Bach
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Bach. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHANN SEBASTIAN, a celebrated musician, born at Eisenach, upper Saxony, March 21, 1685. When he was 10 years old his father, who was a musician at Eisenach, died, and Bach sought the protection of an elder brother, who, dying soon after, he was again left destitute, and, to earn a livelihood, entered the choir of St. Michael's, Lüneburg, as a soprano singer. In 1703 he became court musician at Weimar, the following year organist at Arnstadt, and in 1708 court organist at Weimar. While holding this office he labored to make himself master of every branch of music. In 1717 he was made Director of Concerts, and six years afterward Director of Music and Cantor to St. Thomas' School, Leipsic, an appointment which he held to his death. About 10 years later the distinctions of kapellmeister to the Duke of Weissenfels and court composer to the King of Poland were conferred upon him. Bach, who had a son in the service of Frederick the Great, received a pressing request to visit Potsdam, on the occasion of a concert there. He went, and acquitted himself to the satisfaction of that mo monarch, some of whose music he played at first sight. Bach's close studies affected his eyes, and an operation left him totally blind and hastened his death, in Leipsic, July 28, 1750. With the exception of Handel, Bach had no rival as an organist.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
bak, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), a celebrated German musician. He was born at Eisenach. A soprano choir singer, court organist, and director of concerts at Weimar, in 1723 he became cantor to St. Thomas' School at Leipsic. Bach was a noted composer and organist. His compositions are too difficult to be popular; but in reputation and merit he has no rival unless it be Handel. Bach played before Frederick the Great at Potsdam, and was appreciated by musical circles throughout Europe. Bach was a skillful pianist. He is credited with having taught the modern method of tuning pianos, and the method of playing by which all the fingers are used. He was a beautiful singer, but lost his voice while a young man. The Bach family is decidedly musical. Ancestors and descendants of Sebastian to the number of not less than 120 have been organists in cathedrals. See Organ ; Handel
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's judgment in 1910 that Bach's "compositions are too difficult to be popular" and that he had "no rival unless it be Handel" now reads as the last echo of an older ranking: since the mid-20th century Bach has routinely been called the greatest composer who ever lived, and the Voyager Golden Record of 1977 carried three of his works into interstellar space. Aiton also calls him "a skillful pianist" who taught "the modern method of tuning pianos" — Bach in fact worked at harpsichord, clavichord and organ, and only tried the new Silbermann fortepianos late in life; the tuning of The Well-Tempered Clavier is now understood as a well temperament rather than the modern equal temperament. Two things have made the music itself easier to find: Wolfgang Schmieder's catalogue of 1950 gave every piece its BWV number, and the historically informed performance movement, from the 1950s onward, replaced the large Romantic orchestras and choirs of Collier's day with period instruments and small ensembles. The revival began, as the editor's note says, with Mendelssohn's Berlin performance of the St Matthew Passion in 1829.
Written for this edition, 2026.