Here's something you might be interested in.
"Wachet auf!" ruft uns die Stimme.
"Wake up!" the voice calls to us.
The first Sunday of advent is already behind us. Are you awake? Christmas is on the way.
Do you have your tree? Have you found your fiesta fudge recipe? Wake up!
Maybe that wasn't what Bach had in mind when he set this traditional advent text.
The cantata BWV 140 is quintessential Baroque music. The opening choral movement has an elegant, stately sense of occasion.
The dotted rhythms of the strings march in contrast to soaring vocal lines that could only be sacred.
The fourth segment of this cantata might be perfection. This is a tenor solo but not really.
It would be more accurate to say it is an orchestra solo with the tenor as accompaniment.
The melody in the orchestra is divine. By divine I mean, "characteristic of or befitting a deity."
Bach's music is never confused. It always knows exactly where it has come from and where it is going. Of itself, it is all knowing.
This is not passionate music, it exceeds passion. Technically it is sacred music but that reduces it to the mere content of the text and restricts it to a specific tradtion.
Bach's music is more than charming or beautiful. This music has the graceful dignity of a humble master.
It is unimpressed with itself and this is why Bach's music is imbued with grace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYQKIKNLiJg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__lCZeePG48
"Wachet auf!" ruft uns die Stimme.
"Wake up!" the voice calls to us.
The first Sunday of advent is already behind us. Are you awake? Christmas is on the way.
Do you have your tree? Have you found your fiesta fudge recipe? Wake up!
Maybe that wasn't what Bach had in mind when he set this traditional advent text.
The cantata BWV 140 is quintessential Baroque music. The opening choral movement has an elegant, stately sense of occasion.
The dotted rhythms of the strings march in contrast to soaring vocal lines that could only be sacred.
The fourth segment of this cantata might be perfection. This is a tenor solo but not really.
It would be more accurate to say it is an orchestra solo with the tenor as accompaniment.
The melody in the orchestra is divine. By divine I mean, "characteristic of or befitting a deity."
Bach's music is never confused. It always knows exactly where it has come from and where it is going. Of itself, it is all knowing.
This is not passionate music, it exceeds passion. Technically it is sacred music but that reduces it to the mere content of the text and restricts it to a specific tradtion.
Bach's music is more than charming or beautiful. This music has the graceful dignity of a humble master.
It is unimpressed with itself and this is why Bach's music is imbued with grace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYQKIKNLiJg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__lCZeePG48