As a kind of follow up to the last post, please enjoy the first movement of Bach’s 2nd Brandenburg concerto:
As mentioned in the last post, Bach submitted his Brandenburg concertos as a kind of job application to a Prussian prince of some sort named Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt, who is chiefly remembered today as the guy who didn’t give Bach a job. At the time, Bach was employed as Kapellmeister for Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen and, apparently, Bach was not happy with his boss. However, Christian Ludwig stuffed the compositions in a drawer and didn’t have them performed. The manuscript went undiscovered for 99 years after Bach had died, and the Brandenburg concertos were performed in public for the first time the following year, a full century after Bach had died.
This second concerto has the particular honor of being included on recordings sent into space with the two Voyager probes.
So J.S. Bach was like G.W. Bush – a man of genius, unappreciated in his own time. 🙂
I love Bach, having studied piano for over a decade when I was a kid. And especially “The Goldberg Variations.” But until I read this, I never knew that those concertos weren’t performed in Bach’s lifetime.
I’d be a tad miffed, if I were him.
It kind of makes you wonder how many other geniuses we don’t know about from before the modern era?
How many artists, musicians, writers, etc., were at the mercy of rich aristocrats, who just dumped something someone practically sweated blood to create, into closet or basement?
Are we headed toward something like that again?
Will some Galtian like Jamie Diamon, look at some new musicians music, wave their in dismissal, and say, “Too many notes…”
Or will artists and writers need a corporate sponsor, just to be able to paint or write, AND eat? And, will their work have to reflect positively on that company, lest they lose their support?
“To be? Or, not to be?
That, is the question.
(And whatever your decision, it’ll taste better with an ice-cold Coke!)
OY!
Thankfully, because of digital technology, probably not.
‘But, one never knows, do one?’
For a long time Bach’s music was mostly only appreciated by other composers. Mozart and Beethoven both studied Bach’s compositions and were influenced by him. But Bach’s death in 1750 had marked the end of the Baroque musical era, and his style of music was out of fashion. By the 1820s Bach was known only to music nerds who had a particular interest in German sacred music. But about then Felix Mendelssohn got his hands on a manuscript of the Saint Matthew Passion. In Leipzig, in 1829, Mendelssohn conducted the first public performance in a century of the SMP. The concert was a huge success and sent people searching through old archives and attics for Bach’s surviving manuscripts. The Brandenburg manuscript was discovered in 1849, for example.
What a great story, Barbara!
Where is that “like” button!
I played a lot of Bach on the piano.
People love his music because it sounds pretty simple.
But actually, he’s very, very difficult to play – correctly.
Bach is absolutely relentless. There’s a mathematical precision to his compositions.
And, if you finger-fudge some notes in a Mozart, Beethoven, or even Chopin, you can cover it up, and get away with it. You can even pretty much cover up an obviously wrong note.
NOT WITH BACH!
That wrong note will sound like an obvious clunker!
As out of place as a hot-dog-with-chili-onion-cheese-and-sourkraut-fart in a freshly cleaned elevator, full of wealthy business people.
If you want to hear how beautiful, yet relentless, his piano pieces can be, go find the “Goldberg Variations” by either Glenn Gould (who was a touch “eccentric,” or totally nuts, according to many), or Vladimir Feltsman (my sister studied with him in New Paltz, NY).
Listen the first time for the beauty of the pieces.
Listen the second time to hear how masterful a pianist has to be to carry that off, and make it seem effortless.
Bach on the piano is very, very, hard work.
Thank you. I went a little berserk from the last post.
I’m better now.
Thank you. I love chamber music. I don’t play it often enough. I wish I was musically inclined and could play an instrument.
I really love the Brandenburgs, but that movement always wakes the lingering fear that William F. Buckley is going to pop up on the screen.
I just played some of Bach’s lute pieces. They have great sonorities, he could also get the most out of two or three voices, assuming that I wasn’t the one playing them. Great performers are always inspiring, but anyone who listens attentively or struggles with an instrument, helps to keep art alive too. It’s just not as pleasant to listen to. People who work to keep art as an accessible part of their communities really deserve a lot of gratitude. Keep up the good work.
On an ironic note, a right wing facebook friend of mine posted a quote about the great value of northern European culture and its contributions. It was well worded, but I suspect, intended to appeal to those who might view other cultures as inferior.
The quote was credited to Fred Thompson.
I will listen to just about anything, but I do think the European musical masterpieces are without comparison. I would include southern Europeans also, of course. But for a long time it has struck me that people who go on about the superiority of European fine art don’t seem to know much about it. Music especially is no longer divided into ethnic or racial enclaves. Any orchestra you put together in the New York City area these days is way multiracial.
Bill Buckley in one of his most absurd High Tory moments smugly declared that culture is the badge of monarchy.
No kidding.
Sending Brandenburg #2 into space really is bragging.