A Moment of Bach

Trauerode (BWV 198): tenor aria

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

Link to information about upcoming concert at Alex's church in Orange, CA: Sunday Oct 1 at 4pm, Bach cantata #147

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (organ chorale prelude, BWV 664)

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.

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (organ chorale prelude, BWV 664) by Reitze Smits for the Netherlands Bach Society

Netherlands Bach Society: BWV 662

Netherlands Bach Society: BWV 663

Ricercar a 3 from The Musical Offering (BWV 1079)

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.

Ricercar a 6, orchestrated by Anton Webern (as mentioned in this episode), with scrolling score, performed by the LA Philharmonic

 

Fugue in D major (Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2)

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. 

Prelude and fugue no. 5 in D major BWV 874 - Schornsheim

Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (BWV 103): opening chorus

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

 

Darzu ist erschienen der Sohn Gottes (BWV 40): ”Christenkinder” aria

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."

 

BWV 40 aria "Christenkinder": Netherlands Bach Society

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (organ chorale prelude, BWV 663)

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.

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr (organ chorale prelude, BWV 663) by Reitze Smits for the Netherlands Bach Society

Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht (BWV 105): opening and closing

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

Fugue no. 23 in B major (Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2)

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.

Fugue no. 23 in B major from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2, performed by Christine Schornsheim for the Netherlands Bach Society

Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich (BWV 150) (part 2 of 2)

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