November 15, 2015

In case you didn't know, the Netherlands Bach Society has embarked on a historic project, to record all of Bach's music and release videos of the performances for free online. Truly, this is the internet at its best. Each week, a new performance is published on the website allofbach.com, along with at least one interview (sometimes several) and historical and editorial notes about the work, including any texts and translations. Performances are top notch, some of the best I've ever heard, and the interviews (subtitled in English, spoken mostly in Dutch, some in other languages) are all very well done — engaging and enlightening. It is fantastic to see professional musicians sharing about the depth and detail of their craft. Having read several books about Bach, and studying his music for decades, it's wonderful to be learning new things from this project. It's all so brilliantly done; I couldn't ask for a better source of inspiration. I don't know who is funding it, but let's hope they continue to do so, since at the rate they are going, this project will need to continue for about 30 years to publish all of Bach's music.

This week's offering from allofbach.com is the Schübler chorale "Wo soll ich fliehen hin?". Just follow the link to see the performance, as well as an interview (German with English subtitles) with the organist, and a page of historical and editorial notes about the piece.

This work has been a favorite of mine for years, and after seeing this performance, I decided to take some time to learn to play it. I'm pleased, and a little amazed, to say that I found it not very difficult! I think this means I'm improving as an organist. Though I took a week off from practicing since playing a service at the end of October, today I put in a good four hours, practicing this piece, and a few others, mostly "Wir glauben all' in einem Gott" and "Christe, aller Welt Trost", both from the Clavierübung III, which I have been listening to regularly for at least the past month. All of these works are great subjects for analysis. Between slow run-throughs and yet slower spot-checks, I did some study of the way Bach organized "Wir glauben all' in einem Gott" in terms of invertible counterpoint permutation. This piece is also particularly interesting because it features recurring 5-bar phrases. Bach actually did quite a bit with odd measure groupings. It's a topic I'd like to cover in more depth at some point, especially considering the focus of my work in asymmetrical meters. In some cases I have used meters like 5/2 (in a recent organ fugue) which is just a more overt way of organizing the phrasing. Though 5/2 never appears in Bach's music, the meter is not totally foreign to Bach's style - a parallel kind of music in Bach is found in "Wir glauben all' in einem Gott", written in 2/4 and phrased in measure groups of 5 each (though not consistently throughout). As another example, Bach's single movement Cantata "Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft" is unrelentingly phrased in 7 wherever the title text appears. The only exception is the final cadence, which comes in the middle of a phrase of 7, after 4 bars. (By the way, I found it surprising that this fact was not mentioned at all in the interview with conductor Jos van Veldhoven, especially considering he mentions other assorted number symbolism in the scoring of the piece.)

Speaking of interesting rhythmic phrasing in Bach's music, last week I spent part of an evening transcribing the very simple and beautiful aria "Öffne dich" from Cantata BWV 61 Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland. You can hear this aria by following the link, then clicking on the white rectangular menu and selecting the aria (or just listen to the whole Cantata - it's not that long, and it's all brilliant). This aria I find captivating in its simplicity and feeling of openness, which partly comes from an ambiguous meter. I'll leave it at that for now, and will post my transcription next time. Comparing my manuscript to Bach's was a fascinating exercise and there is a lot more to say about the piece. So until next time, enjoy the music!