WTF Bach

146: Toccata’s Twin! Double Fugue in F

Forever paired with the giant Toccata BWV 540, it’s unlikely the two were conceived together. Still, owing to certain sources and the fact that this fugue is a dignified

145: Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196

Bach married his second cousin, Maria Barbara, on October 17, 1707, in St. Bartholomäi’s Church (pictured in the cover image) in a charming little village called Dornheim

144: Why (And How) I Became An Organist

Opsimath Organist My first trip to Germany (I was 21) I walked into a church in Weimar and heard— by beautiful coincidence— an unseen organist play Bach’s Passacaglia an

143: Special Guest, Emma Smith (University of Oxford)

“For something to be relevant, is it outside of time, or is it somehow speaking to us directly, now?” -Emma Smith Today’s guest is Emma Smith! Professor of Shakespeare s

142: Monster Toccata in F, BWV 540

About four years ago I made an episode about Bach’s ‘longest’ piece: Somehow I missed a piece which should definitely be in contention for his ‘longest.’ At 437 measures

Classical Music ...Robots.

PG-13 Warning Songs Without Lungs Of course I’m not worried about AI replacing me. I’m a pianist. No one will ever pay to watch robots perform. And then we met Sophia.

141: Bach's Orchestral Debut

As part of his new job, the 22-year-old Bach had to provide music for Mülhausen’s city council elections. For the first time, he officially had an occasion to write for a

140a: Passacaglia Supplement

I hope you get something out of this experiment! Enjoy Paul Jacobs’ beautiful live performance, followed by, at 16:20, an extremely slow MIDI version of BWV 582. The id

140: PASSACALIA

Bachian folklore claims Bach used to disguise himself and wander into random churches to play the organ. After a few minutes the warden was frightened it was either the d

139: Bach's Second (or Third) Cantata

At just 22 years old, Bach set the immortal words of David, ‘Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord.’ From the opening bars, we see depths, cries: The second and fourth

138: Bach's Very First Cantata

Who is Doctor Conrad Meckbach, and what is he doing in the middle of cantata 150?! Using clues from a clever acrostic spread throughout the text, scholars have securely

A Classical Musician's Thoughts at a Party

Yeah.Evan.Likewise.What I…? Oh what I do… Right, well, if you ask me what I do, I’m going to tell you: I breathe, I walk, I sit, I sleep, just like you! Just like you. W

137: Special Guest! Peter Wollny

Last December, I spoke with Peter Wollny, one of today’s most important Bach scholars. We discuss how one becomes a Bach scholar, what it’s like to be in close proximity

136: Bach's 12-Tone Fugue (WTC Finale!)

(Fear not the length of this episode: the last 25 minutes or so are three different playings of the piece.) Having written a prelude and fugue in every possible key, ha

135: H Major! The Final Major (And Tuning It...)

We reach the last note in The Well-Tempered Clavier, B natural. To this point, Bach has climbed chromatically from C, visiting both minor and major modes in every half st

134: 5 Flats, 5 Voices: Bach in B-flat Minor

“While the c# minor fugue awakens the conception of a mighty cathedral, the two numbers in b-flat minor may be likened to artistically wrought side-chapel’s vaults, in wh

133: ¿Por qué César Vallejo?

César Vallejo (1892-1938) is one of my favorite poets. To define his style is difficult: one doesn’t understand his poems so much as one absorbs them. His words— seemingl

132: The Other Bach Piece You Probably Played

It’s thrilling to look at the music of Bach’s predecessors. We see the very shape of Bach to come (I say, referencing my own album…) In several of Buxtehude’s works, we f

131: Dissecting The Dragon, A Minor Book 1

Perhaps before composing the bulk of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach had been challenging himself to create a fugue with real technical daring. This fugue, in a minor BWV

130: A Double Fugue & A Second Manuscript

Remember this image from the E-flat Major Prelude and Fugue epsiode, where Bach puts a double fugue at the half within the half? Bach does it once more in today’s episod