This book was a great source of information on, well, everything. It taught me all the words I didn't understand such as: RCS, and MMU.You look them up. I read a lot of space books and most of them, well, are just to confusing. This book gives all the definitions in plain english. In ending I have to say...

...GO BUY THIS BOOK.

Thank You For Your Time

-I'm Brian

This book makes a great companion to Anatol Lieven's recent book on Chechnya. Though not as analytical as Lieven's book, "Allah's Mountain's" is well-written and enjoyable to read. This is one of the only books I have found with any significant information whatsoever on Chechnya's neighbor, Ingushetia.

Far from being a mind unconscious that it is calculating, Chafe convincingly argues that Bach carefully set his canata texts to illuminate their theological meaning. Beginning with simple devices such as triads to represent the trinity, Chafe describes Bach's use of more subtle musical ideas such ascending or descending lines and harmonies to represent, for example, God's incarnation (descent to earth) and mankind's redemption (ascent to heaven). Bach's use of numerology, for example in his use of extended musical patterns repeated ten times to represent the Ten Commandments, strongly belies the notion that this composer was uncalculating. While the musical power of Bach's cantatas touch us even though we may not understand the significance -- or even the meaning -- of the text, Chafe's insights reveal for us the many ways in which Bach's music expresses Lutheran theological ideas, allowing us to appreciate Bach on an entirely different level. Highly recommended.

I loved this book! The author shares short essays of his adventures all over the world in a very interesting and exciting manner. He tells of his amazing climbs up huge mountains and his awe at the beauty of nature. He has done some incredible things, but he always speaks in a modest voice which shows his respect for and interest in the people and the nature of each country.

I wanted each piece to continue longer. I would get engrossed and want to hear more about each adventure. I am an avid traveler, but due to kid responsibilities I can't travel as much these days. I found that I could curl up with this book and travel vicariously with the author.

Mr. Letemendia also gave me the opportunity to learn about the history and geography of the various countries he visited. I realized that I know about North American history, but not as much about South American history...so I learned a lot in this book. And it's in the perfect format. If I were given a history
book I wouldn't read it, but since it's couched in a travel book I am entranced.

I didn't want to put this book down. I anxiously await his next books.

P.S. The English translations were flawless and beautifully written!

This is a jewel; a paperback (with Dover's usual great binding quality) that contains both the Art of Fugue and the Musical Offering.

The Art of Fugue was originally written in open score, to emphasize that the performance instrument was not specified. This edition gives the open score with a two-stave (piano-type) reduction below.

Of course, with a solid binding like that, it's not going to stay open on your piano.

If you want to play / doodle the great Contrapunctus 1 from TAOF (like I did), and if you've got the hairclips to keep the pages down (like I wish I did), this book is for you! Gofer it. Arch

Amazing! Brilliant! Such insights! Newman has once again outdone himself. As if his virtuoso recordings were not enough for the Bach enthusiast here comes the definitive tome on the master himself... from the master himself.

J. S. Bach would have been astounded by the amount of materialwritten on him since his death 250 years ago. And as the number ofbooks and articles on his life and works passes the 15,000 mark it becomes increasingly difficult to discover from among this morass the truly rewarding and insightful writing on Amazon's Composer of the Millenium. But there is one book that stands out: Laurence Dreyfus's Bach and the Patterns of Invention is a landmark both in the study of Bach's music and in music criticism more generally. This is certainly one of the best books on Bach ever written ... Dreyfus's book accomplishes the dual and seemingly paradoxical goal of removing Bach from his lofty pedestal while at the same time rendering his musical achievements all the more impressive. Dreyfus de-mythologizes Bach, and by humanizing him allows us to grasp in a new way the nature and meaning of his creative acts. The book examines, often in great detail, Bach's mental processes, the problems he posed for himself while composing and the solutions he chose, sometimes from among many options; the possibilities that Bach's musical ideas yielded and the methods he used in arriving at his ultimate choices from among these possibilities are the "patterns of inventions" of Dreyfus's title. Thus Dreyfus's first chapter on Bach's C Major Invention, a piece marvelled at and agonized over by generations of piano students young and old, lays out for our inspection the basic musical unit-the "invention"-Bach devised and then manipulated in order to craft this most engaging of miniatures. Dreyfus's real contribution comes in describing Bach's elegant and often demanding methods of constructing the piece; while elucidating Bach's creativity and the clarity of his thought, Dreyfus points out the repeated flashes of brilliance that make this seemingly disarming Invention the beloved masterpiece that it is. Given the complexity of much of Bach's music it is not surprising that the author's treatment of the subject is often exacting in its demands on the reader. Bach's music is rarely easy, and neither is this book. But like Bach music, it is both challenging and immensely enjoyable. And although a basic knowledge of music theory and the ability to read music is certainly helpful, the insights of the book are also available to all those interested in Bach. The book's welcoming attitude is achieved mainly by Dreyfus's enviable prose-some of the most beautiful and sensitive writing about music of any kind-and partly by the wide range of literary sources and aesthetic themes Dreyfus deals with, as in the final chapter which places Bach's work in the context of important philosophical debates of the early Enlightenment and concludes by relating this dynamic to our own historical perspective. Bach and the Patterns of Invention is a scholarly work- awarded the Best Book of the Year in 1997 by the American Musicological Society-but never a dryly academic one. Like his predecessors in the field of Bach studies, Dreyfus considers Bach a far greater composer than contemporaries such as his friend Telemann. However, Dreyfus elevates Bach not by clinging to the shibboleths of Bach criticism, but rather, by examining in depth the marvelous mechanisms of Bach's creative process and by comparing his unrelenting drive to get the most from his musical material with the less demanding standards of the wider musical culture. Thus while the book is not a biography we gain a much more intimate knowledge of the man behind the works, the artistic personality of the composer at his desk.

A compilation of stoplists of over 50 organs in Germany as Bach probably knew them. Each section includes biographical material and discussion of the instrument, including historical data, the stoplist, a description of the organ by divisions, technical details, and a sampling of critical commentary by various scholars.(Jean Morrow)

This is a must-have for the hobby pianist. It contains a varied selection of works of varying difficulty by three of the most famous piano composers of all time. My dad had a copy when I was growing up. I bought myself a copy long before I even bought a piano.

This book takes a balance view among music analysis, history as well as performance practice. For those who need only one definite study on Bach's greatest work could consider this as first choice!