Bachcast - biberfan

Bach's sixth Brandenburg Concerto is scored for an interesting combination of string instruments: two violas da braccio and two violas da gamba, along with a cello part and continuo. The lower senority of the strings may lend itself to a rich, dark sound, but the major mode of the piece certainly lightens the mood. Bach does go for our hearts in the slow movement when he presents us with a "honey chord," as I describe it, supplying an authentic climax to the middle movement. The third and final movement is a happy jig, one that every time puts a huge smile on my face, and hopefully does the same for you.

Bach’s motets, if you will remember from an earlier episode, are vocal works we believe were intended for funeral services. As Bach never likely thought of them as a “set,” they take on different flavors, so each one can be looked at with unique perspective. Of all the motets, this one is my favorite. The scoring suggests an intimate setting, and the writing here makes hearing the 4 or 5 parts distinctly very easy. What we need to remember is that tradition held that Bach would need to establish his compositions within a tradition, and for this one, he borrowed both the text and chorale melody from an earlier generation. Within the musical world he lived, these pieces would have been viewed, with or without the link to the past, as old fashioned. Yet, it is easy for us to overlook that because of the great artistry applied to the composition, which had a very pragmatic use for this music to mark the passing of another human being.

This was written for 18 July 1723 for Johanna Maria Käsin, wife of the postmaster in Leipzig. It is the longest of Bach’s funeral motets, with 11 movements. The chorale melody is taken from Johann Crüger, from the mid-17th century. The German text was written by Johann Franck and too dates from the mid-17th century. In terms of form, it has been described as a 7-section work, quite symmetrical in form. The center of this form is a double fugue, based on the Biblical text from Romans 8:9; and appears as the 6th movement, Ihr aber seid nicht fleischlich.

Looking at the score, this is written possibly for a small ensemble of four singers; except that after the opening movement, the soprano line opens into two parts, revealing a 5-part scoring. I’m led to believe that Bach’s design of this work into 7 sections from an architect’s view was very deliberate on his part, but that the choice for scoring in 5 voices was likely more a pragmatic decision, having the availability of singers for that texture. Bach limits the texture in several numbers to a trio, featuring two sopranos and alto, and then again, with alto, tenor, and bass. The chorales, as we might expect, which are the less rhythmically and less virtuosic numbers, are always presented in a traditional four parts.

Without additional context, there is actually a lot left to try and understand about how it was performed in context, and what changes Bach may have approved of for re-performance, without the context. At first glance, the split for me of the soprano parts into 2 suggests that the performance may have been given by a larger choir, say, with 4 voices per part, with an overall ensemble of 16-20 performers. But where was it performed? And did the music have an instrumental accompaniment?

If we picture this piece being performed outside, at the time of burial, the use of an organ, or string instruments doubling the voices seems an impossibility. And as far as the numbers involved, how long did they have to prepare for the performance? How fast did Bach write the piece? And in the more virtuosic passages, could the entire larger chorus perform it well, or were the pieces with smaller textures led by soloists, with the full choir only participating in the chorales? Or was there really a large choir? Or just 5 soloists?

While I love the transparency of a single voice per part texture, there is something to be said of the more intense portions of the text, that do gain value from a larger choir of singers. The recording linked above from the Vocalconsort of Berlin demonstrates this well. Of doubt, for me, is the need for organ and violone to double the bass part.

Musicologists can today hash out the details to those types of questions, what we’re left with in the recording space is a number of different solutions. My job today is to reveal what I think is the better of the recordings out there.

The highlight of the work for me is the Gute Nacht section. For this episode, I feature the recording from 2007 by the Hilliard Ensemble.

The Goldberg Variations were written for solo keyboard, and is most easily realized on a two-manual harpsichord, based on the technical demands Bach placed on the performer. It's among his most important keyboard works and is hugely popular. In this episode, I discuss some of my favorite performances and some things to listen for.

Check out the following links to learn more about this work.

Bach would of course take on the art of variation writing in his later works, such as the Art of Fugue and the Musical Offering, using counterpoint as the mechanism by which to weave new music. Counterpoint does play a role here in these variations, especially those featuring canons. Bach's treatment of the "variation" however is through the bass line as presented in the opening Aria. While more difficult to hear, it is a potent teacher that profoundly great things can be built upon a good foundation.

The fifth Brandenburg Concerto is scored for flute, violin, and harpsichord in the concertino. In this episode, I find the roles among the three parts interesting, in addition to this being one of the very first concertos written with a solo keyboard part.

The fourth Brandenburg Concerto by Bach is as good an example as any of Bach's ability to write virtuosic, technically-challenging pieces for the violin. I first, however, expose the listener to an excerpt from another piece, BWV 1026, a Fugue in G minor for violin and keyboard, a rather curious little work that is likely a fragment of something left behind. It is, for me, however, a rather arresting piece of music, and I think, reveals Bach's real gift for writing for the violin.

This little piece is heavy in the use of multiple stops, often in rhythmically-interesting places. The Fugue in G minor does not, however, employ every "trick" in the composer's toolbox. It is in, instead in the fourth Brandenburg, where we see beyond Bach's contrapuntal genius, and explore daring runs, chock full of oodles of notes, before later encountering fast bowing between the extremes of the instrument. Above all, Bach may be trying to tell us a story with these effects.

We know Bach was a violinist "with clear tone," according to his sons, but I am not certain he would have been the one to perform these types of pieces.

Bach's fourth Brandenburg Concerto, written for "echo flutes" and violin as soloists, has been interpreted by Philip Pickett as a type of contest piece for Apollo (represented by the violin player). We look in this episode specifically at the violin parts and listen to a number of interpretations.

Bach's concerto also exists as a re-write for two recorders and harpsichord, likely for performance with the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig.

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Bach's partitas for keyboard are a set of keyboard suites, multi-movement works with pieces styled from popular dances. Bach's collection was published as his "Opus 1," under the title of "Clavierübung." The first partita is written in the key of B-flat major in six movements, and the elements I see in the piece as being salient are rhythmic motives and melody. Several pieces too explore regular patterns that give the pieces a "perpetual motion" feel. Heard in this episode are recordings by Glenn Gould and Benjamin Alard.

The first partita is light and, although sometimes a cliche, "happy" or maybe better, optimistic. I believe Alard's reading is an excellent one to begin your appreciation of the entire set. His playing is sure and his instrument is good-sounding. His reading of the first partita might be considered on the conservative side, without indulging in the extravagance of hurried tempos or over-the-top ornamentation.

In the third concerto, scored for string orchestra, Bach only provides two movements, separated by two chords. The ensemble Musica Antiqua of Cologne, directed by Reinhard Goebel (violin), performs one player per part, in this recording from DG Archiv Produktion, published in 1986.

Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto was written for violin, recorder, trumpet, and oboe with a string ensemble in three movements: fast-slow-fast. The final movement is constructed as a fugue.