The WTF Bach Podcast Evan Shinners

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.
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Volume One:
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Volume Three:
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.)
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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
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This is the final episode introducing Bach’s cantata cycle of 1724. In the first four cantatas of the cycle, we heard how Bach used Lutheran hymnal melodies as cantus firmi in different voice parts in each opening movement (sopranos, followed by altos, followed by tenors, followed by basses.)
Here, the next two cantatas see less predictable treatments of the old melodies. Bach evidently valued these two cantatas, as later in life he arranged single movements from both BWV 10 and BWV 93 into his publication of organ music known as the “Schübler Chorales.”
Pieces heard:
BWV 10, Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (Full Performance of the cantata)
BWV 648, Meine Seel erhebt den Herren (Organ version)
BWV 93, Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten
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Check this playlist:
I mentioned this playlist in the episode: all the cantatas in the 1724 cycle. Love to my fans!
The book I mentioned on the use of ‘Tonus Peregrinus”
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