This collection of 16 essays, written over the course of twenty years, explores the music of J.S. Bach and sheds new light on the composer's life and personality. The essays are of two kinds: stylistic and historical inquiries, and studies of the original sources. Some have not been available since their original publication; others appear here in English for the first time. With their common objective of developing new approaches and methods to refine our understanding of Bach's music, these essays constitute a unified body of original scholarship.