Describes how Johann Sebastian Bach survived the sorrows of his childhood and composed the music the world has come to love.

“Insightful commentary on the Bach family’s musical life and . . . the culture in which the Bachs lived. . . . Important and fascinating . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice At one time a star in her own right as a singer, Anna Magdalena (1701–60) would go on to become, through her marriage to the older Johann Sebastian Bach, history’s most famous musical wife and mother. The two musical notebooks belonging to her continue to live on, beloved by millions of pianists young and old. Yet the pedagogical utility of this music—long associated with the sound of children practicing and mothers listening—has encouraged a rosy and one-sided view of Anna Magdalena as a model of German feminine domesticity. Sex, Death, and Minuets offers the first in-depth study of these notebooks, reanimating Anna Magdalena as a historical subject—at once pious and bawdy, spirited and tragic. In these pages, we follow Magdalena from young and flamboyant performer to bereft and impoverished widow. David Yearsley explores the notebooks’ entries against the backdrop of the social practices and concerns that women shared in eighteenth-century Lutheran Germany. What emerges is a humane portrait of a musician who embraced the sensuality of song and the uplift of the keyboard, a sometimes ribald wife and oft-bereaved mother who used her cherished musical notebooks for piety and play, humor and devotion—for living and for dying. “Fascinating.” —Laurence Dreyfus, University of Oxford “Yearsley’s account . . . will doubtless stand as the definitive account of the ‘Bachin’ and her notebooks for years to come.” —Bettina Varwig, University of Cambridge “A warm, insightful, and compelling portrait.” —Matthew Dirst, University of Houston

This timeless collection contains selections attributed to J.S. Bach, his son C.P.E. Bach, and others. Generations of students have studied the volume's "Menuet in G Major," "Musette in D Major" and the "Prelude in C Major" from the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Dr. Palmer provides the texts to the instrumental settings of chorales and arias found in this work, as well as a brief biography of the Bach family.

This easy step-by-step method emphasizes correct playing habits and note reading through interval recognition. Lesson Book 2 continues where Level 1B finishes. This book introduces dotted half notes and dotted quarter notes, plus intervals of 6ths, 7ths and octaves. Teaches greater movement of the hands, including crossing two over one and scalework. Students will also learn more about triads, primary chords, and blocked and broken chords. Songs Include: 18th Century Dance * Alouette * Blue Scales * Calypso Carnival * The Can-Can * Cockles and Mussels * The Galway Piper * Get Away! * Got Lotsa Rhythm * Kum-ba-yah! * Lavender's Blue * London Bridge * Lone Star Waltz * Malaguena * Nick Nack Paddy Wack * Ode to Joy * Oh! Susanna! * On the Bridge at Avignon * Our Special Waltz * Prelude * Red River Valley * Sarasponda * Square Dance * When You Grow Up * Why Am I Blue?

This excellent sheet solo version of Bach's famous Menuet from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach is spread out nicely over 2 pages and contains performance notes and editorial suggestions in gray print.