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James R. Gaines
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Evening in the Palace of Reason : Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment Hardcover – January 1, 2005

by James R. Gaines (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 243 ratings
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Fourth Estate
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 2005
  4. Dimensions
    5.55 x 1.34 x 8.23 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0007153929
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0007153923
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate; First Edition (January 1, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0007153929
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007153923
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 1.34 x 8.23 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 243 ratings

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James R. Gaines

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
243 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Witheld
5.0 out of 5 stars An awesome book for fans of Bach and students of his time period.
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2024
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Tremendous presentation of the clash of baroque (high classical) values with the emerging enlightenment. Centers on the one meeting between two great, iconic figures who represent these competing values, Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederick the Great.

Students of Music, history and philosophy will all thoroughly enjoy this wonderful true story, and benefit from the analysis of its significance.
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Charles S. Houser
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging contrapuntal biographies
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2011
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James R. Gaines cleverly juxtaposes and interweaves the life stories of composer J. S. Bach and Prussian king Frederick the Great to depict a world in transition--from the Age of Faith to the Enlightenment (and subsequently, the Romantic and Modern eras). The point of contact upon which this dual biography pivots is a visit (make that "a respsonse to a summons") in which the elderly composer is invited to the young king's palace where he is given a challenge to extemporize a musical composition upon a theme presented by the King. The result is a masterpiece known as "Musical Offering" (BWV 1079). Gaines does an excellent job of bringing history to life, giving modern readers just enough detail to communicate a sense that the story he's recounting actually took place in another era when different customs and values held sway. (The many deaths of close family members that Bach lived through growing up and in his early adulthood are unfathomable today in developed nations; and the psychological and physical abuse prince Frederick suffered at the hands of his father would be classified as criminal.) Gaines, likewise, does an excellent job of concisely explaining musical terms and concepts. EVENING IN THE PALACE OF REASON is a lively story well told. Gaines provides a very helpful selected bibliography and discography. If you're like me, you'll want to intersperse your reading of this book with careful listenings to Bach's choral and instrumental works. I recommend having at least  Bach: The Art of Fugue; Musical Offering  on hand.
8 people found this helpful
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Robert Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Intertwined biographies of JS Bach and Frederick the Great
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021
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Fascinating book centered on the time Bach met Frederick the Great. Frederick hated the “old style “ of music Bach represented and tried to shame him by asking him to write a Fugue based on a piece of music intended to be impossible to develop counterpoint for. The result is considered one of Bach’s masterpieces and also slyly showed the limitations of the new style.

Compelling book, beautifully written with clear explanations of both the mechanics of Bach’s style and the politics of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire. Also includes recommendations for some if Bach’s masterpieces. (For example, he describes what makes the beginning statement of the B minor mass Credo so unusual in Bach’s work, and then suggests you put down the book and listen.) An easy read, and I learned so much!
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H. Schneider
4.0 out of 5 stars Bleating goat
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2011
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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) .... (Says Wikipedia).
Here is what the back cover of this book says:
(Bach) `created ...the most celestial and profound body of music in history; Frederick the Great built the colossus we now know as Germany... Their fleeting encounter in 1757 signals a unique moment in history where belief collided with the cold certainty of reason.'

Awesome, isn't it? Fritz met Bach 7 years after Bach died. Truly a unique moment.
And Fritz built Germany, though he himself died in 1786. That was 85 years before the Hohenzollern's Germany was founded by Bismarck in 1871, during the reign of Wilhelm I, who was Fritz' nephew's son's nephew, or something like that.
The cold certainty of reason can get a lot done.

This is all not the author's fault, so far. The book is generally well worth reading: an entertaining `double biography' of the two men, who were not really meant for each other. Different worlds and different times, despite their overlapping. Bach's Thuringia and Saxony, his music and his religion were not suitable for Fritz' Prussia. Their meeting happened in 1747, when one of them was nearly on his way out (3 more years for him), and the other still relatively fresh in his career as king.

Still: Gaines shouldn't have said that the Hohenzollern had ruled Germany for 300 years by then. No, they hadn't. They had started with ruling a small patch in the patchwork, and succeeded in growing their patch to a substantial size inside the total carpet. Germany as an entity didn't exist during Fritz' time. His Prussia had grown to challenge the leadership of the Habsburgs inside the Holy Roman Empire though.
(The book has a not altogether bad map at the contents section. The map could have been improved if the edges hadn't been cut off, which would have allowed to see the neighbors, specifically the `original' Prussia. Isn't it a joke that the book's map has `Prussia' outside its frame and needs to place an arrow to the NE?)

I feel more competent about Prussia and the Hohenzollern than about Bach's music. I tend to believe what Gaines writes about Bach, but I am often a little skeptical about his Fritzology. This book was recommended to me by a bassoonist. That supports my trust in its musicology, and it makes me chuckle at the story of young Bach's fist fight with the bassoon student who was offended when Bach said that his bassoon sounded like a bleating goat. You must have forgotten that one, Maestro!
20 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Robert H Silverman
5.0 out of 5 stars An original look at the Enlightenment through the eyes of two giants of the era
Reviewed in Canada on October 13, 2021
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By the time Bach was writing his masterpieces, probably the most complex musical works that hold a firm place in the classical repertoire, he was considered by many to be a has-been. The Enlightenment, intellectual and secular was in full swing. Frederick the Great's court was home to many thinkers, artists, and musicians who had adopted the precepts of that new age, and had little use for art that they viewed as unnecessarily complicated and infused with religious fervour, especially Lutheranism. Karl Phillip Emanuel Bach, Sebastian's son, was one of the Court's most important musicians. Our old music history texts described a two-day visit by Johann Sebastian, as a way the son had of honouring his father. But it was much more than that, not very pleasant, and resulted in Bach's sending Frederick a collection of intricate contrapuntal fugues and canons, plus a great Trio Sonata, all based on a theme that Frederick supposedly had written: collectively known as A Musical Offering. Gaines begins by describing the visit, and then weaves together parallel biographies of Bach and Frederick, comparing and contrasting their upbringings and their adult lives. A wonderful book that brings this fascinating era to life.
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Penny100
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2021
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A fantastic read for Bach enthusiasts, the book is absorbing and informative.
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Nicolas Lombard
5.0 out of 5 stars Eine spannend geschriebene Dokumentation über zwei historische Figuren
Reviewed in Germany on May 14, 2013
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Zwei derart verschiedene Menschen parallel zu beschreiben und in einem grossartigen Finale zusammenzuführen ist eine eindrückliche Leistung. Die beiden Biographien könnten unterschiedlicher nicht sein. Hier Friedrich der Grosse und da der Grosse Bach! Friedrich, der erfolgreiche Feldherr und "Sammler" der wichtigsten Zeitgenossen an seinem Hof, und J.S. Bach, einer der grössten, wenn nicht der grösste musikalische Schöpfer abendländischer Musik.
Beide sind sie von unglaublicher Schaffenskraft und unbändiger Energie.
Gaines Erzählkunst ist fesselnd und farbig. Die Übersetzung von Reinhard Kaiser ist hervorragend gelungen; sie überzeugt durch Genauigkeit einerseits und gekonnte sprachliche Adaptation. Das englische Original besticht durch seine elegante, einfache und überzeugende Sprache.
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Rosemarie
4.0 out of 5 stars Two decisive personalities and their influence
Reviewed in Australia on May 26, 2015
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Anybody interested in the life and times of Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederick the Great will benefit from this book. Music, history, attitudes of the time in the Age of Enlightenment are well portrayed.
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Alexa Ormonde
5.0 out of 5 stars Present
Reviewed in Canada on October 20, 2020
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I bought this as a present to give some context to a person who was learning to play the Bach cello suites, so cannot say `nothing about the content. I hope it will provide that for the intended reader, I cannot see why it would not.
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