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J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

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Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#21

Post by jacquesm »

ccffpphh wrote: post #18
motohagiography wrote: post #4

Seems tendentious to secularize Bach. There's something to be said for deistic awe for creating great art. If you were just getting interested, here are some contemporary performances: BWV 1006 by Nigel Kennedy: https://youtu.be/nWx4pIe7FoE?t=179 BWV 988 (goldberg variations) Glenn Gould https://youtu.be/p4yAB37wG5s?t=169 from BWV 816, Gigue, Andreas Schiff: https://youtu.be/f_U0lm6HZMk?t=777

The Netherlands Bach Society has done an incredible job capturing his pieces, using stunning camerawork and high quality recordings. It’s such a pleasure. https://youtu.be/74suFWTO8P0 Also frankly the harpsichord is a much better instrument for WTC Books 1&2, especially with the added focus on video. Something about it just speaks to the soul.

> Also frankly the harpsichord is a much better instrument for WTC Books 1&2, especially with the added focus on video.

Maybe. Personally, I love listening to the harpischord but for limited periods of time whereas I can listen to piano all day long.

Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#23

Post by jacquesm »

dbcurtis wrote: post #10
mrich wrote: post #3

Bach was the first rock star https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY Don't miss the chance to listen to this in a church.

For BWV 565 I prefer this youtube performance, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnuq9PXbywA

For contrast, one of the nicer piano versions out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3aI7Oo3GMo

Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#27

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

Meerax wrote: post #2

Yes, Bach was a dynamic and interesting person/composer. That being said, this reads less like a biography of a musical rebel and more like a sensationalist media retelling of his life as a way to sell a new book.

Except that his life was actually fairly unusual.

There's quite a gap between Bach the Person and Bach the Composer, and it's not obvious that it's possible to really appreciate the music without appreciating the person.

Classical music relies on standardised narratives that cluster around ideals of hard work, repetitive action, restraint, intellectual prowess, powerful but tightly controlled emotional expression, transcendence, and individualised heroism.

All of those narratives are are historically questionable.

The best creative artists have always been subversive and difficult. It's more realistic to see historic composers as part of an unbroken line of interesting people that continues through to the present - not as marble museum pieces of perfection.

Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#28

Post by vixen99 »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
mikorym wrote: post #16

Maybe he was a dissident, but his music is still boring to me. Or maybe his predecessors were just so boring that he was the first step away? I usually don't understand from his music why he is celebrated. Is it that he is just historically important? Like the discovery of logarithmic tuning of sqrt_12(2)? It could also be that I am just moved more by the romantic era. Mozart generally gets relegated lower in my list…

Bach boring? No arguing about taste I guess. As for the organ not being very versatile compared to a piano: think of an organ not as a piano, but as a very early version of a synthesizer without 'touch sensitivity'.

Could one describe a famous mathematician's output (as a whole) as boring and put this opinion down to taste?

Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#29

Post by spacechild1 »

jancsika wrote: post #11

> take, for example, the B minor fugue in Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, whose theme employs all twelve notes of the chromatic sequence, defying traditional notions of what constituted a beautiful melody. Chromaticism doesn't defy traditional notions of melody. For example, Purcell's got all kinds of chromatic noodles in his melodies and people love to sing them. What's melodically defiant is how disjunct that…

Hey, nice to see you here! Thanks for that link! Today I happen to have a live performance with a player piano ensemble controlled with Pd.

Re: J.S. Bach the Rebel: The subversive practice of a canonical composer

#30

Post by lispm »

org3432 wrote: post #5

These depictions of JS Bach as a rebel and a bad boy are from people who don’t recognize or connect with the timeless underlining genuineness of Bach. His goal in every writing was to make music for the glory of God, purely. Weather you’re religious or not, clearly his music is genuine. What’s missing from this article is why did he he do the things he did, and the back stories to each one is seeped in his struggle w…

> These depictions of JS Bach as a rebel

He was a full-time professional composer, performer and instrument expert working for various clients.

He was as much a 'technology expert, a family manager and a music theoretical nerd'.

https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-16961473.html

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