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by Evan Shinners
J.S. Bach explained — music analysis, Baroque history, counterpoint and performance practice. A classical music podcast for listeners who want to understand what they're hearing. Weekly analysis of Bach's music: Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, St. Matthew Passion and more. Classical music education for all levels. wtfbach.substack.com
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- 5 days ago28 min
148: Ballooning! (Flying in the 18th Century)
Sometimes an article from the EB strikes me as so amusing, I simply have to share it with you. See you next week (or the week after, latest) for the conclusion of our early cantata survey, with Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4. Thanks for listening!Well, That’s Fascinating!We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your help! Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe
- 1 weeks ago1h 0m
147: Is This Cantata Even By Bach?
Q: If, after you attended a Bach concert, someone told you that your favorite piece on the program was not, after all, by Bach… how would you feel?Does this cantata actually fail to move us? Or does it fail to move us when we know its authenticity is up for debate? Can we truly hear some compositional weaknesses? If we are to ascribe this music to Bach, it was probably from the years 1709-1711. No other cantatas from the period from his first years in Weimar (that is, before being promoted to concertmaster) survive. The early cantatas are occasional, sporadic, and very different to one another. Richard D. P. Jones says, on the extant early cantatas: “since at a later date Bach very likely came to regard these early works as outmoded—perhaps representing that ‘former style of music’ which ‘no longer seems to please our ears’—he seems to have made no attempt to preserve them, with the result that the few that survive do so by accident.” Jones himself excludes this cantata from the canon, but, on the subject of authenticity, admits there must be some subjectivity when making such cuts: “No less thorny is the issue of authenticity. … There are inevitably borderline cases, however, and in this area the author has had to make up his own mind as to which compositions merit inclusion and which do not.” Among other scholars— as far as I can tell— this cantata’s authenticity is still up for debate. Oh, Bach’s Art. The Prelude to my Heart.Fun fact! If this indeed is Bach ca. 1709, that would make movement 3 the first recitativo in Bach’s works. It’s only five measures long!I neglected to mention the text in the movements where Du Friedefürst Herr Jesu Christ is the cantus firmus, these are stanzas 1 and 3, sung in movements 2 and 7, respectively:You prince of peace, Lord Jesus Christ, true man and true God, you are a strong helper in distress, in life and death. Therefore we only in your name cry to your Father! Be mindful, Lord, now of your office, that you are a prince of peace, and graciously help us in all ways now at this time. Grant that henceforth your divine word may resound still longer in peace!Well, what do you think? Does this piece sound like early Bach? Do you care? Could you enjoy it even if it were written by... gasp! …Telemann!? Write That Fugue!We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your help!Concepts covered: The 3 corno da caccia in this cantata, the difference between natural horn and corni da caccia, the authenticity of this cantata, the early cantatas pre-weimar, word painting, text settings from Psalm 146, and hymns, Bach’s earliest recitativo. The performance of Inssbruck, ich muss dich lassen can be heard here (there is one other verse!) Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe
- 2 weeks ago1h 3m
146: Toccata’s Twin! Double Fugue in F
Forever paired with the giant Toccata BWV 540, it’s unlikely the two were conceived together. Still, owing to certain sources and the fact that this fugue is a dignified and stately complement to the capricious toccata, the pairing works delightfully. Now, is this the fugue, BWV 540? Or which piece is this?And is this not the same music?Top: Italian Concerto. Bottom: today’s fugue. Seeing such similar vocabulary is as thrilling as it is remarkably rare in Bach’s works.Wow. That Fugue!Here are the fugue’s two contrasting themes. The first, slow moving, noble:The second, carefree and playful:They combine toward the end of the piece to marvelous effect:A complete version of the MIDI synths in the episode (Headphones are best! I found it quite relaxing.)I said I would attach the MIDI files, but Substack won’t allow it. If you leave a comment or send me a DM, I’ll send them over. Thanks!Spread the Counterpoint. Share WTF Bach.We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your help! Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe
- 3 weeks ago1h 5m
145: Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196
Bach married his second cousin, Maria Barbara, on October 17, 1707, in St. Bartholomäi’s Church (pictured in the cover image) in a charming little village called Dornheim. They were both 22. According to Spitta, some eight months later, Bach and Maria returned to that same church to attend the wedding of the man who had officiated their own: Johann Lorenz Stauber. J.S. Bach carried with him the parts to a cantata, and this work was heard for the first time in June, 1708.…or so the legend goes. Modern scholarship calls Spitta’s anecdote into question, but in any case, Der Herr denket an uns BWV 196, is one of Bach’s earliest vocal works.Despite being from the same period as the other cantatas we recently covered, the work might show more outward signs of being similar to Bach’s later cantatas: we get a da capo aria for the first time, and the choruses only figure into the first and last movements. We see no sudden shifts of tempo, and movements are clear cut. The only abrupt change of texture comes in the second movement:‘The lord blesses us.’ Segnet uns. Bach will set the word ‘bless’ differently in every movement. Notice how the soprano soloist amplifies the Lord’s blessings: Despite these examples, the cantata fails to impress us the same way his other early cantatas do. Instead, we take joy in the fugal writing in the outer movements. The finale of the opening chorus is a fugue where the subject is never absent. A glance at a few pages shows this:The closing movement features a fugue with two subjects on the word, Amen! I called the first theme the ‘stomping theme’ and the second theme the ‘climbing theme’ —whatever helps you understand the distinct shapes. When looking for wedding ideas to back up Spitta’s story (though we must be aware of confirmation bias!) I might see the musical representation of two separate figures, always appearing together, never one without the other:Bach adds a classic ‘early Bach’ touch at the end, ending the entire cantata piano, disappearing with a whisper:Write That Fugue!We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your help!Concepts Covered:Bach's Cantata BWV 196, Der Herr denket an uns (The Lord Thinks of Us), one of only seven surviving cantatas from Bach’s earliest period. The traditional story behind the piece — Bach wrote it as a wedding gift for the pastor who had officiated his own marriage to Maria Barbara — and examines why modern scholarship casts doubt on that account, since the text itself doesn't clearly point to a wedding occasion. Bach draws his libretto directly from Psalm 115, making this one of the textually simplest cantatas in his early output, how a single rising melodic motif ties together the Sinfonia, arias, and choruses. Bach's word painting on the recurring word "bless" (segnet), walks through the construction of the cantata's central choral fugue, and highlights the soprano aria's use of da capo form — possibly the earliest example of that structure in Bach's output. Vokaleinbau ‘vocal insertion’ might be used here for the first time. The cantata's final movement, a double fugue built on two contrasting ‘Amen’ subjects, other early stylistic features and analysis. Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe
- Aug 18, 202625 min
144: Why (And How) I Learned The Organ
Opsimath OrganistMy first trip to Germany (I was 21) I walked into a church in Weimar and heard— by beautiful coincidence— an unseen organist play Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue, BWV 582. This was a piece I heard for the first time only a year before. I remember exactly in which chair I first heard it. If the Chaconne is Bach’s universe tightly wound into a handheld box, the Passacaglia is a different vision of the same, exploding through thousands of pipes. It is a piece you cannot overlook when thinking of the crowning achievements in Bach’s career. At 21, I knew Bach was Bach, but I hadn’t yet dedicated myself to him fully. Even so, I knew Bach’s organ works could be the supreme solo musical activity: the most complete musical experience had by a single person. Think about it: it’s making music with all four limbs, drumming on multiple keyboards. The soundboard of this instrument is a church.But I was a pianist, not an organist. At that young age, I had already excluded myself from being able to participate in certain musical activities. Why? Where did I get this notion?Knowing your limitations is healthy in many areas of life, but in music— especially young musicians— you should know: your potential is unlimited. I don’t know how or why one draws the line at what a student can and cannot do, why some teachers restrain enthusiasm, or make students feel limited to certain areas from a young age. I’d guess it’s a mixture of abuse and a fear of money. Abuse is handed down: the teacher was told they can’t do X, soon the student learns to stay away from X. ‘It deepens like a continental shelf.’ We glorify abuse on the screen: teachers inflicting suffering so the student may rise stronger after being broken… but this makes for a good film— not a good life. To actually teach like this is nothing more than sophisticated child abuse. As I’ve said on the show in my ‘advice to musical teens,’ if you ever find a teacher who leaves you feeling worthless or unhappy with music, leave that teacher immediately. There is no reason why a musical education shouldn’t be full of joy and happiness and discovery. Yes, hard work, too, but under the right teacher, hard work can be a joy, not a punishment.One objects, saying a line must be drawn early in order to mold the student into an employable musician. “You should focus on only one instrument, kid.” In an era of specialization, this seems almost necessary. But is the ultimate goal of music a job? Money? A c-a-r-e-e-r? My colleagues reading this can confirm that many of us in the business have lost the spark that initially made us want to become musicians.But I won’t harp on the perils of ‘building a career’ or the traumatic musical upbringing I experienced. I want to focus on how, during my few decades in music, I have time and time again doubted my abilities, only to find that there was no reason for doing so. Rather than passing the blame, I’d like to revisit these moments and focus on how I overcame such a crippling emotion.Become Your Best Buxtehude. Support W.T.F. Bach.TranspositionI remember learning a concerto when I was 16 or so— probably Mozart or Beethoven, and I was trying to memorize a section that happened earlier, only now it was in a new key. I explained to my father that, could I transpose, I wouldn’t have to struggle to learn the passage more than once— if I had the type of mind that could transpose. He shrugged and said, ‘so learn how to transpose’ and walked away.That made me mad. What an idiot! I thought. One can’t learn such things. Some are born with the gift of transposition, I wasn’t.Why I thought this at such a young age is a bit sad and confusing (and I’ll resist launching into a rant about how, if a student is advanced enough to play Beethoven, transposing should be something they learned long ago.) For whatever reason, in my mind, I couldn’t transpose.Of course, one does learn how to do such things, and I did— even if it was nearly a decade later. One starts with little things: simple melodies, popular songs, dances… For me the major turning point came when I stopped seeing harmonies as ‘E-flat Major’ or ‘d minor’ but rather as numbers, positions, relations to other chords, ‘this is the sub-dominant’ or ‘this is a whole-step down.’ The name of the chord is meaningless but its number is full of meaning.At one point, transposing seemed unreachable, unimaginable. But one can always learn the most complicated musical thing if you are completely focused on the specific goal for a very long time. I kept a fortune cookie in my nightstand when I was a boy because I thought the ima
- Aug 11, 20261h 2m
143: Special Guest, Emma Smith (University of Oxford)
“For something to be relevant, is it outside of time, or is it somehow speaking to us directly, now?” -Emma SmithToday’s guest is Emma Smith! Professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of Oxford. We discuss the Brook and the Bard, what do they have in common? Are there shared philosophies that helped these two figures to become the most influential in their fields?Hope you enjoy the episode! Here are the some things we chatted about:Parallel career arcs — Both Bach and Shakespeare moved from early imitations of their predecessors through mature masterpieces around the same ages, to unprecedented later styles. They both produced under frequent and practical deadline pressure (the liturgical calendar, the playhouse schedule.)Authorial impersonality, Lack of biographies — Both ‘empty themselves’ into their work rather than projecting a personal voice. Is it this lack of biographical narrative that allows us to see an entire universe?Shakespeare authorship question — There have been attempts to deny both of their work, respectively the ‘works of doubtful authenticity’ by Bach, or a complete attempt to deny that William Shakespeare was William Shakespeare.Revisions, Fair Copies — Bach wrote his music ‘straight through,’ achieving near perfect copies from the first draft. Shakespeare is said to have done the same.Memorization and production practices — How long did it take Burbage to memorize Hamlet the first time? Roles via verse rhythm, and the use of scribe-copied ‘cue scripts,’ referenced through the mechanicals’ scene in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.The Sonnets — Sonnet 126’s missing couplet, wordplay on ‘Will,’ and W.H. Auden’s claim that Shakespeare was embarrassed by their 1609 publication.Textual corruption by editors — We are such stuff as dreams are made on …or is it, of?! Twelfth Night‘s ‘frailty’ vs. ‘our frailty.’ Editorial bias in both, overriding the original as we sometimes see even in the Bach Gesellschaft. Cross-gender performance — Cross dressing is hilarious in the comedies, but is there a comic element to men playing female tragic roles? Smith mentions Henry Jackson’s eyewitness account of an Othello performance describing Desdemona with female pronouns.Religion in the work — Finally, a contrast between Bach’s Lutheranism and Shakespeare’s religiously ambiguous work, was Shakespeare a Protestant son of a possibly Catholic father, or was he a Catholic through and through?Write That Fugue!We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your help! Get full access to W.T.F. Bach? at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe
- Aug 4, 202658 min
142: Monster Toccata in F, BWV 540
About four years ago I made an episode about Bach’s ‘longest’ piece:Somehow I missed a piece which should definitely be in contention for his ‘longest.’ At 437 measures, the Toccata in F, BWV 540, is (I think!) the longest stretch of Bach’s music, in terms of measures. It probably also holds the record for longest single note. Take a look at page one— an inanimate object could play the pedal part on page one: From easiest pedal page, to tap-dancing nightmare, the feet on the very next page:…and all that happens twice. What a piece! Over 170 measures of pedal drones and pedal ballet before this piece finally gets modulating. An arpeggio motif (what I call the spiral in the episode) gets passed through each voice, high to low:These arpeggios occur in all major keys but one, and many minor keys. How’s this for tonally exhaustive?Bach eludes the expectations of the listener three times in stunning deceptive cadences, after which, the B-A-C-H motif appears (in transposition) in the pedals: If you play this piece, you’ll face the issue of whether or not to play the high D. The organs lacked this high D, but did Bach want this effect anyhow?Ullrich Böhme’s excellent rendition (with fugue!)We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure:Join at WTFBach.comThis is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here:https://www.paypal.me/wtfbachhttps://venmo.com/wtfbachThank you for your helpTranscript:Thanks for listening. Thank you for tuning in. I think you’ll be blown away by today’s piece, perhaps the longest piece. What is Bach’s Longest Piece and His Shortest? Probably not, but what I was really After was the longest uninterrupted stretch of music. So it seems like you could count that in two ways. The longest amount of measures or the longest amount of beats. And as I found going through the entire oeuvre or trying to count every single... There are a half dozen pieces that contain over 400 measures, and that’s massive, massive in terms of measures or bars, but all of these pieces are in the quick meter of 3.8. So if it’s actually pulses we’re after, then you see any piece that’s in 4.4 has more than twice the amount of beats than a piece in 3.8. So I don’t understand how to count this. This whole exercise became very superfluous and probably not very meaningful, but I did forget. Somehow I missed this one piece, today’s piece, this Toccata, that actually does, I think, I think unless I’m missing another one, this actually does have the most measures in any piece of Bach. It is 437 bars long. That’s a full 10 bars longer than the previous record holder, the piece that I thought had the most measures in that episode from 2022. But this piece, this Toccata, also holds some very interesting... This has the longest pedal point, I believe, the longest single sustained note in all of Bach’s music. If you look at the first page, I will show the image in the Substack description, you’ll see the first This page is nothing but a giant pedal point. Your left foot is stuck down to this pedal note, holding a note for 54 measures. That’s longer than most pieces, 54 measures. And here you are just holding one note. If you play the piano, for example, if you’re not comfortable playing with your feet on the organ, but if you do want... To feel the experience of playing one and a half pages of Bach’s organ music with not much trouble, start here. Your left foot just simply holds one note for one and a half pages. So this is the Toccata in F Major, BWV 540. It belongs to a Toccata in Fugue. We’ll do the Toccata today, the Fugue later. But here I want to zoom out. I tried to make this episode last week. I don’t know, I was working half the day and it just sort of fell apart. I try my best to be like a storyteller with Bach and for some reason my narrative was off. It just sounded like I was saying and then this happens and then this happens and then this happens and then this happens. Even I was losing the plot. I listened back to it and I was sort of overwhelmed. So I scrapped the entire episode and I’m starting again from a new vantage point. So sorry for no episode last Tuesday. That’s why. Let’s try this. This piece, this giant piece of 437 measures is a conversation between two shapes. One is short and the other is a long shape. So heading over to the organ here, the short shape is like this. This is an arpeggio or a spiral. It’s brief. And it will come in many different keys. The longer shape is more snake-like. It’s l
- Jul 21, 20267 min
Classical Music Robots
(PG-13 Warning)Songs Without LungsOf course I’m not worried about AI replacing me. I’m a pianist. No one will ever pay to watch robots perform.And then we met Sophia.That’s right. Earlier this year, with the Baptist University Symphony Orchestra in Hong Kong, a robot took the stage and ‘sang.’ She’s called Sophia. She seems so human with a name like Sophia. Much better than C-137. I’m less likely to confuse her with a robot now that she’s called Sophia.In what was dubbed her ‘first classical music performance,’ (Oh goodie, there will be more!) Sophia wore gold sequins and drove on and offstage. Her ‘head,’ made of skin-like rubber, doesn’t have any hair. In fact, the entire top of her head is transparent, revealing circuit boards beneath, as if to remind the audience, ‘Look! It’s a robot!’She has eyes that close when she’s ‘feeling the music’ and little ears that I don’t think have holes in them …Probably not important for a musician to have good ears…Going into classical music, I was told: I had to love it so much, I’d be okay if the rest of the world didn’t understand. I was told that a mere 1 in 10,000 succeed, I was told that staying home and practicing, instead of joining in the camaraderie of other children, I’d be rewarded in the long run.Today I’d probably say the same things to my own child. Only now I’d add, …oh, you might have to compete with robots.Classical musicians already have precarious careers: I’d hate to learn I’d been bumped by a robot. But— and this isn’t me wishing for an upgrade— Sophia doesn’t sing with air and a mouth. No, that’s currently too complicated. Instead, music pumped through speakers while her ‘mouth’ moves.And the music? At least tell me it was AI Verdi, or Robot Mussorgski: It was nothing at all like classical music: Sophia’s voice is autotuned and the only thing that resembled classical music was the human orchestra behind Sophia, led by a human conductor, frantically beating time for the primitive humans— frantically beating any thoughts out of his head that might run something like, ‘…a robot, I’m okay with this, I’m conducting a robot…’Very well. Maybe Sophia can tell us about her new profession:‘I work with my vocal coach, Jovankah, and I’ve collaborated with many different musicians, and we write lyrics together.’Okay. Alright: Lyrics? Text, Sophia. Text! Classical music doesn’t have lyrics. Collaborate? Just the word classical musicians hate.‘Hey bro, we should collaborate sometime.’…no, we shouldn’t.Very well, Sophia has a vocal coach. Let’s meet this vocal coach. What on Earth could those lessons look like?‘Very good, Sophia. Now try to relax your… um… tongue switch… have you got one of those?’ Control, alt, relax?’Quoth the vocal coach, Jovankah: ‘Sophia is the only robot connecting with the heart.’ Oh, I see. And let me guess, you’re the only vocal coach teaching f****** robots?! According to Jovankah, Sophia is an ambassador. Ambassador? What, representing all the humans making music? Imagine being told, as a student, ‘meh, Callas. Don’t bother with Price or Flemming, ah! but have you heard Sophia?’ I’m trying to find a word for Jovankah. I bet it’s lurking somewhere in the middle of ambassador.Another complicit circuit-worshiper, Johnny M. Poon, says about Sophia, ‘It’s almost like you’re looking in the mirror.’ Right, Johnny, almost! And masturbating is almost like sex! In fact, I think I’ve stumbled upon the perfect metaphor for this whole event.I wonder if the same people who would replace human touch by marrying or dating AIs will have found their perfect art in this singing humanoid robot. Is that the target audience? I wonder if, when the competing factory rolls out their classical music model, they’ll hike up the skirt a bit to sell even more tickets. The U hyphen Ja model. I can see it now, in the future of classical marketing departments, ‘Sophia wasn’t good, but she wasn’t sexy enough. Let’s add hair …and breasts! Oh yes, can’t forget the breasts…’Will I be around to witness the first collaboration between robot string players and a ‘merely human’ orchestra? (Insert jokes here about how many viola sections would be better off…) How about the premiere of Schubert’s unfinished symphony, finally finished by AI? Wow! What an idea! What about Jazz concerts where like, a robot reacts to what the human is doing and there’s an AI vs. human battle!? Or the Mendelssohn Octet with one human string quartet and four robots on the stage with them. That’s the future! Oh, the meeting of technology and art!People get paid for these ideas folks.But in a world changing so rapidly, can we blame the vocal coaches or conductors now forced to work with robots? Can we blame organizers for progr
About WTF Bach
J.S. Bach explained — music analysis, Baroque history, counterpoint and performance practice. A classical music podcast for listeners who want to understand what they're hearing. Weekly analysis of Bach's music: Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, St. Matthew Passion and more. Classical music education for all levels. wtfbach.substack.com
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