Sunday, September 18, 2011

Bach Again

A cantata is a vocal work originating in the 17th century and though many composers wrote cantatas, the most well-known are by J. S. Bach. For many years Bach composed a cantata every week. They were performed as part of the Lutheran service every Sunday in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. They therefore comprise the bulk of his work as a composer. There is even a website devoted to them.

They range from the boisterous:


--which is an Italian concerto movement for trumpet and soprano...

To the formidable and imposing:


--which is a French overture with slow introduction and quicker contrapuntal section...

To the sorrowful and lamenting:


--which is a passacaglia with (harmonically) delicious Corelli seconds clashing mournfully...

To the effervescent and quirky:


--which is a lengthy choral fugue interrupted by a bass solo...

To the indescribable:


--which is one of the most beautiful oboe solos ever written...
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:38 PM

    The problem with Bach is that once you hear enough of it you'll have a hard time listening to anything else that followed and find something radically new. It's perhaps more obvious in his keyboard work, but his chorales alone pack virtually every single harmonic idea that what we call classical European music ever invented.

    Second observation is how prolific those guys were. I say those guys because Bach was not even among the most prolific. And yet Bach wrote every week the equivalent of a Beatles album. He wrote an entire cantata in one night while he stayed in a hotel (where? I forget) the night before he interviewed for a job he didn't get. Smoke cigars, drank tons of beer and schnapps all night long while composing his new cantata. How do we know that? Because his hotel bill survived (as did the cantata).

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  2. Bryan TownsendSeptember 19, 2011 at 10:47 AM

    My commentors are an impressive lot, aren't they? Not too many people know about Bach's personal habits. I discovered a lot of this sort of detail in the newish book on Bach by Christof Wolf.

    About the only harmonic idea I can think of off the top of my head that Bach didn't explore is the whole-tone scale.

    And yes, there were others who were even more prolific like Vivaldi and Telemann, who composed something like a U2 album every week. But Bach, as you say, composed the equivalent of a Beatles album. Every week.

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  3. Bryan TownsendSeptember 19, 2011 at 10:50 AM

    I also wanted to mention that Bach, after lying in an unmarked grave for quite some time, was rediscovered, disinterred and moved first to the St John's Church in Leipzig, then, in 1950, the 200th anniversary of his death, to the St Thomas Church, where he rests just beside the altar. And every day, fresh roses are placed on the grave. I know this because I visited the Thomaskirche a few years ago.

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