Book Review: Johann Sebastian Bach (Christian Encounter Series)

Johann Sebastian Bach (Christian Encounter Series) by Rick Marschall

ISBN-13: 978-1595551085

192 pages; ebook available (ASIN: 1595551085)

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Retail: $12.00

Johann Sebastian Bach is generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. He enriched his generation, and every generation since, with his prolific ability to survey and bring together the principal musical styles, forms, and national traditions. Himself a Lutheran, he left a corpus of sacred music to cover the entire liturgical year, including Latin Masses written for the Catholic Court of Dresden, and spent much of his working life as a church music director in Germany. Though he was a highly respected organist during his lifetime, he wasn’t recognized as a great composer until the early nineteenth century. Today he is considered one of the most influential ever.

With that said...how did I like this book. I didn't really. Although I did learn more about Bach than I had previously known, it took me forever to get through the book. And it wasn't information that sticks with me. At the start of the book, I expected it to pick up pace because the author of this particular biography indeed has a reverence for Bach but for so much admiration, it doesn't. I found the book to be quite boring. 

It was a chore to read. And I hate to say that about books but there are some out there. Perhaps at another time I will pick this up again and reread it. Maybe I will get more out of it the second time around.

This book was a Kindle download from Booksneeze that I received free in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.