Category: musicology

  • BACH: Fantasia Super: Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, BWV 651

    FULL POWER!!! The overwhelming opening of Fantasia Super: Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, performed by Leo van Doeselaar for All of Bach, refers almost literally to the opening lines of Acts 2 from the Bible, which say about Pentecost: “And when the day of Pentecost fully came, they were all with one accord in one…

  • BACH: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80

    This sacred cantata by Bach is a combative cantata written for Reformation Day (October 31st) as a battle song of the Reformation. Military references are found not just in the words, but in the music as well, built up by Bach over the years. I love Bach’s masterful use of word painting in this cantata.…

  • New Year Medley 2023

    Happy New Year – 2023! Here are a few songs to ring in the new year. Where Have All The Flowers Gone This is a very poignant anti-war anthem performed by the 60’s folk music trio Peter, Paul & Mary. Lyrics Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? Where have all the flowers…

  • Bach and Theology: Was Bach and his music anti-Semitic or anti-Judaic?

    Baroque composer primus inter pares J.S. Bach was a man of the deep and profound Christian faith. He believed the chief aim of music is to glorify God. Bach would write on his musical manuscripts: SDG, Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone the Glory, and JJ, Jesu Juva – Jesus Help. The topic of…

  • Jarvis and Bach

    Australian author Martin Jarvis starts with an astounding assertion, that Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena Bach wrote not only the Solo Cello Suites, but other major works attributed to Bach as well.  He expects us to go along with him with basically no real evidence. The much ballyhooed handwriting analysis is a joke, and it…