A little serenity (for Bach lovers)

[metaw3]

Playlist of the videos posted so far:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...19E13861763EFC

Johann Sebastian Bach - Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (BWV 731).

Quarteto Italiano di Viole da Gamba:

Paolo Biordi (Viola da Gamba Soprano).
Rodney Prada (Viola da Gamba Tenore).
Vittorio Ghielmi (Viola da Gamba Basso).
Cristiano Contadin (Viola da Gamba Basso).

(Original version for organ).

[Luminari]

Thank you!

[orthodoxymoron]

There is nothing like playing BWV 582 on a fine pipe organ in an empty church...very late at night...and pulling out every last stop during the final rest. Isn't that right Lucifer? I prefer French Romantic registration and interpretation...instead of the usual North German routine. What about you...Lucifer? Do you improvise during the cadenza? Which Cavaille Coll do you prefer? I love the pedal stops at Sacre Coeur. How about making Sophie...Pope Sophie? Seriously. After you retire...we can discuss these...and other topics. Doesn't that sound tempting? Just tell headquarters 'the stupid humans made me do it!' They'll understand.

[mudra]

I love Bach.
Thank you Metaw . Good idea to bring him in Avalon

Loving kindness
mudra

[metaw3]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

[mudra]

Great videos Metaw.. wow.. so beautifull

Loving kindness
mudra

[mudra]

Loving kindness
mudra

[mudra]

[Phtha]

ahh yes, can never get enough Bach.
Bach was the first music that brought tears to my eyes. It was the Goldberg Concertos.

Here is bach with a neat program that animates the notes while you listen:


The last movement of Bach's fourth Brandenburg Concerto, played on plucked strings, marimba and vibraphone, accompanied by a scrolling bar-graph score.

[orthodoxymoron]

Where there's Bach...there's Hope. Here's another one!

With Bach here, Avalon is nearly perfect. Thank you! Beautiful, even with the simplest of instruments.

Bach Prelude (Ukulele)

[Phtha]

The immortal god of harmony.
-- Ludwig van Beethoven

“Bach opens a vista to the Universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all.”
-- Helmut Walcha

Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe can not be regarded a complete failure.
-- E. M. Cioran

I do not think that music keeps evolving. It evolved through Bach; since then, in my humble opinion, all the innovations added nothing.
-- Gordon Getty

Religion is an internal spiritual world, and I have my own, with my god, Johann Sebastian Bach. I mean, why not?
-- Jack Kevorkian

When listening to Bach, it’s as though Bach himself is actually performing.
-- Aaron Copland

Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?
-- Michael Torke

Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian.
-- Roger Fry

“Bach is the supreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it”
-- Pablo Casals

“There is nothing like a Bach fugue to remove me from a discordant moment... only Bach hold up fresh and strong after repeated playing. I can always return to Bach when the other records weary me.”
-- Edward Weston

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”
-- Charles Mingus

“Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.”
-- Lewis Thomas

I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can’t think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that — its humanity.
-- Glenn Gould


Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Bach - Johannes Passion - 14. Aria S - Ich Folge Dir


Bach - Johannes Passion - 59. Aria A - Es Ist Vollbracht

The Celestial Baroque Shogun: Masaaki Suzuki

And here are some quotes from Bach himself.

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

If I decide to be an idiot, then I'll be an idiot on my own accord.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

My masters are strange folk with very little care for music in them.
--Johannes Sebastian Bach

Bring me A bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.
--Johann Sebastian Bach

[Luminari]

Originally Posted by Phtha

Bring me A bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.
--Johann Sebastian Bach

I can relate to that one right now. Just woke up.

Thanks everyone for this beautiful thread. Classical music by the masters, Bach especially is one of my passions in life. My radio is permanently fixed on ABC Classic FM.. used to leave it on for my cat too (I miss you Tarja), as we share this love together.

Classical music also makes you immune to road rage!

I play alot of neo-classical fast stuff on guitar, with sweep picking arpeggios and taps and legato. Love it.

[metaw3]

Originally Posted by Phtha

Bach’s music is the only argument proving the creation of the Universe can not be regarded a complete failure.
-- E. M. Cioran

Good one!

3 very different styles, same music:

[orthodoxymoron]

Phtha: Thank-you for the quotes.

Perform Bach yourself...if you can. There is something profound which emerges when one actually goes through the discipline of learning some very difficult music. I've tended to do a lot of spiritual reflection while sitting at the console of a pipe organ...playing Bach. This reflection has resulted in heretical theological views...which is why I don't go to church...and why I am not a church organist. But I do play my keyboard(always set to 'pipe organ') every day. Albert Schweitzer considered music to be an integral component of the search for truth.

Beware of dry and sterile performances of Bach. They are everywhere. A proper performance of Bach should sound like a very skillful improvisation. Bach spent hours improvising. Observers have stated that his improvisations were even more impressive than his written works. This is difficult to imagine.

Albert Schweitzer took organ lessons at Saint Sulpice in Paris from Charles Marie Widor. At the first lesson, Widor asked Schweitzer what he wished to play. The reply...'Bach...of course.'

Bach, Widor, Schweitzer(philosophy), Saint Sulpice(church), and Cavaille Coll(organ) are an unbeatable combination...in my view. If someone wants to start a church(I don't)...this would be a good model. No liturgy...just the music of Bach and Widor combined with the philosophical writings of Albert Schweitzer(which, in essence...are a modern application of the Teachings of Christ...without any mumbo-jumbo). Can you say 'Amen Ra' to that?!

[rhythm]

What a wonderfull

addition to avalon

is this thread

thank you

[mudra]

Love always
mudra

[Phtha]

Well said Ortho. I play classical guitar, Bach being my favorite to play. I can look back quite a few years and reflect on how his music has changed me in so many ways spiritually. Bach, Dowland, and Narvaez are 3 composers I play the most, and hold very dear.

You are also right on about many Bach performances. It can be easy to get so caught up in the technical aspect of his music that one can begin to play it like a computer rather then an instrument.

Have you heard of the story where Bach challenged Handel to a contest, and Handel 'smartly' turned it down? He was certainly known in his days for being superb with improvising. I would like to think how great it would have been to witness that, but then again, maybe we did witness it! I would love to learn the organ though, one of these days!


Here are a few versions of art of the fugue contrapunctus 1, written later in Bachs life.

Winds


Strings

Harpsichord

Originally Posted by orthodoxymoron

Phtha: Thank-you for the quotes.
Perform Bach yourself...if you can. There is something profound which emerges when one actually goes through the discipline of learning some very difficult music. I've tended to do a lot of spiritual reflection while sitting at the console of a pipe organ...playing Bach.
Beware of dry and sterile performances of Bach. They are everywhere. A proper performance of Bach should sound like a very skillful improvisation. Bach spent hours improvising. Observers have stated that his improvisations were even more impressive than his written works. This is difficult to imagine.

[orthodoxymoron]

If you don't believe in the Teachings of Jesus or the Constitution of the United States, or at least in combining them...I have a suggestion! The following actually applies whether you are a believer or not...believe it or not!

1. Get plenty of rest, relaxation, and sleep every day!

2. Get plenty of exercise in nature every day!

3. Listen to the music of J.S. Bach every day!

4. Examine everything carefully!

5. Focus on Responsible Freedom!

Try these 5 suggestions! They are basically simple, but it takes discipline to do them each, and every day! They will move you in the right direction! But please...give the Constitution of the United States and the Red Letter Teachings of Jesus a chance! They provide a historical foundation which will set us free...and keep us free!

[Phtha]

Bach BWV 1052 Violin Concerto in D Minor

[metaw3]

Playlist updated

[metaw3]

[Phtha]

[mudra]

The Piano Upon The Ocean

There upon the bluest waves, on a raft drifting away from the shore.
Sat a single pianist who played out so lonely, telling his haunting score.
With his fingers he played telling, stories of the darkness found in the sea
And on those keys playing, a song for my reckoning,
as the pianist was calling to me.
He calls for the sunset and then calls for the moon, he kisses her back into life.
And pounding quite fiercely, he brings waters as boiling,
churning and showing his strife.
You can see in his eyes he is the storm and the breaking,
he pounds out his tears.
And with notes I see floating, and the keys keep on flowing,
I see all of his fears.
The thunder his wording, the lightning his singer, the storm boys
to the notes that he plays.
To capture a moment, to stay there in time, voiceless I hear all he’ll say.
The hurricane building, sweet love like the gilding,
his passion found out in each chord.
Over waves come to crashing, out to sea he’s still dashing,
the waters part for this artistic lord.
With a brightness so blinding, no telling no minding,
the rain like a wall in its wake.
With his fingers unfailing, finding every key, his song not one of mistake.
Still he pounds the ivories, as though to make them bleed,
makes them sing his anger, and makes them tell his need.
The mermaids swim close to listen, the sirens now too so still.
Bending the dark around him, bringing it to his knees for his will.
On into forever, the pianist still carries his tune.
Now I gaze across the waters, hoping he comes back soon.

Devis inkwell

Loving kindness
mudra

[Phtha]

Question:

How much music can one get out of a flute?

Answer: