List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Friedrich Smend; 2. Number alphabets; 3. The poetical paragram; 4. A musical paragram?; 5. Links to Bach; Appendixes; Bibliography; Index.
Dr Tatlow's painstaking research will fascinate all those with an interest in the music of J. S. Bach and German Baroque culture, and will be of particular importance for music historians and analysts.
'A miracle has come to pass: a book concerning Bach and number
symbolism which is sensible, perceptive and scholarly.' John Butt,
Music and Letters
'Ruth Tatlow's book is not only one of the very few scientifically
serious investigations into this overexploited subject area, but
also the first ever critical analysis of Smend's number symbolical
works and their premises.' Christoph Wolff, Bach-Jahrbuch
'Tatlow shows with devastating clarity that from Luther's time to
Bach's, the use of such numerical interpretation for Christian
theological purposes was considered misguided at best, and
heretical at worst.' Daniel Melamed, Journal of the American
Musicological Society
'… it is refreshing to see a scholar who is ready to remove Bach
from the vacuum in which he is too often studied.' Jeanne Swack,
Notes
'Thanks to Dr Tatlow's researches, we now have a solid basis of
fact for speculations as to the role of numerology, and in
particular the number alphabet, in the music of Bach and his
contemporaries.' Malcolm Boyd, The Times Literary Supplement
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