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J.S. Bach: What's your favorite?

I'm a relative novice in the world of classical music, but I really like the cello and got more well acquainted with Bach with the Cello Suites. Then everything else followed.
 
For someone who is not big into choral works (me), I enjoy the Mass in B Minor very much. It was recommended to me many years ago by a classical enthusiast as a good way to start appreciating choral works. It did expand my musical horizons and though I'm still not that into the choral stuff, I started listening to opera, leider, etc. in the classical world.
Mike
 
Mr. Lin said:
I like that. :)

Anyone else read this book? It's only about 10 years old.
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Ha! I read my post and see that my ancient Toshiba laptop is betting the best of me again. It slows, shakes, freezes up for no apparent reason and then marches on like nothing ever happened. Some keys need to be tapped just right. The biggest thing it doesn't like for some reason are apostrophes and letters that follow. If I'm not paying attention, that's what I get.

I used to drink Scotch, now I'm listening to Bach.

Whew! I feel better now ;)


By the way, I picked up Murray Perahia ~ Bach Partitas 1,5 & 6 today. I have his Bach Partitas 2, 3 & 4 recording already and it is very nice. This should be a treat if it's close to the first.

RC
 
ml69 said:
For someone who is not big into choral works (me), I enjoy the Mass in B Minor very much. It was recommended to me many years ago by a classical enthusiast as a good way to start appreciating choral works. It did expand my musical horizons and though I'm still not that into the choral stuff, I started listening to opera, leider, etc. in the classical world.
Mike
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I think you've given a great recommendation: it is a key masterpiece of JSB, and among the greatest choral works ever composed.
 
mhardy6647 said:
I like what Garrison Keillor said of J.S. Bach (I paraphrase) - a great composer, organist, a genius, and a Lutheran. :-)
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Amen!

JS Bach -Wow. Big fan here. My desert island CD list would have to include:

St. Matthew Passion - a very powerful/incredible piece of music.

His Complete organ works and the Cantata's!

A great site if interested: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/

Two excellent books to have:

"Johann Sebatian Bach - The Learned Musician" - Christoph Wolff
"Oxford Composer Companions - J.S. Bach" - Malcolm Boyd
 
guiller said:
...one needs to approach his music with an open mind and spirit, patience and faith in that something, at some point, will happen. Being exposed to his music, many things can happen, depending on many factors including yourself. ...feel the incredible intelectual, deep, beautiful, symmetric architecture of some the more intimate and elaborated pages (perhaps the harpshichord pages you mentioned, or the Art of the Fugue).
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I quote this because it's what I experience listening to his harpsichord pieces, like you said. I admit my brain cannot keep up with everything that's going on, but with repeated listening, I'm starting to have those euphoric moments - then I try to explain it to my girlfriend and she just stares at me like I've finally gone over the edge. :D

pmsummer said:
Bach made lutes?
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Lol!
 
I'm a fan of the Cello suites, particularly No. 1 (of course) and No. 3 (I love the Prelude, about 2/3 of the way through, where he has the cello dancing across all it's strings holding out this wonderful G pedal tone - it brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it). Also, as a vocalist, I am partial to Prelude No. 1 from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier (Gounod's setting of Ave Maria to this is probably my favorite solo arrangement of Ave Maria).

It is incredible to think that Bach wrote many of these pieces to play in church. Can you imagine coming to church Sunday after Sunday and being the first public audience to hear a new work? Not only prolific, he was also to musical theory what Newton was to calculus.

Drat, now I want to go out a spend lots of money buying Bach...
 
Zinfan said:
How about Buxtehude? 4 B's - JS Bach - Beethoven - Buxtehude - Brahms
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Well I'm working on three of the four, but haven't heard any Buxtehude yet.

mclendo said:
...Drat, now I want to go out a spend lots of money buying Bach...
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Sorry. :sigh:

I've thought about what people must have thought when they went to church and heard this sort of thing played on an organ. I wonder how many of them realized how special it was.
 
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