The Overlooked Richness of the Recitatives of Bach's Cantata 78
In "Expressivity in the Accompanied Recitatives of Bach's Cantatas," George J. Buelow writes that although many of the distinguishing properties of Bach's music have been studied over the years, few scholars have examined Bach's recitatives or have given them proper credit. He notes that these recitatives generally either are ignored by musical scholarship or are briefly discussed with "general errors" or "confusion." 1 For example, he cites Jack Westrup as stating that Bach's recitatives are "basically an adaptation of the idioms of Italian opera" (19), and he mentions others who term them "improvisatory" or unrelated to the text. Buelow asserts that "informed observations" about Bach's recitatives would lead to different answers; he agrees with Martin Ruhnke who writes that Bach's recitative style is "original," its melody not "subservient to the texts as practiced by Italian composers" or as "promulgated by German theorists" but "independent and richer" and also "more excited and dramatic" (19). Indeed, a closer look at Bach's recitatives discloses fascinating devices of text and narrative illustration.
In his article, Buelow explores these neglected recitatives of Bach's cantatas and discusses aspects of their originality, including their relationships between music and text. He notes how Bach chose for some of his recitatives to be accompanied and for others to remain "simple." Buelow writes that it seems likely that Bach often employed the accompaniment style because it required the singer to remain slightly more measured. He quotes Scheibe who writes in his Critischer Musikus that accompanied recitative "is more suited to rousing and increasing devotion"...
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...s and triumphs in his tones. As Buelow writes, the recitative "provides a glimpse into that still indefinable balance of musical genius, all-encompassing craft, and the indestructible faith and zeal of the German protestant" (35). Buelow has been right in turning our attention to this largely "ignored resource" in our study of Bach's sacred music; in any study of Bach's pairing of music to text, these cleverly crafted recitatives demand credit and attention.
1George Buelow, "Expressivity in the Accompanied Recitatives of Bach's Cantata's," Bach Studies, ed. Don Franklin (Cambridge, 1989), p. 19.
2Richard Taruskin, "Facing Up, Finally, to Bach's Dark Vision," Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance (New York: Oxford Press, 1995) p. 310.
* Please use MCD 560, Das Kautatenwerk vol. 20 (Bach's Cantata's volume 20), kantate 78, "Jesu, der meine Seele," CD 2.
...s things to try to better the world. The only reason Captain Hammer does things is to better himself.
This concert is held by the Stony Brook University music department and is to perform seven pieces of music written by seven student composers. The concert is performed in Recital Hall of Staller Center in Stony Brook University. Since it is a small hall, audiences are very close to the performers. In fact, it is the first time I am this close to the performers and the sound for me is so clear and powerful that seems like floating in front of my eyes. Among the seven pieces, “Ephemeral Reveries” and “Gekko no mori” are piano solo, “Two Songs for Joey” is in piano and marimba, “Suite” and “Fold Duet No. 1” are in woodwinds, “Elsewhere” is played by string groups, and “e, ee, ree, and I was free” is in vocal. Personally, I like the sound of piano and guitar the best. Therefore, in the latter part I will analysis two pieces in piano, “Gekko no mori” and “Two Songs for Joey”.
Sadie, Stanley. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Essays on his Life and his Music. United States: Oxford University Press. 1996, Print.
“Romeo and Juliet” is so much like “Pyramus and Thisbe” it is excruciatingly obvious. These timeless tales tell the story of true love, and also the loss of death. “Romeo and Juliet” can compare to “Pyramus and Thisbe” for three reasons; the lovers come from disagreeing families, the tales are both tragedy, and they are based on misconception and ill-timing. Although these stories are painful, they are also true to human nature, and that is why they are so similar.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a composer, a musician, teacher, and organist who later became a specialist in construction of organs. Bach learnt to play the violin, the orchestra, and the organ from his father and his famous uncle and twin brother to the father, Johann Christoph at a young age. The organ was his chosen instrument. He also achieved success in the art of Fugue, choral polyphone, instrumental music and dance forms. In Eisenach he attended Old Latin Grammar School, the same school that Martin Luther had attended. He sang in the schools choir. His parents died before Bach was 10 years old. His mother died when Bach was nine years old, his father’s death followed nine months later (Sherrane, 2011). After the parents death Bach was taken in by his older brother Johann Christoph who had already established himself as an organist in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph had a great influence in Bach’s success in music as he taught him and encouraged him to study music composition. At the same time Bach was attending the Gymnasium grammar school in Ohrdruf where he studied theology, Latin...
For it is a commonplace of our understanding of the period that the Victorian writer wanted above all to “stay in touch.” Comparing his situation with that of his immediate predecessors, he recognized that indulgence in a self-centered idealism was no longer viable in a society which ever more insistently urged total involvement in its occupations. The world was waiting to be improved upon, and solved, and everyone, poets, included had to busy themsel...
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One of the most controversial topics in the United States in recent years has been the route which should be undertaken in overhauling the healthcare system for the millions of Americans who are currently uninsured. It is important to note that the goal of the Affordable Care Act is to make healthcare affordable; it provides low-cost, government-subsidized insurance options through the State Health Insurance Marketplace (Amadeo 1). Our current president, Barack Obama, made it one of his goals to bring healthcare to all Americans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. This plan, which has been termed “Obamacare”, has come under scrutiny from many Americans, but has also received a large amount of support in turn for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include a decrease in insurance discrimination on the basis of health or gender and affordable healthcare coverage for the millions of uninsured. The opposition to this act has cited increased costs and debt accumulation, a reduction in employer healthcare coverage options, as well as a penalization of those already using private healthcare insurance.
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most famous German composers of his time. All of his work was mostly during the baroque era. The baroque period was from 1600 to 1750 and it is known to be one of the most diverse musical periods as opposed to the other classical music eras. It was in this era that “included composer like Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, who pioneered new styles like the concerto and the sonata.”(Classic FM) Johann Sebastian was born in the midst of the Baroque era as he was born on March 31, 1685 in Thuringia, Germany. Johann came from a family of musicians, which is how he himself became one as well. It was his father who showed him how to play his first instrument, which was the violin. His father was also a well-known musician in his town as he “worked as the town musician in Eisenach.”(Johann Sebastian Bach) It is known that Johann Sebastian went to a school that taught him
Bach used time and structure in his work to force his listeners to set themselves inside the narrative. So, while listening, as
According to Rowell, "Musical composition became much longer, and composer were forced to evolve new means of maintaining unity and continuity over long time spans" during the Baroque period. Therefore, the texture of music became very important. When I look at the musical texutre of the Cantata No. 78 by J. S. Bach, I realized that this piece was unified very well within a movement and as a whole piece by many techniques. Some of those techniques were found in the text, and the others were in the music.
Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.
(TheRealConcertKing), the polyphonic contrapuntal style is apparent. However, it is accompanied by concerto grosso with use of the technique of terraced dynamics in ritornello form (Whitehouse 76). In Johann Sebastian Bach’s, “Brandenburg Concerto No 4 G major BWV 1049”(Classical Vault 2), the major and minor tonality is obvious, The terraced dynamic are clearly heard when the solo (violin and two flutes) play and when the full orchestra plays (Whitehouse 86). Author Whitehouse writes,” The immediate decrease in sound when the smaller group plays and a return to a full sound when the full orchestra plays” (Whitehouse 87). Bach also used ritornello form in “Brandenburg Concerto No 4 G major BWV 1049” (Classical Vault 2). Bach’s chosen ripieno is, tutti, solo, tutti, solo, tutti, solo (Whitehouse 8...
3. BWV in D major. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four Orchestral Suites. This piece is the second of the five movements that compose his Orchestral suite No. 3. The date it was composed remains unsure, as there is strong evidence that the writing of the piece was done during his years at Köthen, even though the piece is said to have been composed and premiered some years later in Leipzig sometime between 1727 and 1730 by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, one of his students and himself. Johann Sebastian wrote out the main violin and continuo parts, C.P.E. Bach did the same with the trumpet, oboe, and timpani parts, and Johann Ludwig Krebs, his student, finished with the second viola and violin parts. Regardless the authors of the piece, Johann Sebastian Bach ended up getting all the credit for the piece. Air stands out as one of his most famous and successful pieces of the Baroque period, as well as of his life. The beginning of the piece is one of the most recognizable melodies of the Baroque
Over the past several years, some amateur musicians have developed specific ideas about 'correct' performance practice of Baroque music. In an essay concerning the issues of Baroque music performance, Michael Sartorius notes that: