Fnord.

I have to confess: for the most part, I’m not a Mozart fan.

He’s widely held in high regard for very cerebral music, genius, yadda yadda. To me, he’s a lot like certain forms of jazz: intellectual brilliance does not necessarily make for pleasurable music. You need, IMHO, some emotion.

(Updated 5/6/07: There are exceptions that I enjoy - symphonies 40/41, some of the operas, the Requiem, not sure what else.)

Which leads us to Bach. (JS, that is. There were several.) There are many, many reasons to love ‘ol JSB: the Brandenburg Concertos (the last word in Baroque IMHO), the Goldberg Variations, The Art of Fugue, the Mass in B Minor (I like this performance) and of couse the coffee cantata! The man wrote a cantata about coffee addiction! How cool is that?

If I can’t drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.
…
Recitative Narrator
Old Schlendrian goes off to see if he can find a husband forthwith for his daughter Lieschen; but Lieschen secretly lets it be known: no suitor is to come to my house unless he promises me, and it is also written into the marriage contract, that I will be permitted to make myself coffee whenever I want.

Trio
A cat won’t stop from catching mice, and maidens remain faithful to their coffee. The mother holds her coffee dear. The grandmother drank it also. Who can thus rebuke the daughters?

Not to forget the cello suites, either. Get the Rostropovich version, I have two others and neither is even close.

Of all the forms of Bach, I have a particular weakness for his works on the pipe organ. My mother used to play organ for our church, as was also instrumental in introducing us to classical music in general. Thanks, Mom! I also used to work in Cordiner Hall, and every now and then music prof (emeritus) Stanley Plummer would rehearse on the halls’ pipe organ. Once, we were in the tunnel underneath the seats, which is 4′ tall, and he was playing Bach! Total ‘Phantom of the Opera’ moment.

(Cordiner cross-section, I think the tunnel is partially shown under the seats beneath the balcony. You get the idea.)

Pipe organ is definitely an acquired taste. Actually, its closer to musical anchovies. I like ‘em both.

Bach spent 17 years as church organist in Leipzig, and I think that gave him a comptence and insight for the pipe organ that no one else ever matched. He understood how the low pedal tones, when sustained, would setup standing waves in the long, narrow cathedrals, and how to maximise the limited dynamics of the instrument. Magnificent stuff.

My favorite performer is Marie-Claire Alain, who I found via MHS. However, last week I found a ten-disc set of pipe organ via Dan’s blog. Cost? twenty bucks!

The artist is Helmut Walcha, whose personal life is fascinating - he was blind, with perfect pitch and musical memory. From the article:

As a result of a smallpox vaccination, Walcha had poor eyesight since childhood, and was fully blind by sixteen. He learned new pieces by having musicians (including his mother in his childhood and his wife in later years), play for him four times (each hand separately, the pedal part separately, and the complete piece). Having perfect pitch, he would memorize the piece while listening.

I got my copy yesterday and am enjoying it. I think the low cost is partially due to the older analog recordings (40’s and 60’s) , but it still sounds damn good and the price is irresistable. I’ve listened to three of the CDs so far and am enjoying them immensely.

(As an aside, consider headphones or limited sessions, out of sensitivity to others within earshot who aren’t pipe organ fans.)

As the Wiki article notes, his voicings were unusual; his performance of the classic Toccata and Fugue in D sounds like call-and-response at some points by his use of alternating ranks. Most interesting.

Highly recommended.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Audio, sound and music, Coffee, Reviews and recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.