I can't believe I didn't remember until now that today is the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. I do not have words to describe the effect his music has on me. So I will just say
Frölich Gebürtstag!

Happy birthday, Johann!

Yes! Happy birthday, and thanks for that, Juan...
Try this!

for quotes on the musical master of us all...

One of my favourite quotes is by Lewis Thomas at the end of the above link.

What a great link! Thanks, Ritz. At the risk of sounding pedantic, in order to understand Beethoven's comment ("Not brook but sea should be his name."), it must be remembered that Bach in German means 'brook' or 'stream'.

Yes, Juan. I teach a lady who speaks German like a native. "Umba-gumba-google jungle...", no, not that kind of native, you know what I mean. I know almost no German and invariably need to look up performance instructions where German is the language being employed.

Anyway, when first I read this comment I asked her about it, and she confirmed what you say. Incidentally, how many languages do you speak reasonably fluently?

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invariably need to look up performance instructions where German is the language being employed.

I remember some of Hindemith's tempi and the like are written in German. Who else?

Most of the later German composers use mainly Italian, it is true. But Mahler, Vebern, Schöenberg and others intersperse their works with German instructions.

For me it is the old question of 'knowing what I need to know', I am somewhat ashamed to say. There is no virtue in the fact that I have never bothered to learn musical performance instructions in German, as I have done in Italian & French. Having a library full of text books and encyclopaedias on all matters musical (as well as a host of other things, by the way!) means that basic laziness allows me to look up German marks of expression, and then pointlessly forget them a few days later!

Unpraiseworthy, I know, but that is the unpalatable truth...

Once again it is time to wish a happy birthday to the master, Johann Sebastian, whose music gives me a reason for living. And even at the end will I sing "Komm süsser Tod".

This Friday it will be time once again to celebrate the birthday of the master. That it is also Good Friday is simply reflective of the composer of the greatest work ever written.

Happy Birthday, JSB.

Thanks, jr, for inroducing me to the St Matthew Passion. It's beautiful.

What can I add? Musically speaking, the Master of the Universe.

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Thanks, jr, for inroducing me to the St Matthew Passion. It's beautiful.

My pleasure. Once again yesterday I set aside 3 hours to listen to it. As with master works, I hear something new everytime. Some find it strange that an atheist can love a sacred work so much.

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Originally posted by juanruiz:
Some find it strange that an atheist can love a sacred work so much.

Not me. However, it took me a while to come to terms with the fact that, as an atheist, I can still appreciate these tremendously beautiful religious works just for themselves. I can enjoy them in the same way that I appreciate church architecture and history.
You are in good company. Have a look at my second link. You need to scroll about a third of the way down the page. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the radio program Desert Island Discs.

Richard Dawkins

So far I have been listening to the St Matthew Passion as bits and pieces I saved from YouTube. Can you recommend a particular recording? Thanks.

It is just after High Noon, here in the UK, on Easter Sunday. I am about to settle down with my recording of John Eliot Gardiner, conducting the St Matthew Passion for the next 2 hours 40 minutes or so. At least for the next few days, if not the next few months, I will be a better person for the experience. Those with whom I engage will be treated more kindly and considerately, for a good long time, I hope.

Atheist & believer alike can draw spiritual nourishment from this most magnificent affirmation of faith, and from the extraordinary wealth of musical glory contained in this fabulous work.

We shall speak again!

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Can you recommend a particular recording? Thanks.

You'll get quite a polemic from Bach aficionados on this one. I like the Gardiner immensely. It's one of the few where you can actually hear the boy's choir sing "Oh Lamm Gottes unschuldig" in the opening chorus. Others believe the rendition is cold and too fast. Another good recording is Ton Koopman's. Several excerpts of it on Youtube. Koopman has also recorded a number of Bach's other choral works. Check out his "Wachet auf" on Youtube.

Thank you both.
I have bookmarked the Gardiner at Amazon.
I have been listening to the Koopman version of the St Matthew Passion at YouTube, and I want to ask you why he used a female choir? What would have been authentic to Bach's times?

Ritz: "Atheist & believer alike can draw spiritual nourishment from this most magnificent affirmation of faith, and from the extraordinary wealth of musical glory contained in this fabulous work."
Since I posted about Richard Dawkins yesterday, I came across this, which absolutely supports your view:
Richard Dawkins - The Argument from Beauty

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What would have been authentic to Bach's times?

As Kapellmeister at the St. Thomaskirche in Leipzig Bach would have had access to a a very professional choir, plus a boy's chorus. In fact, one of the stipulations of his contract was not only directing , composing, but also giving music lessons. Many today are amazed that he could pour out such a huge amount of liturgical choral pieces, while handling all his other duties. Fact is, he "stole" a lot of melodies, an accepted practice of the day. The different examples of the famous choral, was actually composed by Hans Leo Hassler, Bach just adapted it some 6 times in the Passion, each time in a different key. It was expected that the congregation would sing along with these well-known Lutheran hymns.

Thank you.

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Originally posted by juanruiz: Fact is, he "stole" a lot of melodies, an accepted practice of the day.

True,but he did not steal the limitless varieties of re-harmonisations which he applied to these chorales, lifting a very good melody into the realms of heaven.

As a student (and, I would like to think modestly, a reasonably capable one) from time to time part of my brief was to harmonise a chorale previously employed by Bach, but unknown to me. I would work over it for two or three hours, trying my level best to produce a masterpiece.

When the time came for my lesson I would hand it to my composition professor who would study it thoroughly. "Very good," he would often say. "I really like the way you have used this line here in the alto part, inverting it here in the tenor, and bringing it into the bass for the final section. That canonic passage is really quite beautifully done. You have, unfortunately written parallel octaves there; concealed, certainly, but nevertheless a weakness. And you have failed to captialise on this very promising line here. Had you chased it through the inner parts like this... and reversed it here, as you almost seemed about to do, like this... nevertheless a very fine piece of work," ...or things like that.

Then the dénouement. "Let us see what The Master did with it," whereupon he would open the relevant tome for our perusal (and humiliation...) The Bach arrangement would often be nothing like my working! On the rare occasions where I had hit on something for a few beats which resembled his creation I would be on cloud 9 for days. generally, though, his would simply blow my creation out of the water. I remember once, in sheer frustration saying to my composition professor, "I can never ever seem to produce anything approaching these workings!" To which he gently laid a hand on my arm, and said kindly, "Dear Boy, nor can any of the rest of us. We are all in the same boat."

Yes, the tunes are often not his own, but the treatments could in no way ever, ever, be seen as possibly anyone else's. Even Mozart was startled by his genius...

See page 2!