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Friday, March 21. 2014

J. S. Bach's birthday today

This inventive and rollicking organ piece is embedded in Western civilization's collective memory, and cannot help but influence anybody on earth who has attempted to make music since he (we think) composed it. It must be fun to play, especially with the footwork on the pedals:





Posted by Bird Dog in Music at 18:12 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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It is from the pipe organ that we get the phrase "pull out all the stops" and this piece's better-known parts are most definitely "pull out all the stops."
#1 Charles on 2014-03-21 20:49 (Reply)
Drat, I have nothing snide to say. Very enjoyable. Shockingly even frighteningly so.
#2 KommiKillr on 2014-03-21 21:51 (Reply)
When I was a young child we my Dad bought an LP called "Stereo Dynamics! To Scare Hell Out Of Your Neighbors". It included this piece. I listened to it over and over, and it fostered in me a life-long love of organ music.
#3 Cleve Watson on 2014-03-22 11:12 (Reply)
My college band used to play this at football games.
#4 Texan99 on 2014-03-22 12:50 (Reply)
That's a fine idea. Along with the cheerleaders, we ought to bring a band playing this song as we liberate Cuba. That may just be the finishing touch we needed. Maybe a contingent of drunken Irishman distributing whiskey? No, even war has it's limits.
#4.1 KommiKillr on 2014-03-22 13:09 (Reply)
I'm sorry folks, Western Civilization is superior. Here's proof.
#5 Otto Maddox on 2014-03-22 13:55 (Reply)
Some have said that musicians like Bach more than non-musicians like Bach.[Hundreds of years of musicians on various instruments have been trained on Bach's music.] If this is so, it is by virtue of a musician's seeing the architecture of Bach's music in the musical notation. This video helps bring the musical notation to life.

It is generally not difficult to identify a Bach piece, because NO musician mastered counterpoint to the extent that Bach did.
#6 Gringo on 2014-03-22 17:56 (Reply)
The very best live version of Toccata and Fugue I ever heard was in the Metro in Paris, I believe at the Cluny-Sorbonne station. It has many tile-lined passageways connecting it and a couple of other stations, and music resonates beautifully. I heard the music, and it sounded like an organ in a grand concert hall, but had a heck of a time finding the source. running up one tunnel and another. Finally, came across a Russian expatriate busker and his accordion, and I stood there mesmerized at his skill as Parisians tromped by. When he finished, I bought one of his self-published CDs. Still have it, too. Happy Bach's Birthday, wherever you are, Alexandre Klimenko. You know how to do his music right.
#7 fiftyville on 2014-03-22 18:42 (Reply)
For me, this music instantly conjures up two words: Jonathan E.
#8 Ed Driscoll (Link) on 2014-03-24 02:02 (Reply)

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