The gnawing fear I have about trying to sum up the life’s work of history’s most important composers is the certainty that I have left something very important out. But, at least with Bach, I have no such concerns because up today is Bach’s titanic Mass in B minor. I am not even going to … Continue reading Credo in unum Deum
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For My Daughter: Listen for the Bell
In music, truth. We have many ways of expressing our feelings about life and death, loss and loneliness. The brevity and often sadness of existence weighs uniquely on the human experience. We see these themes depicted in art, expoused in poetry, and examined on the stage. Novels have been dedicated to these topics; films create … Continue reading For My Daughter: Listen for the Bell
Bach, The Art of the Fugue, Part II
The Art of the Fugue closes in spectacular fashion, with two mirror fugues. As one musicologist explained: A mirror fugue is a pair of fugues in which each voice (or line) in the second fugue is a mirror image of the first - where the first goes up, the other goes down. In the previous … Continue reading Bach, The Art of the Fugue, Part II
Magnificent Choices
Fellow blogger BigMikeHouston of Classical Music with Big Mike (https://classicalmusicwithbigmike.com/) wrote this week about the singificant differences a conductor's interpretation can make on how the music sounds. He's absolutely right. And his observation gave me the idea of talking about the Period Instruments Movement, derided in some circles as being too egg-headed. Let's see if … Continue reading Magnificent Choices
Bach, The Art of the Fugue, Part I
One thing is certain. Even if few truly appreciated it at the time, Bach was very aware of his genius. A humble Lutheran by nature and faith, Bach sought to cement his legacy at the end of his life through two monumental works. Sick, going blind and dying, Bach set about to compose on both … Continue reading Bach, The Art of the Fugue, Part I
A Gertus History of Music 