several films.[https://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027177/?ref_=tt_cl_t1 Johann Sebastian Bach (Character)] at Internet Movie Database website

{{Reflist}}

• Denis Arnold. Bach. Oxford University Press, 1984. {{ISBN|019287554X}}
• Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Kalendarium zur Lebensgeschichte Johann Sebastian Bachs. 1970.
• Revised edition by Andreas Glöckner. 2008. {{ISBN|9783899480948}}
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Friedrich Agricola. "Nekrolog" (full title: [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_lfQ4AAAAIAAJ#page/n1037/mode/2up "VI. Denkmal dreyer verstorbenen Mitglieder der Societät der musikalischen Wissenschafften; C. Der dritte und letzte ist der im Orgelspielen Weltberühmte HochEdle Herr Johann Sebastian Bach, Königlich-Pohlnischer und Churfürstlich Sächsicher Hofcompositeur, und Musikdirector in Leipzig"]), pp. 158–176 in Lorenz Christoph Mizler's {{Interlanguage link multi|Musikalische Bibliothek|de}}, Volume IV No. 1. Leipzig, Mizlerischer Bücherverlag, 1754.
• Alberto Basso. Frau Musika: La vita e le opere di J. S. Bach. Turin, EDT:
• Volume 1: [https://books.google.com/books?id=hpiUBtwrtM4C Le origini familiari, l'ambiente luterano, gli anni giovanili, Weimar e Köthen (1685–1723).] 1979. {{ISBN|88-7063-011-0}}
• Volume 2: [https://books.google.com/books?id=sX_Fr3lj7pMC Lipsia e le opere de la maturità (1723–1750).] 1983. {{ISBN|88-7063-028-5}}
• {{cite book |last1=Batka |first1=Richard |author-link1=:de:Richard Batka |date=1892 |title=J. S. Bach |trans-title= |url= |series=Musiker-Biographien |language=de |volume=15 |location=Leipzig |publisher=Reclam }}
• Karl Hermann Bitter. Johann Sebastian Bach. Berlin: Schneider, 1865. [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10600015-0 Vol. 1] – [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10600016-5 Vol. 2]
• [https://archive.org/details/lifeofjsebastian00bittuoft Abridged translation by Janet Elizabeth Kay-Shuttleworth.] London: Houlston. 1873.
• Second revised and enlarged edition in 4 volumes. Berlin: Baensch, 1880. {{OCLC|318374312}}
• [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/28685596.html 1881 print (Baensch).] [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastian00bittgoog Vol. 1] – [https://archive.org/stream/johannsebastian00bittgoog#page/n345/mode/2up Vol. 2] – Vol. 3 – [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastian01bittgoog Vol. 4]
• [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/66018617.html 1978 DDR/Bärenreiter reprint in 2 volumes + facsimiles.] {{OCLC|679929712|680128546}}
• Walter Blankenburg, editor. Johann Sebastian Bach. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1970. {{OCLC|1060904}}
• Malcolm Boyd. Bach. London: J. M. Dent, 1983. {{ISBN|9780460044660}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=XD0ThbL5luEC Oxford Press republication (2006)]
• Piero Buscaroli. Bach. Milano: A. Mondadori, 1985. {{OCLC|13499133}}
• John Butt, editor. [http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/music/twentieth-century-and-contemporary-music/cambridge-companion-bach The Cambridge companion to Bach.] Cambridge University Press, 1997. {{ISBN|9780521587808}}.
• {{Interlanguage link multi|Roland de Candé|fr}}. Jean-Sébastien Bach. Paris: Seuil, 1984. {{ISBN|9782020085052}}
• {{Interlanguage link multi|A.-E. Cherbuliez|de|3=Antoine-Elisée Cherbuliez}}. Johann Sebastian Bach: Sein Leben und sein Werk. Olten: Otto Walter, 1946.
• Hans Theodore David and Arthur Mendel, editors. The Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents. New York: W. W. Norton, 1945. {{OCLC|219802687}}
• Revised as The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents by Christoph Wolff. 1998. {{ISBN|9780393045581}}
• {{Interlanguage link multi|Klaus Eidam|de}}. Das wahre Leben des Johann Sebastian Bach. Piper, 1999. {{ISBN|3492040799}}
• Translated as The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach. New York: Basic Books, 2001. {{ISBN|9780465018611}}
• Werner Felix. Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1984. {{OCLC|750950924}}
• English translation. London: Orbis; New York: W. W. Norton. 1985.
• Johann Nikolaus Forkel. Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke: Für patriotische Verehrer echter musikalischer Kunst Leipzig: Hoffmeister und Kühnel. 1802.
• English translation with notes and appendices by Charles Sanford Terry: [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastian01terrgoog Johann Sebastian Bach: His Life, Art, and Work.] New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe; London: Constable. 1920. ([http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35041 e-version] at Gutenberg.org)
• Edited by {{Interlanguage link multi|Max Friedrich Schneider|de|3=Max Schneider (Musikhistoriker)}} (notes and appendices based on, among others, Terry's Bach biography): [https://archive.org/details/ueberjohannsebas00fork Über Joh. Seb. Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke.] Basel: Hardimann. 1946. {{OCLC|884470080|600527458}}
• John Eliot Gardiner. Music in the castle of heaven. 2013.
• UK: [https://books.google.com/books?id=lSBuAAAAQBAJ Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach.] Penguin UK. {{ISBN|9781846147210}}; London: Allen Lane. {{ISBN|9780713996623}}
• US: Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. {{ISBN|9780385351980}}
• Martin Geck. Johann Sebastian Bach : mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Rowohlt, 1993. {{ISBN|9783499505119}}
• Translation by Anthea Bell based on the 6th German edition (2000), with an introduction by John Butt: [https://books.google.com/books?id=N1zSVDYTCXgC Bach.] London: Haus Publishing. 2003. {{ISBN|9781904341161}}
• Martin Geck. Bach: Leben und Werk. Rowohlt, 2000. {{ISBN|9783498024833}}
• Translated by John Hargraves. [https://books.google.com/books?id=OvSeGvRFm-YC Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work.] Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006. {{ISBN|9780151006489}}
• Karl and Irene Geiringer. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Culmination of An Era. New York: Oxford University Press; London: George Allen & Unwin. 1966
• Wilibald Gurlitt. Johann Sebastian Bach: der Meister und sein Werk. Berlin: Furche, 1936. {{OCLC|612001760}}
• English translation: Concordia, 1957. {{OCLC|742170817}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=3j4YAQAAIAAJ Reprinted by Da Capo (1986).] {{ISBN|9780306762628}}
• Enlarged 5th edition: Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1980. {{ISBN|9783761815342}}
• Maarten 't Hart. [https://books.google.com/books?id=qbZzAAAAQBAJ Johann Sebastian Bach.] De Arbeiderspers, 2000. {{ISBN|9789029576840}}
• Carl L. Hilgenfeldt. [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10528132-5 Johann Sebastian Bach's Leben, Wirken und Werke: ein Beitrag zur Kunstgeschichte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts.] Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister, 1850
• Reginald Lane Poole. [https://archive.org/details/sebastianbach01poolgoog Sebastian Bach.] London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1882.
• In the early 20th century republished by Sampson Low, Marston & Co. as [http://library.sl.nsw.gov.au/search~S2?/aPoole%2C+Reginald+Lane%2C+1857-1939/apoole+reginald+lane+1857+1939/1%2C1%2C21%2CB/frameset&FF=apoole+reginald+lane+1857+1939&15%2C%2C21 Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685-1750], with a foreword by Francesco Berger. {{OCLC|317890815|5526964}}
• Republished: Nabu Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1278440545}}
• Esther Meynell. The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach. London: Chatto & Windus; New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1925. {{OCLC|613081920}}
• Russell Hancock Miles. Johann Sebastian Bach: an Introduction to His Life and Works. Prentice-Hall, 1962
• Werner Neumann. Auf den Lebenswegen Johann Sebastian Bachs. Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1953. {{OCLC|715957084}}
• Fourth improved German edition (1962). {{OCLC|253348932}}
• Werner Neumann. Bach: Eine Bildbiographie. Berlin: Deutsche Buch-Gemeinschaft, 1960. {{OCLC|5116231}}
• Revised edition. München: Kindler, 1961. {{OCLC|271067638}}
• Translated by Stefan de Haan:
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=LKIMAQAAIAAJ Bach: A Pictorial Biography.] New York: Viking Press; London: Thames and Hudson. 1961.
• Bach and his World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1961.
• From 1969 revised editions (under both titles), e.g. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IMcXAQAAIAAJ Thames & Hudson, 1970]
• Hubert Parry. [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb00parruoft Johann Sebastian Bach: The Story of the Development of a Great Personality.] New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; London: The Knickerbocker Press. 1909.
• André Pirro. J.-S. Bach. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1906. {{OCLC|842307554}}
• [https://archive.org/details/jsbachpi00pirr Third edition (1910)]
• Revised edition (1949) {{OCLC|459516149}}
• Translated by Mervyn Savil: J. S. Bach. New York: Orion Press, 1957. {{OCLC|16448996}}
• Edward Francis Rimbault. [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011544825 Johann Sebastian Bach: his life and writings.] Adapted from the German of Hilgenfeldt and Forkel. With additions from original sources. London, Metzler & co., 1869.
• Joh. Carl Schauer. [http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10600012-4 Joh. Seb. Bach's Lebensbild: Eine Denkschrift auf seinem 100 jährigen Todestag, den 28. Jul. 1850, aus Thüringen, seinem Vaterlande.] Jena, F. Luden. 1850.
• Barbara Schwendowius and Wolfgang Dömling, editors. Johann Sebastian Bach: Zeit, Leben, Wirken. Bärenreiter, 1976. {{ISBN|9783761805466}}
• Translated as Johann Sebastian Bach: Life, Times, Influence. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1977. {{ISBN|9783761805893}}
• David Schulenberg. Bach. Oxford University Press. 2000.
• Albert Schweitzer. [https://archive.org/details/jsbachlemusicien00schw J. S. Bach, le musicien-poète.] Preface by Charles Marie Widor. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1905.
• Enlarged German edition: [https://archive.org/details/jsbach01schwgoog J. S. Bach.] Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1908.
• English translation in two volumes by Ernest Newman (based on the 1908 German edition, with alterations and additions by Schweitzer): J. S. Bach. London: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1911. Volume 1 – [https://archive.org/details/jsbach00widogoog Volume 2]
• Reissued in 1923 by A. & C. Black, reprinted 1935: [https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc01schwuoft Volume 1] – [https://archive.org/details/jsbachsc02schwuoft Volume 2]
• Philipp Spitta. Johann Sebastian Bach.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=HxkDAAAAYAAJ Erster Band (Book I–IV).] Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1873.
• [https://archive.org/details/johsebbach01spit Third print (1921)] at Archive.org
• Zweiter Band (Book V–VI). Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel. 1880.
• [https://archive.org/details/johsebbach02spit Third print (1921)] at Archive.org
• Johann Sebastian Bach: His Work and Influence on the Music of Germany, 1685–1750 in three volumes. Translated by Clara Bell and J. A. Fuller Maitland. Novello & Co. 1884–1885.
• 1899 edition: [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb01spituoft Vol. 1 (Book I–III)] – [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb02spituoft Vol. 2 (Book IV–V)] – [https://archive.org/details/johannsebastianb03spituoft Vol. 3 (Book VI)] at Archive.org
• 1992 republication of the 1952 Dover edition (with "Bibliographical Note" by Saul Novack): [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z3P4b_NnNLAC Vol. 1 (Book I–III)]
• Charles Sanford Terry. [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007550980 Bach: A Biography.] Oxford University Press, 1928. {{OCLC|912873095|893564008|902573683}}
• [http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001455652 Second and revised edition (1933)] at HathiTrust
• Many reprints, including Kessinger 2010 ({{ISBN|9781161377859}}) and Literary Licensing 2013 ({{ISBN|9781494101183}})
• Peter Williams. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wX-rF2_k_S8C The Life of Bach.] Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|9780521533744}}
• Peter Williams. [https://books.google.com/books?id=R2tkkPvcnDsC J. S. Bach: A Life in Music.] Cambridge University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|9781139461191}}
• Christoph Wolff. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8WFNr4EZk2cC Bach: Essays on His Life and Music.] Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|9780674059269}} (4th reprint, 1999)
• Christoph Wolff. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YtJVFiHnepcC Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician.] Oxford University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0-393-04825-X}}

{{Sister project links|Johann Sebastian Bach|author=yes|wikt=no|b=no|n=no|v=no|c=no}}

• [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian.htm J. S. Bach biography] and [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Bach-Johann-Sebastian-3.htm#F Bibliography F: Biography] at {{url|www.bach-cantatas.com}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150913165309/http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/diversen/bach/map.html Johann Sebastian Bach's life (1685-1750)] at {{url|www.let.rug.nl}}
• Michael and Lawrence Sartorius. [http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxjsbach.html "Johann Sebastian Bach: a detailed informative biography".] at {{url|www.baroquemusic.org}}

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Bach, Johann Sebastian, Biographies of

Category:Johann Sebastian Bach

Category:Cultural depictions of Johann Sebastian Bach