In this first of several related episodes, we will learn about Bach’s late contrapuntal masterpiece, the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her, BWV 769. The variations— although certainly not as familiar— should be considered alongside Bach’s other late achievements, the Goldberg Variations, The Art of Fugue, and A Musical Offering…

Since I was a child I’ve known the story of Bach pulling out a blade. What really happened? In this short episode, I read the contemporary reports from the Arnstadt Consistory Court, where this famous fisticuffs was first recorded. About halfway through the episode (14 minutes), I’ve given you some “chill” chorales, played over a drone. One of my l…

Last week I posted this piece on YouTube: The most intriguing part of studying this piece was the overwhelming amount of differences between the three earliest sources of this work. Here is a list of the sources I reference in the episode , the copyists, and when they were made: The ‘Andreas Bach Book’ (D-LE III.8.4) J. Christoph Bach; copyist, bet…

Yes, that recording at the end is none other than Jascha Heifetz with Primrose and Piatigorksy, who apparently recorded three of the sinfonias. The wonderful pianist with that golden sound playing before the string trio arrangement is (I think!) Marcelle Meyer recorded sometime around 1948. WTF Bach needs your support! Consider becoming a subscribe…

Becoming familiar with Bach’s music is a never-ending process. First, there is the initial reading, which alone can occupy many happy years. What’s remarkable is that with each further reading, you’re astonished by the details you missed before—quite honestly amazed. You ask yourself: Where—or even who—was I during those earlier readings? You begin…

In this episode, we’ll explore Bach’s constant involvement with weddings. Weddings and funerals occupied a weekly place in Bach’s life in Leipzig and we’ll shed light on the various ways in which he was involved musically. [I forgot to credit the last recording in this episode to Rudolph Lutz and the J.S. Bach foundation.] Here are (some of) the be…

A brief(er) episode for you today: Bach’s first published opus was his six partitas for keyboard. In some of the sources within Bach’s circle, copies retained as a ‘Handexemplar’ include revisions by a scribe we can almost say with certainty is Bach himself. The most consequential of these revisions appears at the end of the third partita, where th…

The final performer’s commentary episode for you. This is live commentating (the program notes of the future) on the last of my three simultaneous releases. This album is a bunch of preludes and fugues— some maybe you know, some maybe you don’t. You can stream and individually purchase any track including the performer’s commentary from the third v…

Johann Adolph Scheibe went down in history for attacking Bach’s “turgid and confused” style. “…from the natural to the artificial, and from the lofty to the obscure ... one wonders at the painful labor of it all, that nevertheless comes to nothing, since it is at variance with reason.” Let’s examine the controversy from the beginning. How To Suppor…

On March 1, 1749, Bach penned the following into a Stammbuch: Today’s episode covers this canon in depth. What does it mean? How does it sound? Here is a link to the article by scholar, Anatoly Milka. The book, Bach and the meaning of Counterpoint, by David Yearsley is available here. How To Support This Podcast: https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach https…

Another performer’s commentary episode for you. If you’ve missed out on the second of my three simultaneous releases, you’ll have a chance to listen to it here, with my live commentary. You can stream and individually purchase any track including the performer’s commentary from the second volume here. —More streaming links (including youtube playli…

Thanks for your feedback on the last few episodes. I’ve gathered my listeners enjoy piecing together musical cells in their minds, so today’s episode will bring you more of that. The eight surviving canons, BWVs 1072-1078 (+BWV deest) were written on small pieces of paper or penned into registry books. Their compact content, usually only a few note…

If you miss those DVDs with the optional director’s commentary, you’re going to enjoy this episode. Each album in my ‘J.S. Bach Complete Solo Keyboard Works’ will be accompanied by this type of work, my commentating as the music plays. You can stream (and individually purchase) any track including the performer’s commentary from the first album her…

You know that portrait of Bach holding a little scrap of music? Ever wonder what the piece was? What it sounded like? That piece of paper is a six-voice, triple canon: number thirteen in the fourteen additional canons found on the back of Bach’s personal copy of the Goldberg Variations. (Analysis of that specific canon around 32 min.) We’ve covered…

ALBUMS ON PRESALE TODAY! BUY THE ALBUMS HERE! Volume One: Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws Volume Two: Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w Volume Three: Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb As for the …

Thanks for all your support during The Bach Store! If you’re in NYC on Friday, come to Le Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street at 7pm. Be sure to mark your calendars: April 24th, 2024, my new albums will be on PRE-sale. It marks the beginning of my most ambitious project to date: a very thorough, if possible, ‘complete’ set of the keyboard works of…

You read correctly: The Bach Store is back. In Erfurt, Thuringia, the state from where the Bachs hail. I will play for five hours, March 14-28, 12.00-18.00 GMT +1 (7AM-1PM EST.) You can (hopefully) stream the whole run on my youtube. Subscribe HERE. Or go to: www.youtube.com/@wtfbach Here is the latest video I mentioned in the podcast. Bach Store M…

This week I’ll be performing some flute chamber music in Santa Barbara, California. I realize I’ve never specifically mentioned Bach’s wonderful flute repertoire on this podcast. We tackle here what I find is the most complex composition in the repertoire: the first movement of the b minor sonata, BWV 1030. Pieces heard: BWV 1030.1 Source P. 1008, …

This is the final episode introducing Bach’s cantata cycle of 1724. In the first four cantatas of the cycle, we heard how Bach used Lutheran hymnal melodies as cantus firmi in different voice parts in each opening movement (sopranos, followed by altos, followed by tenors, followed by basses.) Here, the next two cantatas see less predictable treatme…

Last episode we introduced Bach’s second cantata cycle from 1724. We saw in the first cantatas of the cycle, Bach used a church melody as the cantus firmus first in the sopranos, then the altos. This episode we will explore the next two cantatas where Bach sets the cantus firmus in the tenors in BWV 7, and the basses in BWV 135. About the melody yo…

Peter Schickele was one of my idols. He died on Tuesday, January 16. His creation, P.D.Q. Bach, helped bring much needed self-effacing humor to the world of classical music. Links below to help you get into his (and Victor Borge’s— another giant of classical music parody—) life and work: Peter Schickele’s Obituary, NY Times Beethoven’s 5th announce…

In this episode we delve into Bach’s second cantata cycle begun in 1724. The first two cantatas are briefly covered, (with two further cantatas to follow next episode) as well as the connection between the Lutheran church melodies and the significance of the year Bach began this ambitious project. Pieces heard: BWV 20, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (Cl…

I rarely just play on this podcast, but that’s how I’d like to package this little present for my listeners. Rather than spending days researching and writing, today I will play four fugues and introduce them only briefly. It’s some twenty minutes of music I hope you can enjoy during your holidays. The quote I read to introduce this short concert i…

In today’s episode we have a look at one of Bach’s Arnstadt masterpieces, the fugue in c minor BWV 574 on a theme by Giovanni Maria Bononcini (The composers Giovanni Bononcini and Antonio Maria Bononcini were his sons.) According to the Neue Bach Ausgabe, this fugue is the first double fugue in history. Here is a picture of the title page in his br…

EDIT June 2024. I have misunderstood the term ‘Applicatio’ in this episode. I now understand it to refer to the fingering and not the application of ornaments— despite the fact that many ornaments are ‘applied’ in the piece. ‘Applicatio’ as I now understand it sometimes referred to the hand position on a string instrument, or here, where to ‘apply’…

How did Bach understand the concept of Phi? 1.618…? Here are a few examples where Bach highlights the “Golden Section” in a piece through either a fugal technique, a shift in musical language, or something else. Send us your most remarkable golden section moments! For the first episode where I mentioned the golden section and Bach, click here. Piec…

In this episode I delve into two very diverse chorale preludes: one from the so-called, “Great 18” and one from the individually transmitted. Here is a link to Bach’s own autograph of the Leipzig chorales. Beautiful handwriting! Marie-Claire Alain’s recording of BWV 655 (completely different to Koopman’s) The “Organ Sonatas” I recorded with LH/RH h…

-- I AM STARTING A SUBSTACK SOON SO JOIN THE FUN: WTFBACH.SUBSTACK.COM -- Thanks for listening! In this episode we discuss the history of the Chorale- how it became called 'Chorale' and how it factors into Bach's music. Pieces featured: BWV 691 and BWV 93 (Chorale) at the same time BWV 651 BWV 682 Performers were: Michel Chapuis, Kay Johannsen -- H…

Though this episode starts with quite the extended introduction, this is in fact EPISODE THREE In a four-part study into the 14 additional canons on the back of the Goldbergs, BWV1087. Here in this video, we dismiss a popular Bach video, and examine which videos are in fact Möbius strips. Here is the disproven crab canon video. Here are two studies…

Finally! The influential Joshua Rifkin guests on the WTF Bach Podcast. Rifkin made Bach fame with his groundbreaking (and controversial!) theory that Bach’s vocal works (and other 17th & 18th century) composers’ works were sung with only one singer per part. He recorded the b minor mass, several cantatas, and other Bach works in this format. We spo…

Q: What if those really slow interpretations of the cello suites from the 30s and 50s could be sped up? A: Exactly. https://www.jsbachcellosuites.com - check out this website! It's a great source on the history of the recordings of these pieces. Thanks for all your feedback, donations, ideas, everything. Please follow @wtfbach on instagram for (alm…

Thanks for supporting us through 50 episodes! What makes Bach, BACH?! As a special celebration, the 50th episode of The WTF Bach Podcast is a live lecture presented by Tonebase. The topic is the ever looming one: why is Bach's importance so great? Studying the ideas behind a few of his instrumental collections, we see that Bach's ideas are always e…

EPISODE TWO: On the back of his own personal copy of the 'Goldberg Variations', Bach notated an additional fourteen canons. These were discovered only as late as 1974(!) and are among the most interesting compositional exercises we know from the composer. From eight bass notes (the first 8 notes of the 'Goldberg' Aria- the structure in a sense,) Ba…

I was recently asked to explain chromaticism, so I thought I'd give it a try here. Bach's fugue based on a theme by Tomaso Albinoni in B minor, BWVs 951, and 951a: the subject itself contains a chromatic descent (B, A#, A, G#, G, F#) and though Albinoni himself wrote it, it was Bach who brought the ideas behind such chromaticism to the next level. …

On the back of his own personal copy of the 'Goldberg Variations', Bach notated an additional fourteen canons. These were discovered only as late as 1974(!) and are among the most interesting compositional exercises we know from the composer. From eight bass notes (the first 8 notes of the 'Goldberg' Aria- the structure in a sense,) Bach creates, y…

This episode was inspired by my recent discovery and purchase of an Encyclopedia Britannica. It's a fascinating collection of knowledge and I highly recommend finding some volumes and reading them. This is the Bach article appearing in the EB from as early as 1926 even until the 1960s, written by D.F. Tovey. We also listen to fugue BWV 959, very ea…

More than simply, “in tune” or “out of tune” a temperament is a solution to the ancient problem of creating a circle out of a spiral. By the time Bach had his shake at this problem, the musical world had advanced far enough, setting the stage for his great mind to create a well-tempered solution that allowed him to compose in all 24 keys. Not all k…

How much more famous can music be than that one Prelude in C? The Prelude BWV 846, the first prelude in the Well-Tempered Clavier, is heard everywhere, but why? How? What purpose could such a piece have served in Bach's day? We discuss two early, shorter versions of the prelude, and one erroneous version with an inauthentic bar (the 'Schwenke measu…

It started with an Instagram Post, but like all questions about Bach, to answer the question of Bach's 'longest' piece required posing further questions: Longest how? Minutes? In terms of Measures? In terms of the longest single piece on a concert? ...wait, what is a 'piece' anyhow? Does one of the passions count as a single piece? What about just …

A brief analysis of Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV147. Such a large piece of music, it gets it own episode. Will I continue to devote episodes to the cantatas? Read the bottom of the description. The work is famous for, if nothing else, the two chorales that we know as 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.' As it was suggested by a liste…

SPOILER ALERT! I split this episode into TWO! The NEXT episode will cover cantata BWV147 exclusively. -- To begin your week! Three pieces you requested were: Toccata in g minor BWV915 Allabreve in D major BWV589 Cantata BWV147 (NEXT EPISODE!) -- Please enjoy my brief analysis of these pieces which, in their own right, could take up many episodes ea…

It was brought to my attention that, yesterday, at the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, there was only one non-Biritsh piece of music included. It was of course penned by our beloved J.S. Bach, whose inclusion in the royal festivities made an impression on me. The piece was this gorgeous fantasy for organ BWV 562, discussed in this episode. Enj…

This week I chose to read experts from the 'New Bach Reader', a compilation book of documents from Bach's life or shortly thereafter. These documents are sometimes letters, receipts, or newspaper notices, but might be a dinner bill for an inn where Bach stayed, or his candid thoughts on singers. I highly recommend this book. Find it here. NEXT EPIS…

Last Episode WTF Bach explained how computers, using MIDI, could help us understand Bach in a unique way. Here then, is a brief episode of four Bach MIDI files, played with very basic computer operations (quantized 16th notes, panning between speakers, mechanical slowing down and speeding up). It's likely you've never heard Bach in this way before.…

How can computers help us understand Bach? What is MIDI? In this episode we learn how MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files, that is, a sort of sheet-music for computers, can help us explore Bach’s music in modern and novel ways. If you don’t read music or play an instrument, MIDI files might be your way into Bach’s mind. Even if you ar…

Two episodes ago we covered the first movement of the fifth Brandenburg concerto up to the famous harpsichord cadenza. In this episode we look at the two existing versions of the famous cadenza: an early version a mere 18 measures, and the the famous one, more than three times as long. Alfred Cortot Glenn Gould’s video mentioned is here: https://yo…

In this episode, we will look at: The genesis of the Brandenburg concerti, What Bach’s job was like when these compositions came about, Who his employer was then, How much music Bach was composing at that time, Why a Baroque composer writes anything at all, The difference between a modern composer and one in the Baroque. Then finally, we will dispr…

This episode and the next two will cover the first movement of the fifth ‘Brandenburg’ concerto, BWV1050, a concerto for solo flute, violin and harpsichord. The recording featured in this episode is Il Giardino Armonico (probably my favorite recording of all six Brandenburg Concerti). This is the YouTube link. Thank you for your emails, your donati…

GUESS WHO'S BACK? BACK AGAIN? THE BACH STORE is in GERMANY March25-April8. Stream it here: Twitch.tv/wtf_Bach Let's kick off this season discussing the fugue for violin in G minor BWV1001, and its arrangement for Organ BWV539. There is also one for lute (perhaps lute harpsichord) BWV1000. Donate to this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/wtfbach http…

So! We've done it: Looked in depth at every fugue, every canon, solved the mysteries, busted the myths, sent the Bach heretics back to whence they came. And now? Let's just enjoy... Topics covered: The golden sections in other Bach pieces and how this could help us find the golden section here, even in this fugal fragment. 'God the Father' 'God the…