The Great Passion: James Runcie

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Like the St Matthew Passion, this is a novel filled not just with loss and lamentation but with transcendent joy. But when the school's cantor, Johann Sebastian Bach, takes notice of his new pupil's beautiful singing voice and draws him from the choir to be a soloist, Stefan's life is permanently changed. Thirteen-year-old Stefan Silbermann’s mother has recently died, and his father decides to send him to boarding school in Leipzig. The author successfully depicts the circumstances of a large and blended family, headed by a benign despot and genius.

The Great Passion’ Review: In Rehearsal With Bach - WSJ ‘The Great Passion’ Review: In Rehearsal With Bach - WSJ

It happens when there is a birth or a death, an arrival or a departure, the moments either side of it becoming forms of descent and recovery, when we do not know quite what to do or how long this unexpected bewilderment will last. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. He also expresses the excitement of a first performance, the tension of the musicians, the expectations of the audience and that sense of satisfaction and release following a successful concert which performers know very well. Despite the harshness of the choir school from which Stefan understandably tries to run away, there is a pervasive decency and kindness to the Lutheran culture.If you have no knowledge of Bach or his family, don't preread any information- take this straight on. From acclaimed bestselling author James Runcie, a meditation on grief and music, told through the story of Bach's writing of the St. In each case, Runcie takes what we know about these historical individuals and fleshes them out into real-life characters who speak through the pages of his novel.

The Great Passion by James Runcie Book Marks reviews of The Great Passion by James Runcie

Intoxicating, insightful and revelatory, he brilliantly tackles the difficult task of using words to capture the intricacies of Bach’s fervent work on the beautiful, groundbreaking masterpiece, St Matthew Passion.

There is a LOT about music in this book (of course) and a lot of it went over my head, I’m sure, but it is also beautifully woven into the story. All the stars for this profoundly moving and lovely reflection on life, love, loss, and the beauty found in both music and silence. This new full-time post of Lead Area Director of Ordinands offers the opportunity to play a key role in leading this exciting ministry of discernment and preparation of ordinands.

The Great Passion by James Runcie - Goodreads Editions of The Great Passion by James Runcie - Goodreads

Finally, every­thing happens in a single year, 1726-27, in which Bach’s three-year-old daughter dies. Over the course of almost a year, Stefan will fall in love, engage in rivalry with Stolle for the soprano parts in Bach’s chorales, and learn to stand up for himself with the help of a kind oboist. His superhuman work ethic and determination to push himself - and others - beyond the frontiers of what seems possible make him difficult to live with at times. Maybe the pandemic gave us a clue to what it was like to live with mortality on a scale familiar to the 18th century. The novel's protagonist, Stefan Silbermann, recently bereaved of his mother and cruelly bullied at the boarding school for his red hair, becomes a protégé of Bach's due to his angelic soprano and willingness to work hard.Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if nothing else, it is sure to make you love Bach more, which is a worthy goal in and of itself. Dickens and His Carol, a richly-imagined reckoning with the life of another cherished literary legend: Mary Wollstonecraft – arguably the world's first feminist. Johann Sebastion Bach is Cantor and Stefan’s talent for singing is recognized; he learns from Bach not only singing but lessons of life from a Biblical perspective. Bach kept playing with the limits and possibilities of musical invention; fugues with mirrored themes that inverted, intertwined and went back on themselves.