Classical music composer biographies

Tell me about Julian Shuckburgh’s biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, Harmony and Discord.

This just came out. Most biographies of Bach have been tremendously hagiographical and, broadly speaking, treated him as if he was God.

Julian Shuckburgh’s approach is to treat him like any composer now, as it were: to study him in his living conditions, in his contracts and his disagreements with his employers – which were constant. The interesting thing about Bach is that he was actually, in career terms, not very successful, and the book shows the struggles that he had – for example, to support his (very large) family.

Bach was essentially a local church musician who was also a schoolmaster – it’s very surprising when you think like that.

“Unlike Handel, say, who was a sort of flamboyant impresario figure, Bach remained a local composer who never made it beyond the confines of regional German culture.”

This is an integrated biog