All of JS Bach

Canard

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The Netherlands Bach Society has undertaken to make high quality recordings of all of Bach's music and to make it all freely available through Youtube.

Hey ... look in the mirror. Just maybe you're Classical-curious. Your friends and family don't need to know. Just close the door and turn the volume down a little. ;)

Jack Bruce, of Cream, a conservatory trained musician (cello and voice) ,once said something to the effect that everything that you need to know as a bass player can be learned from Bach. Bach runs through Jazz. William Levitt's series of books, A Modern Method for Guitar, books much loved by Mike Stern, have Bach running through and through them.


Johan Lives!
 

GGJaguar

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I'm a huge fan of J.S. Bach and I'm not embarrassed about it and play his music as loud as my beloved power pop. I especially like to listen to his music (and other Baroque music) performed on original instruments which gives it another dimension.
 

Canard

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I'm a huge fan of J.S. Bach and I'm not embarrassed about it and play his music as loud as my beloved power pop. I especially like to listen to his music (and other Baroque music) performed on original instruments which gives it another dimension.

Stand tall and proud, my friend!
 

GGJaguar

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Stand tall and proud, my friend!

I do! I have some recordings by another Dutch group - the Amsterdam Orchestra and Choir directed by Tan Koopman. They are quite good and perform using original original instruments.
 

Rich Cohen

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Yes, Bach establishes the base line for certain kinds of western "classical" music. It's not the only kind of music that is deserving of our listening and praise, but it's certainly part of our cultural foundation and background. My life long connection to Indian music has taught me that there is more to music than meets the ear and brain. Nevertheless, western classical music, despite its repetitiveness, is a wonderful confection and provides countless hours of enjoyment.
 

fronobulax

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People who don't acknowledge Bach's place/role in Western music tend to have a very limited understanding of just what Western music actually includes.

As a bassist trying to improvise, asking "what would Bach play?" certainly improves the resulting bass line.

I have "learned" various Bach compositions transcribed for bass. Someday my tempo for the Prelude to the first cello suite will approach Yo-Yo Ma's.

I have been blessed with several friends who are outstanding organists and as a result I appreciate the instrument more than many people. But even a technically challenged organist can find ways to perform the Bach that is within their grasp in a way that takes the listener to another place. Transcendent.
 

Canard

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Yes, Bach establishes the base line for certain kinds of western "classical" music.

True. I realise that the term "classical" is problematic for some with its taint of elitism. But within the context of European music it is a useful term, much the same as it is with Indian music, Indian "Classical" Music, a genre quite distinct from Bollywood Pop, Bhangra, Indo-Hawaiian slack-key slide guitar, etc.

It's not the only kind of music that is deserving of our listening and praise, but it's certainly part of our cultural foundation and background.

Indisputable, both clauses, but particularly the first clause.

My life long connection to Indian music has taught me that there is more to music than meets the ear and brain.

If you don't hear spirituality in Bach, listen again. Almost every composition, with the possible exception of the Coffee Cantata, is a reflection of a profound faith in an orderly Neo-Platonist Christian cosmology with the Judeo-Christian God as the prime mover, that which moves but is not moved, at its centre. The music is steeped in spirituality and mysticism.

Nevertheless, western classical music, despite its repetitiveness, is a wonderful confection and provides countless hours of enjoyment.

If by "repetitiveness," you mean that listening to Western Classical Music, is like looking into the exactly the same glass display cases in a museum over and over again - not much changes with each viewing - maybe a few more fingerprints and nose smudges on the glass, maybe a few less - then I would have to agree with you. But it was not always so. Composers used to allow for division and invention - if I remember correctly, the terms meaning ornamentation and improvisation, respectively. Mozart was a killer improvisational violinist whose improvised credenzas brought audiences to their feet cheering. There is good evidence that Bach was an improvisational wizard on the organ. At some point, things changed. Composers wanted to curtail grandstanding, particularly among Opera singers, and they began to write in prescriptively the ornamentation and "improvisation" they wanted. Much to the loss of Western orchestral music the tradition was lost. If it hadn't been, maybe orchestras wouldn't be begging for spare change.

Hmmm. "Confection" as in sugary and insubstantial?

Try some Arvo Pärt. Crank the volume, turn down the lights and meditate.





 

Canard

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My life long connection to Indian music has taught me that there is more to music than meets the ear and brain.

You might enjoy Shakti if you are not already familiar with the group. It works as an East-West Fusion because all the players are highly skilled and because John McLaughlin studied veena for many years. L. Shankar and Zakir Hussain are amaszing.

 
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bluesypicky

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I've always been flabbergasted by the true genius of these classical music creators.
It's a whole other level of musical genius.
Thanks for the reminder.
 

Rich Cohen

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True. I realise that the term "classical" is problematic for some with its taint of elitism. But within the context of European music it is a useful term, much the same as it is with Indian music, Indian "Classical" Music, a genre quite distinct from Bollywood Pop, Bhangra, Indo-Hawaiian slack-key slide guitar, etc.



Indisputable, both clauses, but particularly the first clause.



If you don't hear spirituality in Bach, listen again. Almost every composition, with the possible exception of the Coffee Cantata, is a reflection of a profound faith in an orderly Neo-Platonist Christian cosmology with the Judeo-Christian God as the prime mover, that which moves but is not moved, at its centre. The music is steeped in spirituality and mysticism.



If by "repetitiveness," you mean that listening to Western Classical Music, is like looking into the exactly the same glass display cases in a museum over and over again - not much changes with each viewing - maybe a few more fingerprints and nose smudges on the glass, maybe a few less - then I would have to agree with you. But it was not always so. Composers used to allow for division and invention - if I remember correctly, the terms meaning ornamentation and improvisation, respectively. Mozart was a killer improvisational violinist whose improvised credenzas brought audiences to their feet cheering. There is good evidence that Bach was an improvisational wizard on the organ. At some point, things changed. Composers wanted to curtail grandstanding, particularly among Opera singers, and they began to write in prescriptively the ornamentation and "improvisation" they wanted. Much to the loss of Western orchestral music the tradition was lost. If it hadn't been, maybe orchestras wouldn't be begging for spare change.

Hmmm. "Confection" as in sugary and insubstantial?

Try some Arvo Pärt. Crank the volume, turn down the lights and meditate.






I basically agree with your points. It's just that I started out in western music and took classical piano in college, playing mostly Mozart, and realized that after the 30th time I had listened to the 21st piano concerto and played it for a final exam, well, it began sounding repetitive and boring. Indian music is boring in its own way, but usually creates newness most of the time for the listener.
 

Canard

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Indian music is boring in its own way.

Err ... Indian music "can" be boring, but often it is electrifying. There are bad players. There are great ones.

An LP or CD of Indian music suffers in the same way performances of Western music do. It can become boring because it never changes.

Indian music... usually creates newness most of the time for the listener.

Especially live. Because it is never, ever, ever, exactly the same. It is truly an improvisational art form.
 

Rich Cohen

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Err ... Indian music "can" be boring, but often it is electrifying. There are bad players. There are great ones.

An LP or CD of Indian music suffers in the same way performances of Western music do. It can become boring because it never changes.



Especially live. Because it is never, ever, ever, exactly the same. It is truly an improvisational art form.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!
 

lungimsam

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I like the auditory illusions Bach created in those licks that move around so much like at 2:15 and 6:08 in the above video.There seems to always be one note that moves through the others that everything seems to pivot off of. That pivoting note sounds like boop boop boop boop boop boop and can be tracked by the ear as it moves through the phrase and the other notes swirl around it. Almost everything he wrote has those moving boop phrases I like so much. Creates cool auditory illusion effects. Bach harpsichord and organ recordings are pretty much all that plays in my auto since 2016. I would guess about 95% of all the music played in the auto while driving the last 5 years.
 
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