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~ Boulder Bach Beat hopes to stimulate conversations about the ways Bach’s music succeeds in building bridges between populations separated by language, culture, geography and time.

Boulder Bach Beat

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Federico Babina Creates Archimusic

28 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Successors, Bach's Works, Other Artists

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album cover, Amy Winehouse, Archimusic, Archist, architecture, David Bowie, Dezeen, ear, Elvis Presley, emotions, Federico Babina, Italian, Mozart, popular music, rhythm, soundtrack

Suite in G Major (BWV 1007)

Suite in G Major (BWV 1007)

The latest poster series from Italian architect and illustrator Federico Babina takes twenty-seven songs, from the likes of David Bowie, Amy Winehouse, Elvis Presley and Mozart, and transforms them into cartoon buildings. The series, entitled “Archimusic,” combines the music and lyrics of each song with the artwork featured on the original single and album covers, creating a series of fantasy designs that feature stacked shipping containers, towering chimneys and sculptural staircases.

“I do not have a favorite kind of music – I think there is always a perfect kind of music for an exact time,” said Babina. “I chose types of music and musicians very different from each other. Each has its own peculiarities. The idea was to tell a story starting from the soundtrack, listen to the music and imagine the shapes hidden behind it. The parallels between architecture and music are diverse and extraordinary. They have a common mathematical order which regulates the forms and the rhythm.”

Babina previously worked on a similar project named “Archist,” transforming the works of famous artists into buildings. With Archimusic, the process becomes less literal, as the illustrator created shapes based on the mood and feelings created by each song. “Archist has been a figurative process, while Archimusic is more intangible and abstract,” he said. “It is based on feelings and emotions that only the music is able to awaken. Use your ears instead of eyes to conceive shapes.”

– Dezeen

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Red Hot + Bach

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Audio Recordings, Bach's Life, Bach's Successors, Bach's Works, Other Artists

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AIDS, amiina, Antônio Carlos Jobim, app, application, Cameron Carpenter, Chris Thile, Cole Porter, Daniel Hope, Duke Ellington, Fela Kuti, Gabriel Kahane, hip-hop, Icelandic, iPad, jazz, King Britt, Kronos Quartet, mandolin, Max Richter, organ, PR Newswire, Red Hot, Red Hot + Bach, Ron Carter, Shara Worden, Sony, violin

RedhotcropRed Hot + Bach, from Sony Music Masterworks, is charting a new pathway into the musical universe of Johann Sebastian Bach. Through the collaboration of performers, producers, DJs and artists from around the world and across the spectrum of contemporary music, different facets of Bach’s centuries-old masterpieces are transformed with fresh energy and modern virtuosity.

The creators of Red Hot + Bach embrace Bach as a living artistic force, as real and as vital today as he was when he lived (1685-1750). They range across nineteen freely-imagined tracks from mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile (Nickel Creek, The Punch Brothers), singer/songwriters Gabriel Kahane and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), jazz legend Ron Carter, DJ/producer King Britt and the Icelandic band amiina, to imaginative classical artists such as the Kronos Quartet, composer Max Richter, violinist Daniel Hope and organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter.

Red Hot, a not-for-profit production company, has been shaking up great music in just this way for twenty-five years with projects that celebrate the musical geniuses as diverse as Antônio Carlos Jobim (Red Hot + Rio), Cole Porter (Red Hot + Blue), a meeting of jazz and hip-hop artists (Red Hot + Cool), Duke Ellington (Red Hot + Indigo), and Fela Kuti (Red Hot + Riot). The work of Red Hot continues to serve a social purpose: raising awareness and money in the ongoing fight to stop AIDS.

Red Hot + Bach is available both in a special expanded digital edition and as an iPad app designed to lead you to discover new ways to interact with the timeless energy and beauty of Bach’s music.

– PR Newswire

My Kids Don’t Know Who Bach Is

23 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Life, Bach's Successors, Music Education, World View

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automobile, background music, ballet, blog, BMX, car, Great Depression, homeschooling, Lego, Minecraft, Mozart, state mandates, Turly HomeSchool

Turner and Lilly

Turner and Lilly

My kids are your typical everyday kids. They get grumpy if you wake them up too early, they watch movies, play with their friends, learn new things, and even whine to try and get their way. They are six and seven.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing your kids to others, and even easier when it comes to homeschooling and what everyone else is doing. I’ve been victim to this. I let myself get pulled in after reading another blog where so and so was learning two languages that year and doing a unit on famous composers. I thought, “Wow, my kids need to get going and not get behind.” So I started researching what I would teach them. Then reality hit. My kids are six and seven, they don’t need to know who Bach is right now. They have their entire lives ahead of them.

So I stopped researching. We enjoy learning a ton of things around here, but you won’t catch me trying to cram information about Mozart to my six year old (unless she asks). We do listen to classical music in the car, though.

It’s fun to read blogs and see what others are up to, but don’t get too caught up in it. You can’t teach your child everything! You don’t know everything, no one knows everything. And even if you cover the Great Depression, who knows how much they will remember in a few years. Everyone has gaps in their education and knowledge, you have to decide what is important to you (and your state mandates) then go from there to decide what to teach your kids (and maybe ask them what they want to learn about).

So, if you ask my daughter or son who Bach is right now, they won’t have a clue. Give them a few years and ask again. However, Turner can talk your ear off about BMX, car makes and engines, Minecraft and Legos. Lilly can go on about ballet terms and knows more facts about animals than I probably do!

What about your kids?  What are they really interested in right now?

– Turly HomeSchool

Red Bull Makes a Cultural Statement

19 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Successors, Bach's Works, Other Artists, World View

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Anna Holmstrom, ballet, Berlin, breakdancers, Chicago, Chicago Business Journal, Civic Opera House, dance, demographic, energy drink, Flying Bach, Flying Steps, hip-hop, Lewis Lazare, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Red Bull, Rich Regan

Red Bull Flying Bach

Red Bull Flying Bach

Red Bull is getting artsy. Even though the familiar energy drink has more often marketed itself in association with sports events, the brand is turning its attention to things cultural.

Chicago will get the first and so-far only taste in the United States of a Red Bull project involving music and movement. Called Red Bull Flying Bach (Red Bull is the presenting sponsor), the show is a melding of music by Johann Sebastian Bach with hip-hop music, breakdancing and ballet, and it’s all headed for that most civilized of Chicago performing venues, the Civic Opera House, where the seventy-minute show will play 20-28 June 2014.

Although Chicago will be where the show makes its American debut in 2014, the production has already played successfully in Europe and around the world, including Australia, Iceland, Russia, Chile and Japan.

At the core of the production is the Berlin-based breakdance group Flying Steps. They will be joined for the show’s American debut by Swedish ballerina Anna Holmström – just to add a touch of precision ballet to the prevailing breakdance theme.

A spokesman for the show said it aims to appeal to people in their twenties through their forties, a somewhat younger demographic than typically fills the Civic Opera House for the many Lyric Opera of Chicago productions staged there, and the Civic Opera House couldn’t be happier about the booking during what would otherwise be the slow summer months. “It’s a groundbreaking blend of traditional and contemporary entertainment that will be completely new to Chicago audiences,” predicted Rich Regan, director of facilities at the Civic Opera House.

Perhaps wisely, Red Bull Flying Bach is keeping pricing relatively reasonable – at least compared to grand opera – with tickets ranging from $24 to $88.

Lewis Lazare – Chicago Business Journal

Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis

17 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Life, Bach's Predecessors, Bach's Works

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Altes Rathaus, cantata, chorale, Georg Neumark, Köthen, Leipzig, oboe, Palace Church, psalm, Salomon Franck, sermon, sinfonia, Stadtpfeifer, trombone, violin, Weimar, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten

Altes Rathaus in Leipzig

The Altes Rathaus in Leipzig

Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21), a sacred cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, was first performed three hundred years ago on 17 June 1714 in the Palace Church in Weimar. The text is based on psalms, newly-composed poetry, probably by Salomon Franck, and the seventeenth-century chorale Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten by Georg Neumark.

The first part of the cantata, with themes of deep suffering, pain and mourning, opens with a sinfonia featuring a solo oboe and violin. In contrast, the second part of the cantata, to be performed after the sermon, turns to expressions of gratitude.

After Bach left Weimar, subsequent performances of the cantata took place in Köthen and Leipzig. In one revision for Leipzig, the chorale is accompanied by a quartet of trombones, a continuation of that city’s centuries-long tradition of involving Stadtpfeifer during civic functions, as well as church services, when wind players would perform chorales from the tower balcony of the Altes Rathaus.

Marcel Dupré Showed France How to Embrace Bach

12 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Audio Recordings, Bach's Successors, Bach's Works, Other Artists

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Advent, Albert Schweitzer, Alexandre Guilmant, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, Association des Amis de l’Art de Marcel Dupré, Catholic World Report, Charles de Gaulle, Charles-Marie Widor, chorale, chorale prelude, Editions Bournemann, First World War, Franck, French, Georges Clemenceau, Graham Steed, Gustave Ogier, H. W. Gray Publications, Honolulu, In dulci jubilo, Jeannette Dupré, Joan of Arc, John Cage, legato, leprosy, Louis Vierne, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, Marcel Dupré, memorization, Michael Murray, Mount Everest, music publishing, Notre Dame, Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, Olivier Messiaen, op. 28, organ, Orgelbüchlein, Palais du Trocadéro, Paris, Paris Conservatoire, performance practice, Pierre Boulez, Protestant, R. J. Stove, radio, Radiodiffusion Française, Roman Catholic, Rouen, Second Vatican Council, Second World War, Seventy-nine Chorales for the Organ, sheet music, Spanish Civil War, Staphylococcus aureus, Thirty Years War, Van Nuys, Veni redemptor gentium

Marcel Dupré in 1948

Marcel Dupré in 1948

Among the last fifty years’ most unfortunate historical illiteracies has been the myth that it took Vatican II to bring about the most elementary courtesy between Catholics and non-Catholics. Before 1962, the legend goes, Catholics and Protestants were trapped in a kind of eternal Thirty Years’ War, lusting after the blood of our “separated brethren.” For a good answer to this legend, it is worth examining the manner in which Marcel Dupré – whom his star pupil Olivier Messiaen called “the greatest organ virtuoso who has ever lived” – first championed the organ repertoire of J. S. Bach for French concertgoers who, in the years after World War I, still knew very little of it.

Dupré died in 1971. For most of his long lifetime, he dominated the French organ scene, very much as his almost exact contemporary Charles de Gaulle dominated French politics. Today, neither man’s reputation is what it was. In particular it has become fashionable to snipe at Dupré’s Bach recordings, with their seamless legato and lack of concern for period practice. Yet this sniping is unjust, and one day the pendulum of taste will swing back. Dupré’s level of brilliance at the console cannot be discounted forever.

The impact that Bach left on Dupré’s thinking derived partly from the initial instruction he underwent. Born as he was in 1886 – at Rouen, where Joan of Arc remained potent in the communal culture – he had the privilege of knowing first-hand the Bach-loving, organ-building genius Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who was then in the destitute but still deeply influential twilight of his career. Even Dupré was not quite old enough to have met his hero César Franck, but he achieved the next best thing: protracted study with Franck’s old colleague Alexandre Guilmant; with former Franck pupil Louis Vierne, the almost stone-blind Notre Dame organist; and with Charles-Marie Widor, whose Toccata has adorned a million weddings.

Through Widor and Guilmant above all, Dupré came to know the Bach tradition which had meant so much to Franck. But such knowledge, without the technique to convey it, was not nearly enough, and none appreciated this better than Dupré himself. In a 1948 interview for a Minnesota radio station, Dupré would utter the following credo: “To get perfection in a work, you must first get perfection in a short passage: that is the root of all virtuosity.” What Dupré preached, Dupré practiced, in one of France’s most unusual concert events from the interwar period.

The Great War had let Dupré off comparatively lightly. Traces of childhood disease (a near-fatal bout of golden staph) had destroyed his hopes of seeing active service, so he spent the years of combat in the pharmacy department of a Parisian military hospital. Army life has been described as “ninety-nine percent boredom to one percent terror,” and whilst Dupré’s hospital enjoyed the protection of distance from the worst fighting, the losses of several colleagues on the Western Front concentrated his mind wonderfully. Besides, hospital duties, by their very nature, enforce contact with human mortality in a fashion that very little other civilian employment does. Through a gradual process, Dupré concluded that he owed it to Bach, to music, and to whatever European civilization emerged after the war, to do something that had hitherto been thought not just pointless, but impossible.

In one sentence: Dupré vowed that with the advent of peace he would publicly play all of Bach’s known organ compositions from memory. He could not have horrified his supporters more if, like Albert Schweitzer, he had taken up the missionary life in western Africa, surrounded by lepers and goats. Earlier organists, for all their skill, had generally used the printed scores in their Bach performances. Widor probably knew as much Bach as any Frenchman of his time did, but even he had large gaps in his knowledge, gaps unimaginable in our own pampered epoch of cut-price complete editions.

Moreover, although Bach had not actually been banned from French musical life during 1914-1918, affronted Gallic national pride towards the vanquished foe made Dupré’s project seem quixotic amid the years of Georges Clemenceau’s vindictive prime ministry and calls for “squeezing Germany till the pips squeak.” Numerous Germans, for their part, assumed that the frivolous French could not comprehend Bach at all. Moreover, in the prevailing state of neurological science, it was by no means sure that the human brain was even built for so gigantic an amount of memorization as Dupré envisaged.

Through his ten concerts in 1920 at the Paris Conservatoire – concerts of Bach, the whole Bach, and nothing but Bach – Dupré proved his critics wrong. He repeated his feat the following year, at another venue in the same city: the Palais du Trocadéro, which then housed a Cavaillé-Coll masterpiece beloved of Guilmant and Franck. (During the late 1930s, it succumbed to a more than usually maladroit rebuilding, much to Dupré’s regret; in that decade, it is fair to suppose more organs were destroyed by insensitive renovations without the slightest political agenda, than were wrecked by even the most bellicose kerosene-toting communists and anarchists of the Spanish Civil War.) Widor happily paid homage to his former student’s success. In a nunc dimittis offered to Dupré’s father, Widor said: “I can die content, for I know the French organ school will remain in good hands.” (With characteristic recalcitrance, Widor didn’t die at all after delivering this heroic valediction. He lived on for another seventeen years, vigorously energetic till the end.)

At a creative level, Dupré’s devotion to Bach bore its most obvious subsequent fruit in his Seventy-nine Chorales for the Organ, op. 28 of 1931, commissioned by Gustave Ogier, a retired banker. Ogier found his enforced spare time somewhat oppressive and wanted to start playing the organ in earnest. Dupré easily met the implied challenge of providing material that (unlike his better-known symphonic epics for the King of Instruments) would be technically straightforward enough for Ogier to manage, but at the same time interesting enough for more experienced players to appreciate. Issued by H. W. Gray of Van Nuys, California – as opposed to Bornemann in Paris, which issued most of Dupré’s other works – the Seventy-nine Chorales became that unimaginable thing: an instance of organ sheet-music which actually made a profit. It has never gone out of print. Once, when Mme. Jeannette Dupré had accompanied her husband on a visit to one of Honolulu’s two cathedrals, “a copy of the Chorales [so reports England’s Dupré scholar Graham Steed] was lying open on the music rack of the organ.”

Evidence of Dupré’s profound esteem towards Bach’s own collection of miniatures, the Orgelbüchlein (BWV 599-644), is perceptible in every phrase. None of the Orgelbüchlein’s chorale preludes lasts for more than three pages. The same is true of Dupré’s collection. Bach based his pieces on Lutheran rather than Catholic melodies. So did Dupré. He tends to avoid those hymns where the same tune turns up in both Lutheran and Catholic contexts. (Admittedly a few instances do appear: In dulci jubilo is one; another is Nunn komm’ der Heiden Heiland, note-for-note the same as the plainchant theme Veni redemptor gentium in the traditional Catholic ceremonies for Advent.) But mere archeologism will nowhere be found. The Seventy-nine Chorales can at times administer a salutary shock to hearers – every congregation has them – who want all their organ music to suggest either syrup or lavender-water.

Dupré spent his last years, in musical terms, under something of a cloud. He found himself totally out of sympathy with the 1960s’ arbiters of French musical vogue: Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, and the rest. Ostensibly musical counterparts to the student gauchistes of May 1968 filled him with especial horror. His biographer and ex-student Michael Murray includes a dejected little anecdote of the octogenarian master confronted with an all-night avant-garde broadcast on French television:

Dupré watched for about fifteen minutes as “music” was made by the sole agency of a continually slamming door. Jeannette recalls that he turned to her sadly and said, “It is finished, done with, for the arts.” Nor was he heartened by her reply: “Nonsense! You’ll see. You say that music is finished, but look at your recitals and what do you see? You see that at least half of your audiences are young people. Look again. All is not ended for the arts.” But he could not be reassured.

Still, we have plenty of recorded evidence showing what Dupré the performer could achieve when at the height of his powers. (A gallant if cash-strapped nonprofit organization – the Association des Amis de l’Art de Marcel Dupré – does what it can to preserve his sonic legacy in ancient and modern repertoire alike, not to mention releasing his extant broadcasts for Radiodiffusion Française.) And still, like Everest, stands that extraordinary achievement of 1920–1921: Dupré’s practical demonstration that Bach was no mere dry-as-dust theoretician, but part of every Catholic’s and every Christian’s birthright.

R. J. Stove – Catholic World Report

Bach in Frómista

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Audio Recordings, Bach's Works, Films, Other Artists, Video Recordings

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acoustics, architecture, BBC Music Magazine, cello, Dane Johansen, El Camino de Santiago, Frómista, harmony, Köthen, performance practice, reverberation, Romanesque, Sahagún, Spanish, St. Martin of Tours Church, Suites, tempo

St. Martin of Tours Church in Frómista

St. Martin of Tours Church

Yesterday I sat with my cello in the nave of San Martín de Tours in Frómista, Spain. Located in the middle of an otherwise empty town square, this eleventh-century church is one of the purest examples of Spanish Romanesque architecture along the Camino. Plants and human figures are carved into the capitals of the columns supporting many delicate arches. Each arch seems to be in perfect proportional harmony with all the others, and the simple interior lends a feeling of quiet serenity. I had been recording there for several hours and had watched the light move across the ancient stone, worn soft and smooth by the passing of time.

I have been hiking the Camino de Santiago through Spain for two weeks now, performing Bach’s Suites for Unaccompanied Violoncello (BWV 1007-12) every night in ancient churches along the pilgrimage route. Every church I play in is unique, not only visually and stylistically, but acoustically as well. The acoustics in San Martín were the most resonant I’ve encountered so far. As in any location, I had to adapt my playing of Bach’s music to suit the church. Sound reverberated in the space for about five seconds, so I had to slow down my tempi and breathe as much space and time into the music as possible.

Many fellow pilgrims come night after night to hear Bach’s music in the beautiful churches, and San Martín seemed to be a favorite. People expressed feelings of peace in the space, and many remarked on the church’s simplicity and the luscious acoustics. One pilgrim expressed how wonderful it was to hear the harmonies bleeding together as a result of the resonance.

While walking today, I wondered if Bach ever heard his Suites performed in a space resonant enough to produce vertical harmony from the linear harmony he composed. I feel there must have been such a space in Köthen, Germany, where he composed the solo cello and violin works.

Though the performances have been successful, the trip is not without challenges. Walking 20-30km (12-18 miles) every day is no easy feat; each time I arrive in a new town my feet and legs are aching from overuse. Producing a film and recording is a full-time job, and managing my team of eight is teaching me to anticipate and solve problems and to manage interpersonal dynamics. Choosing to perform concerts every night of this six-week journey makes for an incredible experience, but it allows little time for me to be alone with my instrument. I came to Spain understanding that the weather would be quite warm and thinking I could practice outside in the shade. But on the contrary: it has been very cold here, which not only limits my ability to practice, but it makes performing extremely difficult. The journey continues, and thankfully the weather is warming. My cello is drying out and responding more quickly, and the churches should start warming up, too.

Today I will walk 39km (24 miles) to Sahagún. After such a long day on the trail it will be wonderful to disappear into Bach’s music and forget about my sore feet.

Dane Johansen – BBC Music Magazine

A Missing Portrait May Have Resurfaced

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Life, Bach's Successors

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Bach House Eisenach, Berlin, Berlin Cathedral, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Charles Sanford Terry, coach, Deutsche Welle, Eisenach, Elias Gottlob Haussmann, Hamburg, Johann Nicolaus Forkel, Leipzig, Manfred Gorke, portrait, ship

Truly authentic?

Truly authentic?

The Bach House in Eisenach, the town where Johann Sebastian Bach was born, has acquired a portrait of the composer long believed to have vanished. It’s very likely the portrait was made during his lifetime.

Experts agree: A pastel portrait that has resurfaced is an original from the second half of the eighteenth century. Following the Eisenach museum’s investigations, scholars say the piece corresponds to the physical condition of the long-sought picture, as well as the style of painting and the clothing represented in it. Furthermore, the facial features, with low-set eyes and underbite, resemble those from a Bach painting by Elias Gottlob Haussmann from the year 1746 – a work held to be undeniably authentic.

It’s believed Manfred Gorke first acquired this picture around 1927 or 1928 to be part of his famous collection – one of the last large and privately-owned assemblages of Bach items. The English researcher Charles Sanford Terry identified it at the time as an authentic pastel depiction of Bach, stemming from a collection held by the composer’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel. After Gorke’s collection was dissolved, the painting went to a private individual in Berlin and vanished from public view.

That a Bach pastel existed is known from letters that Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, then living in Hamburg, sent to his father’s biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel. “My father’s portrait is painted in pastel. I had it transported here from Berlin by boat and ship because such paintings with dry colors can be damaged when transported by coach.”

These letters are the only documents that offer historical proof of the existence of another Bach picture in addition to the famous Haussmann portrait from 1746, which hangs in Leipzig’s former City Hall.

Two years ago, the pastel was offered for purchase to the Bach House in Eisenach, which paid 50,000 euros ($70,000) for it. Following a six-week special exhibition titled “Echt Bach!” (Authentic Bach!) in the Berlin Cathedral, the newly-purchased painting has been on display at the Eisenach Bach House.

– Deutsche Welle

Focusing on the Brothers Bach

01 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Edward McCue in Bach's Life, Bach's Successors, Bach's Works, Music Education, Other Artists

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Bückeburg, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Christoph Wolff, clavichord, composition, David Schulenberg, fortepiano, harpsichord, Haydn, Jacques Ogg, Johann Christian Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, London, opera, organ, piano, UNCG Now, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

Bückeburg Palace

Bückeburg Palace

Four of the Brothers Bach will take center stage at the eighteenth Focus on Piano Literature conference 5-7 June 2014 in the Music Building at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Guest artists and lecturers Jacques Ogg, Christoph Wolff and David Schulenberg will examine the careers of four of Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical sons:

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
The famous brother, Emanuel “wrote the book” on keyboard playing and distinguished himself as an inspired improviser. All the great Classical masters acknowledged their debt to him. Never at a loss for a musical idea and a host of ways to express it, he created a body of works for keyboard rivaled only by Haydn’s for imagination and craft, yet many of today’s pianists are scarcely aware of his work.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
The eldest brother, Friedemann struggled to find stability in his life yet amassed a respectable record of professional achievement as an organist and composer.

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)
The rebellious brother, Christian left Germany, mastered the idioms of Italian opera, traded Lutheranism for Catholicism, and climbed to the apex of London musical society as the Queen’s music master, yet he left a widow in penury.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795)
The quiet brother, Christoph Friedrich settled into service at the small court of Bückeburg and spent his days composing in the fashionable genres and styles.

During the conference, professors John Salmon and Andrew Willis, along with several other UNCG School of Music, Theater and Dance faculty, will perform works composed for clavichord, harpsichord, organ and fortepiano by the many members of the Bach family.

– UNCG Now

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