What Do We Make of Bach?

Internationally-acclaimed composer John Harbison's lifelong absorption in the music of J.S. Bach has been a touchstone in all of his work: as conductor, performer, composer, teacher, and scholar. What Do We Make of Bach? collects for the first time many of Harbison's writings on Bach, and is intended as a stand-alone companion to his simultaneously-composed organ symphony of the same title (2018), which together summarize a lifetime preoccupation. In many ways the book is an extended comment on the musical work, sharing with it a relationship to Bach's music that is both obvious and oblique. The volume consists of portraits (encounters with individuals revolving around Bach's work), essays (experiences with institutions in which Bach was at the core, together with some thoughts about where Bach's music could take us, now), and program notes (from many written over the last sixty years, a few chosen to light upon the aesthetic and social issues the author finds most essential today). Through the lens of Bach, this fascinating collection gives us a memoir of Harbison's evolution as composer and performer, and offers a deeply personal history. The depth of Harbison's knowledge pervades the book, and offers a way to begin to absorb Bach's work as a living, breathing model for our musical and artistic selves, both privately and in community. Written in the light of half a century of studying and performing Bach, Harbison's book - part memoir, part composerly meditation - offers valuable, eloquent insights into the journey of an essential American composer.