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This thread, a la Phanto, will discuss why and how much I absolutely adore Bach's Mass in B Minor. It's really long, it's really dense, it's really involved, and incredibly difficult to sing. But I love it dearly.
I have the rare and wonderful opportunity these two weeks to work really hard in preparation for a performance of the Mass with a really talented group of people, including my beloved mentor and teacher/conductor Dr. Bruce Browne. We're doing it in true Baroque style, which means a small Baroque orchestra and a small ensemble (I think there are 18 of us.) Some of the movements are so dense and complex that we're performing them as a solo quintet (one voice per part.) I'm blessed to be able to be in 4 of those solo quintets and also to be able to sing the Soprano part of the Soprano/Alto duet in the Credo section.
What I love about the Mass is that it's literally the work of an entire lifetime. It wasn't composed all at once, nor were all the pieces originally composed as part of the mass. Many of the themes, sections and ideas were things that Bach swiped and pieced together from his own earlier works (including some 200 or so full cantatas, a whole lot of organ voluntaries and tocattas, etc...)
The whole thing is monumental. It contains 2 solos for Bass, 2 for Alto, 1 for Tenor and three duets for Soprano/Alto, Soprano/Tenor, and Soprano/Mezzo-Soprano. Most of the movements are written in 5 part polyphony, several utilizing the fugue as an extremely effective compositional technique. Bach uses the text of the Mass to his advantage while composing and manages to illustrate the subject matter beautifully with the music. The harmonies are WAY ahead of his time, as are some of the rhythmic figures (FULL of syncopation). The whole thing is elegant, poignant and a bit overwhelming at times. It's been one of the best musical experiences I've had and I'm learning so much. (Sadly, the mass was not performed in its entirety during Bach's lifetime. But is sure is performed a lot now!)
Bach wasn't subersive in his compositions, nor was he especially ground-breaking in his carreer as an organist, composer, and choir director. Yet he managed to pull together everything that was wonderful about western music at that time and make it sparkle. No one has accomplished anything like that, even those like Debussy, who managed to change everything, or Mozart, who worked brilliantly in his sphere.
They ALL studied works like the Bach B Minor Mass to learn how music is made.Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I'm glad you love it so much...I want a linky to your performance!!!
I'll tell JenniK about this, she has performed a lot of classical music, and her mother is a church organist, so i'm sure she has at least heard it; I know I have...
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Oh, this work has my vote for the best piece of music in all of western civilization. Bach absolutely rules as a composer. His stuff has better bones than anyone's, and this piece is his crowning achievement.
Bach has some of the best single line melodies that have ever been written. The actual notes he comes up with are deliciously sublimely good. He's sort of a musician's musician, in that the more you understand him, the better he is. So learning to perform his stuff gives you an even better insight into how brilliant the man actually was. Bach sounds good on any instrument. If you ever have to play the coke bottles (blowing across the top) or the box-end-wrenches, or any marginal ugly sounding instrument, play something by Bach and it will shine. There's a reason why, back in the 60s when Moogs and other electronic keyboards all sounded like cheap accordians on crack, the first popular album of synthesizer music was "Switched On Bach".
I discovered Bach when I was about 17. My dad would listen to him a lot and we kids always made fun of it, hearing only the surface which seemed like lots of the same old thing. (It's funny how all music people don't get sounds to them very repetitive.) But then Dad arranged several Bach pieces for piano, and played them, and, well, my dad was my favorite piano player ever. He had excellent taste and just the right touch. He played Bach better than anyone, Glenn Gould included, in my opionion. He never schlocked it up the way so many people mistakenly seem to do. A Bach piece is not supposed to be done as though he were a romantic composer. He's best when done very simply, letting the exceptional music shine through.
Anyway, I started loving to hear my dad play these Bach arrangements for piano that he did. (He was a wonderful arranger too. I really ought to get some of these published.) I would request them, then I learned some of them myself. When I did that, there would be certain notes and harmonies that were so surprising, and so deeply satisfying, that I would just stop to savor them, playing those parts over and over, almost in an onanistic way.
Anyway, the Bm Mass has some of the very best Bach things of all. Both Kyrie Eleisons and the Christy Eleison are amazing. Lately I've become completely enamored with Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris, and have also started listening specially to the Dona Nobis Pacem.
There's enough in this piece to discover more and more each time you hear it. It is a musical well that will never run dry for me. I think God should be flattered that Bach wrote this piece in his honor.
[ July 17, 2004, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
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I wish I could find a good version online to link to here. Preferably one with the individual sections indexed so I could pick which bits to offer. I can't come up with one, though. Can anyone else?
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