Gathered in this volume are all the letters, reports, testimonials, complaints, thank-you notes, and other writings of J. S. Bach, together with a generous helping of performance and payment inventories, town council proceedings, court and archival records, letters of appointment, and other papers that document the fabric of the composer's daily life. Here, in English translations that preserve the full flavor of the originals, we encounter more than four hundred items.

The book also presents a complete translation of J. N. Forkel's landmark 1802 biography, On Johann Sebastian Bach's Life, Genius, and Works; a thorough chronology of events in the composer's life and career; a detailed genealogy and family tree that Bach himself prepared; an extensive obituary written by C. P. E. Bach and J. F. Agricola; facsimiles of a dozen music manuscripts, including working drafts; Romantic-era views of Bach; and a wealth of other materials.