In an interview, the Hungarian composer György Kurtág (b. 1926) was asked if he is a believer. His answer was uncertain: I do not know. I toy with the idea. Consciously, I am certainly an atheist, but I do not say it out loud, because if I look at Bach, I cannot be an atheist. Then I have to accept the way he believed. His music never stops praying. And how can …
Bach’s Cantata, BWV 106 is a gentle and intimate reflection on death and redemption. It is titled, Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (“God’s time is the best time”), with the subtitle Actus Tragicus. The Cantata is scored for an unusual combination of instruments which the Netherlands Bach Society calls famous, idiosyncratic, exceptionally beautiful and meaningful…The violins are conspicuous by their absence, but there are two recorders and two viola da gambas, which …
In 2001, a long lost work by Handel was miraculously discovered. The manuscript for Handel’s Gloria in excelsis Deo had been hiding in plain sight in the library of London’s Royal Academy of Music. Bound in a collection of Handel arias that had been owned by singer William Savage (1720-1789), the manuscript was not in the composer’s hand. It was authenticated by Hamburg University professor Hans Joachim Marx. The Academy’s principal, Curtis Price, …
Antonio Vivaldi’s opera, Tito Manlio, composed over the course of five days in December of 1718, centers around a turbulent moral dilemma. Love and loyalty to family come into conflict with duty and rigid adherence to the law. Here is a brief synopsis, provided by Naxos.com: Titus Manlius is engaged in war with the people of Latium. Conflicts of love and duty arise with his daughter Vitellia, in love with the Latin …
Joan Lippincott, the American organist and esteemed teacher, passed away last Saturday, May 31 in Newtown, Pennsylvania. She was 89. For nearly four decades, Lippincott served as Professor of Organ and Head of the Organ Department at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. A recent statement released by the College honors her contribution: With an unerring ear, a fierce dedication to musical integrity, and deep personal kindness, she was both a …
The 19th century commentator, Hugo Riemann, described Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor, BWV 849 as the “holy of holies.” The phrase, found in the Hebrew Bible, refers to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle, where the Shekhinah (God’s presence) appeared. The fourth piece from Book 1 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, BWV 849 is solemn, meditative music filled with wrenching melancholy. The Prelude is a loure, a French Baroque dance which resembles …
It was during his youthful tenure in Weimar (1708-1713) that J.S. Bach composed the “Great” Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543. Only a few years earlier, the 20-year-old Bach walked north 200 miles to Lübeck to hear the celebrated organist, Dieterich Buxtehude, and “to comprehend one thing and another about his art.” The influence of Buxtehude’s style, along with the Italian music of Corelli, can be heard in BWV 543, …