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    Frederik Magle
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    Krummhorn
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Tell us your favourite Bach organ works!

NEB

New member
For me it's "Num komn' der Heiden Heilland" BWV 659, the slow beautifully embellished choral. I can just about play it to my own satisfaction too!

Liebster Jesu Wir sind Hier is another of the same ilk. Equally Beautiful. :)
 
Vowles Tracker

I was wondering if J.S. Bach was born as an Englishman would his great organ works be so popular?

How on earth would you sell your works under the name of John Sebastian Brook? :eek: :eek:
 

NEB

New member
He might have had a much less favourable general environment in which to work possibly?
 

Soubasse

New member
John Sebastian Brook? :eek: :eek:

Oh I don't know - kind of catchy don't you think?:smirk:

It's an interesting hypothesis though. Given that the standard of English Baroque music in general (outside of the works of Purcell and Handel ... if we can call the latter "English") is generally seen as, shall we say "lacking", one could wonder as to who an English JSB's teacher would have been and whether he would have developed the craft to the extent that the real JSB did. I'm sure most of us are familiar with the "Old English Organ Music for manuals" collections. Sure they're pleasant enough pieces (most of them!) but not exactly as inspiring as what JSB gave us.

MPA
 

Jeffrey Hall

New member
Interesting to ponder. This of course is getting to the classic "nature versus nurture" issue that goes from ancient literature into present-day cinema (e.g., Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy in Trading Places).

I side with nature. Probably the Puritan attitudes didn't help the development (beyond Handel) of exquisite music in Baroque England. They evidently didn't help with the development of 18th-century English organs. But a transcendent genius like Bach is so rare that he is a statistical oddity -- he can appear at any time, in any culture, and this kind of genius that's five or six standard deviations away from the norm will overcome the local obstacles. A competent teacher from the English "cute pieces for manuals" school could have taught Bach and he would have run from there (perhaps would have even moved away to where he could exercise the full range of his abilities). Bach's teachers, such as older brother Johann Christoph, were hardly giants.
 

NEB

New member
I'm wondering if, given that Church music in England was generally languishing at the time, and given that patronage was hugely important to any composer, perhaps IF Brook had stayed in England (rather than Fleeing to Holland or Germany) then those prodigious tallents might have been directed more towards 'court music'?

(Rhetorical question)
 

NEB

New member
Oh yes - another thing - to find the best of English composers I think you need to look at the various choral setting, Te-deums, Maginificats/nunc dimitis, the settings for the masses (glorias, Credos, benedictus, agnus dei etc.) of which pretty much the standard fare of the large English cathedral choirs tends to be from the likes of Morely, Tallis, Blow, Purcel et al.

I think this is where their best work was done. (within the religious sense)
 

nachoba

New member
Well you all are going to laugh because it's not a very technically demanding work! But here it goes. For me its "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier" BWV 731. There's something in that choral that make it really special. Only Bach could have composed such a perfect and expressive work.
regards
nachoba
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Well I'm not laughing, nachoba ... sometimes these quieter & slower pieces are just as challenging as the more bombastic ones. A wrong note in Liebster Jesu stands out like a sore thumb and everybody listening will know it, whereas in a Fantasia with 16th's running all over the place in both hands and the feet, one wrong note will go totally unnoticed.

Funny you should mention this piece today - it is my selected Prelude for Sunday, which turns out to be Confirmation day for our youth, too.
 
Vowles Tracker

Oh my favourite Bach organ work is the Toccata & Fugue in F Major BWV 540 with its 438 bars, the Toccata is a real gigantic spine tingling experience I just burst with joy on hearing it. Sadly it appears never to be performed by so called world class perfomers who delight in boring the pants off with that other Toccata & Fugue in D Minor BWV 565. :trp: :devil: :banghead: :rolleyes: please give the listening public a break Boris Karloff is dead
 
Vowles Tracker

My favourite musical quote:
':angel: Classical Quotes':angel:

"Lose no opportunity of practising on the organ; there is no instrument which takes a swifter revenge on anything unclear or sloppy in composition and playing"

Robert Alexander Schumann, 1833 (perhaps I am Baching up the wrong tree? )
 

biggestelk

New member
Don't forget the beautifully crafted double fugue that follows, a gem. I wish it was played more sedately than you normally hear so as to appreciate and enjoy its construction.
 

Danmakine

New member
I clearly and dearly love "Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme" BWV ???
It was one of the pieces that opened my eyes for the magnificent instrument that an organ is - along with the "Dorian" Toccata and Fugue.

/Lene
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
I clearly and dearly love "Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme" BWV ???

"Wachtet" is BWV 645 From the Schübler Chorales. I use this one at Christmas frequently in church.
One of my many Bach favs is BWV 654, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele from the Liepzig Chorale Preludes.
 

NEB

New member
My first exposure to 645 was at school and it was an arrangement for Grade 3 or 4 Euphonium. I liked it so much I learned the piano accompanyment as well and played the Euph part in the pedals of the organ in the school chapel. It sounded very effective indeed.

It was some time before I actually saw the proper Organ version. But occasionally I still knock out the first version I learned because it is sooooo effective (well to my ears anyway!)
 

sebastian8flyte

New member
Without a doubt, it's Toccata and Fugue in D-minor BWV 565, but it must be played PERFECTLY. Done right,IMHO, it's a truly religious experience. I was at an organist try out night and I requested this song be played. The contestant grinned at me, then I knew she 'got it'. The wooden pews vibrated. I vibrated. She knew just when to hold those notes and and when to speed up. I've heard this piece played at least 100 times by almost 100 different people. Most people play it like they have somewhere else to go when they're done. She really understood the piece. I was crying and exhausted by the time she was done. The piece you can download from this site is the closest I've ever heard since that day in church...and...I gained a new site to come to.
 

Krummhorn

Administrator
Staff member
ADMINISTRATOR
Hi sebastian8flyte ...

Yes indeed, that performance of Frederik Magle is absolutely stunning. Welcome to MIMF,. btw - glad to have you aboard. Do you also play the organ, or just appreciative of great organ music?
 

methodistgirl

New member
Joy of man's desire

I can say my favorite Bach organ work is really Jesu Joy of Man's Desire
because it is so lively and beautiful. There is a version of it in the Methodist
hymnbook if you can find one. Ha! Ha! I like it a whole lot better then
Taccata & fugue. That piece has been misused so often in horror movies
that it isn't funny. By the way it sounds to me, Bach composed toccata
& fugue as a religious piece. Remember the Roman Catholic Church was
going strong at that time and there had to be music for almost every kind
of mass service. I noticed in toccata & fugue that there are some places
in the music that sounds like an A-men piece. Like on the end of our
church doxology with "Praise Father, Son, & Holy Ghost. A-men! So try
and listen to these spots in the toccata.
judy tooley
 
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