Bachcast - biberfan

In this episode, I explore the desire to realize this piece using an instrument that both has good attack but also sustaining power. It feels like an excellent candidate for the piano.

Features a performance by Andreas Staier.

Bach's sixth partita joins my top three favorites from his collection he called Clavier-Übung I (keyboard collection). This was a collection Bach took seriously as a publication.

Bach opens with an unusual suite movement, a toccata, and "warms us up" with both a French-overture like start then a contrapuntal chase. The suite contains a number of dances, and ends with what may sound like a typical "gigue," which in sound is full of intervalic leaps, forcing us to extend our concept of melody.

Bach's second partita from the Clavier-Übung, his first official opus, is at first appearance a standard keyboard suite of dances. But Bach's use of some more unusual dance forms, the Rondeaux and the Capriccio provide a whiff of continental flavor, at least in the titles. These final pair of dances also set apart performances.

Bach parodied himself. He was pragmatic!

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The 3- and 6-part ricercars are the fugues Bach was supposedly asked to improvise for his visit to Potsdam late in his career. The resulting work we call "The Musical Offering" included Bach's perfected versions of these fugues, but also a collection of other contrapuntal pieces as well.

The most athletic and astonishly piece in the collection is the 6-part ricercar. Originally written for a single keyboard player, many of the examples I've included stray from that orchestration. For me, these different interpretations help reveal the genius behing the work in a very accessible way for the listener.

This is one of three such sonatas for the viola da gamba (viola for the leg) and keyboard. It's construction in three movements resembles a concerto form, and the texture appears in three parts (bass and treble keyboard, and the viola da gamba). Because of this trio texture and the similarity in range of the gamba to the cello, this sonata is ripe for arrangement or scoring on alternative instruments.

Bach's first "French" suite is in five movements:

These dance movements are binary in form. As is customary, the pairs of menuets are presented in opposing keys (major/minor). Performances selected for this podcast vary in solutions to performance, including tempo, emphasis of rhythm, and the articulation of ornaments.

Of special interest to me is how Ms. Rannou treats the notes inégales, which is a topic of debate in baroque performance.

Bach’s cantata Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott is a reformation piece that features a text full of a positive, affirmative sentiment that Bach capitalizes upon in his setting. For a review of the text in English, see here.

In this podcast, I compare the modern approach towards Bach’s composition to another piece in the Bach catalog, the Fantasia in C minor, BWV 921. See score here. What I call modernity in the keyboard piece are rather rich, almost exotic harmonies and rhythmic variation and vitality. The agitated, almost “concitato” style is present too in the cantata.

I mention in the podcast Bach’s typical musical structures for cantatas, not unique to Bach from the period: chorale settings, arias, recitatives, and to some degree, instrumental sinfonias or introductions. Many of Bach’s works employ a very old technique at establishing a theme to a work, through the use of a cantus firmus; I call this more colloquially as the “hymn tune.” Outside of Bach’s vocal music, he uses the same techniques in organ works. Luther’s Ein feste Burg… is set by Bach for organ as well, being a rather important piece to the Lutheran tradition.

More unusual in this work is the opening “chorale fantasia.” It’s an elaborate setting using all voices, including the orchestra, setting the chorale theme as a fugue. The Wikipedia article rightly calls this a motet technique.

The whole piece is worth exploration, and the article cited above speaks to it’s origins in Weimar, pre-Leipzig. The music reveals to me a creative, daring musician working with and even against established formal structures from his time. But several elements I point out in the podcast show off Bach’s genius, I believe, and that is most obviously manifest in a rather overwhelming emotional reaction this piece can have on the modern listener.

I feature two performances on this podcast and recommend both.

Bach's Third orchestal suite is for strings, oboes, bassoon, trumpets, and timpani. The piece likely was expanded for an outdoor performance.