Baroque Period

Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, BWV 891: Stratospheric Stretto

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Epic is a word that could describe Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No. 22 in B-flat Minor, BWV 891. The companion pieces come near the end of Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier, the manuscript of which is dated between 1739 and 1742 in the final years of the composer’s life. From the Prelude’s opening bars, a dense contrapuntal conversation unfolds. At moments, the imitative voices resemble a fugue. The real fugue arrives with …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 885: Double Invertible Counterpoint

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Reflecting on the work of his father, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote, If ever a composer has shown polyphony in all its strength, it was surely Bach…. Nobody has shown as much as he, in works which normally seem so dry, as much imagination and originality of thought…. His melodies were indeed unusual, but they were always varied, rich in invention, and they are not at all like those of other composers. …

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Handel’s “Un ‘Alma Innamorata”: A Secular Cantata for the Wounded Lover

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Before television, internet, movies, and rock and roll, there was the secular cantata. During the late Baroque period in Italy, these dramatic vocal works were popular entertainment in wealthy, aristocratic circles. Made up of a brief sequence of recitatives and arias, the secular cantata amounted to a kind of highly condensed opera. Between 1706 and 1709, the young George Frideric Handel traveled throughout Italy and produced at least 40 solo cantatas, most …

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Purcell’s Three Fantasias in Four Parts (Nos. 10-12): Jordi Savall, Hespèrion XX

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In the summer of 1680, five years before the birth of J.S. Bach, the twenty-one year old Henry Purcell composed a collection of fifteen Fantasias for the Viols. At the time, viol consort music was falling out of fashion. The Fantasias received little attention and remained unpublished until 1927. Now, these brief and sublime studies in polyphony, scored for between three and seven voices, are considered to be precursors to Bach’s Musical …

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Bach’s “Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein,” BWV 641: Evolution of a Chorale

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The young J.S. Bach was employed as court organist in Weimar when he composed the tender and intimate chorale prelude, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein, BWV 641 (“When we are in utmost need”). The brief liturgical interlude is part of Bach’s Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book) BWV 599−644, a compilation of 46 chorale preludes, written between 1712 and 1717. Albert Schweitzer commented that the soprano line, heard below as a pastorale reed voice, flows “like a …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in F Major, BWV 880: A Study in Contrast

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The Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F Major, BWV 880 comes from the second book of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. These sublime etudes traverse all twenty four major and minor keys, and in Bach’s words, were conceived “for the use and profit of musical youth desirous of learning, as well as for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” They are pieces characterized by a divine sense of order. The …

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La Centifolia’s “Ciaccona!”: Music of Purcell and Pachelbel

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Although its origins are murky, the chaconne appears to have originated in South America as a swirling dance which was “wild, fast, cheerful and often sung.” (Leila Schayegh) It was characterized by suggestive movements and mocking texts. (Alexander Silbiger) In the sixteenth century, conquistadors brought the chaconne to Spain. Evolving into a stately Baroque dance in triple meter, it spread quickly throughout Europe, and gained popularity with both aristocrats and the general public. …

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