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Welcome to A Moment of Bach, where we take our favorite moments from J. S Bach’s vast output—just a minute’s worth or even a few seconds—and show you why we think they are remarkable. Join hosts Alex Guebert and Christian Guebert for weekly moments!
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Our recording samples are provided by the Netherlands Bach Society. Their monumental All of Bach project (to perform and record all of the works of J. S. Bach) will serve as source material for our episodes.
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach
Artwork by Sydney LaCom
The podcast A Moment of Bach is created by Alex & Christian Guebert. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
This week's moment of Bach is a blissful ascending sequence in the fast final fugue movement of this keyboard toccata, which reminds us of the audacious repeating steps up and up (and down and down) of Monteverdi's "Si ch'io vorei morire."
Does this fugue opening sound familiar? Its subject is ALMOST another much more famous one. The fugue's ending is no less spectacular.
Fugue from Toccata in E minor BWV 917 as performed by Bart Jacobs for the Netherlands Bach Society
Si ch'io vorrei morire (Claudio Monteverdi): translation
"Complex" is Bach's default setting.
On this 300th anniversary of the Easter Oratorio, which was premiered in Leipzig on Easter Sunday 1725, we talk about duet recitatives, recorders and bassoons (shout out to Benny Aghassi), and Bach's marvelous trumpet writing.
After witnessing Christ's death, we experience a frozen scene -- an aria -- which is a space for reflection that Bach so often gives us in his cantatas and passions. But this time we also experience some harsh tonal whiplash as first we hear Christ's head falling in death, then a dancing, hopeful aria. This aria with interspersed chorale is filled with questions, and the positivity of one final answer.
Bach produces an innovative and complex "theological counterpoint" of the bass aria's poetry with the simultaneous chorale text. The answer is a confident affirmative; the bass holds a moment and then nods "ja." And so, our question "can I inherit the kingdom of heaven? Is this the redemption of the world?" is answered: as Christ lowered his head in death, he silently bowed his head "yes."
"It is finished." This falling melody, sung by Christ at the moment of His death, is followed by the pivotal alto aria "Es ist vollbracht". We explore the musical texture, the dramatic contrasts, the foreshadowing of the "vivace" middle section, and the way that silence can speak louder than words or music. We also uncover a truth about the word "finished" in this biblical passage.
Link to the devotional book Alex mentioned at the end of the episode. Thank you to listener and friend Marcia Biang for this book recommendation!
Why, at number 25 of 30 variations mostly in sunny G major, is here one of the most profoundly sad things he ever wrote? This one gets at something deep. He certainly knew suffering; was it his personal experience? Bach's full range of expressions is at play in the Goldberg Variations, here including sorrow.
Dubbed the "Black Pearl" by keyboardist Wanda Landowska, the long and wandering variation retains its structure, yet takes us to such lonely and desolate places.
The Goldberg Variations (var. 25) as played by Jean Rondeau for the Netherlands Bach Society
"For me, Bach is the greatest of preachers. His cantatas and Passions tune the soul to a state in which we can grasp the truth and oneness of things, and rise above everything that is paltry, everything that divides us." -- Charles-Marie Widor, from the Preface to the biography J. S. Bach by Albert Schweitzer
We all know that Bach is a technical wizard. Counterpoint might be what he's best known for. But if you want to convince someone of Bach's power as a spiritual storyteller, go to the chorales in the cantatas and Passions. There you will find pieces like this, "O große Lieb" (O great love), where in four lines of text, Bach's harmonies perfectly paint the mood of each line of text, sometimes laser-targeted down to the very note.
"O große Lieb" from St John Passion, Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven, conductor
At the beginning of our podcast seasons, we always look at a new part of BWV 61. This week Christian chooses what may be the most pure, unassuming aria of total soul transcendence. The aria "Öffne dich" is the 'heart' of this regal Advent cantata, and offers an opposite effect of the other parts while we hear a plead (from us) to our own heart: "Open yourself, my whole heart; Jesus comes and enters."
A simple cello bass line and organ accompaniment frame a floating, unpinned rhythm and subtle, elegant soprano ornamentation. But the music opens and shines from the heavens in transcendent peace at "O wie selig werd ich sein!" -- the cello enters a blissful flow as "O how blessed will I be!"
This episode's featured aria as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Zsuzsi Tóth, soprano
BachCantataTexts.org annotated translation of BWV 61
BWV 106 Gottes Zeit in concert THIS SUNDAY in Orange, California - free concert directed by Alex - info here
Welcome to season 5 of A Moment of Bach!
We kick off the season with a suggestion from Charles Raasch -- the Great Fantasia and Fugue. Does Bach know where he's going with this one? Of course he does, but, it's still fun to get lost in the music. Come with us as we wander into the complex harmonies, built mostly on fully-diminished dissonances, until Bach finally leads us home to a supremely sonorous G major ending.
Great Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 542) performed by Leo Van Doeselaar for the Netherlands Bach Society
Give to the Netherlands Bach Society -- help them finish All of Bach!
PATREON -- a new opportunity to donate to A Moment of Bach -- always optional, always appreciated!
Our fourth season was the best year yet for our downloads. Thank you for your listenership! And we still welcome your listener "moments" of Bach as ideas for future episodes.
For this season closer, we invite Reverend Eric Clausen, a Lutheran pastor, to help us unpack the background of BWV 80 (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God). The bold and powerful text of the source hymn comes directly from Martin Luther. Bach's cantata incorporates the four hymn stanzas plus poetry by Salomon Franck. Two aMoB listeners suggested moments from BWV 80; we discuss the specific moment requested for the second movement.
PATREON for A Moment of Bach - always optional, always appreciated.
Huge thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society for allowing us to use their audio examples on our podcast.
BWV 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, as performed by Netherlands Bach Society under the leadership of Shunske Sato, Artistic Director
Martin Luther, J.S. Bach, and Reformation Sunday -- this most Lutheran of all cantatas is our subject for today. "Ein feste Burg" was the battle-cry of the Reformation: "A mighty fortress is our God!" Bach's cantata weaves in all 4 stanzas of Luther's strong hymn.
We marvel at movement 1 with its "dizzyingly complex counterpoint" (as Richard Atkinson puts it in his video). This is one of the maybe 2 or 3 most complex opening chorale fantasias in all of Bach's cantata ouevre, and that's a high bar to clear! But then we zoom in on a more tender moment, the end of the alto/tenor duet in movement 7: "[the heart] will finally be crowned, when it slays death". Here, the bass line drags down in twisting chromatic motion, the tempo slows, and Bach resists the urge to return to an "A" section of text, instead closing the movement with a short instrumental coda.
BWV 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, as performed by Netherlands Bach Society under the leadership of Shunske Sato, Artistic Director
Come see this very cantata, BWV 80, in Orange, California at a free concert put on by Alex's church music program! October 20, 4pm, more details at this link. Also on the program: a new arrangement of A Mighty Fortress, orchestral liturgical music, BWV 29 sinfonia, and "Dona nobis pacem" from Mass in B minor.
Translation of the text of BWV 80 from bachcantatatexts.org, which we mentioned in this episode
A great article about BWV 80 featured on the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's website
"In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel, a song that was referenced in this episode. The last minute or so of the song features the dense instrumentation that Alex mentioned: 2 bassists, 2 drummers, etc. Also, here is a great episode of the podcast Strong Songs which breaks down "In Your Eyes".
The organ, a sacred sound, gets an unusual role in this cantata for solo voice. We hear the organ leaping all over with a virtuoso part against violins and oboes and the alto soloist. There is no better way to convey the rich concept of the "confused joy" of the believer who witnesses miracles.
In this cantata, which took place during the Sunday where the story is read of Jesus healing the deaf and mute, Bach sets his poet's words:
Spirit and soul become confused,
when they gaze on Thee, my God.
For the miracles they know,
And which the people tell with joy,
have made them deaf and mute.
Geist und Seele... from BWV 35, as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Organist Katrina Liao joins us to talk about one of her favorites, this chorale prelude that is crackling with spiritual fire. The off-beat bass at the beginning is a neat touch -- could Bach have meant to signify the Holy Spirit by focusing on the 3rd division of the beat? -- but, Katrina's favorite moment comes in the second verse, when the bass gets to carry the melody with a strong, reedy pedal sound. Christian also points out a hidden "B-A-C-H" motif.
Why do we play games? Because they're fun? Or is it because they give us a sense of structure and a clear goal, a refreshing contrast to our real lives, which are messy, unpredictable, and complicated?
In the same way, we listen to Bach to give a much-needed feeling of structure and clarity to our hectic, messy lives.
But sometimes, he doesn't quite give us what we expect. He breaks the patterns. And it's at those moments when we can catch a glimpse of the angels in the architecture.
An austere fugue subject here begins with a strange leap. To play this four-note opening on a keyboard is to outline a symmetrical structure, reminding us of the bare pillar that holds up the structure. Adorned on the structure are two faster, florid themes which enter later in this long piece.
But our moment today is its ending -- a deceptive ending leads to a brief coda, but when it happens, its harmony strikes us with a surprising dissonance, feeling almost like the resolute major tonic triad that it wants to become. But a pesky A natural, the sixth scale degree, dashes this to pieces.
Bertrand Cuiller plays the C# minor fugue (with prelude) for the Netherlands Bach Society
Today we bring you 24 repeated notes on the same pitch. Can you think of any other Bach piece which features this special effect? Certainly this is unique in the orchestrational context here: a high-pitched recorder, beeping out a digital-sounding alarm clock noise. Or is it a bell ringing? We explore what this all means -- because, of course, with Bach, it MEANS something.
In his early twenties Bach produced this compact, delightful cantata, likely for a wedding. The text of the duet is still applicable in a religious school community:
The Lord shall increase you
more and more,
you and your children.
Bach saves a special effect for the last two measures, where a modern technique is used: from highest of highs to the lowest note of the cello, a single line is passed across the string instruments.
We discuss Christian's recent programming of this cantata on Aug. 25, 2024 for a service honoring school faculty and beginning a school year.
Bach proves his mastery of the Baroque concerto here, as in the Brandenburgs -- except this time, we don't have the original music! We do have a harpsichord concerto as well as an organ concerto version of the first movement (which is actually from a cantata)... but we do not have the violin concerto version, which scholars assume must exist. The reason for this assumption is that this music is suited exceptionally well for the violin, and so, this reconstruction was made.
The first six bars of this piece are some of the most dynamic in Baroque music -- if you ever hear someone complain that classical music is "boring", hand them some good headphones and turn this one on!
Another recording of the same piece by Netherlands Bach Society, led by Shunske Sato
Cantata "Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal" (BWV 146) (featuring the source music for this concerto)
"I shall sing of the wonders of Jesus." The trumpet reflects the text purely before the singer begins. The oboes and violins join in and play off the trumpet, each finishing each other's musical lines.
You probably know this cantata for its most famous movement -- two verses of what we would call in English "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."
But there is much more brilliance to be explored in this cantata.
Bass aria "Ich will von Jesu Wundern singen" as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
A hidden gem, a fully-formed masterpiece from a young Bach, a cantata unburdened by his later fascination with Italian-style recitative and da capo arias: it is the incomparable Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit.
We look at this cantata for a third time (see season 1 episode 8 for the sonatina, and season 3 episode 15 for the soprano solo ending moment). Near the end of the cantata, we are placed in the viewpoint of the criminal on the cross, who receives forgiveness by Christ and is told "today, you will be with me in Paradise". Bach weaves in a Luther hymn about departing this earth peacefully... and at a critical moment, the Christ solo ends and the hymn is all that's left, with the words "gentle and quiet". The Netherlands Bach Society interpretation of this moment is unique and powerful -- they let the moment breathe.
Performance of BWV 106 "Gottes Zeit" by the Netherlands Bach Society, led by Jos van Veldhoven
The famous C minor fugue near the beginning of the Well-Tempered Clavier expresses the emotions of sadness, loneliness, and melancholy, according to harpsichordist Masato Suzuki. Suzuki provides a sensitive performance with attention to articulate detail in the fugue subject.
This, naturally, leads Christian and Alex into a comparison with race cars.
But, more straightforwardly, this fugue is part of the large journey that is the whole two books of preludes and fugues. The first prelude is a walk in the garden; its fugue is a hopeful step forward. But the following prelude in C minor is intrepid and fearless, boldly marching out the door. So, this fugue is when we finally run onto the road, with all of the uneasiness this entails. Explore with us how these first four parts of the WTC work together, what a countersubject (or even a second countersubject) is, and how this fugue embodies the very word root of "fugue" (to fly, flee).
Fugue in C minor as played by Masato Suzuki for the Netherlands Bach Society
Vivid and subtle, this cantata follows the spiritual journey of the soprano soloist who carries the weight of sin on her shoulders. The journey is one from darkness into light, and our moment, sent in by listener Dave, comes at the cathartic middle movement, where hope is found in patience.
Soprano Julia Doyle delivers a heartfelt rendition of this stirring cantata, one of Bach's most openly emotional. We discuss how Bach's choice to make this a solo cantata is a masterstroke in itself, and we talk about how thrilling it is when Bach (and other artists/creators, even video game developers!) allow their works to be driven by the story and characters of the text, rather than trying to force the work into a predetermined structure. The music is subservient to the emotional journey that is the heart of the text. This, we think, is what gives Bach's cantatas and passions their magic.
Companion video by the Netherlands Bach Society: interview with soprano Julia Doyle
On the last note of Mozart's "Kyrie eleison" in his requiem, he chooses a stark and intense open fifth instead of a triad. What happens when a composer finishes...not correctly? Is this allowed?
When using old melodies which start and end on scale degree 3 (relative to major), Bach adapts this old Phrygian mode to his idiom, but this does create an unexpected ending. Even more surprising is the wild hellish chromaticism of the final passage leading up to the Phrygian ending of this "Kyrie" setting. Even by Bach's own standard, this chromatic passage goes beyond.
BWV 669 (text on God the Father)
BWV 670 (text on Christ the Son)
Mozart Requiem II. Kyrie (excerpt): Public Domain recording
We take a suggestion from listener Bruce, and jump into the "other" Nun komm cantata, BWV 62. Yes, BWV 61 is admittedly the one we prefer, having talked about it several times on this podcast over the last four years. But sometimes it's good to shine some light on the facets of a hidden gem. The opening movement of BWV 62 contains multitudes.
Yes -- the famous one!
One of Bach's most universal melodies, the melody in the strings opens a profoundly perfect setting of a verse of the hymn "Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying" in the central movement (4th of 7) in the beloved masterwork "Wachet auf" cantata. Here is the exceptional performance by the Netherlands Bach Society.
Why does this opening string melody stick with just about all listeners? There are secrets hidden in the very first few notes that we will dissect. Then there is the stately hymn tune which Bach seamlessly incorporates, with a text calling for longing, joy, love, and reverent magnificence.
PATREON for A Moment of Bach - always optional, always appreciated.
Huge thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society for allowing us to use their audio examples on our podcast.
Thanks also to Syndey LaCom for our podcast artwork.
In four notes, Bach reframes our idea about what is possible in common practice harmony. This is one of the weirdest moments of Bach, coming from one of the weirdest openings to a hymn tune. But as always, it makes sense in the context of the text. It even makes sense harmonically, as we see when the hymn tune closes on four much more normal-sounding notes... and Bach repeats these, adding closure to the text "es ist genung" (it is enough). This little repetition at the coda, even more than the wildly inventive opening, shows the genius of Bach, the subtle choices that make him enduringly great.
A textbook "moment" of Bach -- in a charming setting of the three verses of the German song "O Lamb of God, Most Holy," suddenly near the end of the third verse Bach finally heeds the text and shows us the strange despair we are praying for mercy to avoid. He employs several musical devices in this sudden moment: a change in meter, a suggestion of a distant tonality, and a barrage of harsh chromaticism (notes outside of the key).
First we learn the background and the tune "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" before showing how Bach introduces this Cantus Firmus (melody) in this organ prelude's beginning and first verse where it is heard on top. The Cantus Firmus moves lower in the second verse, and in the third it is down at the bottom in the organist's pedalboard. Here the text of the last line changes from "have mercy on us" to "grant us peace." Ending strong and firm, Bach gives us peace from that sudden harsh "moment."
Netherlands Bach Society: "O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig" as played by Wolfgang Zerer for All of Bach
Thank you to listener David for the excellent suggestion.
One of Bach's most famous works, and one of the greatest melodies of all time -- this comes to us by way of an almost impossibly good performance/recording by the Netherlands Bach Society. By having the first violin part played by a section rather than a solo, they give Bach's wandering melody more purpose than it has in the famous version for solo violin, "Air on the G String", which is actually a re-arrangement of this original version -- and one which, we assert, does not stack up to the original version's greatness. That greatness comes not only from getting the first violin part back in its proper higher register and key, but also from the interplay of the inner lines in the second violin and viola parts, as well as the famous walking bass line of the continuo part.
Ultimately, though, it is that upper melody which enchants us most. Is there any wonder that it has enchanted generations since Bach -- it seems to reach toward some meaning, something just out of grasp -- and will enchant generations to come? Yes, the melody wanders... but not all who wander are lost.
PATREON for A Moment of Bach - always optional, always appreciated.
Huge thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society for allowing us to use their audio examples on our podcast.
Thanks also to Syndey LaCom for our podcast artwork.
Did Bach write this? Many think not. It's brilliant nonetheless!
We get into a talk about aspects of this motet which would or would not be hallmarks of Johann Sebastian.
This delightful jig closes out our miniseries on Brandenburg 6. Here we speak about the third movement's jumpy beats. and how these rhythmic anticipations give the whole piece a bouncy energy. Bach, the expert violist among so many other things, gives the two viola parts the most intricate material, playing off each other and passing along the musical line. Yet, in the ritornellos, he always doubles them, allowing for a rich, sweet viola tone to dominate in this delightful musical treat.
Welcome back to our yearly miniseries on the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach! This is part two of three. Today we look at the languid and luscious slow movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.
Music is (often) a setup of expectations, and then the satisfying fulfillment of those expectations OR the clever subversion of those expectations. Bach is especially good at this principle. We focus first on the unusual written-out cello part, separate from the basso continuo, creating a new entity but bound to the bass still (heterophony). Then we look at Christian's two moments, both of expectation and then subversion.
Welcome to our yearly miniseries on the Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach! Here we jump into Brandenburg 6, delighting in the weirdness that results when Bach decides to omit violins, preferring a dark, low sound of violas, violas de gamba, cello, and violone. This brings us to some more examples across Bach's oeuvre, as well as some others by Brahms, Bruce Broughton, and John Williams. As any creative person knows, setting limitations for yourself -- "no violins", for example -- is actually a good strategy for stimulating creativity, and results in a more unique creative output. How fortunate for us, then, that Bach seems to agree.
Brandenburg 6 - movement 1 - Netherlands Bach Society
Other pieces that were used as audio examples:
BWV 18 (cantata with 4 violas and no violins) - Netherlands Bach Society
BWV 80 (Ein feste burg), middle movement (unison chorale) - Netherlands Bach Society
Brahms - A German Requiem - movement 1: University of Chicago Orchestra, University Choir, Motet Choir, Members of the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, James Kallembach, conductor (recording used under Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 license) - refer to the first entry on this IMSLP page
Other pieces that we talked about, but did not play as examples:
Today we return to the 7th of the Goldberg Variations, the "Canary Jig." We discuss that peculiar name, and then we get into some smaller moments. Soaring flares up the keyboard, surprising altered tones, and crunchy grace notes are all over. Pushing forward into the ending, a high note leads us to the finish. We discuss why the contour of the hands makes this ending so satisfying.
Goldberg var. no. 7 as performed by Jean Rondeau for the Netherlands Bach Society
Just after Good Shepherd Sunday, we settle in to this comforting pastorale. Not the famous opening movement -- no, this is another beautiful sicilienne-type dance, a bass aria, in which Bach gives a masterclass on melodic writing in just 5 seconds of music. Melodic shape, sequence, pedal point, and effective parallel motion in triads -- these are all showcased in the first few measures. Then, Alex points out his favorite moment, in the B section of the aria: a long note sung by the bass soloist.
In our second look at the monumental Goldberg Variations, Christian selects the beginning of the sprightly and innocent "gigue" (jig), a particular dance set here for an interplay between two hands. The jaunty rhythm of the dance is rather uneven; this leads us into a discussion about how music is naturally not even in this way (and when it is, it's too square). We discuss the Goldberg bass line which underpins the whole sequence of 30 variations and discover how it works with this one also.
In two weeks, Christian will return to this variation and get more into the weeds with particular notes.
Goldberg var. no. 7 as performed by Jean Rondeau for the Netherlands Bach Society
Just as the three wise men brought their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the young Christ, so also this trio brings their soprano voice, viola da gamba, and theorbo (a lute variant) as musical gifts.... and we, the listeners, are the ones who are lucky enough to receive these gifts. Here we discover the plain serenity of this original hymn tune by Bach, set to simple accompaniment, and paired with a tender Christmas text by the venerated hymnist Paul Gerhardt.
Speaking of gifts -- we must, as always, thank the Netherlands Bach Society and the evergreen gift they provide for the world, the All of Bach project. They are working to complete a full set of high-quality recordings of Bach's complete oeuvre, along with video for each piece. This is a staggering amount of music. These are the recordings we have used on this podcast since its inception. Thanks again to the Netherlands Bach Society for granting permission to use these excellent recordings.
The Mass in B minor is a well which never runs dry; we return to it year after year, and this time to celebrate Easter Monday we jump into the splendid "Sanctus" section. Christian uses the fugue subject on the text "Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria ejus" (heaven and earth are full of thy glory) to describe one of the best text paintings in history. This blossoming motif doesn't just leap to heaven and fall to earth; it then covers over and under both of them with the glory (gloria) of God.
Here we do a full "Bach-n-talk" runthrough of the famous "O Mensch, bewein" chorale fantasia which ends the first half of the St. Matthew Passion, which happens to end on Alex's favorite moment. Join us as we unpack a moment of mode mixture here, at the choir's closing cadence. The borrowed minor modality gives the necessary spice to give a more complex flavor to the otherwise light and airy music. But don't be fooled, listener, into thinking the woodwind parts are all just fluff. They carry a darker undertone in the meaning of this music. Remember: the flute's not cute.
Welcome to a moment of something different for once!
We take a momentary diversion from our regular programming to give you a "moment of Vivaldi."
In Shunske Sato and the Netherlands Bach Society's rendition of Vivaldi's "Winter" of the "Four Seasons," Sato stuns with innovative solo violin timbres which embody the icy cold themes of the season. We don't normally hear such sounds when we hear baroque music whatsoever!
Christian focuses on one Vivaldi moment - a simple low trill, but when rendered with an extreme "sul ponticello" bowing (near the bridge), cold and dry harmonic overtones are heard instead.
In this gem of a sonata, played on an original instrument, Bach hides the simplest musical theme in plain sight: one note. Alex looks at the end of movement 3, where Bach gives a pedal point E to the viola da gamba, asking for over 30 seconds of one sustained note on this instrument. Simple, yes, but perfectly aligned with the notes around it. It's just another gem in the sea of jewels that is Bach's oeuvre.
At the beginning of our podcast seasons, we always look at a new part of BWV 61. This week Christian chooses an unusual bass trill from the sparkling tenor recitative. For this moment Bach opens up the narrating voice and enters a half-aria section so that the singer can repeat the words "You come and let your light shine with full blessing." The lilting cello and bright harpsichord offer repeated "shines" in this section, which concludes with our surprising trill in the basso continuo.
This episode's featured recitative as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Nicholas Mulroy, tenor
Welcome to Season 4! Thanks so much to all our listeners!
Today we give thanks -- not just for all of you wonderful listeners, but for Bach's creativity in the opening chorus of this cantata, which he based on the classic Lutheran chorale "Now Thank We All Our God". We explore the origin of the poetry by Martin Rinckart, a man who, like Job from the Old Testament, lost everything dear to him, but still remained faithful -- and grateful -- to his God. Then, we dive into the music and the clever text painting, and, after hearing so many hundreds of Bach's works, we delight in the way he continues to surprise us. We can always find something new. And that, wonderful listeners, is something we can all be thankful for.
Video link: Shunske Sato conducts the Netherlands Bach Society in a performance of BWV 192
Even MORE thanks to Netherlands Bach Society for the permission to use audio examples from their high-quality recordings, and also to Syndey LaCom for our delightful artwork.
In this bonus episode, we have a chat with soprano Emily Wood, a featured soloist in the recent concert performance of BWV 147 at Alex's church. We hear about Emily's personal experience singing this wonderfully challenging solo which is nestled in the very heart of this cantata; we also reflect on the whole 10-movement masterpiece.
Audio recordings of BWV 147 in this episode are from the recording of this concert, at St. John's Lutheran Church, Orange, CA, USA, featuring Cathedral Singers and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Alex Guebert.
Keep an eye out for the second bonus episode soon -- the blooper reel from Season 3!
Listeners! Thank you for 100,000 episode downloads!
It's Bachtoberfest, which means we talk about a silly piece by Bach -- this year's is a little parable about a tobacco pipe. We also read some of your comments and suggestions, we drink some Hefeweizen, and we talk about our plans for season 4, coming in 2024.
TWO MORE BONUS EPISODES are on their way soon -- a blooper reel for season 3, and a post-concert interview with soprano and previous podcast guest Emily Wood.
LOCAL LISTENERS in Southern California: Info about the Christmas Carol Festival organized/directed by Christian at his church: 3:00pm, Sunday December 10, Abiding Savior Lutheran Church, 23262 El Toro Rd, Lake Forest, CA 92630, USA.
And check out the Bach: Coffee and Cantata online group organized by listener Thierry -- a place for like-minded Bach lovers to meet and discuss cantatas in the context of the Sunday on which they were written. We mention this in the episode.
As always, thanks to Netherlands Bach Society for the use of our audio examples, and Sydney LaCom for our artwork.
Until next year... enjoy those moments...
Composer and guitarist Giovanni Piacentini joins us today with guitar in hand and an enthusiasm to share with us one of Bach's most surprising moments.
Bach's "Prelude, Fugue and Allegro" is designated for lute or harpsichord. Classical guitarists have long enjoyed the work, which is successfully adapted to the guitar. Near the end of the prelude, Bach takes us down an unexpected path, then gives us a thoroughly strange chord -- Giovanni's moment of Bach today.
We discuss two normal ways that this chord could have progressed. But as Giovanni says, "Bach isn't normal!" Instead he takes on a wild trip before returning to the peaceful home key.
Today we take a suggestion from listener Dave, and dive into the wonderfully rich "Trauerode", which was written for the funeral of a princess. Bach put some extra effort into the instrumentation and orchestration. Here we have an aria with not just one complex obligatto instrument line, but three separate obligatto instrument lines (flute, oboe, violas da gamba), all with different material and different timbres.
"Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl" (Trauerode) (BWV 198) -- tenor aria
Closing out this set of three chorale preludes on its Trinitarian hymn tune, this sparkly trio (of angels?) dances up and down the organ console.
The Three-ness is evident in this piece meant to evoke the third part of the Trinity, the breath-giving Holy Spirit. Three bars by three bars make up the first nine, and three bass notes begin the prelude. Three sturdy eighth notes pin down the dancing texture on occasion, there are three sharps in the key, and there are three independent parts in the trio.
In this episode we talk about our favorite pair of moments with a long chain of trilled suspensions against fast notes. Knowing that Bach always used the text, we discuss whether this music is meant to set the stanza about the Holy Spirit and whether it may be the fire of the Spirit upon faithful people rather than angels.
When the King of Prussia requested Bach's presence for a visit, Bach probably expected to be asked to improvise some complex music on the king's prototype fortepiano. But did he expect the king to give him such a twisty, chromatic theme? And, after he played an extemporaneous 3-part fugue successfully, was it then even more unfair for the king to ask for a 6-part fugue immediately following that? And, most intriguing to us, was it actually Bach's son who convinced the king to spring this "trap" on Bach, as theorized by Arnold Schoenberg?
Today we dive deeper into the Musical Offering, and take a suggestion from listener Darcy, looking at a fairly jazzy few seconds of Bach.
Playlist of the entire Musical Offering, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Or, go straight to the Ricercar a 3.
In this episode we concern ourselves with the inner workings of the fugue. The fugue of the D major set from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier makes for an excellent study. It is made of a pliable, connectible subject which Bach treats as two small motives. These lend themselves to layering, overlapping, and echoing of all kinds.
The atomic building block of this fugue subject gives it all at once simplicity, harmonic ambiguity, rhythmic ambiguity, and momentum.
Listening to this, perhaps Bach's weirdest opening chorus (and that's saying a lot!), Alex and Christian get tangled up in the forest of the complexities of this music. We untangle some, but we also sit in and admire the thorniness of this piece of music, which perfectly portrays its text. And we talk about how Bach can make us feel existential fear, not through flashy orchestral effects, but through the deep mysterious complexity of the music itself. The special moment comes in a sudden bass recitative in the middle of the movement, like a clearing in the forest. But this clearing is not free of thorns either...
Netherlands Bach Society plays BWV 103, directed by Shunske Sato
Bach's Christmas cantata "Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes" is resplendent with the joy of the season with its festive horns throughout. But in the tenor aria, Bach offers a more delicate excitement from the horns. In dialogue with the oboes, the horns offer the child-like wonder and excitement of the "Christenkinder" (Christ's children). A middle section contrasts starkly with a scary "frighten" (erschrecken).
We also explore the marvelous closing chorale harmonization with its "joy upon joy" and "bliss upon bliss."
Bach's organ chorales are some of his best-known works for the instrument. He had a way of clothing the simple hymn tunes with layers of heavy material. The final product becomes something almost unrecognizable, and yet you can feel the essence of the tune hiding in there somewhere... When you look for it, it's woven into the fabric of the work.
If you want to hear the previous episode on the first of the three organ chorale preludes on this hymn tune, see Episode 16 of this season of A Moment of Bach.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner writes about this cantata: "[Bach] recognized that small lives do not seem small to the people who live them." Bach had an interest in portraying the ordinary anxiety of the guilt-ridden person. Nowhere is this more evident than in Cantata 105 where he focuses on the human rather than the divine. Voices plead "Lord! Lord! Enter not into judgment with your servant." The first two voices seem to shout early! This jarring effect overlaps the apparent beginning of the next section of music.
In the closing chorale, a quickly pulsating string heartbeat is fast and anxious. Bach incrementally slows it down using longer and longer note values. The result is a gradual release of pressure, a bizarre and experimental structural device for its time. "Now, I know, Thou shalt quiet my conscience that torments me."
BWV 105: Netherlands Bach Society
Netherlands Bach Society companion video on the obscurity of the Corno da Tirarsi
Bach the composer, Bach the educator, Bach the church music director, Bach the scholar, Bach the instrument inventor... Johann Sebastian Bach was so many things.
In this episode, we focus on Bach the innovator of keyboard technique -- specifically, a style of playing which facilitated the complexities of the music he put on the page. Familiar with the great keyboard composers of the past, Bach built upon standard clavier technique and developed his own, which his son and his first biographer both recorded after his death. This little compilation of information on how Bach played, down to the specifics of how the fingers bent and exactly what time each finger arrived at and left each note, is a real gem. It might even be more precious to Bach performers than some of his manuscripts themselves -- because it can crack the code of how to actually play the music (or at least, to play it well). Indeed, many players of Bach nowadays owe a lot to this description of Bach's keyboard technique, not because they have necessarily read it themselves, but because all of the best music teachers have passed on its secrets over the years.
Bach's first church works were anything but plain and dull. Untouched by Italian style, firmly in German Lutheran tradition, this very first known Bach cantata shines and surprises at every turn through its mazy passages.
This is the second part in a two-part miniseries on the masterwork BWV 150 (Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich). See the previous podcast episode for part 1. In this episode, we discuss the last three movements: the shaking trees of the trio (Cedern müssen von den Winden), the frantic escaping of the net in the chorus (Meine Augen sehen stets), and the towering final Ciaccona.
In this episode, we reference Bach's most famous choral works. We see how in his early works he was more experimental, and we explore how the seeds of his later masterworks are yet already there.
BWV 150 as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society (recordings used with permission in this episode)
Musical score to BWV 150 referenced in this podcast miniseries
Grab a score (or open the link) and follow along with us in an exploration of Bach's first known cantata. This straightforward psalm setting keeps us on our toes as it changes with almost every line of text, including the sublime and ancient sound of the "Leite mich" (lead me) chorus moment. Why doesn't Bach follow the rules of harmonic progression here? In this first episode of two, we will explore the first four parts of the cantata. This brilliant work of a very young Bach has a host of all-star moments within.
BWV 150 as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society (recordings used with permission in this episode)
BWV 150 as recorded by VOCES8 and the Academy of Ancient Music
Musical score to BWV 150 referenced in this podcast miniseries
Welcome back -- this is Part 2 of our 2-part series on a pivotal moment during the "Et expecto" section of the Mass in B minor. If you haven't caught Part 1 yet, which was released last week, we suggest you start there.
In this episode we go more in-depth with harmony than we ever have on this podcast. If you want to follow along with the twists and turns, get out your Mass in B minor score and read along with us! (Or use this link for a vocal score reduction from IMSLP. The "Et expecto" bridge starts on the bottom of page 118.)
Always know where you're going.
Today is part 1 of a 2-part series on one of the famous moments of Bach -- the transition from "Confiteor" to "Et expecto" at a dramatic moment in the Mass in B minor. Rather than jump right into the final, festive section that describes the eternal joy of the resurrection of the dead, Bach first gives us a slow, searching, harmonically unstable bridge. This section contains some of the most unusual sounds in all of Bach's work. But... he always knows where he's going -- and when he gets there, it is glorious.
This week we focus mostly on the "Confiteor", which is a lead-up to the real moment. Next week we get to the bridge.
Jump to the "Confiteor" from the Netherlands Bach Society performance of Mass in B minor
Vocal score for Mass in B minor (public domain) from IMSLP -- "Confiteor" starts on page 113
In this bonus episode, we return to the transcendent joy of the final chorale of BWV 61 "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" to review a recording from the J. S. Bach Foundation (J.S. Bach-Stiftung). The lightning speed pleads for Jesus the "Crown of Joy" to return without delay in this performance directed by Rudolf Lutz.
Thank you to the J. S. Bach Foundation for permission for A Moment of Bach to utilize this recording for a podcast episode.
"Amen, amen!" chorale, Bachstiftung (J. S. Bach Foundation)
For further information on the Bach Foundation, go to: https://www.bachipedia.org/en/
Our guest Emily Wood shares her Bach fandom with us as we explore the unexpectedly funny "Kaffeekantate." Though Bach never wrote an opera, this was perhaps the closest he got. And though accused by contemporaries for being stuck in the old heavy contrapuntal style, Bach absolutely could write in the newer, lighter Italian style. Emily shares with us her favorite points from the Coffee Cantata, including the characterization of opera voice types used by Bach, and a surprising fact about the ending.
Emily Wood is an accomplished soprano, composer, and educator, and also a self-described Bachophile. emilywoodmusic.com
The Coffee Cantata as staged and performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
The Baroque era was defined by eloquent sophistication. All art from this period aimed to adorn and decorate the subject. Bach's music is no exception -- this chorale prelude is based on a simple hymn tune, but he loads it up with ornaments, creating something completely unique. If Bach were a baker, hymn tunes would be his flour -- the all-important base to his art -- but he would use so many other ingredients to such great capacity that the finished product, a magnificent cake, would be more elaborately designed and decadent than any cake you would find on any cooking show!
This chorale prelude performed by Reitze Smits for the Netherlands Bach Society
"J. S. Bach's Leipzig Chorale Preludes: Music, Text, Theology by Anne Leahy (see page 179)
"Es ist der alte Bund: Mensch, du musst sterben!" (It is the old covenant: humankind, you must die!) What force could stand against this? A lone soprano prays "Yes, come, Lord Jesus, come." The old covenant is absolved and fulfilled by the coming of "Herr Jesu." Death is silenced.
We explore Bach's stunning single musical setting of these two opposite texts, and we linger on one of the most stunning Bach moments of them all -- the lower voices come together then disappear, the bass dies away, and then the soprano sings of Jesus, truly alone.
The moment Christian chose for this episode comes from a suggestion by listener Talin.
In Season 1, we recorded an episode on this masterwork cantata on the opening sonatina.
Netherlands Bach Society: entire movement recording from the Gottes Zeit video
An outlier of a piece in an outlier of a category -- Bach didn't write very many motets compared to his other types of works, and this is the only one which is fully scored for choirs throughout AND had specific instrument parts written which all double the choral parts. It's also a double choir, which adds to the uniqueness -- 8 separate choral parts, each with an instrument doubling. Alex's favorite moment involves a jumpy syncopation, which is set up by one of Bach's favorite motifs, the "sighing" motif. This little dessert of a piece is so sweet and light and fun, it might surprise you to hear that it was written for a funeral!
Performance of this motet by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Stephan MacLeod
In our final episode in the miniseries on Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, we use the wonderfully resplendent recording of the last movement by the Netherlands Bach Society to explore three key moments. The music is a festive jig with an aggressively happy character. The twists and turns are rapid and numerous.
In the middle episode of our Brandenburg 5 series, we explore the ponderous and affectionate-sounding second movement, scored for an intimate trio of violin, flute, and harpsichord. The harpsichord again takes a role of heightened importance, though it's more subtle here than it was in the first movement. And here, in Alex's favorite passage, another lone C-natural inspires our performers to make a creative choice: to hang on to a certain, special moment, for just a little longer.
Watch the video of Brandenburg 5, mvt.2, artfully staged by the Netherlands Bach Society
Welcome to our traditional yearly miniseries, where we take moments from the three movements of one of the six beloved Brandenburg Concerti. In this first of three episodes, we look at the grand, gallant opening movement. We explore the exuberant refrain theme (ritornello), and the wild and bizarre harpsichord solo. We also follow and hunt for a rogue C natural through this piece where we expected C sharps.
The moment for today comes just before one ritornello, when the Netherlands Bach Society ensemble chooses to take some extra time before building back to it.
It's almost unfair to other composers that Bach was not only the greatest fugue writer to ever live, but he also was... maybe one of the very best melodic writers to ever live? And he wrote... (checks notes)... HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of absolutely perfect melodies, like it was no big deal? Come on, Bach. Leave some for the rest of us.
Today Alex brings us three of the most beautiful instrumental intro melodies from arias. These are all in 12/8 time, a meter that lends itself to peaceful, lilting beauty. And, Alex connects Bach and "Texas hold 'em" poker, somehow.
An interesting dissertation by Kayoung Lee, about Bach's use of 12/8 meter: The Role of the 12/8 Time Signature in J. S. Bach's Sacred Vocal Music
A host of wonderful surprises are in store for the listener of the lesser-known mass in F major. Bach's giant mass in B minor overshadows all of his other Latin choral works, but we should not miss out on this one. Christian and Alex take a listener suggestion from Riley for this week's episode where we explore the pained pleading of the interweaving oboe and soprano in the movement "Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis" (Who takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us). We hear a powerful paragraph from Schweitzer's writing on the religiosity of Bach, even if we laugh a bit about how extravagant and inflated it is.
As performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
Recording of Concerto in Bb major for bassoon and orchestra (K. 191): Arthur Grossman, bassoon; U.S. Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, Ling Tung, conductor. Bordeaux, France, 1956; The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet archive
Today we talk about clever twists, whether in music or in stories, and how these twists can be delightful in their subversion of our expectations -- when done well. In this less-than-famous little prelude from the famous compilation The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach uses deceptive cadences to add flavor to the music without sacrificing the form, in such a way that the music feels inevitable.
Thanks as always to Netherlands Bach Society for the use of their excellent recordings as our musical examples!
Excerpt from Mozart's Symphony no. 40 in G minor, mvt.4, from Das Orchester Tsumugi, Fukuoka, Japan; public domain recording (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)
Sergey Malov, who plays all six cello suites on his violoncello da spalla (shoulder cello), gives us the inspiration to look at the suites in a new way. They "transcend" the instrument itself, as by the last one, it's clear that you are meant to be using an instrument with a higher fifth string. The allemande of the sixth suite also transcends its simple dance roots and flows out of its bounds.
Thanks to listener H.G. for the suggestion of the Allemande moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbH3JYfRjOQ&t=265s
Stay with us, for night is falling.
On this Easter Monday, we return to Bach's Easter Monday cantata Bleib bei uns ("Stay with us"). We talked about this cantata in Season 1, but here we can't help but return to the captivating opening chorus, which reminds us of the closing choruses of the St. Matthew and St. John Passions. Ever the pictorial composer, Bach uses repeated notes to paint the picture of God's steadfastness -- how He stays with us. The middle section brings us into a lively double (or is it triple...?) fugue, culminating in Alex's favorite moment, a quadruple-octave blast from the choir.
Bleib bei uns performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, Jos van Veldhoven, conductor.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LISTENERS: check out Alex's concert THIS SUNDAY in Orange, CA which features this very cantata, Bleib bei uns, as well as some other hymn and liturgy arrangements, all in the musical context of an evening prayer service. Details here.
Sometimes the most meaningful moment is the in-between. After learning that one of them would betray Jesus, the disciples (Choir 1 in the St. Matthew Passion) all clamor to exclaim: "Lord, is it me?"
We pause. Christ doesn't answer immediately. We know the answer. Both choirs admit: "It is me whose sin binds you." This chorale response which follows the bible passage shows that the answer is more than just Judas.
These pauses between are often profound, introspective, or even crushingly sad. The second moment in this episode is one of contrite pleading after the Erbarme Dich aria and before a penitent chorale. The third is the stark silence of the moment after Christ's death.
For Bach the expert storyteller, these transitions have an essential power of their own.
Thank you listener Dave for inspiring the concept for this episode, and suggesting the second moment.
Special thanks to the Netherlands Bach Society for the use of the audio examples and links to video examples.
A 45-second masterpiece: the ecstatic joy bursts forth from this hurried chorale, begging Jesus, the Crown of Joy, to return. Amen, amen!
The urgency becomes part of the musical structure; Bach doesn't even have time for the whole hymn stanza as he sets the mystical text from only the last bit of the last stanza of Philipp Nicolai's hymn Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright). A brilliant high note and descent of the last phrase reminds us of "Joy to the World." And yet, while the first Advent is shown in the descending notes, the violins don't tarry as they carry us up and up to an unusually high G.
"Amen, amen!" chorale in BWV 61, Netherlands Bach Society
Text translation and commentary used by the Netherlands Bach Society and referenced in this episode are by bachcantatatexts.org (BWV 61) by Daniel R. Melamed and Michael Marissen
Bachstiftung (J. S. Bach Foundation) video recording of a particularly fast performance
The Requiem by Mozart, Schubert's unfinished symphony, the incomplete Beach Boys album Smile... ever since the biblical story of the Tower of Babel we humans have been fascinated by the idea of an unfinished work of art. The reconstruction by Netherlands Bach Society of the ending of Bach's Art of Fugue gets us very close to what the master himself might have done, had his pen not stopped on the page. Perhaps the idea of incompleteness itself is a comforting thought -- even Bach, who left us so much high-quality art, never completed this culminating masterwork... is anyone's life's work every truly complete? Certainly Bach's legacy lives on despite this omission. Even so, we can't help but wonder what his ending to this piece would have sounded like.
After writing the Goldberg Variations, what was left to write?
Welcome back to A Moment of Bach! We embark on our third season by celebrating the recent release of the Netherlands Bach Society's "Die Kunst der Fuge" -- a brilliant new arrangement of the towering masterwork. The expressive and unusual instrumentation makes this recording unlike any other.
Die Kunst der Fuge BWV 1080 by the Netherlands Bach Society, arr. Shunske Sato
PATREON -- a new opportunity to donate to A Moment of Bach -- always optional, always appreciated!
Stefano Greco lecture including a new theory on the order of the parts of the Art of Fugue
One more BACHTOBERFEST festivity: a conversation with a wonderful guest.
Does Bach's music work on modern instruments which were designed after his time? Our guest, conductor and composer James Meredith is the long-time Artistic Director of the top-tier Sonos Handbell Ensemble. Jim talks about his love of Bach, his avenue toward handbells as an instrument of high-level performance, and his own Bach transcriptions for the instrument. Before the interview, we answer a question about the “Little Fugue” in G major.
“Now Hear This” by Scott Yoo on PBS
Christian’s upcoming BWV 61 Cantata performance: Sunday, Dec. 11 at 3:00 here (free)
As promised, here are the silly bloopers that we both collected throughout this year! Stay tuned for one more bonus episode: the interview about Bach and the handbell ensemble with James Meredith, artistic director of Sonos.
Thanks so much to our listeners for being a part of our second season!
On this second BACHTOBERFEST, we answer questions and read some great stories from listeners. We also listen to the hilarious "Quodlibet", a piece that seems too silly for Bach, but it is indeed by the master himself, and gives us a glimpse of his sense of humor. We also try a couple of beers, including a German Hefeweizen shandy.
Listeners -- you've helped spread the word -- last year we were at 10,000 episode downloads; now we are over 55,000. Thank you!!
We'll drop a blooper reel for Season 2 soon, as well as a bonus interview with composer and conductor Jim Meredith.
PATREON -- a new opportunity to donate to A Moment of Bach -- always optional, always appreciated!
Artwork by Syndey LaCom
Musical examples provided by the Netherlands Bach Society
A Moment of Vivaldi! This week, we look at Bach's transcription of Vivaldi's concerto for 4 violins. The crisp and elegant style of Vivaldi gets magnified by Bach here. 4 violins become 4 harpsichords, and the snapping and clicking of the harpsichord strings become a delightful metaphor for the clockwork precision of the composition and the structure of the music. We quote a character from a Douglas Adams novel, who, along with us, sits down to listen to a piece by Vivaldi and marvels that something could be so sublime and yet so mechanical at the same time. Also, listener Will gives us a great moment of violin shredding, and Alex chooses his favorite moment of dissonance from the end of the second movement, where a multiple trill on a diminished chord gives us one of the crunchiest sounds in all of baroque music.
Listeners! Do you have a question you'd like us to answer "on-air" next week on our BACHTOBERFEST season closer episode? Let us know -- ask it directly on our website page.
Performance of BWV 1065 by Netherlands Bach Society
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams (book quoted in this episode)
Beloved by pianists, piano teachers, composers, and theory instructors, the Bach Inventions hold a special place in many of our hearts. Why are they called "Inventions" when nothing else is? Why did he include an ornamentation performance guide for them in the "Klavierbüchlein" where he wrote them, when he never did this for anything else in his life?
We take a look at one inventive and energetic moment from Invention no. 12 in A major from the Netherlands Bach Society's series of Inventions performed and recorded by young musicians.
Invention in A Major performed by harpsichordist Peiting Xue
All 15 inventions BWV 772-786: Netherlands Bach Society young performers
Is this a cantata? Is this a chorale fantasia movement of a cantata? Is this a concerto? What is this thing?
The answer is: all of the above! By now, it shouldn't surprise us that Bach was not satisfied with simplicity. Here, he combined the chorale fantasia and concerto forms together into this unique first movement of a cantata, achieving some delightful contrasts of orchestral color.
Netherlands Bach Society performs BWV 99: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwmQo97zb6I
Netherlands Bach Society performs BWV 100 (mentioned in this episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oS4clt71dU
Come see a (free!) performance of BWV 99 conducted by Alex at his home church of St. John's Lutheran Church, Orange, CA on September 18, 2022: https://www.stjohnsorange.org/event/1222155-2022-09-18-bach-cantata-vespers-concert/
Gift!! (That is..."poison" in German.) Put up your guard and resist the curse and poison of sinning -- this is the admonition which Bach gives us in this cantata for solo singer, strings, and continuo. The very first chord with its unstable harmony hits us with this force.
We explore how Bach achieves this and other shocking dissonances even a few progressions (retrogressions?) which don't follow harmonic rules. Clearly the heartbeat bass line could be our resistance against sin -- but does the beautiful sequence of rising notes above represent indelicate passion, or the fight against it?
Widerstehe doch der Sünde as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, sung by alto Maarten Engeltjes and led by Lars Ulrik Mortensen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBwjv-QJhIk
Companion video interview with the vocalist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGjJDFP-AyM&t=0s
Companion video interview with the conductor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQNxeXKRiJg&t=0s
We complete our three-part miniseries on the Kyrie section of the Mass in B minor, focusing on the third movement. And three is the number of the day -- everything here seems to have a three-part structure, from the largest sections of music down to the smallest cell. The Rule of Three pervades.
Netherlands Bach Society performs the Mass in B minor (this link takes you directly to the movement we discuss in the episode):
https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=956
Rule of Three:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_(writing)
In January 2021, on our very first episode, we explored a "bass drop" moment at the very end of Bach's monumental Mass in B minor, where the soaring high voices and instruments suddenly give way to a deep, full, bass sound, in one of the most satisfying moments of music of all time!
Today, we revisit the evergreen Mass in B minor, and find another "bass drop" moment suggested by listener Bill -- this time from the very first movement. Here, the fugue subject enters for the first time in the bass voices, and in a stroke of genius, the Netherlands Bach Society has the full bass section enter for the first time at this critical moment.
The video by the Netherlands Bach Society is a true artistic treasure -- not to be missed! See it here -- and listen with headphones or good speakers -- enjoy:
"The psychological effect of all this key-shifting, some jerky, some smooth, is very difficult to describe...perhaps it is the magic of Bach that he can write pieces with this kind of structure which have such a natural grace to them that we are not aware of exactly what is happening." In this episode we use these words by author Douglas Hofstadter to explore Bach's harmony as a deep stack of entangled and recursive structures. A moment from listener Santiago is the smallest of these stacked units, and we use it to zoom out.
French Suite no. 4 as played by harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï for the Netherlands Bach Society (the Allemande is first):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2rQtGtxpOw
Today, we give a play-by-play of the opening chorus of this extravagant cantata, which was suggested to us by listener Riley. We talk horns, stretto, and... why you should listen to all different kinds of music.
See this delightful work as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLDTvI1RrgI
Thanks to all our listeners! And this week, an extra thank-you goes to Riley for suggesting this cantata!
A divine duality: our bad thoughts and God's comfort, our imperfections and God's forgiveness, our guilt and God's love nevertheless. In this long cantata masterwork, Bach does the Psalms justice and expresses their vast emotions. He uses a set of spry and agile musical tools as varied as each phrase of the psalms he puts to music.
This is the second of two episodes this month on BWV 21. Performance of this cantata by the Netherlands Bach Society (Shunske Sato, director):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGT0iPpU9is
Special thanks to listener Eliezer for a new perspective for us to talk about on this cantata.
All Bach arias are duets.
This is the first of two episodes on BWV 21, which is one of Bach's earlier works. It's a cantata rich with meaning, with biblical truths spread out from the Psalms to Revelation. And, Alex has a revelation of his own about Bach arias -- sparked by this very piece.
Performance of this cantata by the Netherlands Bach Society (Shunske Sato, director):
In this hymn prelude about bewailing our sins, Bach chooses not to set the familiar melody starkly and austerely. Instead, the most flowery and passionate ornaments decorate the song. Organists know that our moment is going to be at the end: the famous c-flat major chord which strikes the word "Kreuze" (cross) and the following twists to the slow end on "lange" (long). Let's explore how these harmonies are not randomly chosen but are instead striking alterations of a regular harmonic progression. It's not hard to see why this chorale prelude has long been one of Bach's most popular.
Thanks to aMoB listener Dan for the suggestion!
Erwin Wiersinga plays the organ chorale prelude for the Netherlands Bach Society All of Bach project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oha0oITfYk
Listener Alysse requested this triumphant moment from the energetic "Cum sancto spiritu" -- which happens to be Alex's favorite movement of the Mass in B minor. This movement is full of verve and rhythmic complexity. In this episode, we marvel at these rhythms and how they manifest in the two fugues. And, along with listener Alysse, we stand awe and admiration of the mind that brought this music into the world.
Netherlands Bach society performs Mass in B minor, led by Jos van Veldhoven -- link takes you straight to the movement we discuss in the episode:
https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=3033
Bach's Magnificat tells the story of Mary's rejoicing and God's providence. In the lovely "Esurientes" alto aria with a duo of flutes, we hear God's bounty against the silence of the rich being turned away empty-handed. But how do we, or Mary, or Bach, cope with the ever-present staggering wealth inequality in human society? Admitting it and learning about it is a start. Mary was optimistic, and the least Bach can do with Mary's song is to highlight its joy and inherent fairness in a hopeful and positive way. At "He has filled the hungry with good things..." the melody rises; the song falls at "...and sent the rich away empty." At the very last note, someone will leave empty-handed. But we, the listener, will be musically enriched.
Bach's Magnificat, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven -- this link takes you to the featured "Esurientes" movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsUWG2axB3w&t=1174s
Alto: Maarten Engeltjes
Flutes: Marten Root, Doretthe Janssens
Nestled in the middle of Bach's setting of the Magnificat, we can find a moment of extreme tension -- a striking diminished chord, followed by silence, and then... instead of a resolution, Bach playfully subverts our expectations and gives us an even weirder dissonance, an augmented chord. The choir and orchestra of the Netherlands Bach Society, operating as always on a high level of musicianship, approach this moment with care -- the diminished chord, signifying the peoples' sin of arrogance, is given a few seconds to resound in the church... then, the next phrase, depicting the thoughts of the sinful heart, becomes immediately introspective and tormented.
Bach's Magnificat, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven -- this link takes you to the featured "Fecit potentiam" movement:
https://youtu.be/EsUWG2axB3w?t=928
Interview video with soprano soloist Hana Blažíková:
Composer Kian Ravaei joins us this week as guest and shares with us the powerful spiritual connection points that Bach has made recently in his life in this interview. Kian describes the power that the music of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (cantata 140), the St. Matthew Passion, and the collected chorales have had on him. We discuss the particular powers of Bach's music to move us spiritually, give us autonomy as a listener, inspire us to meaningfully create in times of hardship and times of grief, and guide us to compose with proper technique.
Thanks Kian for sharing your story with us on our podcast!
As Kian notes, the "Wachet auf" cantata centers on the story of the wise and the foolish bridesmaids -- a parable about being ready. The bridesmaids (us) await the groom (Jesus Christ). The most famous moment is the middle chorale verse sung by the tenors, but at the end of this interview we will play for you the Netherlands Bach Society recording of the closing chorale which summarizes our interview and the meaningfulness of the chorales to us composers.
Cantata 140: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqZE54i-muE
St. Matthew Passion: https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ
This breezy little two-line chorale doesn't seem like much, but it is Bach's setting of a tune that was very well known -- the German Magnificat. This leads us down a rabbit hole of discussion about how this performance relates to BWV 10, a cantata that Bach based on this same tune. We explore the tune and its psalm tone, and we delight in the way Bach sets the words "ewigkeit zu ewigkeit" (eternity to eternity) as continuous, neverending, rising figures in the choral parts.
Chorale Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn (BWV 324) performed by Young Bach Fellows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ehSlK7ij8
Netherlands Bach Society performs BWV 10, a cantata based on this same psalm tone (Marcus Creed, conductor):
Episode 3 of our miniseries on Brandenburg 4.
How much of Bach's music is actually written on the page, and how much is worked out by the performers? What is actually left out of the music notation, and kind of training is needed to realize what's missing? If performers are going to slow down or speed up subtly during a performance, that is usually worked out by them; it is rarely notated in music this early.
The final Presto of this concerto is a fugue so dense in energy and flow. Despite this, there is still a show-stopping feature for the solo violin, and we explore how Shunske Sato leads the group in slowing down and speeding up at the end of this feature:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZJ__GIbms&t=620s
That concludes this year's 3-episode miniseries on another Brandenburg Concerto!
Episode 2 of our miniseries on Brandenburg 4.
In this episode: JAZZ? We talk a bit about jazz harmony and how it shares some foundational chord progressions with baroque music. We also pick apart a couple of measures from this twisty, moody movement, and we put them back together in a couple of different configurations, just like how Bach did it when he composed -- assembling the puzzle pieces to create the finished work, a machine of clockwork precision and beauty.
See movement 2 of Brandenburg 4, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, led by Shunske Sato:
https://youtu.be/oSZJ__GIbms?t=401
An article about Dr. Carolyn Bremer, whose advice Alex mentioned in the episode:
Welcome to our miniseries on Brandenburg Concerto No. 4! In this first episode, we will talk about the first movement.
Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are considered by many to be the pinnacle of instrumental Baroque music. Come and join us as we explore why. This episode explores the many small building blocks that come together to make the first movement of this concerto into something greater than the sum of its parts. Two agile recorders compete with a showy violin part, all accompanied by a background orchestra (which isn't really in the background). How can we pick a single moment from this dense kaleidoscope of musical devices? Let's look at several of those devices in this episode.
Stay tuned for the next two episodes in this miniseries, where we explore movements 2 and 3.
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major BWV 1049 as performed by Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSZJ__GIbms
Ter Schegget and Sato on Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 BWV 1049 | Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKAPxpBlh3Q
Passed down to us through almost two millennia, the poem that would later become "Savior of the Nations, Come" was set to a plainchant melody in the Middle Ages, and that melody was given a strong, angular treatment by Martin Luther, who also adapted and translated the text. A couple centuries later, it was Bach's turn to create something new from this storied hymn -- and he did, multiple times. This organ prelude may be one of Bach's more austere arrangements of this hymn, but he couldn't help adding some clever complexity to it.
We talk about how an extended ending can add much-needed closure to a piece. We also talk about how Bach is like a stained glass window -- colorful, complex, subtle, beautiful, illuminating core religious truths.
BWV 659 played by Leo van Doeselaar for the Netherlands Bach Society:
This is the second episode of our double-part look at the "Bach Double" violin concerto. In this episode, we hear how one moment of expressive subtlety can demonstrate the difference between "flashy fast notes" and true baroque emotion. A single "sighing" motif written as plain eighth notes demonstrates to us that the musicians of Bach's time were trained in a high art of ornamentation, and if they just played the notes on the page, the result would have fallen flat.
Netherlands Bach Society performing the "Bach Double" (mvt. 3); Shunske Sato and Emily Deans, violin soloists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILKJcsET-NM&t=592s
Sato and Deans' interview on the piece:
Contrast -- a major aspect of all good art. The striking colors of a sky at sunset, the thrilling first few notes of "Et resurrexit" from the Mass in B minor, or the shadowed look of a chiaroscuro painting -- all are much more powerful for the presence of sharp contrast.
In this episode we explore how Bach uses contrast in the sublime middle movement of the "Bach Double", otherwise known as the Concerto for two violins in D minor. The interplay of the two soloists is tender and personal, with an almost empathetic quality.
Netherlands Bach Society performing the "Bach Double"; Shunske Sato and Emily Deans, violin soloists:
https://youtu.be/ILKJcsET-NM?t=231
Clip from Mozart Requiem: Weiner Philharmoniker and Wiener Hofmusikkapelle, Decca, 1951, Creative Commons License Zero 1.0 (Universal Public Domain).
In celebration of Easter, we complete the pair of parts including last week's "Crucifixus." In one of the most stunning reversals in all of music, Christ is laid into the dark grave in the lowest of lows, when suddenly "And he rose again on the third day..." bursts forth with triumphant celebration.
Bach was a master of text. Without rushing past the dramatic parts of the story told in the Nicene Creed, he separates movements like these two for maximum contrast at those iconic first few seconds of "Et resurrexit." His personality as a composer (or, really, lack thereof) is different and less flashy from the way we see modern musicians and their fame. It is almost as though he represents a collective soul of his culture; he so neatly synthesized all of the forms that came before him and used them in complete service of this religious text. Bach is a terminal point of music like none other.
Performance of "Et resurrexit" as part of the performance of the Mass in B minor by the Netherlands Bach Society:
Some of the most evocative and emotional music ever written, the "Crucifixus" movement from the Mass in B minor depicts Christ's suffering and death -- you can hear the striking lashes, the plodding steps of His painful walk to Golgotha, the twisting of the crown of thorns, the nailing and the crying, the sighing and the dying. Bach's use of the passacaglia form here leads to the possibility of extreme dissonances, all within the creative framework of a repeated bass line, which sounds as if it is endlessly marching down, down, down... Full of remarkable moments, the "Crucifixus" movement -- this masterwork within a masterwork -- will never cease to amaze us.
Performance of "Crucifixus" by four soloists and orchestra, as part of the performance of the Mass in B minor by the Netherlands Bach Society:
A dark and imposing masterwork like the St. John Passion needs a moment of joyful reprieve. That reprieve comes in the form of the soprano aria ”Ich folge dir gleichfalls mit freudigen Schritten" (I too, follow you with joyful steps), in which we hear light flutes bouncing their steps. But even this happy sound comes with a strange chromatic ascent as the soloist sings "do not cease to push me, to pull me...". The St. John Passion is partly an instructive drama about how to follow Jesus; Peter must do his best at this despite his faults and denials. With this moment in this aria, we are dramatically pulled by Christ back into his own passion story.
St. John Passion: ”Ich folge dir gleichfalls” aria as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society: https://youtu.be/zMf9XDQBAaI?t=1315
Today we take our first dive into the St. John Passion. In the very first measure of music, the strikingly twisted sounds of the oboes in harsh dissonances calls to mind the pain and anguish of the Passion story. The scene is set for Good Friday.
Bach's St. John Passion, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Jos van Veldhoven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMf9XDQBAaI
Article on the St. John Passion by Alex Ross (quoted in this episode from 0:41 - 1:49):
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/bachs-holy-dread
IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) page for Bach's St. John Passion free public domain scores, including scans of Bach's original manuscript:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Johannespassion,_BWV_245_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)
The St. Matthew Passion is full of short bursts of dramatic expression. In this episode, we explore two moments of reaction by an onlooking crowd.
One of Bach's shortest and most surprising moments happens when Pontius Pilate asks the crowd which prisoner should be released -- Jesus, or Barrabas? The crowd's reply is as disturbing as it is musically shocking.
Another moment happens later, after the earthquake and chaos immediately after Christ's death. After the frantic narration, the guard and crowds speak. But this moment is not one of pure terror, but rather sublime realization: "Truly, this was the Son of God." Bach's transparently gentle setting of this sentence is unforgettable.
An "A Moment of Bach" listener suggested the two topics for this episode! Do you want to suggest your own? https://amomentofbach.com/
Sometimes the simplest expression is the most powerful. At a pivotal point in the intimidating and complex St. Matthew Passion, Bach places this strikingly stark, simple, yet devastating piece of music. We discuss how the sparse instrumentation, with its lack of bass sounds, leaves the listener unmoored, feeling the vulnerability of the soloist's emotion. And Alex talks about a "moment of West Wing", so to speak.
St. Matthew Passion, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society (this link takes you directly to the "Aus Liebe" aria, with soprano Griet de Geyter):
https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=6362
Scene from "The West Wing" that features Josh's favorite "Ave Maria" moment:
Do you suffer from "sound fatigue?" Do you worry that after just a few seconds of starting to listen to a piece of music that the rest of it will just... sound the same? Good news! We have something just for that. Bach's B minor mass boasts a wide variety of sound color for your listening pleasure.
As long and towering as it is, it never gets old; each part has something new to offer. The structure of the parts and their church themes are just as important and effective as the sound variety in this gigantic masterwork. In the "Qui sedes" alto aria, the Netherlands Bach Society uses a male alto soloist to balance the oboe d'amore. The combination is "otherworldly" -- we don't hear anything like it in the average classical symphony. Countless metaphors are there not just in the sounds, but the way Bach sets the two parts against each other -- sometimes almost together, sometimes diverging.
"Qui sedes" aria as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FLbiDrn8IE&t=2499s
"All's well that ends well." It's an old adage, perhaps best known as the title of a Shakespeare comedy... but for Bach, and in the context of his church life, "all's well that ends well" took on a much more serious meaning. In this cantata, his librettist, Picander, used the phrase to mean that a life well-lived in the service of the Lord will find its end in the peace of earthly death.
The title of the cantata means, literally, "I stand with one foot in the grave." But there is no winking irony nor intentional macabre-ness to the presentation of this work; instead, it's an expression of faith and preparedness -- the sentiment that "I have put my house in order; only let my end be a blissful one!"
Cantata "Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe" (BWV 156) performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drFcH_WwK7Y
The Netherlands Bach Society's "All of Bach" project:
"Bach's music is for many people, as it is for me, daunting. I must be wrong there, because he must have wanted his music to be played...without all this awe and respect. Bach has proven that in the time between him and us, there is little or nothing better than his work." The paraphrased words of the harpsichordist for this recording show us how Bach doesn't need to be overly serious and pompous.
In this delightful fugue, the theme evokes the overly prim and proper gestures of aristocrats meeting one another, and perhaps pokes fun at it. Uncomplicated beauty shines through, and this recording shows that just because it's a perfect composition does not mean we should take it too seriously. We talk through what it means to preserve the "Bach-ness" of the fugue -- letting Bach be Bach.
Fugue in D major played by Guillermo Brachetta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpop0EPey0
Possibly the most famous organ work ever written, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor is instantly recognizable by its first few notes. But... are those the notes that Bach wrote? The answer might surprise you...
In fact, this cornerstone of the organ repertoire has flummoxed so many musicians and music scholars through the generations, it's no wonder that it gets so much attention -- and that's not including the notoriety it began to develop as a piece of stock music for horror films in the silent film era. It found a wide audience in 1940 when it was featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia, in an orchestral transcription by Leopold Stokowski, and since then, it has enjoyed more mainstream success than most classical pieces ever see.
We dive into the mysteries at the heart of the piece, as we move from thrilling cadence to thrilling cadence, toward the very end of the work, where Alex's favorite moment hits: a surprise ending that would have given the audiences of the 1700's just as much of a delighted shock as it gives us today.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor, performed by Leo van Doeselaar for the Netherlands Bach Society:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi0IuyTS_ic
Orchestral version by Leopold Stokowski featured in Disney's Fantasia (1940):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4MQ7GzE6HY
Article which theorizes that this work (BWV 565) and the Chaconne from Violin Partita no. 2 (BWV 1004) are arrangements of lute pieces:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30044126
Violin piece featured in this episode as an example of bariolage technique: "Partita no. 3" by J. S. Bach (BWV 1006), performed by Shunske Sato for the Netherlands Bach Society:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYT1JUq0k04
An informative (if a little snarky) video essay, aimed at non-musicians: "Why Pipe Organs Sound Scary":
As our second season is beginning, we revisit the masterwork Christian selected for his first moment, but this time we look at the very beginning. The cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland is the regal music for the first week of the liturgical year, but its overture is more than just pomp and circumstance. If we delve into the first few seconds, we will find that the music is all shaped by the Advent theme of preparation and the divine coming down to be human. Advertisers blast Christmas music at us every year -- why not prepare for the yearly holiday season with this Advent cantata instead?
BWV 61 Overture: https://youtu.be/MzWJsRjanC4
Welcome back! For our first episode of Season 2, we dive into one of the great violin solo pieces. And there is a rich well of musical material here in the Violin Partita No. 2. Alex's moment features the technical prowess of the soloist, Shunske Sato -- a bravura section of flurrying fast arpeggiated figures. But even more profound is the structure of the Chaconne: a cyclical theme that moves from minor to major to minor, and seems as if it could circle around and around, into eternity.
Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor (BWV 1004) as performed by Shunske Sato, Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnK6R5ej6Hg
We now have over 20,000 podcast downloads! Thanks to all our new and continuing listeners! And thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society, who are in their 100th season this year. Cheers!
To celebrate a milestone in downloads and a successful season wrap with Bachtoberfest, here is our last entry of the year: a blooper reel that we collected from a bunch of episodes in Season 1.
Here's to the listeners who gave this little podcast ten thousand downloads. See you in Season 2 for more Bach!
In our season finale before we take a break and return early next year, we celebrate the first season’s wrap! For this "Bachtoberfest," we talk Coffee Cantata, German beer, and all things A Moment of Bach. We answer a bunch of listener questions about our own musicmaking processes and history with Bach, and we get deep into some listener ideas.
Special thanks to YOU the listener for hearing 37 episodes! You made this a real thing. See you in Season 2!
We’ll drop one more bonus after this with the year’s blooper reel!
Artwork by Sydney LaCom
Musical examples provided by the Netherlands Bach Society
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en
Their All of Bach project: https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach
The “iceberg”: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicalMemes/comments/7gm1az/the_classical_iceberg/
Today we are joined by Dr. William Heide, longtime music minister at St. John's Lutheran Church, Orange, CA -- as well as a longtime Bach expert. He has conducted over 60 full Bach cantatas in concerts spanning the three decades of his tenure at St. John's.
The three of us chat about the lasting power of this particular work, in which the soloist sings about welcoming his own passage from life to death, about closing his weary eyes to rest, about leaving the pain of the world behind. The middle movement is a masterwork within a masterwork -- a stirring yet peaceful exploration of what it means to encounter death, replete with musical silences throughout.
We also feature Dr. Heide's own arrangement of "Abide with Me" for organ, which intersperses the main theme from the "Schlummert ein" movement.
This is our second-to-last episode of the season! Please ask any question or make any comment -- we'd love to read and answer everything during next week's episode. You can use our website to interact with us at https://amomentofbach.com/ or simply email us at [email protected]
Next week: BACHTOBERFEST! The last episode of Season 1 of A Moment of Bach!
Netherlands Bach Society performance of "Ich habe genug (BWV 82)"; Lars Ulrik Mortensen, conductor; Thomas Bauer, bass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_5DG9BD-SU
Dr. Heide's arrangement of "Abide with Me" with melody from mvt. 3 of "Ich habe genug" was part of this concert of organ preludes (skip to 28:50 to see "Abide with Me"):
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=716469542277195
An article about the timelessness of "Ich habe genug" (shared with me by Carol Knox):
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=55b23eb4-c387-4805-b3d3-a4a5bf65d15c
Huge thanks as always to the Netherlands Bach Society for allowing the use of their high-quality performances as our audio examples. https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en
Thanks again to Dr. William Heide for joining us today!
Special thanks again to our artist, Sydney LaCom, for designing our cover artwork.
A short, simple piece for a solo instrument -- only 35 seconds long. Yet it has captured the imaginations of so many people: musicians, philosophers, artists, mathematicians, and more. It's all because of the unique cleverness of Bach -- showing us here that he can construct a piece that can be played forwards OR backwards... OR both at the same time! Yes, this piece is actually for two instruments -- one playing it normally and the other playing it backwards in time.
Alex recounts the story of Bach composing this piece (and the rest of The Musical Offering), and our discussion turns to the monumental book Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (1979) as well as the recent Christopher Nolan film Tenet (2020). All these works are the result of authors striving to understand profound mysteries of the universe -- all by asking one simple question: what would happen if you turned time backwards?
Video of Shunske Sato performing "Canon 1 a 2" as a duet with himself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29YwFjE2b1A
Overview of Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, the book we discussed in this episode: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/hofstadter-grodel.html
J. S. Bach's "Crab Canon" visualized on a Möbius strip (video by Jos Leys): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUHQ2ybTejU
Examples of M. C. Escher's art: https://mcescher.com/gallery/
Article about the philosophy of Tenet, the film we mentioned in the episode: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/plato-pop/202009/is-tenet-s-fatalism-excuse-do-nothing
More examples from The Musical Offering performed by the Netherlands Bach Society, all of which were played in the background of this episode:
Ricercar a 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv5A1gy2oys
Ricercar a 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjxKy3pP41w
Canon a 4 "Quaerendo invenietis" ("Seek and ye shall find"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRqoP-NdkDg
The organ is an instrument built into a building. Selecting a variety of sounds for an organ composition which requires more than two is a new task on each different organ, and the varieties and combinations are essentially endless. In this chorale prelude in "trio" texture, three distinct organ sounds make up the musical texture, each with a distinct job.
Bach's mastery of organ composition was demonstrated not just by long showy fugues and toccatas. The Orgelbüchlein is a collection of short chorale preludes in artful style and with the theological purpose of spanning the themes of the liturgical church year.
"Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" is unique in texture for the Orgelbüchlein and distinctly known as a passionate and desperate call in time of need. It proves that an instrument as old and architecturally fixed as the church organ has the emotional power to convey this human condition.
Leo van Doeselaar plays: https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-639/
Piano transcription, Tatiana Nikolayeva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0zw7CaplFY
Alex spends one more episode excitedly leading us through some of his favorite music, this time from the "Et in terra pax" movement. Picking up from where last episode left off, we talk about the beauty and simplicity of the main melody of "Et in terra pax", which Bach cleverly reuses as a fugue subject a bit later. This is classic Bach -- elegant and sophisticated, joyful and heartfelt, deeply complex and yet effortlessly clear and beautiful.
"Et in terra pax" from Mass in B minor, as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society: https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=1285
"Glory to God in the highest!" The orchestra and choir burst with excitement and joy. Alex and Christian talk about the beauty of the Latin language, the huge orchestra (which seems actually pretty small by today's standards), the Protestant Reformation, and somehow Christian even gets a tuba joke in there. Alex talks us through his favorite moment -- the end of the instrumental introduction, where Bach uses a rhythmic trick to ramp up the excitement leading into the choral entrance.
"Gloria" from Mass in B minor, as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society: https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=1183
In the second half of a two-part mini-series, Christian picks up where we left off and covers moments from movements three through five of the cantata Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (BWV 131). At the end of this episode, we play for you all five moments in order. If you haven't listened to episode 30, you should start there.
This very early work uses arcane sounds and woeful harmonies to call "out of the depths," but it also contains minute-for-minute some of the most varied experiments in voice-leading, rhythm, suspended harmonies, beat units, and final chord progressions (cadences) that Bach ever wrote. Are they attempts at an older style, or are they strangely new?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMWDxIkl1fc
For our thirtieth(!) episode, we celebrate by taking a five-movement cantata and giving you one moment from each. This will be a two-part series; this episode introduces the cantata and delves into Christian's moments from the first two movements, while next week we'll see his moments for movements 3-5.
This very early work uses arcane sounds and woeful harmonies to call "out of the depths," but it also contains minute-for-minute some of the most varied experiments in voice-leading, rhythm, suspended harmonies, beat units, and final chord progressions (cadences) that Bach ever wrote. Are they attempts at an older style, or are they strangely new?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMWDxIkl1fc
What is the "flow state"? The answer can be heard in this performance of Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue" by Menno van Delft. So deeply "in the zone" of playing this piece, he demonstrates what so many professional musicians can do after practicing a piece for so many hours: the muscle memory kicks in and the piece just plays itself, with the performer able to fully express the musicality without worrying about the minutiae of notes and rhythms.
In this episode we talk about the flow state, as well as the meaning of "chromatic" and "fantasia". Also -- this is our first episode featuring the clavichord, an unusual keyboard instrument. We chat about its quirks, and the delightful sense of closeness it necessitates in a performance setting.
"Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue" performed by Menno van Delft for the Netherlands Bach Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38hgCCoGxgE
The harsh musical interval of the tritone, the "Diabolus in Musica" (devil in music), was strictly controlled in much of early music. So wouldn't it be striking and bold to make a melody out of two of them?
In this scary cantata opening, Bach does exactly this to set a terrifying fugue on the words "They have made their faces harder than a rock" to depict those who have gone astray from God. The music is appropriately harsh with tritones abounding, showing us that Bach's counterpoint can serve chaos just as well as order. These lawbreakers are lost, but not a lost cause; Bach shows in the closing chorale that they are in fact, just like us all, able to ask for forgiveness in the end.
Bach died on July 28, 1750, leaving behind a staggering 1,100 complete musical works, some comprised of many separate movements of music. Today we honor the 271th anniversary of Bach's death -- by digging into the double choir motet Komm, Jesu, komm. We talk about funeral music, Pascal's Wager, the "angry" interval of the diminished 7th, and the special emotionality of the German language.
Komm, Jesu, komm (BWV 229) as performed by the Netherlands Bach Society; conducted by Stephan MacLeod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boPBBgsnyiI
A helpful and concise biography on J. S. Bach: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/musicapp_historical/chapter/j-s-bach/
What is it that makes some magical moments of music feel like freefall or floating? What is it that makes some moments feel like firm, steady ground? The key is in the bass -- the lowest part of the music, which (by Bach's time) had developed a foundational role in all current musical styles. Listen here how Bach takes a firmly grounded bass line and toys with it -- pushes and pulls it. After a magical feeling of floating, Bach employs the wonderful trick of "dropping" the bass back in; this trick is going strong in the present day in musical styles like EDM.
In a second moment from this wonderful opening to the slow movement of this violin concerto, we hear a strange and sudden "cross relation." These two moments occur in just five measures of slow music!
Netherlands Bach Society performs the concerto under the leadership of the soloist Shunske Sato: https://youtu.be/VSwLeKWKtis?t=244
One of the most beloved arias of all time, "Erbarme dich" ("Have mercy on me") comes straight from the contrite heart of Peter, the disciple of Jesus, on Good Friday. After denying Christ three times, he realized his sin, and "went out and wept bitterly". The violin solo represents the anguish of Peter's soul at this moment. Bach scores the emotion here, just like a movie composer would. This is musical storytelling at its finest.
Thank you to listener Molly for the suggestion!
Hear "Erbarme dich" performed by the Netherlands Bach Society (Tim Mead, alto; Shunske Sato, violin solo; Jos van Veldhoven, conductor): https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=5179
Other music from the St. Matthew Passion: "O Mensch, bewein" (played in the background near the end of the episode): https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=3818
In our first episode about the monumental Goldberg Variations, Christian shows how to break down a canon (round). Unlike "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," the two parts in this canon do not start on the same note. But we can also learn about how this canon was written by using a different perspective entirely. The recipe is simple: start with a very simple melody; add harmony (at the sixth interval), making the melody into two parts; delay one part by a beat (it won't work without this part!), causing some momentary tensions; decorate everything with ornamentation. Because of the delay, you now have a ready-made canon. Now just add a bass line so it complements the rest of the Goldberg music and it's done! You now have three-part music where the top two parts are a canon at the sixth.
That may have been it for the instructions, but there is still artfulness in the execution. The way the leader of the canon predicts the follower is a way for us a glimpse into the immediate future -- this is one of the temporal tricks of music.
Jean Rondeau plays this variation in a performance of the entire work for the Netherlands Bach Society's All of Bach project: https://youtu.be/1AtOPiG5jyk?t=3141
A solitary voice: "I believe in one God."
Then a second voice: "I believe in one God."
Then another, then another, then another: "I believe in one God..." soon the whole room is full of people confessing their shared faith.
Bach sets this simple text (the beginning of the Nicene Creed) to a simple seven-note tune, but spirals it out into a seven-voice fugue that ranks up there with the most complex pieces of harmonic work of the baroque era. And yet, despite the remarkable density of the counterpoint, the music sounds effortless and light.
"Credo in unum Deum" from the Mass in B minor, Netherlands Bach Society, conducted by Jos Van Veldhoven: https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=3254
In this short bonus episode, we continue our discussion with Alec but go into greater technical detail. At the beginning Christian narrates the topics for discussion to come. To hear Alec play through the minuets uninterrupted, go to the main Episode 22 at 57:25. To get more context for this bonus episode, we recommend you first listen to Episode 22 in its entirety.
Alec Santamaria is a violist, violinist, and teacher based in Los Angeles. He is the viola teacher at Renaissance Arts Academy and Wildwood Music Camp, and holds the Richard Rintoul Viola Chair at the American Youth Symphony, where he has played for eight seasons. He received his bachelor’s degree in music performance, with a minor in philosophy, from UCLA. You can watch his full recital of the Bach cello suites 1-4 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UL0P3-lRm4&list=PL2UoptuvHCJGD0MvF7cQUHTVP15oOYELH&index=1
Our second guest Alec Santamaria brings his viola to show us how violists can play the Bach cello suites! We delve into tuning for baroque music, perfect pitch, the viola and aspects of its technique when playing Bach, and Alec’s narration of his “moments” from the most famous part of any of the suites -- the G major prelude (and other topics too!).
Alec Santamaria is a violist, violinist, and teacher based in Los Angeles. He is the viola teacher at Renaissance Arts Academy and Wildwood Music Camp, and holds the Richard Rintoul Viola Chair at the American Youth Symphony, where he has played for eight seasons. He received his bachelor’s degree in music performance, with a minor in philosophy, from UCLA. You can watch his full recital of the Bach cello suites 1-4 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UL0P3-lRm4&list=PL2UoptuvHCJGD0MvF7cQUHTVP15oOYELH&index=1
For a bit more of the interview, check out our bonus episode released shortly after this one.
Join us as we uncover the complexity under the surface of the seemingly simple music of Bach's English Suite in A major.
The harpsichord is an elegant yet austere instrument. It has only a fraction of the power and versatility of a pipe organ, and none of the soft/loud sensitivity of the piano, yet, it is elegant in its simplicity. We remark on how the harpsichordist seems to activate the very core of this music in her interpretation, adding ornamentation and stretching time. She proves here that the harpsichord can be wonderfully expressive.
Netherlands Bach Society video of the Sarabande from English Suite No. 1, played by Aline Zylberajch: https://youtu.be/GihzDys7Qpg?t=978
What is counterpoint? What’s a fugue, and why is that musical structure so tied to the idea of Bach’s work? The answer lies not only in the most towering and imposing works of fugue, but also the most simple and graceful. This early wedding cantata features a small moment of fugue so sublimely perfect that it seems like it must have always existed. As it flows along like an inevitable river, each of its parts begin separately but go through an identical natural progression of musical material as all the others. The words point to a blessing upon a newly formed family.
https://youtu.be/YNjAHgMMsFs?t=140
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-196/
Hey! Are you still reading this episode description? Do you want to try and listen for each subject entry in the fugue? This fugue is perfect for it. From the beginning to the end of the fugue, the subject entries are in this order:
You could also try sticking with ANY entry through all four (!) of its chunks of musical material (subject and following three “countersubjects”) up until near the end when they leave the pattern to start concluding the music. It’s worth a few repeated listenings. Try it!
Our first guest episode! We chat about one of the greatest and most enduring pieces of music ever written, "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring." Eric Clausen, a Lutheran pastor and Alex and Christian's brother-in-law, shares his perspective on church music and how this piece became so meaningful for him. We talk about Bach's life as a church musician, how these cantata texts can have more in common with contemporary praise music than "traditional" hymns, and music's enduring power to enrich the soul.
Thanks to Eric for his guest appearance on A Moment of Bach! Check out his podcast, "The Faithful Forebearers" here: http://faithfulforebearers.com/
Cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (BWV 147) performed by the Netherlands Bach Society: https://youtu.be/h97JE4--p84
Or, go straight to movement 10: https://youtu.be/h97JE4--p84?t=1633
The orchestra is full of countless sound combinations. In Bach's time, the orchestra was smaller and these new expressions mostly hadn't yet been explored. But in the "Wohl euch" aria from the Pentecost cantata O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe, Bach experimented with a new language in tone color with violins and flutes. The Pentecost story of the cantata is a sort of reverse Tower of Babel; apostles were given a gift of the Spirit's fire and could suddenly communicate in many languages. Bach, a Protestant, took advantage of writing the church's vocal music in the people's language of German rather than the obtuse Latin of traditions past. Similarly, his orchestration -- way ahead of its time -- points to a new way of "speaking" to us musically.
https://youtu.be/-QA-Tc8Vw80?t=475
www.amomentofbach.com
www.bachvereniging.nl/en
You will be humming this one for days! Even if you didn't know of this particular aria before hearing this episode of A Moment of Bach, it's impossible not to be charmed by this sprightly tune on a first listen. But there is also some fury and swift anger in the music -- the words are "Give me my Jesus back!" and they are shouted at the soldiers who have arrested Jesus on the night of His betrayal.
"Gebt mir" aria (Sayuri Yamagata, violin; Sebastian Noack, bass): https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=5722
Let's call this one "How to Break a Chorale."
A Bach chorale is a pure, simple expression of a hymn tune. Sometimes it contains complex harmony, but the harmony is always in support of a song that the people knew, and the texture is simple and chordal. This is why today's moment feels like a bolt of lightning from the blue! It's a chorale for a few seconds...before it stretches apart at the seams. Four separate, strange tones tear the fabric of the chorale at the word "death." The chorale reemerges happily and hopefully.
Chorale: https://youtu.be/5hFwikTsYs0
It's our third and last episode of the Brandenburg 3 miniseries. The last movement of Brandenburg 3 is full of nonstop excitement and rhythmic drive. Come with us as we talk about the complexity (and simplicity!) of the rhythmic layers, and the way that inverted chords breathe fresh life into the music, and the moment -- the moment we both picked -- Bach's own viola solo.
Netherlands Bach Society performing the third movement of Brandenburg Concerto No. 3; Shunske Sato, artistic leader: https://youtu.be/qr0f6t2UbOo?t=370
Thank you for listening to A Moment of Bach!
For our second installment in the Brandenburg Concerto 3 miniseries, Christian describes the whole 20-second middle movement: chord 1, chord 2. Well...no, that isn't the whole story. We will uncover much more than meets the eye in this shortest of all Bach movements. It's an automatic "moment" -- no cutting or zooming in necessary.
Brandenburg 3 mvt. 2: https://youtu.be/qr0f6t2UbOo?t=350
Welcome to our miniseries on Brandenburg Concerto No. 3! In this first episode, we will talk about the first movement.
Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are considered by many to be the pinnacle of instrumental Baroque music. Come and join us as we explore why.
Alex's "moment of Bach" comes near the end of the first movement, when the music gets a little low and scary, and the cellos play some heavy metal music. Well, it sounds pretty metal!
Stay tuned for the next two episodes in this miniseries, as we continue to marvel at Bach's creativity, and the elegance of his musical construction. The Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is truly one of the greats. The Netherlands Bach Society performance of this piece is a great way to spend 11 minutes of your free time: https://youtu.be/qr0f6t2UbOo
Artwork for "A Moment of Bach" by Sydney LaCom
Don't you just "know" when someone has put good work into a product just from your first experience with it? We think this is why Bach never feels lazy. While Bach excels at portraying a shepherd's pasture with music, we hear how some contemporary examples from film and TV are so much more widely varied in quality. Bach's musical pasture is so idyllic that we can use it to de-stress from our modern lives!
Cantata BWV 104: https://youtu.be/eZaL8XakQLo
Freesound #183454 CC license
"Stay with us, for night is falling..."
Happy Easter Monday! Today's moment comes from the Easter Monday cantata "Bleib bei uns" ("Stay with us"). The music is inspired by the story of the two disciples who met a stranger along the road as night was falling. The twist ending of this story makes us look back on the moment a little differently. "Stay with us..." is given new meaning.
Alto aria (Tim Mead, countertenor; Yongcheon Shin, oboe da caccia): https://youtu.be/YOtAvqH_A9k?t=346
In our tenth episode, we celebrate the genesis of this podcast's main premise. Using a humble and unassuming bit of connecting music from the St. Matthew Passion, Christian shows how Bach portrayed the soul swimming in tears. Love emerges victorious in the last line, where the music reaches a shimmering conclusion. "How can we talk about moments like this?!" That was our question to each other, so that's why we've got a podcast now!
"Wiewohl" recitative: https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=1732
In our ninth episode, we take our first look at the beloved St. Matthew Passion. Staggering in its emotional scope, this work tells the complete story of Jesus's suffering and death (from the Gospel of Matthew -- in German!), interspersed with personal reflections. Hearing this music, it is as if you are transported -- you are there, at the cross. The St. Matthew Passion is a true masterpiece.
St. Matthew Passion last chorale: https://youtu.be/ZwVW1ttVhuQ?t=8543
In our eighth episode, a very young Bach employs old funereal recorders and viols for maximum heartstring-pulling effect in one of the most sublime few minutes of music: the opening sonatina of the cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the very best time). The cantata, also known as Actus tragicus, is a masterwork from beginning to end. It's easy to see why Christian selected one of its many moments.
Full cantata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXMUpqSyJJo&t=1083s
In our seventh episode, we find lots of remarkable moments from Bach's 11-movement choral masterwork "Jesu, meine Freude". Alex describes his favorite moment: the end of movement 9 ("Gute Nacht"), when all the wandering voices slow down and come to rest on a single, solitary note. We also explore some new ways to listen to music that has multiple voice parts, focusing on the beauty of the inner lines.
Jesu, meine Freude conducted by Christoph Prégardien: https://youtu.be/uN5Tt7SAhzg
In our sixth episode, we marvel at the simple beauty of the C major Prelude, one of the most recognizable pieces of all time. Why is this keyboard exercise pattern with apparently no melody so famous and captivating? Christian unpacks its structure by looking not for a moment in the middle, but instead where the end and beginning seem to touch.
Prelude in C Major performed by Siebe Henstra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCqWH9bKzQE
In our fifth episode, the church organ comes alive! Alex guides us through the journey of the Passacaglia in C minor -- starting with a hushed, low tune, and expanding into an epic finale that could shake a cathedral.
Passacaglia played by Reitze Smits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzBXZ__LN_M
And played by Cathedral Bells: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t6xG9bsBA8
In our fourth episode, Christian introduces the opening of the Magnificat. No expense was spared in Bach’s triumphant and expressive Magnificat, including a force of three trumpets and timpani. Christian uses the Magnificat opening to introduce the baroque trumpet, an instrument very different from the modern-day version.
Magnificat: https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-243/
In our third episode, Alex introduces one of Bach's most beloved church cantatas: "Wachet auf" -- "Wake up!" The watchmen on the tower are calling! At a certain magical moment, Bach removes the bass instruments so we can hear the bright, ringing voices announcing that Christ is coming to the world. Alex also describes the beauty of the rest of the cantata, with audio examples from the Netherlands Bach Society's performance.
BWV 140 opening chorale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqZE54i-muE
In our second episode, Christian introduces the royal processional of the cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland. We celebrate the launch of the podcast with this cantata for the new church year, an early Bach work. But the "moment" is hidden later on, where the young Bach uses an experimental sound: a knock at the door from plucked strings with an unresolved harmony. The voice of Jesus sings "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
BWV 61 bass recitative: https://youtu.be/MzWJsRjanC4?t=571
In our first episode, Alex introduces a triumphant moment near the end of the "Dona nobis pacem" from the monumental Mass in B Minor, and we introduce the audio centerpiece of our podcast: the Netherlands Bach Society and their "All of Bach" project. But first, we discuss the question at the heart of the show's premise: "Why Bach?"
Dona nobis pacem: https://youtu.be/3FLbiDrn8IE?t=6315
Artwork: Sydney LaCom
Welcome to A Moment of Bach, where we break down our favorite moments from J. S. Bach's vast output. Join hosts Alex Guebert and Christian Guebert for weekly moments! Ep. 1 launches on 1/25/2021.
Recordings provided by the Netherlands Bach Society's All of Bach project.
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach
Artwork: Sydney LaCom
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.