Johann Sebastian Bach ~ Christain Encounters

Author:  Rick Marschell

My recommended age:   15+

Their recommended age: NA

Publisher:  Thomas Nelson publishers

Number of pages:  176

Publisher’s description:

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience.
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.

My thoughts:

One word.  BORING!  It was very drab, boring and overall did not hold your attention.  I love Bach and the other composers, but this writer just BUTCHERED the story/biography. Please Mr. Marschell, do try to be more dramatic. 

Cons:

O_O

Bad plot.

Very boring.

Drab and Grey.

There were a lot of German words in there that I didn’t understand.  That might not be a CON for some folks though.

Pros:

Very informative (why can’t informative books be interesting?)

Language:

None to my knowledge.

Romance:

Bach is married, but there is nothing inmodest.

Violence:

It is mentioned that Bach pulled a knife on someone once, but nothing descriptive.

Drugs and drink:

Hmm…I don’t remember anything.

Random Snippet:

Bach frequently walked to Hamburg to listen to the aged organist, Reincken, a disciple of the distinguished Dutch compose Jan Pieterszoon Van Sweelinck, who exemplified yet another “school” of organ playing and composition, particularly the art of variations.  Sweelinck was also the composer of “ My Young Life Has an End”   

~ Pg. 35 on the top~

Ratings:

My ratings?  It was very informative, and if you could muscle past the boring-ness, I’m sure it is a very good book.  I just have to give it a 3 star.  Sorry Bach, Sorry Mr. Marschell! 

*I received this book from Booksneeze;  A free book reviewer program.   If you would like to join booksneeze, go <HERE>.