Last month's issue reviewed Davitt Moroney's excellent biography of J. S. Bach (ABRSM Publishing, £6.95). In comparison, Christoph Wolff's somewhat weightier biography is an example of Bach scholarship previously unsurpassed by many authors. Phillip Spitta's three-volume work, published between 1873 and 1880, became the yardstick for 20th-century Bach scholarship, since when it seems to have adopted an approach in which every minutiae are examined fully, with no stone left unturned in the search for absolute accuracy. Although laudable, this sometimes leads to scholarship of a somewhat dubious nature: the pages of journals and books contain writings, often fantastic, which lead to further researches to prove the opposite. Despite the existing documentation, many areas of Bach's life are grey aspects about which authors have to make intelligent guesses. Hypotheses need the support of direct evidence, and if this is unavailable, then things are often better left unsaid. The same cannot be said of Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician; although little is said that is new concerning Bach documentation, Wolff's interpretation of information in the light of his knowledge and understanding of the work of court and church musicians in 18th-century Germany, and the combination of this with a basic common sense, makes even his supposition very plausible.

Although not primarily intended to illuminate Bach's music, Wolff nevertheless refers to various works to illustrate various lines of reasoning, but these are not expansive; for example, his placing of the cantatas into musical, liturgical and biographical contexts, although important, is not over-detailed - this is a biography and, if you want descriptions and analyses, you will have to look elsewhere. Instead, we are subject to writing that focuses on individual works as a means of explaining Bach's processes as a musician and the role that external influences brought to bear. As with many composers, these were not only a matter of a developing musical philosophy and technique, but also a particular response to practical considerations. Wolff's demonstration of Bach's learning process, his (for want of a better word) apprenticeship at Arnstadt, the manner in which he drew upon models from Germany and abroad and his early compositional processes, are carefully and intelligently scrutinised. The case of the famous Toccata and Fugue in d (BWV 565) is a case in point. Peter Williams's interesting and lucid examination of this work during the 1980s plausibly suggests that it is a transcription of a work for solo violin. Certainly, the work is unusual (the only known Bach work that opens with parallel octaves), containing violinistic figuration and a fugue whose subject and countersubject combine mainly in sixths and thirds. However, its format only looks back in part to the traditional formats of the violin sonatas of Schmelzer or Biber and, overall, is in the north German toccata tradition of Bruhns, Lübeck and Buxtehude. Wolff evidently feels this, and in trying to re-establish it as an organ composition, examines other important factors that might be brought to bear. Primarily it is an early work; if we accept this, then there is at least partly an explanation of its simplicity. How early is open to conjecture, but the opening octaves could be purely a device to compensate for the lack of a 16' stop on the claviers of the Arnstadt organ, a fundamental stop in any plenum registration. Thus, BWV 565 is a demonstration of Bach's practical approach to composition, a point which might rightly accord it a place in the repertoire of 'purist' performers.

Later chapters deal with Bach as a revisionist, his philosophy and musical idealism, as well as more prosaic features such as family life in Leipzig and the manner in which Bach managed his official duties alongside an obviously extensive teaching workload. Overall, this is the first important biography of J. S. Bach in English; it is meticulously researched, readable, and demonstrates Wolff's qualities as one of the most outstanding Bach scholars of the late 20th century.

John Woodford