69 episodes

Experience the music of Bach as you never have before. For music lovers, to professional musicians, let WTF Bach guide your mind through a contrapuntal journey.

wtfbach.substack.com

The WTF Bach Podcast Evan Shinners

    • Music

Experience the music of Bach as you never have before. For music lovers, to professional musicians, let WTF Bach guide your mind through a contrapuntal journey.

wtfbach.substack.com

    Performer's Commentary, Vol. 1

    Performer's Commentary, Vol. 1

    If you miss those DVDs with the optional director’s commentary, you’re going to enjoy this episode.
    Each album in my ‘J.S. Bach Complete Solo Keyboard Works’ will be accompanied by this type of work, my commentating as the music plays.
    You can stream (and individually purchase) any track including the performer’s commentary from the first album here:
    How To Support This Podcast:
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
    https://venmo.com/wtfbach
    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com
    The first three albums of the 'Complete Works for Solo Keyboard' are live everywhere. Stream while sleeping to achieve maximum effect.
    Volume One:
    Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/ycy2fab7
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
    Volume Two:
    Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/msjyhamh
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
    Volume Three:
    Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4xneak6r
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb


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    • 47 min
    What Did Bach's Business Card Sound Like?

    What Did Bach's Business Card Sound Like?

    You know that portrait of Bach holding a little scrap of music? Ever wonder what the piece was? What it sounded like?
    That piece of paper is a six-voice, triple canon: number thirteen in the fourteen additional canons found on the back of Bach’s personal copy of the Goldberg Variations. (Analysis of that specific canon around 32 min.)
    We’ve covered nine of these puzzling pieces in three previous episodes, but now it’s time to call it a wrap on all fourteen. These additional canons were discovered only as late as the 1970s. For a more detailed history, check the three previous episodes dealing with these canons:
    Here is the image of the canon, “Christ will Crown the Cross-bearers” that appears in the family registry book belonging to J.G. Fulde:
    And of course, Bach and his “business card:”
    The bass line in both the images (and in all of the canons) is our beloved “first eight fundamental notes of the preceding aria” on which all the canons are based.
    Be sure to get my forthcoming three albums on PRESALE before they go live on May 17th!
    Volume One:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
    Volume Two:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
    Volume Three:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb
    How To Support This Podcast:
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
    https://venmo.com/wtfbach
    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com


    Get full access to WTF Bach at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe

    • 48 min
    Three Albums on Presale Today! (Ever Dance With a Double?)

    Three Albums on Presale Today! (Ever Dance With a Double?)

    ALBUMS ON PRESALE TODAY! BUY THE ALBUMS HERE!
    Volume One:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
    Volume Two:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
    Volume Three:
    Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
    Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb
    As for the music covered today, we will hear Doubles layered over their preceding dance movements. A Double is an elaboration on the preceding movement, where the melody is quickened— often twice as quickly. The harmonic structure of the Double and its preceding movement is the same, allowing for one to play both movements at the same time with very interesting results.
    Pieces studied:
    Sarabande and Double from Sixth English Suite, BWV 811
    Gigue and Double from the c minor lute suite, BWV 997
    Partita in b minor for solo violin, BWV 1002
    People/places mentioned:
    Burp Castle at 41 East 7th Street in the East Village of Manhattan (between 2nd Ave & Cooper Square).
    Paul Spring (guitarist)
    How To Support This Podcast:
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
    https://venmo.com/wtfbach
    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com


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    • 30 min
    Some NEWS (and a Cantata...)

    Some NEWS (and a Cantata...)

    Thanks for all your support during The Bach Store! If you’re in NYC on Friday, come to Le Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street at 7pm.
    Be sure to mark your calendars: April 24th, 2024, my new albums will be on PRE-sale. It marks the beginning of my most ambitious project to date: a very thorough, if possible, ‘complete’ set of the keyboard works of Bach. I will certainly send another reminder as the date approaches.
    And now for a brief journey into Bach around this date in 1724: today’s episode covers the cantata for the second Sunday after Easter, BWV 104, Du Hirte Israel, höre. Unlike the other cantatas I have recently discussed, this cantata is not based on a chorale melody.
    And don’t miss out on your WTF Bach merchandise! Here are seven magnets for your fridge. Send me a note to arrange a sale (T-Shirts, Pins, Bags, 3D Printed Heads, Lighters, also available).
    How To Support This Podcast:
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
    https://venmo.com/wtfbach
    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com



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    • 32 min
    Bach Store is BACK! (+ Bach at 15 yrs. old)

    Bach Store is BACK! (+ Bach at 15 yrs. old)

    You read correctly: The Bach Store is back. In Erfurt, Thuringia, the state from where the Bachs hail. I will play for five hours, March 14-28, 12.00-18.00 GMT +1 (7AM-1PM EST.)
    You can (hopefully) stream the whole run on my youtube. Subscribe HERE.
    Or go to: www.youtube.com/@wtfbach
    Here is the latest video I mentioned in the podcast.
    Bach Store Merchandise is available on request. Send an email to bach (at) wtfbach (dot com)

    Meanwhile, the music in today’s episode comes from the “Neumeister Collection,” a collection of over 80 chorale preludes from multiple composers, published for the first time in 1985. More than 30 of the pieces come from J.S. Bach ca. 1700, when the composer was only 15 year old. Hence one of the newest Bach discoveries showed us the youngest portraits of the composer. I played three of them, one on a ‘real’ organ (Saint Anne’s, London) and two on Organteq (by Modartt.)

    How To Support This Podcast:
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
    https://venmo.com/wtfbach
    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com



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    • 25 min
    Introducing: The Flute!

    Introducing: The Flute!

    This week I’ll be performing some flute chamber music in Santa Barbara, California. I realize I’ve never specifically mentioned Bach’s wonderful flute repertoire on this podcast.
    We tackle here what I find is the most complex composition in the repertoire: the first movement of the b minor sonata, BWV 1030.
    Pieces heard:
    BWV 1030.1 Source P. 1008, early version, harpsichord part.
    BWV 1030.2 The later version, arranged as a flute sonata.
    Articles:
    Contentious writing on flute vs. recorder
    Your Support Is What Keeps Us Alive!
    https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
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    https://cash.app/$wtfbach
    Check out WTF Bach’s Youtube!
    New videos appearing soon.
    Join the mailing list for very occasional blasts: wtfbach.substack.com
    Write us:
    bach (at) wtfbach (dot) com


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    • 51 min

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