The Galaxy Playlist

March 28th, 2005

Happy 320th, Johann! (cont.)

Ok, I know we did this last week. But I have good reason to celebrate Bach's birthday two weeks in a row:

It's Easter, and some of this stuff is quite appropriate for Easter. In past years, I used to try to play St. Matthew's Passion for Easter anyway, so while this isn't that great work (couldn't get it this year), the religious feel and overall religous context of much of his work fits in with the whole Easter thing.
The man is 320 years old. He deserves more than just one piece played (ok, so last week's piece was 2 hours long, with only half of the piece played). There are just so many notable works that I feel the need to cover a little bit more of the depth of what this great man did.
He is considered by many (Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, among others) to be the father of harmony. Whether you agree with them or not, the fact of the matter is that while Bach did not invent the forms that he wrote in, nor did he invent the forms that he used, he revolutionized them through his inventive use of harmony, counterpoint, and other writing techniques for which he set the standard that others would follow and learn from. It can seriously be said that without Bach and his work, western music would not be what it is now.
Bach's music goes beyond classical music. Bach also set standards for variation and improvisation. What you hear jazz musicians do today, Bach did 300 years ago. Improvisational technique is an important part of the Bach tradition, and all of the truly great Bach interpreters apply a great deal of individuality when they play Bach. Such is what he would have expected, being a performer of immense skill and style himself. This is why so much of what I play of Bach's ends up being from the keyboard, as I feel that his keyboard works are the best expression of what Bach truly was.

Composer's name is listed where notable (i.e. Classical Performance, Jazz Performance).

Composer	Performer	Title	Genre	Label	Notes
Johann Sebastian Bach Also come here for some wonderful technical discussions on various keyboard works by Bach. Excellent stuff here, I could read these for hours.	Peter Hurford, organ	Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor (BWV 565)	Classical, Baroque/Keyboard/Organ	London/Decca, 1994 (recorded between 1975 and 1979)
	The Geraint Jones Singers, Geraint Jones, cond.	Motet: Jesu, Meine Freude	Classical, Baroque/Choral	EMI, 1958	Sung without instrumental accompaniment
	Trevor Pinnock, harpsichord	Goldberg Variations (BWV 988)	Classical, Baroque/Harpsichord	Archiv/Polydor, 1980	A set of 30 variations from a theme initially published in Bach's Anna Magdalena Notebook, organized into 9 sections. Initially published in 1742 as the fourth part of the Claiver-Ubung (a collection of separate pieces intended for performance on any keyboard instrument "for music-lovers, to refresh their spirits". Other parts of the Claiver-Ubung include the Six Partitas (1731), the Italian Concerto, the French Overture (both from 1735) as the second part, and the Organ Mass and the Four Duets for Harpsichord as the third part.
	Gustav Leonhardt, organ learn more about Dr. Leonhardt here	Kanonische Veranderungen uber Vom Himmel Hoch, Da Komm' Ich Her ("Canonic Variations on the Advent Hymn 'From Heaven Above to Earth I Come'") (BWV 769)	Classical, Baroque/Organ	Sony Classical, 1997 (recorded 1974-75)	One of the pieces Bach submitted as part of his membership in the Mizler Society for Musical Sciences; published in 1747

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Last Update: March 28th, 2005

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