Late Bach and Late Style Theory

Abstract:Theories about old age and the presumed manifestations of a distinctive late style in the works of great creative artists often take the form of abstractions. As proposed by such formidable thinkers past and present as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sir Walter Raleigh, Erik Erikson, André Malraux, Theodor Adorno, and Edward Said, they are frequently expressed as binary opposites or as endpoints on a spectrum: organic Decline (fragmentation and disintegration) vs. metaphysical Transcendence (integration and coherence); Withdrawal vs. Rejuvenation; a Rupture with the past vs. natural Evolution or perhaps a Relapse to an earlier phase of development. Other polarities include Retrospection vs. Innovation and Objective Demonstration vs. Subjective Expression.This essay seeks to determine the relevance of such concepts to Johann Sebastian Bach. It also considers the pertinence of other proposed Late Style attributes to his later life and works: Generativity, Archaization, Asceticism, Death Obsession, and Goethe's cryptic and influential maxim: "Old Age: the Gradual Withdrawal from Appearance." The article suggests that, despite their many undeniable mutual contradictions, these attributes all help illuminate one or the other facet of Bach's extraordinarily multifarious career—not only in his final decades but from the beginning.