Reviewed by: The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach ed. by Robin A. Leaver Bettina Varwig (bio) The Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, ed. Robin A. Leaver (London and New York: Routledge, 2017). xxv, 566 pp. According to Manuel Bärwald, one of the contributors to the Routledge Research Companion to Johann Sebastian Bach, in fall 2015 the number of entries in the online Bach Bibliography stood at 60,000 (479). The website of the Leipzig Bach Archive (consulted on 6 March 2018), which hosts the database, claims an even higher number of 71,500 titles by November 2015. Only a meticulous reconstruction of the historical facts would allow us to ascertain which of these two figures more accurately reflected the state of play, but both certainly point toward the need for a helping hand (or two) in navigating the nearly impenetrable thicket of over 250 years of accumulated thought and writings about J. S. Bach. This magisterial volume, edited by Robin A. Leaver and comprising twenty chapters over a total of more than 500 pages, sets out to offer such help, both to the “uninitiated” and the “better prepared” of aspiring Bach researchers (Foreword). The chapters are organized into five thematic sections, covering sources and documents (Part I), institutional contexts from schools to churches and courts (Part II), stylistic influences (Part III), compositional genres from vocal to keyboard and instrumental ensemble music (Part IV), and aspects of later reception and dissemination (Part V). A reading from cover to cover (which few readers, presumably, would undertake in practice) reveals, first and foremost, the staggering amount of human time, effort, and diligence expended by generations of scholars on this man and his music. In many ways, we learn at least as much here about the peculiar dynamics of knowledge production in one of the most prolific subfields of musicology as we do about the particular research results generated by this collective labor. Taken together, the body of scholarly writings documented here easily matches the complex, intricate, sometimes esoteric, and occasionally obsessive nature of the musical oeuvre with which they are concerned. So where to start with the initiation process? Several of the chapters offer highly effective introductions to particular areas of study for the more or less novice researcher, synthesizing (and demystifying) information and sources in a way that makes them more easily tractable. Tanya Kevorkian’s chapter on “Households” (chapter 5) usefully places [End Page 151] Bach’s living and working conditions within the wider social realities of the time and summarizes some of the past social-historical work on Bach and his circle. Markus Rathey (chapter 6) presents a lucid overview of the schooling that Bach received as a child, explaining the standard curricula and the impact of contemporary educational reforms. His essay helpfully points out the most relevant literature, from old to most recent, and finds the right balance of being informative without getting lost in excessive detail. Andrew Talle (chapter 8) expertly charts the associations Bach had with different court establishments throughout his career. Stephen Rose (chapter 9) provides a cogent introduction to the Alt-Bachisches Archiv, setting out the main trends in past research, which have ranged from source studies to questions of style and influence, and subjecting some of them to critical scrutiny (e.g., asking what “verifiable influence” [228] might look like). David Yearsley’s chapter on keyboard music (chapter 12) is particularly compelling in its historical nuance and critical elegance; alongside offering a survey of some of the major contributions to the study of Bach’s keyboard works, his essay complicates familiar assumptions about instrument types and their respective status, and emphasizes the dynamic nature of performance, text, and Bach’s creative process as a counterbalance to the pursuit of textual finality. Stephen Roe (chapter 17) gives an exemplary account of Bach’s activities as a teacher and Matthew Dirst (chapter 18) presents a handy summary of early posthumous printed editions and their associated literatures. In their different ways, these chapters all succeed in providing a firm knowledge base for an apprentice Bach researcher, as well as raising signposts for where and how to explore further. Meanwhile, some of the...