David writes in an entertaining style. While he plunges into the deepest musical analysis in some chapters, most of the time he is not that technical. If you do decide to wade through the musical analysis, he really accentuates the genius of the Musical Offering. I don't know whether his thesis of the sequence (3-part Fugue, 5 Canons, Sonata, 5 more canons, 6-part Fugue) is correct or has stood the test of historical analysis. However, when the Musical Offering is heard in this order, it makes a lot more emotional sense than the almost random alternative.

Also, this book was the inspiration for "Goedel, Escher, Bach". So if you liked that one, you should read this.

Dr. Stockigt is probably one of the best English speaking authorities on JD Zelenka. She did a fine job of tracking down the life of a man who was a Catholic outsider in the Lutheran world of Saxony. The challenge is great because of damage wrought by the fires set in Dresden by the Austrians and Prussians in the seige of 1760 and then the damage wrought by the holocaust in 1945 and then possible Soviet pilfery of the Dresden archives. Whole parts of the Zelenka catalogue are missing and some manucripts are missing sections.

Zelenka was not cooperative with historians. He left no portrait and had no children or close students to whom he could have confided his secrets. He kept no known personal diary. Zelenka is not recorded as having married. Leaving so little behind makes the task of defining the man difficult.

Dr. Stockigt weaves together a picture of life as a Bohemian child learning music, one which Zelenka must have lived. She shows the world of Zelenka as he matured, from Count Sporck's orchestra to the Dresden hopfkappel. She shows the Byzantine politics of the Dresden Court, the tensions between the Catholics who are tolerated for political reasons and the Lutheran majority who resent "Papist" influences in the Court. We learn of the thread of the Jesuits throughout Zelenka's life, from his education at the Klementium to his life at the Dresden Court. The Jesuits, the feared agents of the counter-Reformation, are to be seen at every turn in Zelenka's adult life.

She chronicles Zelenka's triumphs, his downfall at the hands of Hasse and his eventual death and then his legacy as a composer.

Dr. Stockigt focuses closely on Zelenka's music, offering analyses of themes, technical points and performance practices. We learn that the Dresden Catholic Chapel had castrati, who went on "strike". Dr. Stockigt reveals that Zelenka's patroness, the Empress Maria Josepha, protected him and we are shown his loyalty and devotion in return. We learn of her critical role in preserving his musical legacy and in how Zelenka crafted for her fine works of devotion.

We are gratified to know that many of the best composers of the time esteemed and valued Zelenka's music - even Lutherans who had no great love of Catholics in general and Jesuit trained Catholics in particular. This does not exclude J.S. Bach, with whom Zelenka collaborated on Masses and compositional practices at the Dresden Court. We discover that Zelenka's help was critical to the first performance of Bach's mass in b minor. We are also told of the fellowship and friendship between Zelenka and Johann Georg Pisendel, much admired violinist. We also learn the G.P. Telemann, one of the greatest composers of his day, attempted to publish Zelenka's "Responsora" at risk to himself.

Dr Stockigt shows the "afterlife" of Zelenka, from his relative neglect after death, to his legacy during the years preceding the Dresden holocaust, to his hesitant but sure "renaissance" today. It is obvious at every turn that Dr. Stockigt is fascinated with the man, loves his music and shares both with the reader.

This book reveals a long gone world, warts and all, to those who value the music of those times. This book also attempts to show, as best as can be done, the man behind the compositions.

Gene Herron

This book is an exhaustive, scholarly "catalogue raisonne" of all of Johann Conrad Seekatz' works, beautifully reproduced, listing their present whereabouts, whether privately-owned or housed in museums throughout the world. It offers an excellent family tree for the Seekatz family, some from Westerburg, Germany, and even though the text is in German, the paintings need no translation, and should make all of us in the U.S. with the surname "Seacat," as it was Americanized with immigration by a 1760's relative, exalt in his great talent. The book itself is on beautiful glossy stock, with beautiful colors, and should be owned by all Seacats, Seekatz, Seacotts, etc. in this country. Emmerling has produced his own masterpiece with this publication.

Josef K. Glowa has written a brilliant study worthy of its Rabelaisian theme. Anyone who appreciates satire, be it in the hands of Swift or Groucho, ought to know about Fischart and his amazing satirical pyrotechnics aimed at the reactionary front of the Counter-reformation. Glowa very skillfully displays Fischart's narrative strategies in his major work. His depth of learning in both cultural history and literary theory make him a reliable guide to the intricacies of Fischart's "Geschichtklitterung". And the lively clarity of his writing makes this book a model of the best kind of scholarship--it's actually a great read! Anyone with an interest in literature, the history of ideas, or the exciting and turbulent period of the late Renaissance will enjoy this book.

Very well written. Clear, concise and well researched. Tries to cut through all the misinformation about Gutenberg from all the contemporary rivalries for the honor of the first European printed book. Points out that most of what is known about Gutenberg is from other sources since Gutenberg never wrote about himself. Great piece of detective work.

The most interesting aspect of Micheal Pollard's look at "Johann Gutenberg: Master of Modern Printing" are the old prints and illustrations showing the evolution of printing, both before and after the subject invented letterpress printing. Ultimately this book is much more about the invention of printing and its impact on civilization than it is a biography of Gutenberg. After all, Pollard has to hedge his look at the man himself with comments that Mainz was probably where he was born, around 1398, and likely made his living as a craftsman in Strasbourg. But then certainly the life of Gutenberg becomes rather incidental compared against the tremendous impact of this creation and Pollard certainly does a first rate job of putting the printing press in the context of the history of printing. Pollard begins the book with a bit of drama involving the law suit in which Gutenberg would lose his press, the type, and the completed forty-two line Bibles that made him famous, to Johann Fust, his investor (the trial is the one part of Gutenberg's life that is known in detail). Consequently, Gutenberg never saw any profit from the printed Bibles that would bear his name.

This book covers the story of printing from the time before print, through the history of Gutenberg's invention, and the improvements seen in the field afterwards. Pollard makes a case for how printing helped to spark the Reformation (since the Bible would now be available to everyone and not just to the Church). The connection between printing and political change is detailed as well as Pollard brings the story of the technology up to the present. Again, the illustrations here are fascinating companions to the text, allowing young readers to compare a page from a 15th century hand-copied Bible with one from a Gutenberg edition. There is also a strange woodcut showing Death seizing and carrying off printers and a painting of books being burned that were not approved by the Church. This is a very informative little volume and Pollard is to be commended for developing both the history and the significance of this invention. The "Giants of Science" series was first published in Great Britain as "Scientists Who Have Changed the World," and other titles look at Alexander Graham Bell, Galileo Galilei, the Wright Brothers, and other recognizable names.

Having enjoyed Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series, I had some doubts about his World's Greatest Composers series for the simple reason that music does not have the same visual dimension as paintings (I figured that out all by myself). One of the strengths of the Artists series was that Venezia could provide examples of famous paintings by the likes of Rembrandt or Van Gogh and talk specifically about artistic technique. Consequently, more often than not, those volumes constituted mini-lessons in art appreciation for young readers. However, even when these Greatest Composers volumes are reduced to being just juvenile biographies, they still constitute a delightful look at a famous person.

In the case of Johan Sebastian Bach we find once again the delightful combination of historic paintings of Bach and his times, along with Venezia's wickedly funny but still informative cartoons (e.g., Bach as a tester and repairer of organs). Young readers will be astounded by the fact that Bach has 20 children, four of whom went out to be composers of note as well, but even more so by the revelation that Bach's music was not especially popular in his own time because it was too "new." Hopefully reading this volume will get young readers interested in the music of Bach: my strong suggestion would be that a youngster reading this book should also be able to listen to Bach's music. Any of the decent Bach collections of "greatest hits" should have "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and excerpts from "The Brandenburg Concertos," as well as examples of the various types of music composed by Bach and talked about in this volume. This would be true for any volume in this series, which includes volumes on great composers from Ludwig Van Beethoven to The Beatles!

You don't have to love chess to follow this tale through the chess world; you have to love a good story about what makes people (not to mention Automatons) tick. The characters are reminiscient of Crime and Punishment (and I mean that as a compliment) with their murky motivations. What makes this even more outstanding is that it is based on a real chess caper nearly pulled off but foiled by Poe...

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Please write _Les_ Levine in the next issue

This set of books is essential to all those who would like to get a deep insight of Mozart's life. As far as I know it is the only complete translation of Mozart's correspondence. The letters are arranged in chronological order, covering the period from Mozart's first tour up to the composer's death. It even contains Constanze's correspondence after Mozart's death.
I have read Robert Spaethling's "Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life: Selected Letters" , however the latter only contains Mozart's letters, whereas this set contains ALL the correspondence i.e. Wolfgang's , his father's, mother's and so on, although I have to admit that I found Spaethling's translation to capture more the spirit of Mozart's original writing.
It's a shame that this collection is no longer in print!