Enfilade

From the University of Illinois Press:

Christoph Wolff and Markus Zepf, The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook, translated by Lynn Edwards Butler (Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 2012), 240 pages, cloth ISBN: 978-0252036842, $80) / paper ISBN: 978-0252078453, $30.

The Organs of J. S. Bach is a comprehensive and fascinating guide to the organs encountered by Bach throughout Germany in his roles as organist, concert artist, examiner, teacher, and visitor. Newly revised and updated, the book’s entries are listed alphabetically by geographical location, from Arnstadt to Zschortau, providing an easy-to-reference overview.

Includes detailed organ-specific information:
• High-quality color photographs
• Each instrument’s history, its connection to Bach, and its disposition as Bach would have known it
• Architectural histories of the churches housing the instruments
• Identification of church organists

Lynn Edwards Butler’s graceful translation of Christoph Wolff and Markus Zepf’s volume incorporates new research and many corrections and updates to the original German edition. Bibliographical references are updated to include English-language sources, and the translation includes an expanded essay by Christoph Wolff on Bach as organist, organ composer, and organ expert.

The volume includes maps, a timeline of organ-related events, transcriptions of Bach’s organ reports, a guide to examining organs attributed to Saxony’s most famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann, and biographical information on organ builders.

Christoph Wolff is Adams University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig. Markus Zepf, a musicologist and organist, is on the staff of the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. Lynn Edwards Butler, who has published numerous articles on the organ, is a practicing organist with special expertise in restored baroque organs in north and central Germany.

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From Rizzoli:

Jeremy Musson, English Country House Interiors, foreword by Sir Roy Strong, photographs by Paul Barker (Rizzoli, 2011), pages, ISBN: 978-0847835690, $60.

A highly detailed look at the English country house interior, offering unprecedented access to England’s finest rooms. In this splendid book, renowned historian Jeremy Musson explores the interiors and decoration of the great country houses of England, offering a brilliantly detailed presentation of the epitome of style in each period of the country house, including the great Jacobean manor house, the Georgian mansion, and the Gothic Revival castle. For the first time, houses known worldwide for their exquisite architecture and decoration–including Wilton, Chatsworth, and Castle Howard–are seen in unprecedented detail. With intimate views of fabric, gilding, carving, and furnishings, the book will be a source of inspiration to interior designers, architects, and home owners, and a must-have for anglophiles and historic house enthusiasts.

The fifteen houses included represent the key periods in the history of English country house decoration and cover the major interior fashions and styles. Stunning new color photographs by Paul Barker-who was given unparalleled access to the houses-offer readers new insights into the enduring English country house style. Supplementing these are unique black-and-white images from the archive of the esteemed Country Life magazine.

Among the aspects of these that the book covers are: paneling, textile hangings (silks to cut velvet), mural painting, plasterwork, stone carving, gilding, curtains, pelmets, heraldic decoration, classical imagery, early upholstered furniture, furniture designed by Thomas Chippendale, carved chimney-pieces, lass, use of sculpture, tapestry, carpets, picture hanging, collecting of art and antiques, impact of Grand Tour taste, silver, use of marble, different woods, the importance of mirror glass, boulle work, English Baroque style, Palladian style, neo-Classical style, rooms designed by Robert Adam, Regency, Gothic Revival taste, Baronial style, French 18th-century style, and room types such as staircases, libraries, dining rooms, parlors, bedrooms, picture galleries, entrance halls and sculpture galleries.

Houses covered include: Hatfield – early 1600s (Jacobean); Wilton – 1630/40s (Inigo Jones); Boughton – 1680/90s (inspired by Versailles); Chatsworth -1690/early 1700s (Baroque); Castle Howard – early 1700s (Vanbrugh); Houghton – 1720s (Kent); Holkham – 1730s-50s (Palladian); Syon Park – 1760s (Adam); Harewood –  1760s/70s (neo-Classical); Goodwood – 1790s/1800s (neo-Classical/Regency); Regency at Chatsworth/Wilton/C Howard etc – 1820/30s; Waddesdon Manor – 1870/80ss (French Chateau style); Arundel Castle -1880s/90s (Gothic Revival); Berkeley Castle – 1920/30s (period recreations and antique collections); Parham House – 1920s/30s (period restorations and antique collections). The range is from the early 17th century to present day, drawn from the authenticated interiors of fifteen great country houses, almost all still in private hands and occupied as private residences still today. The book shows work by twentieth-century designers who have helped evolve the country house look, including Nancy Lancaster, David Hicks, Colefax & Fowler, and David Mlinaric.

Jeremy Musson is a leading commentator and author on the English country house. He was architectural editor of Country Life from 1998 to 2007, for which he wrote hundreds of articles on country houses and is still a contributor. As a former National Trust assistant curator he redecorated state rooms at Ickworth Park and curated Anglesey Abbey. Musson is the author of several books including The English Manor House, Plasterwork, How to Read a Country House, The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh, and Up and Down Stairs: The History of the Country House Servant. A contributor to World of Interiors, The British Art Journal, and Cornerstone, he has interviewed many figures in the world of heritage, arts, and interior design, and he co-wrote and presented The Curious House Guest, a BBC2 series on important country houses in 2005-2006. Art historian Sir Roy Strong is the former director of London’s National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Paul Barker is one of the U.K.’s leading architectural photographers.

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From Yale UP:

Keith Thomson, Jefferson’s Shadow: The Story of His Science (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), 336 pages, ISBN: 978-0300184037, $30.

In the voluminous literature on Thomas Jefferson, little has been written about his passionate interest in science. This new and original study of Jefferson presents him as a consummate intellectual whose view of science was central to both his public and his private life. Keith Thomson reintroduces us in this remarkable book to Jefferson’s eighteenth-century world and reveals the extent to which Jefferson used science, thought about it, and contributed to it, becoming in his time a leading American scientific intellectual.

With a storyteller’s gift, Thomson shows us a new side of Jefferson. He answers an intriguing series of questions—How was Jefferson’s view of the sciences reflected in his political philosophy and his vision of America’s future? How did science intersect with his religion? Did he make any original contributions to scientific knowledge?—and illuminates the particulars of Jefferson’s scientific endeavors. Thomson discusses Jefferson’s theories that have withstood the test of time, his interest in the practical applications of science to societal problems, his leadership in the use of scientific methods in agriculture, and his contributions toward launching at least four sciences in America: geography, paleontology, climatology, and scientific archaeology. A set of delightful illustrations, including some of Jefferson’s own sketches and inventions, completes this impressively researched book.

Keith Thomson is Executive Officer fellow at the American Philosophical Society and professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford. He was for five years a visiting fellow of the International Centre for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, VA. He lives in Philadelphia.

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From Rizzoli:

Diane Dorrans Saeks, Ann Getty: Interior Style, photographed by Lisa Romerein (New York: Rizzoli, 2012), 240 pages, ISBN: 978-0847837915, $55.

The first-ever compilation of the luxurious interiors from the influential designer and philanthropist Ann Getty. For those who are passionate about fine interiors, the preservation of antiques, the highest level of craftsmanship, and respect for architectural integrity, this book offers an insider’s view of the exquisite designs of Ann Getty. Fluent in classical styles and periods and known for sourcing her vast array of objects and opulent materials from across the globe, Getty creates interiors that are steeped in historical style yet remain fresh and vibrant for today’s clientele.From the exceptional residence she and her music-composer husband, Gordon Getty, use for entertaining and displaying their world-class collection of art and antiques, to the comfortable yet elegant townhouse she designed for a stylish young family, the book showcases richly detailed interiors that are coveted by design enthusiasts and collectors. Featured are pieces from Getty’s successful furniture line of original designs inspired by the renowned Getty collection as well as her own extensive travel and design studies.This intimate look, Getty’s first-ever monograph, demonstrates how to combine objects from different time periods and styles in a sumptuous atmosphere rich in bold colors, vibrant textures, and classic elegance.

Diane Dorrans Saeks is a noted design lecturer, founder of the design/travel blog The Style Saloniste, and the best-selling author of more than twenty books. Lisa Romerein’s photographs have been featured in many books, including Michael S. Smith: Elements of Style, as well as C magazine, Town & Country, and Elle Decor.

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As Catherine Bigelow writes in her article, “Ann Getty’s ‘Interior Style’,” for SFGate (8 October 2012) . . .

Ann Getty’s San Francisco House. In the foyer, a vignette of Meissen figures sits beneath a painting by  Canaletto. Photo: Lisa Romerein from Ann Getty: Interior Style. For more photos, available at Harper’s Bazaar, click on the image.

“All this time, people assumed Ann was having endless couture fittings in Paris,” said Saeks, a San Francisco design writer who has penned 21 Rizzoli titles. “But actually she was studying 18th-century French antiques and having private tours of hidden collections at the Louvre.”

In the ’60s, Getty studied paleoanthropology and biology at UC Berkeley, and she remains devoted to philanthropic support of science and academic research. But for more than 40 years, she has also been hands-on in designing and running her own well-appointed homes. The book features four, including her Willis Polk-designed Gold Coast manse and the first-ever peek at her childhood home, and most personal redesign, in Wheatland (Yuba County), where the Gilbert family still runs their decades-old walnut ranch.

In addition to her intuitive design sense, Getty also drew upon inspiration and early tutelage from storied designer Sister Parish, her late father-in-law and antiquities connoisseur J. Paul Getty, as well as collections within the Getty Museum. . .

The full article is available here»