After The Cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (Fayard, 2010) and J. S. Bach, Passions, Masses and Motets (Fayard, 2011) this third volume, devoted to Bach’s instrumental music, closes Gilles Cantagrel’s cycle of analyses of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music.

An admirable connoisseur of music’s tools, Johann Sebastian Bach had an exceptionally keen perception of both their sound and their expressiveness. He had a perfect understanding of how organs were constructed. He conversed easily with clavichord builders and luthiers alike. He understood how to play most instruments marvellously well. His body of work makes excellent use of both the musical legacy he inherited from the past and the most recent discoveries of his time. An extraordinary orchestrator, the paradox of his genius is that his musical discourse was so powerful that it could be detached from instrumental incarnation.

After a general introduction, the heart of this book is divided as follows: works for the organ, works for the clavichord, works for a single instrument (lute, violin, cello, flute), chamber music, concert and ensemble music, the canons.

Three indexes complete the book: an index of names of people mentioned, of his works by BWV number, and of his works by name.

In this book devoted to Bach’s instrumental music, the works are regrouped by instrument, but each individual work is analysed separately and placed in the composer’s intellectual, spiritual and musical universe.