Major Bach Exhibition Mounted by Students at Houghton, Loeb Libraries

The life of Johann Sebastian Bach, from his music to his personal relationships with sons, students, and other contemporaries, is documented with selected original materials in an exhibition called “The Man from Whom All True Musical Wisdom Proceeded: Johann Sebastian Bach.” The exhibit at the Houghton Library and Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library runs through May 20.

Under the direction of Christoph Wolff, William Powell Mason Professor of Music and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, students of Music 215r (Baroque Seminar) selected 18th-century printed books, autograph manuscripts, other contemporary musical manuscripts, periodicals, and maps to document the composer’s life and music. Materials on display illustrate both how Bach’s work reached a wide audience and how his contemporaries and later composers and musical critics responded to that work. A printed catalog, prepared by the students and Wolff, accompanies the exhibition.

Viewing hours in the Exhibition Room of Houghton Library are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturday. Hours of the French Gallery of Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library are 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and 1 p.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.

For additional information, contact Dennis Marnon, Houghton Library, (617) 495-2441.