The Dutch writer and Bach expert Maarten 't Hart wrote on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Bach's death in 2000, a handy booklet about this composer (1). It was a pocket edition only available at Het Kruidvat and it contained a "small compendium of the cantatas". A reference work with a nice appreciation of a number of works by the Cantor of Leipzig.
In 2022 another booklet was published under the title "Geen dag zonder Bach" (2), 15 conversations with well-known, mainly Dutch, Bach fans who cannot do without him for a single day. But what is before us now is of a different calibre altogether. It is a heavyweight, literally and figuratively. A prestigious hardcover publication, 438 pages thick. If you really want Bach every day, try this new "Bach day after day".
It is the latest book by the popular Flemish Bach expert Ignace Bossuyt. It gives you a year full of Bach and Co., from 1 January to 31 December, arranged chronologically (366 pieces, including leap years!), with a generous selection from those more than 200 preserved cantatas, interspersed with other works by that baroque master and his sons. Each time discussed with the erudite flair that makes Bossuyt's reputation: explanation of the Latin texts plus Dutch translation, situated in their religious context of the time, score excerpts, history of their creation. For connoisseurs, with a musicological analysis of all these compositions and for enthusiasts with immediate listeability via QR codes. It is thus a book for both readers and listeners. A gigantic work written from an enormous knowledge of this composer, passion gathered during a lifelong career as a student and professor of musicology at KU Leuven. With all these commentaries, you get a clear picture of the evolution of music in Germany of that time and of the later influence of all his BWVs on contemporaries and later composers.
May I give an example? Take his commentary on a cantata of which I am a great fan: BWV 95, "Christus, der ist mein Leben". Bossuyt begins by explaining the liturgical context, the 16th Sunday after Trinity, date of first performance (12 September 1723), discusses the anonymous librettist, with text and translation, the instrumentation, discusses the main theme of the cantata. For him that is the famous "Todessehnsucht, the longing for death as liberation from this earthly vale of tears" with that beautiful tenor aria "Ach schlage doch bald, selge Stunde". According to Bossuyt "…of unearthly beauty". In his analysis the author points out to us the three different, complementary layers on top of each other. "First the obsessive repetition of the words 'Ach' ……", "….the second layer is the pizzicato play of all strings ……" and thirdly "the two oboe d'amore which sketch a soft filigree of swaying figures on it, like a pastoral berceuse in 3/4 time". Look and listen:
Delightful, isn't it? And that's how it goes for every day of the year…
A bone-dry book? No, rather a study book than an art book to leave lying around on the coffee table. It is absolutely not a book to be read in one go but also more than a guide to get through the year musically with Bach. Read and listen now and then. Take it slowly. You will then almost automatically enter "those heavenly spheres", as Bossuyt writes, and that is also his intention. He generously gives you countless tips to read or listen to more, on the internet or through the numerous writings he consulted about the master.
Bossuyt gives the reader at the beginning a brief biographical sketch. And to make all those cantatas clear to the modern, often secularized person, he also first explains the structure of the church year, with all those high days and special festivals. Only then can you understand the gigantic task Bach faced: the cantor had to have a cantata ready for every Sunday. And he succeeded brilliantly. Just as Bossuyt, who chooses to start his "Bach day after day" calendar on 1 January with that jubilant "Weihnachts-Oratorium". And then follow those fascinating, sometimes anecdotal commentaries but above all thorough and comprehensible analyses. He can of course count on his experience and long career as a professor and musicologist at KU Leuven to write accessibly for both professionals, students and the layperson. From the latter he does expect some interest in and knowledge of the subject. But he helps him with something he is also more than competent in, with a chapter "Guide to musical concepts" from which he can draw on his well-known publication "Van noten en tonen". And what a treasure of performers you get to hear via those QR codes. It is not just a book with an original approach, you could rightly call it masterly, with precision in every detail.
When I learned that this book by Bossuyt "Bach day after day" was coming, I thought, here he goes again, and when I saw and read it I thought, this must surely be his life's work this time. Unless there might be something else in the pipeline, because he seems tireless, and he is. He has already written about the early years of Händel, that competitor from the same birth year as Bach. Perhaps something more about the mature Händel will come….
Product code (EAN): 9789464714289 - publication date: 15.11.2025
1 Maarten 't Hart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Arbeiderspers, 2000, 199 pages.
2 Rinke van der Valle: Geen dag zonder Bach - Vijftien gesprekken over een geniale componist. Uitgeverij Damon, Eindhoven, 2022, 243 pages, paperback, illustrated