This is the second of a two-volume study of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Taking into account the vast increase in our knowledge of the composer due to the Bach scholarship of the last sixty years, Richard Jones presents a vivid and in some respects radically new picture of his creative development during the Cöthen (1717-23) and Leipzig years (1723-50). The approach is, as far as possible, chronological and analytical, but the author has also tried to make the book readable so that it may be accessible to music lovers and amateur performers as well as to students, scholars, and professional musicians. There are many good biographies of Bach, but this is the first, fully-comprehensive, in-depth study of his music making it indispensable for those who want to study specific pieces or learn how he developed as a composer.

• Part I: The Cðthen and Early Leipzig Years: 1717-1729
• 1: Introduction
• 2: The Well-Tempered Clavier I and Other Keyboard Works
• 3: The Brandenburg Concertos and Other Instrumental Works
• 4: Sacred and Secular: the Vocal Works
• 5: Conclusion
• Part II: The Middle Leipzig Years 1729-39
• 1: Introduction
• 2: Clavierübung II-III and other Harpsichord, Organ, and Lute Works
• 3: The Harpsichord Concertos and Other Instrumental Works
• 4: Sacred and Secular: Vocal Works II
• 5: Conclusion
• Part III: The Late Leipzig Years 1739-50
• 1: Introduction
• 2: The Well-Tempered Clavier II and Other Keyboard/Organ Works
• 3: The Musical Offering and Other Instrumental Works
• 4: The B minor Mass and Other Vocal Works
• 5: Conclusion