num_pages: 272
description: From acclaimed bestselling author James Runcie a meditation on grief and music told through the story of Bach's writing of the St. Matthew Passion.In 1727 Stefan Silbermann is a grief-stricken thirteen-year-old struggling with the death of his mother and his removal to a school in distant Leipzig. Despite his father's insistence that he try not to think of his mother too much Stefan is haunted by her absence and to make matters worse he's bullied by his new classmates. 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.Over the course of the next several months and under Bach's careful tutelage Stefan's musical skill progresses and he is allowed to work as a copyist for Bach's many musical works. But mainly drawn into Bach's family life and away from the cruelty in the dorms and the lonely hours of his mourning Stefan begins to feel at home. When another tragedy strikes this time in the Bach family Stefan bears witness to the depths of grief the horrors of death the solace of religion and the beauty that can spring from even the most profound losses.Joyous revelatory and deeply moving The Great Passion is an imaginative tour de force that tells the story of what it was like to sing play and hear Bach's music for the very first time.
language: English
title: The Great Passion
publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing