It never happens often enough, but now and then, a subject gets the book it deserves. So it is with John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, a biography so thoughtful, ...

After the death of both his parents, ten-year-old Bach went to live with his 24-year-old brother 30 miles away from his birthplace. It was here he excelled in his musical studies and was inspired to ...

From almost the day of his birth on March 21st 1685, Bach's early years in the small town of Eisenach were tinged with family tragedy. But despite his difficulties, Bach's musical journey took shape ...

IT IS the defining signature of Western music. In German notation, B-A-C-H spells out B? A C B natural. It turns up in the very last pages of The Art of Fugue, that extraordinary musical logarithm ...

Gardiner suggests local knowledge of the landscape through song bears some comparison with the idea of Aboriginal songlines, such as Gardiner read in Bruce Chatwin’s book The Songlines. “In the ...