January 11, 2022

As some of you know, I started this project near the end of 2020, in October to be exact. My idea was to add obligato instrumental parts to all of Bach's sacred continuo arias (those arias which were written for continuo and voice alone without any additional obligato instruments) with the aim that the new line should sound like it belongs there. The project ended up being 50 arias, though there are more which potentially could have been included. Some arias I didn't work with for various reasons, and there are also more candidates in the secular cantatas which aren't included. In all, the project took about a year, working one day per week. As I write in each of the video descriptions, I did this to learn from Bach's compositions, to challenge myself and improve my skills, and these are all drafts which may be improved. And please note: I wrote only the obligato parts which are marked with an asterisk in the score, J.S. Bach wrote everything else! I used original recordings mostly from John Eliot Gardiner, but also from Philippe Herreweghe, Masaaki Suzuki, Ton Koopman, Kay Johannsen, and others. The obligato tracks were added by me.

Of course, some of my efforts are more successful than others. The important thing for me is that I learned a lot from doing this. I may try some of then again later, or work on some of the secular arias. Lastly, if the embedded playlist above doesn't work for some reason, here is a DIRECT LINK TO THE PLAYLIST .

Happy 2022, and please stay well everyone.
Aaron