The extensive Bach family was a dynasty unusually rich in musical talent, counting among its ranks numerous composer–organists active in the Northern European Baroque tradition....

The extensive Bach family was a dynasty unusually rich in musical talent, counting among its ranks numerous composer–organists active in the Northern European Baroque tradition. This remarkable set gathers together not only the monumental corpus of J.S. Bach's incredibly sophisticated organ music, but also that of the most noted (and best-known to today's musicologists) of four generations of his relatives, from great uncles and uncles to cousins and sons. The collection offers a rewarding opportunity to follow the stylistic evolution of organ music from the decades before J.S. Bach's birth through to the creative years of his sons and their younger distant cousin, Johann Ernst, each of whom witnessed the decline of Baroque complexity in favor of Classical balance and grace and conformed to this new trend to varying degrees. The other strand that can be traced in this set is the musical 'DNA' of a clan, whose members were taught by family elders, inherited compositions from them, and who studied and copied the works of their cousin contemporaries, creating a family school of impressive quality. Internal musical borrowing between the Bachs was such that musicologists are still unraveling the mystery of some works' true authorship, as well as identifying pieces by other composers, who borrowed the Bach name in hopes of attaining a share of their glory.