A Quiz on J. S. Bach

     Sharpen your pencils, it's quiz time!  How many facts do you remember about J. S. Bach?  Try your hand at the following questions (you may check your answers against the fact sheet in yesterday's post, or against the biography...questions are quoted from the biography):

SOME QUESTIONS.

1. In what year did Bach die?

2. Name an American who was alive at the same time.

3. What famous castle can be seen from the streets of Eisenach?

4. What other great German composer lived in Bach's time?

5. What instruments could Bach play?

6. For what purpose did Bach travel from place to place, as a boy?

7. What was the name of Sebastian's father?

8. Who was Hans, the Player?

9. Were any of Bach's children musical?

10. What music by Bach have you heard?

     I'm sure that went quite well for you, as you are sure to have learned a lot during this month's classical journey.  Coming up in June: Beethoven!  See you then!

Recap of the Facts: J. S. Bach

     As we end the month, here is a recap of our little biography.  Tomorrow, there will be a quiz, so please take another peek at the biography and study these facts (also quoted from the biography):

1. Full name: Johann Sebastian Bach.

2. Born 1685, died 1750.

3. As a little boy he sang in the streets, begging from door to door.

4. His father and mother died when he was ten years old.

5. He went to live with his brother.

6. He took his first position when he was seventeen.

7. He used to walk long distances to hear famous organists, one of whom was named Buxtehude.

8. He could play the organ, clavichord, violin, and other stringed instruments.

9. He wrote music for the voice (solo and chorus).

10. And for many different instruments.

11. He never met his fellow countryman, Handel.

12. Bach copied lots of music because printed music was dear in his day.

13. He was Cantor of the Thomas School for many years.

14. Once he visited Frederick the Great at Potsdam.

15. For his little son, Friedmann, he wrote a book of Little Preludes.

Instrument of the Month: bassoon

     One thing you'll notice about classical music: it is VERY focused on just a few instruments; namely piano, organ, voice, violin, and  - to a lesson extent - cello.  Let's take a little time each month to get to know some of the other classical instruments, as well  (I am not mentioning the many ethnic folk instruments, as that is beyond the scope of this particular course).

     May's instrument is the bassoon.  Like many of our upcoming feature instruments, it sounds great and truly does not get its share of the spotlight.  The bassoon is a woodwind instrument. Its sound is produced by blowing through a double reed (two slats of giant cane tied
together).
     Please enjoy this recording of  Mozart's  Sonata for Bassoon and Cello KV292, Allegro.  I have been unable to get performer information on this video, but it sounds great! Anyone out there know who's playing this?
     To learn more about the bassoon, read this page from the delightful Dallas Symphony website:
http://www.dsokids.com/listen/InstrumentDetail.aspx?instrumentID=26

Take-Out Window: Bach on iTunes

     Please take a moment to check out our Bach iTunes Playlist.  Every purchase from this playlist helps to support our artists, as well as this class.  Thank you!

A Little Humor: P.D.Q. Bach

     I just cannot resist posting this utter silliness. This link will allow you to stream a 1972 program by Peter Schickele. Listen closely, though - about 5 minutes into the broadcast, Schicklele makes a very valid point about how his satire makes classical music more accessible to us all. Mostly though, this is just solid fun. Kick back and prepare to smile:


http://archive.org/download/MC_1972_11_27/MC_1972_11_27_vbr.m3u
Program note from archive.org:
     "The eminent musicologist and humorist Peter Schickele, discover of P.D. Q. Bach talks with conductor George Cleve about the works of this obscure, umpteenth child of J. S Bach. Best described as a manic plagiarizer P.D.Q. Bach has been entertaining audiences with his music for decades. The occasion for this broadcast was a preview of a concert Schickele was about to give with the San Jose Symphony Orchestra."

Vote Today on This Month's Performances!

     Won't you take a moment to vote in our poll and let me know which performances you enjoyed the most this month?  Please support our artists by showing your appreciation in this poll, as well as exploring their works further via the my new iTunes playlist (please see right sidebar).  Thank you!

Let's Listen to Some Vocal Music

   

     Bach also wrote wonderful music for voice, for groups, as well as soloists. Enjoy this soothing chorus from his oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244-63, recorded in 1973 by the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, (conductor: Sir David Willcocks).
     An "oratorio" is a large, long work, often based on a religious story, that is written for a choir accompanied by an orchestra. It's made up of many sections (called "movements"), each its own separate, little gem of a work. Today, oratorios are often performed in scaled-down versions, accompanied by an organ or a chamber orchestra (little orchestra), rather than full orchestra, and fewer movements. There are still many full-length performances, as well. Colleges and community groups, as well as professional groups, often cooperate to perform full oratorios.

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Let's Listen: That Sheep May Safely Graze

             

     This is an instrumental version of the popular aria (vocal solo) from Bach's Hunting Cantata, Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd (The lively hunt is all my heart's desire), BWV 208. This delicate rendition was performed by Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.
     A cantata is, typically, a work with several movements, featuring singers accompanied by a chamber orchestra. Like an oratorio, several of the movements highlight voices in solo (one) or duet (two).

Priceless Footage of a Musical Great

     Here's one more solo violin performance. This is Itzaak Perlman at age 13, playing
Partita No. 3 E Major Gavotte.

Glenn Gould Documentary: Goldberg Variations

     No class about Bach would be complete without some reference to the late pianist, Glenn Gould (1932-1982). The world lost Gould much too young, a great loss for us all.  The first 6 or so minutes are mostly interview; then, Gould launches into his performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations.  

     "Theme and Variations" is a type of composition in which a basic theme is performed, followed by two or more short movements in which that theme is presented differently.  They are fun for both listener and performer.  There are thirty variations in this piece.  Whew!

Let's Listen: Bourèe in E minor BMV 996

 
   Have you ever heard of a glass harp?  If not, you'll be amazed to see what it is.  If you have, you'll be amazed, anyway, at how well Robert Tiso performs on it.   It is always a joy to hear the purity of Bach's music bring out the fullness of a performer's artistry, regardless of his instrument.  Bach translates so well on every instrument.

Do You Hear Voices?

     "Counterpoint" is the word used to describe a composer's technique of layering individual  music voices over one another within a piece.  Bach was most expert at this.  He could move the melody from one voice to another, or even have two or more melodies going at once, and still keep the piece seamless and unified.
    This animation, featuring the Little Fugue in G BMV 578, is part of the AP Anderson Project.  Anderson represents each voice with a different colored squiggle, moving along in perfect synch with the fugue.  Listen closely to that first melody, and see if you can count how many times it recurs, and in how many variations.

Let's Listen: Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006

     This is a continuation of yesterday's point regarding Bach's ability to compose for the unaccompanied soloist. Nathan Milstein (d. 1992), violinist, glided through this movement with sparkling energy, conviction, and grace.
     Often, you will see cryptic-looking numbers next to titles of classical works. These are catalog numbers. Since there are so many classical pieces with the same generic titles (such as Air, Suite No. 3, Concerto No.1), catalog numbers ensure that each work has its own distinct identification. Bach's works are cataloged using the preface "BMV," which stands for Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis ( Bach Works Catalogue).

Let's Listen: Cello Suite No.1, Part 1

     One of the greatest proofs of Bach's musical genius is his amazing ability to write for a single instrument.  Please enjoy this moving performance, delivered by Misha Maisky, cellist.  I have a book of movements from these suites, and can tell you, personally, that one is practically carried aloft by this music as one performs it.

Let's Listen: Bach Brandenburg Concerto 2, 3rd movement

     Please enjoy this bubbling performance, featuring Claudio Abbado, Giuliano Carmignola (violin), Reinhold Friedrich (trumpet), Michala Petri (recorder), Lucas Macias Navarro (oboe), and the Mozart Orchestra Bologna.
     The word "concerto" means a work of several movements (sections), in which one or more musicians are featured as soloists, and are backed up by a piano or group of musicians, such as an orchestra. Bach's 6 Brandenburg Concertos feature several soloists, often in the same movement.

Let's Listen: Air

    Now that you've learned something about Bach, it's time to do some listening. Let's start with this air, soulfully played on acoustic guitar by Per-Olov Kindgren:

J.S. Bach: his hometown

     The first composer we will study will be J.S. Bach (1685-1750).  I hope you will enjoy this little biography, suitable for all ages:

 (Isn't this cover adorable?  I love retro stuff like this!)

This is the house in which JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH was born.

This house stands in the town of Eisenach in Germany. It looks very much the same today as it did when Sebastian was a little boy. Many people go there to visit this house because the little boy grew to be a famous man.

In Eisenach there is a statue of Bach near the palace.

In the same town in which Sebastian was born there stands on the top of a hill a very famous castle built many hundreds of years ago.   This castle is called the Wartburg.

     As a boy little Sebastian used to climb the hill with his friends, and they, no doubt, had a happy time playing about the castle grounds. In one of its great halls the minstrels of Germany held their Song Contests.  When Sebastian was old enough he used to travel afoot, just as the minstrels did; his purpose was to go to hear fine organ players. Once as he sat weary by the roadside someone threw a herring to him so that he might eat as he rested.

BACH EATING THE HERRING.

Little Sebastian's father was named JOHANN AMBROSIUS BACH. He, too, was a musician, as his people had been for many years.

JOHANN AMBROSIUS BACH.

     One of these was a miller who played and sang while the corn was grinding. His name was Veit Bach, and his little boy was called Hans, the Player, because he, too, loved to play the violin.

VEIT BACH AND HIS SON HANS.

When Sebastian was ten years old his father and mother died. So he went to live with his brother, whose home was a few miles away.  Of this brother Sebastian had music lessons, and he improved so rapidly that he used to beg to be allowed to play the pieces in a big book in the library.  But the brother refused him this pleasure. However, little Sebastian was eager to learn all the music he could find, so he used to sit up on moonlight nights and copy these pages while his brother was asleep.  But what do you think happened when he had copied everything in that big book?  His brother found out what he had done and took all his precious music away from him.

BACH COPYING MUSIC BY MOONLIGHT.

     If you know any boy who is about twenty years old you may say to him, Bach was as old as you are when Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston.  And although there was this difference of twenty years or so in their ages, we may think of them at work in the world at the same time. You must remember that all men like Franklin and Bach who became famous did so by working very hard.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

     Franklin, too, was born very poor. Once he walked the streets of Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm. But by being faithful in all he did he became the friend of all his countrymen and of Kings and Queens besides.  Benjamin Franklin was quite a little younger than Sebastian Bach. But there was a famous man who was almost exactly Sebastian's age. This man, Georg Friedrich Handel (pictured below), composed Messiah, an oratorio that is loved by everybody. It is sung in cities and towns all over the world, particularly at Christmas time.

     Handel's Messiah was first sung in the Irish city of Dublin, 1742.  At that time Sebastian Bach was living in Leipzig and had been for many years at the head of the Thomas School. He was known as its Cantor. Bach worked very hard here to supply music for several of the Leipzig churches, and he worked so well that his fame spread until it reached the ears of the Emperor.  Frederick the Great was also a musician and composer. So he invited Sebastian Bach to visit him at his castle. There were many people present, but Sebastian Bach was the principal guest. He played on many of the Emperor's fine pianos. When he reached home again he composed a musical work and dedicated it to the Emperor.

BACH PLAYING BEFORE FREDERICK THE GREAT.

The kind of a piano that Sebastian Bach played on was not called a piano in his day. It was called a Clavier or Clavichord.  Some day you will study a collection of pieces by Sebastian Bach which was written for this instrument and was called The Well Tempered Clavichord.  This is the kind of piano, or clavichord, that Bach used.

THE CLAVICHORD.

And here is the beginning of the very first piece in the collection of which we have just spoken in Bach's handwriting.

BACH'S HANDWRITING. Listen

MORNING PRAYERS IN THE HOME OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH.

     Sebastian Bach had a very large family, twenty children altogether. Two of them studied music faithfully with their father.  One was Friedmann, for whom the father wrote a book called Little Preludes. Friedmann's brother, Philipp Emanuel Bach, was a very fine clavichord player. He wrote a book about music and composed many pieces.

WILLIAM FRIEDMANN BACH.

PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH.

     Sebastian Bach died in 1750. He was sixty-five years of age.  Benjamin Franklin was at that time forty-four years old and George Washington was eighteen.

     This is the way Bach wrote his name.

Welcome to Music Appreciation!

     Welcome to my one-year Classical Music Appreciation course!  This course is designed for people who like classical music and would like to know more about it.  I will feature one composer each month for the next year.
     May's composer will be J.S. Bach, and the first lesson will be a short biographical sketch, suitable for all ages.  Please join me for this lesson, even if your English is limited, as the language will be very simple.  I wish to reach as many people as possible with these wonderful composers and their music.
     Thank you for sitting in on my course!