The Galaxy Playlist

March 23, 2009

A great excuse for a birthday party

My annual celebration of the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. It is inevitable, really, as Bach's music really forms the foundation of much of what I do musically, as he pretty much set the standard for much of western music would become.

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

For more information on any of the rock, pop and Jazz music featured on this program, I frequently utilize AllMusic , an excellent free database holding a huge plethora of information about music and the artists that make it.

Composer Performer Title Genre Label Notes
Johann Sebastian Bach
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano, The Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, Craig Smith, dir
Cantata BWV 199: Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut
Classical, Baroque era, music for solo voice with orchestra
Nonesuch, 2003
One of a select few canatas that Bach wrote for solo voice
Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord
Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue): Contrapunctus I, II, XII, XIII, Fuga a 2, Alio modo Fuga a 2 (inversus), and Contrapunctus XIV
Classical, Baroque Era, music for solo keyboard
Omega Record Group, 1993
 This is the masterwork that Bach left unfinished at his death, although the exact reasons for it not being finished are not known. Specifically, Contrapunctus XIV is the unfinished piece, a multi-part fugue that appears to have been intended to be the capstone of the entire compilation.
Gustav Leonhardt, pipe organ
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565
Classical, Baroque Era, music for pipe organ
Columbia, 1974
 
Kevin Bowyer, pipe organ
Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, BWV 582
Nimbus, 1998
 
Wanda Landowska, harpsichord
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
Classical, Baroque Era, music for solo keyboard
EMI, 1987
A set of 30 variations on a single theme, written in 1742 at the request of Count Kayserling, the Russian ambassador to the court at Dresden (he suffered from insomnia, and he wanted something for his talented keyboardest, a former pupil of Bach's by the name of Goldberg, to play). This was the first-ever recording of the Goldberg Variations (recorded in Paris, 1933), and a landmark in the history of musical recordings.

 

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Last Update: March 23, 2009

Email: saxman@siu.edu

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