Bach!!!??

I was recently able to acquire excellent recordings of the cantatas no. 1-47 and 103-150.

Take a listen BWV 123.....that bass aria with flute obbligato is amazing!

The reason I bring this up is I've actually been given an opportunity to perform that aria with my school's baroque ensemble :D . Our instrumentation worked out perfectly for it: one flute, one harpsichord, one cello, and one bass/baritone (me!). Its really an amazing experience that I've never had (up until this point).

If it's still allowed to talk about Bach's other works :D may I make a mention of the Goldberg Variations; almost too beautiful for words, I can sometimes only listen to a few at a time.

It sounds like I must dig out the cantatas; I don't really know them, I love Bach, but have most experience of the keyboard works (although the violin concerti are fabulous too)

Ahh the Goldberg Variations.....incredible :D ! Have you played any? Which are your favorites?

Gould's Goldberg - always a pleasure to listen to. Both 1955 and 1981 versions.

I am quite familiar with Bach's violin concertos (the A minor, the E Major and the Double Violin Concerto in D minor.) My favorite is by far the Double: I've played the first movement 147 times over the past four years (yes, I counted them.) I also played the E Major two years ago, when I was ten, in two concerts: the second movement is really touching. I never played the A minor, and I only really like the third movement.

Currently, I am playing the unbelievable and divine Sonatas and Partitas, and I already know the Third Partita by heart (including the famous and very difficult Preludio.)

Oh, and I think Bach's B-minor Mass is ten times better than any of his best cantatas.

No kidding. You really have to like a piece in order to play it that often and not become completely tired of it. Or did you play it that often because you're so fond of it? Either way, that's neat.

The E major, especially the first movement, is my favourite of his violin concertos, although I like them all really.

Anybody know about his piece for two keyboards and other instrumentailists? I remember hearing it and just falling in love with it. The piece is in dminor if that helps:)

Or did you play it that often because you're so fond of it?

Exactly: I was 10 but my teacher let me choose. Not only did I like the E Major better (yes, the first movement is awesome) but the E Major was also better for my development as a violinist, both technically and emotionally (and must I say, it helped a lot.)

I'm in love with BWV 998 at the moment, and prelude and fugue in Cm for organ *drools*

Maek

scraggy, almost a year in between those posts, i never realised how old this thread was

-Solo Violin Chaconne in D minor

-Organ Preludes/Toccatas/Fantasias and Fugues

-Trio Sonatas

-All his chamber music for solo Klavier.

For me there is no bad Bach. At the worst some sub-par cantatas.

And his organ music especially is has no equal.

I'm in love with BWV 998 at the moment, and prelude and fugue in Cm for organ *drools*

Maek

BWV 549

My local church crowd is almost tired of hearing that one. They'll be sitting quietly in prayer while I practice some orgel-buchlein chorales on flute stops, then I pull the plenum and the train comes rollin at them :(

But its ok, I'll be entertaining them with some Buxtehude pieces for the next few days.

Playing the big pedal introduction to the prelude never gets old, especially with that nice 16ft principal stop the organ has. (BTW 32ft stops are not common on North German baroque organs. A 16ft does just fine.) Also when the pedal part comes in on the fugue its very nice to play and of course thats where the climax of the piece happens.

the intro to the prelude is indeed quite awesome. I went to midnight mass at christmas, first time I'd been to church since I've been interested in music, the organ was awesome, sodding enormous.

Maek

o scraggy i forgot BWV 1052, the baroque concerto of concertos

im gonna listen to it now

Speaking of the Mass in B minor, listen to this movement from the Symbolum Nicenum Credo titled "Et in Unum Dominum" this i find a very dare I say sensual movement, Bach I will repeat is the artist of artists.

I bought St John Passion yesterday and was listening to it last night.

Love the choruses most of all, more on choral music I'm a big fan of cantata no4 BWV004, the tenor aria is one of my favourite pieces of music.

Maek

speaking of "et in unum," has anyone else heard the two versions of that? Any opinions??? I personally like the one that leaves out more words (if I'm correct- and I'm usually not- the one with more words was written first, then the more florid one). Don't worry, the words are the "et incarnatus." Then the et incarnatus was written, and bach went back and rewrote the et in unum to a more florid version, my favored one... too bad Herreweghe used the un-florid one with Andreas Scholl in his recording...

Bah... I don't understand why many of his pieces are played with such emotion when truly they should be played devoid of any type of feeling or emotion. Granted, it sounds great when it has emotion, but that's not what Bach actually intended.

After all, back then, it would be hard to derive emotion from an instrument with a flatter fingerboard and a flatter bridge. :P

:P how do you know exactly what he intended?

There was a biography or two written during Bach's late years and after his death. The authors of the biographies got their info by interviewing both J.S Bach and later his sone C.P.E. Bach. After reading some of the questions and comments one will easily see how many misconceptions there are about the music of the Baroque and the music of Bach.

I read where one person mentioned that the composers of the Baroque period weren't really "inspired" but composed only according to the conventions of the day. Well, according to on e interview C.P.E. Bach mentioned that his father J.S was very fond of Handel and wondered were his "inspiration" came from. Bach was so fond of Handel that he had tried twice to set up a meeting with his contemporary so that he could chat with him and possible learn from him.

I always LOVED his cantatas. I just think they are so amazingly passionate. Bach well understood God's plan for salvation, Jesus Christ. His music is not just "religious" and does not merely paint "romantic" or fantastical pictures of God or Christianity as other composers might. But his music gives you the sense that he had a personal relationship with Christ.

I had always found his secular cantatas a kind of gem. One could only imagine what kind of opera would have flowed from his pen.

Check out his secular cantata BWV 205. The opening chorus is electric! I just love it!

Baroque standard, if it existed, regarded emotion and feeling as very important.

"What comprises good performance? The ability through singing or playing to make the ear conscious of the true content and affect of a composition. [...]" (C.P.E. Bach, "Versuch

Then cite some evidence that proves your point, because in a week or so (when I'm home) I could cite a bunch to prove mine.

Would Bach have said "The aim and final end of all music is for the glory of god and the refreshment of the soul," if he hadn't meant "music should have feeling."?????

Aside from the hideous punctuation error in the last sentence, that would mean that music was supposed to have feeling. It was his intention to have his music played in a way that was emotional. Besides, music was (back in the day) supposed to imitate nature, meaning it should be emotional and natural. Do you think that a singer naturally sings "Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben" without any emotion (from St. Matthew's Passion)? Along the same lines, do you think a singer could sing Handel's "Scherza Infida," "Cara Sposa," or "Ombra Cara," with absolutely no emotion? I think not! The music is emotion, and it takes more willpower than is possible to make that music dry and unemotional. In other words, anyone who says "Baroque should be dry" either has or had made too much stress in their lives (and needs some downtime w/ Bach and Handel, for that matter).

Oh, and (I'll pray this doesn't get me shot) Handel is at least Bach's equal, if not better (IMO), but that's for another time, another place.

Bach's cool. His violin concertos are-at least to me-boring but sonatas and partitas for solo violin are wonderful.

Not much proof is needed. Basically, comparing the instrument engineering of a Baroque instrument and a modern instrument would basically yield that trying to play with emotion would not exactly sound as well as it would playing the instrument as intended. Also, the way the music was written would have anyways provoke emotion.

I think it would help if you provided a definition of "emotion", because it's a very fuzzy word to use in a discussion of this sort. If by "emotion" you mean the typical romantic vocabulary of emotional musical gestures (vibrato being among the most important), then I certainly agree with you! This particular sort of emotion does not belong in Baroque music.

But this does not mean that the Baroque musicians didn't have their own means of evoking emotion by the manner of performance. At least they thought so at the time: there's rigorous documentation of that in contemporary sources, and if you wish to dispute this fact, you can't really dodge my request for evidence.

The baroque system did believe in emotion. It may not have been the same as the classical/romantic era but it was there. The philosophy of the "affect" is what helped lead to the develpment of the forms of baroque music.

Bach not only complained about the lack of technical abilities of his church musicians but he also complained about theri inability to express his music properly.