Bachanalia: The Essential Listener's Guide to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier

By Eric Lewin Altschuler

By applying what Stephen Jay Gould describes in his preface as a Bill James style of statistical analysis of baseball teams to the 48 fugues and preludes in Bach's composition for the harpsichord, the author has created a unique listening guide to this musical composition. Altschuler's essays - one for each fugue in the Well-Tempered Clavier - are full of playful, often ingenuous analogies (to baseball teams, horror movies, chocolate chip cookies and sex) that render sophisticated musical concepts with clarity to listeners with little, or no, musical training.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316035297
• ISBN13: 9780316035293
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.0" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Good resource to better aprreciate Bach

The Well Tempered Clavier is a refreshing book which enlightened me to many details of Bach's compositons. Helpful observations on Bach's fugues made reading the Well Tempered Clavier as enjoyable as having a great conversation with a passionate music lover. Alstschuler had a lot of interesting details on compositon and music history. As a songwriter myself, the insights into many of the techniques Bach employed to keep the listener enthralled were especially valuable. It seemed every page was filled with at least one extremely interesting observation. This very good book was a very pleasant reading experience.