Happy Birthday, J. S. Bach

[filkertom]

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this date in 1685. Besides producing a vast number of children (P.D.Q. notwithstanding), he produced a vast number of beloved musical works, including the Brandenburg Concertos, The Art of Fugue, The Well-Tempered Clavier (which inspired composer and performer Wendy Carlos), the Goldberg Variations (remember that Hannibal Lecter preferred the Glenn Gould recordings), the Inventions and Sinfonias, The Musical Offering, and so many more, including one of the most famous pieces of all time, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Many of the above pages have audio links (some use Ogg Vorbis, for which you'll want WinAmp or some other player). For lots and lots and lots of Bach audio online, check out The Classical Music Archives and Bach Central. And for a frighteningly complete review of Bach recordings, along with lots of other information, check out The J. S. Bach Home Page.

What would be your favorite Bach piece? I have a special fondness for Invention No. 8 as well as the Toccata (especially in their original organ transcriptions -- both have been arranged for orchestra, the Toccata rather famously).

Comments

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Jesu Joy of Mans Desiring for me...
although I still like The Toys' Lovers Concerto.hehe. Look Bach, in anger....

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

...yeah...that has got to be the greatest accompaniment figure ever written.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Do you recall in "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul" DNA had the music of Bach come from the (literal) music of the planets?

I adore the work of W.Carlos....truly a Moog for all seasons.

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

Actually it was in the first Dirk Gently novel -- I just re-read that recently. I hadn't recalled that detail from my first reading of it, many years ago when it was first published, but it really rocked me this time around.

Which leads me to an off-topic observation that I make pretty much daily: damn, it sucks that Adams is dead! We should have had him for another 30 years or so.

At least Bach lived to a ripe old age, and produced mountains of great work. Imagine if Mozart, or Gershwin (or Jimi Hendrix, for that matter) had had normal life-spans. We was robbed!

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

The best work was that which they never had the time to do...
Live fast, die young.....

At least they never lived to be travesties of their youthful selves. Some, alas....
ah-huh-huh thank you very much.....

[jenrose]

I can play the toccata and it's one of the best "venting" pieces I know. GREAT piece of music to play when royally pissed off. I really love to play the Menuet in G, but I think my favorite to play is one of the Bourees. It just has this pace about it.

But ultimtely, to listen... The G string wins...

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048, hands down. Utterly beautiful, and the degreee of interweaving is awesome. Plus, anything that includes THREE viola parts must stand atop the heap :-)

After that, the Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043, because it's also just loads'o'fun to play.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

I've always had a fondness for the "Little Fugue" in G minor, BWV 578. Some of you have heard me play one voice of it on flute (J.S. Bach was a filker, right, so this must fit at a filk). The Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564, is a great favorite, too. I get to hear that live next month in Madison.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

I'm really not sure what my favorite is, but I'll always have a soft spot for the various "Minuet In G" variations because they were such wonderful teaching tools when I learned how to play them.

My favorite by his children, though, is an easy one: C.P.E. Bach's Solfegettio. It's clever and cool-sounding and it looks impressive when I play it. :)

-=ShoEboX=-

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

...

Have I mentioned, without comedy, sarcasm, or irony, that I'm really starting to like you? :)

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

You've hinted. :) And right back atcha, dammit.

Incidentally, it looks like I'll be seeing you at PenguiCon!

-=ShoEboX=-

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Saw that. I'm thinkin' the new Pizzeria Uno, on the far side of the freeway.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Sure!

-=ShoEboX=-

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Tom and Shoebox on a dinner date? *head explodes* :-)

[jss]

As long as it's just dinner, that's fine. It's if they go on to, er, dessert that one gets to *head explodes*.

[wormquartet.livejournal.com]

Tom, make your fans shut up! :)

-=ShoEboX=-

As If I've Never Tried

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

... How?

[jss]

Asking nicely's been known to work once or twice.

wormquartet, it's not like I started describing specific activities or positions, after all. Count your blessings.

[sdelmonte]

I'm going to be trite and say Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. It especially works well on snowy days in the big city.

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

BUT - despite the reputation of "Fantasia" - not in the Stokowski orchestral version please....

[ericcoleman]

Brandenburg 2 has always been my favorite

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I've always been quite fond of the Double Violin Concerto. It's a particularly fantastic example of a fugue.

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

I have to pick just one?
...
...
...
I think I'd ditto the Double Violin Concerto. Largely because I can't pick just one of the unaccompanied cello suites.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Three off the top of my head that rank highly: "Ave Maria" (used as the processional for our wedding), "Musette" (filkers in particular should hear the version on the Bobby McFerrin/Yo-Yo Ma album _Hush_--it's a riot), and the Canadian Brass' rendition of "Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor", which latter reminds me, in a weird way, of Pink Floyd--amazingly emotionally intense stuff.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Brandenburg concerto No.3--No, 4--No, #5--no, I mean Tocatta and fugue in D minor--not, I mean pasacaglia and fugue in G minor--no, Air on the G string--no, wait, it's Little fugue in G...

Let's try this again. I am finally taking a piano class using my tuition credit as a part-time instructor. We have to pick a recital piece for the last day of class in May, something attainable that I love enough to go through the ordeal of manual neural reprogramming for. So I am working on Minuet in G. So I'll call that my favorite simply because I am intimate with it now. Unless I chicken out and do Prelude in C instead, which I have mangled to play on a dulcimer, and can almost play correctly on a piano. So maybe that's my favorite.

Pick one favorite? That's just silly.

I'm partial to a particular 3-part invention

[capplor.livejournal.com]

I think #13, but I"d have to look it up. Minor key.

On 2nd thought

[capplor.livejournal.com]

I once saw Virgil Fox play Tocatta & Fugue on the Organ. WOW!!!

Re: On 2nd thought

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

ENVY!!!!

Well, as a singer...

[nodakwriter.livejournal.com]

I better plug a choral piece. BMV 225 is one of Bach's Motets that I sang in college. My director said that Bach's fugue is so light and effortless even Mozart sounds leaden by comparison. (Of course his PhD thesis was on Bach's Motets, so there may have been just a hint of bias there.) It wasn't effortless to sing, of course, but it was a joy.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

My father was very fond of the Mass in B Minor, but it never really did that much for me. I always go "Cool!" when I hear the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring is one of my favorite melodies anywhere, but I think my favorite pieces are the Brandenburg Concerti. (Not that can say I'm familiar with all of his work or even all of the well-known stuff.)

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

To quote Walter "Radar" O'Reilly: ah, Bach! :-)

[trdsf.livejournal.com]

Heh. Say when... Old Bach is my hands-down bar none favorite composer. :)

• Fifth Brandenburg in D Major
• Die Kunst Der Fuge--yes, the whole damn thing
• Eight Little Preludes and Fugues
• The Coffee Cantata
• Two- and Three-Part Inventions
• the Lute Suite #1 in Em, from whence came the Bourée that Jethro Tull so famously covered
• the Unfinished Fugue (#19 of the above Kunst der Fuge, but it deserves special mention)--I just want to cry when it ends suddenly in mid measure, shortly after introducing his own name (German notation: H is Bb, or B is Bb and H is B, I forget which) as a theme: he was in a zone like no other on that one
  (Do you sense a tropism for the fugal works here?)
• The fugal works BWV542-544, which includes the Gm "Great".
• The Passacaglia and Fugue in Cm (BWV582).

Nor am I especially picky about the arrangement, be it on one of the Silbermanns that old Bach himself helped voice, or Wendy Carlos' bank of Moogs... but I have to draw the line at Stokowski's ham-handed orchestration of the Toccata and Fugue in Dm. Bleh.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Cello Suite 4 (BWV 1010), the Sarabande especially. Hearing a good cellist or violist do that is enough to make one cry from joy. Patty McCarty has a great album with all of them, highly recommended. Of course, having the Sarabande performed as an encore at a concert (with a cello concerto) is pretty darned special, too.

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

i'm partial to Brandenburg Concerto #2. it went into space, which earned it a mention in a very early episode of xfiles. classical music + rampant fandom = deep-rooted fondness, i guess.