Bach's Operas of the Soul

Bach's Operas of the Soul PDF Author: Mark Ringer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538135574
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Bach’s Operas of the Soul is the first introduction to Bach’s sacred cantatas for the general music lover. In clear and accessible language, Mark Ringer examines this vast output of masterpieces as the great musical dramatic creations that they. Bach’s sacred cantatas represent an almost superhuman artistic and spiritual achievement, arguably the richest investment by a great composer within a single genre. But outside of a handful of pieces, they remain a closed book to a majority of serious listeners already familiar with Bach’s large-scale religious works. Nevertheless, the same musical-dramatic genius of Bach’s Passions is fully evident in virtually all of the composer's sacred cantatas. Ringer approaches the sacred cantatas as sermons in musical-dramatic form, un-staged operas, planned for each occasion of the church year. Bach’s era relished dramatic contrast, and his use of the human voice offers a constantly changing pallet of vocal colors. The singers play ‘roles’ throughout the cantatas from penitent sinner, to ardent believer, to Christ himself. This book is accompanied by online audio tracks of select Bach canatatas from the Naxos music library. It will be of use to readers interested in opera and vocal music who have already come to love Bach’s Passions and who want to familiarize themselves with this wide array of masterpieces.

Bach's Operas of the Soul

Bach's Operas of the Soul PDF Author: Mark Ringer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538135574
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
Bach’s Operas of the Soul is the first introduction to Bach’s sacred cantatas for the general music lover. In clear and accessible language, Mark Ringer examines this vast output of masterpieces as the great musical dramatic creations that they. Bach’s sacred cantatas represent an almost superhuman artistic and spiritual achievement, arguably the richest investment by a great composer within a single genre. But outside of a handful of pieces, they remain a closed book to a majority of serious listeners already familiar with Bach’s large-scale religious works. Nevertheless, the same musical-dramatic genius of Bach’s Passions is fully evident in virtually all of the composer's sacred cantatas. Ringer approaches the sacred cantatas as sermons in musical-dramatic form, un-staged operas, planned for each occasion of the church year. Bach’s era relished dramatic contrast, and his use of the human voice offers a constantly changing pallet of vocal colors. The singers play ‘roles’ throughout the cantatas from penitent sinner, to ardent believer, to Christ himself. This book is accompanied by online audio tracks of select Bach canatatas from the Naxos music library. It will be of use to readers interested in opera and vocal music who have already come to love Bach’s Passions and who want to familiarize themselves with this wide array of masterpieces.

Bach's Operas of the Soul

Bach's Operas of the Soul PDF Author: Mark Ringer
Publisher: Unlocking the Masters
ISBN: 9781538135563
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Bach's Operas of the Soul is the first introduction for the general music lover to Bach's sacred cantatas to appear in nearly half a century. In clear and accessible language, Mark Ringer examines this vast output of masterpieces as the great musical dramatic creations that they are in order to open these works to a wider audience. Bach's sacred cantatas represent an almost superhuman artistic and spiritual achievement, arguably the richest investment by a great composer within a single genre. But outside of a handful of pieces, they remain a closed book to a majority of serious listeners already familiar with Bach's large-scale religious works. Nevertheless, the same musical-dramatic genius of Bach's Passions is fully evident in virtually all of the composer's sacred cantatas. This book's innovative approach to Bach's Sacred Cantatas is to think of them as sermons in musical-dramatic form, un-staged operas, planned for each occasion of the church year. Bach's ability to dramatize text through music is unmatched throughout history. His era relished dramatic contrast and Bach's use of the human voice offers a constantly changing pallet of vocal colors. The singers play 'roles' throughout the cantatas from penitent sinner, to ardent believer, to Christ himself. The emotions and dramatic situations expressed are as varied as the human condition. This book will be of use to readers interested in opera and vocal music who have already come to love Bach's Passions and who want to familiarize themselves with this wide array of masterpieces.

The Cantatas of J.S. Bach

The Cantatas of J.S. Bach PDF Author: Alfred Dürr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198167075
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 984

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Book Description
This is the only English translation of this important book by the world's most distinguished Bach scholar.

Beethoven's Orchestral Music

Beethoven's Orchestral Music PDF Author: David Hurwitz
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538135612
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
Veteran music critic David Hurwitz provides an accessible, comprehensive, and fresh survey of Beethoven’s symphonies, overtures, concertos, theatrical music, his single ballet and other music for the dance, and several short pieces worth getting to know. Beethoven’s orchestral works include some of the most iconic and popular pieces of classical music ever written. This book offers chapters on Beethoven’s handling of the symphony orchestra and his contributions to its evolution, as well as his approach to musical form in creating large, multi-movement works. The musical descriptions provide helpful strategies for listening that invite both beginners and experienced enthusiasts to treat even the best known pieces as something fresh, new and relevant. In addition, Hurwitz provides extensive lists of recommended recordings of all of the music surveyed, highlighting the wide range of issues in Beethoven interpretation and performance, as well as the history of his music. He encourages readers to listen actively and critically, as they build their own Beethoven discographies according to their personal tastes and preferences. The book is accompanied by online audio tracks of Beethoven works selected by Hurwitz.

Better Get It In Your Soul

Better Get It In Your Soul PDF Author: Steve Rush
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 0898698162
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
This book offers hope to the parish that is searching for a way to make their liturgies more meaningful in the local context. Written by a priest and musician who have worked together for many years in the Canterbury House ministry at the University of Michigan, the methods described here demonstrate a respect for others' gifts and skills, discernment of the spiritual needs of the community, and actively welcoming the creative force of the Holy Spirit to work even in the planning process. Based on the liturgical format of the Book of Common Prayer, Hamilton and Rush nevertheless outline their experience and ideas in ways that will be useful to all liturgical denominations.

Bach and The Tuning of the World

Bach and The Tuning of the World PDF Author: Jens Johler
Publisher: Alexander Verlag Berlin
ISBN: 3895815403
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Everyone has heard of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier – but hardly anybody knows anything about his journey to F sharp major. In March of 1700, shortly before his fifteenth birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach set off on his journey. His destination: to create perfect music, music that unites heaven and earth in harmony. His search finally brought him to Lübeck, where he became acquainted with Andreas Werckmeister and the well-tempered tuning. In this tempering – and that is new! – you can play everything, all keys, in major and minor. But perfection has its price: All notes are "tempered" a bit, which means falsified; the music has a touch of artificiality from now on. And not only the notes and pitches – nature and people are also being tempered. Gardens are laid out with geometric precision, rivers are canalized, cities redesigned. Night becomes day thanks to street lighting, the pocket watch makes it possible to take along the time with you, the tuning fork enables choral pitch. The journey into an artificial world has begun. When Bach completed the Well-Tempered Clavier, he was overcome with profound doubt: Is not his work "only of this world" – perfect, artificial, profane? "For us, Bach's life consists primarily of biographical gaps. We know some things; but we don't know much. These gaps offer a novelist his chance. The facts were my fetters but they were also my source of inspiration. I did not invent anything 'freely' in the meaning of arbitrarily, though." Jens Johler "Jens Johler by no means turns the historical facts around.... Instead, he is writing a great of development novel in which private motifs and the course of time intertwine like fugue themes. " Harald Asel, rbb Inforadio

The Bach Family

The Bach Family PDF Author: Karl Geiringer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040222692
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 567

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Book Description
When this volume was originally published in 1954 it was the first complete history of the Bach family from the 16th Century miller Veit to Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst (1759-1845), Johann Sebastian’s grandson. The author views the family as a whole and shows the characteristic similarities in their artistic and human attitudes as well as the most significant divergences. Equal stress is laid on the discussion of the personalities, against the swiftly changing historical scene, and on the music, for which the author was able to use vast, hitherto inaccessible material. Apart from describing the fascinating phenomenon of this musical family, the author gives a history of musical thought in the last 300 years.

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers

Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers PDF Author: Patrick Kavanaugh
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310208068
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This is a compelling and inspiring look at spiritual beliefs that influenced some of the world's greatest composers, now revised and expanded with eight additional composers.

Black Opera

Black Opera PDF Author: Naomi Andre
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252050614
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
From classic films like Carmen Jones to contemporary works like The Diary of Sally Hemings and U-Carmen eKhayelitsa, American and South African artists and composers have used opera to reclaim black people's place in history. Naomi André draws on the experiences of performers and audiences to explore this music's resonance with today's listeners. Interacting with creators and performers, as well as with the works themselves, André reveals how black opera unearths suppressed truths. These truths provoke complex, if uncomfortable, reconsideration of racial, gender, sexual, and other oppressive ideologies. Opera, in turn, operates as a cultural and political force that employs an immense, transformative power to represent or even liberate. Viewing opera as a fertile site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change, Black Opera lays the foundation for innovative new approaches to applied scholarship.

Bach

Bach PDF Author: John Eliot Gardiner
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385351984
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who (when we can discern his personality at all) seems so ordinary, so opaque—and occasionally so intemperate? John Eliot Gardiner grew up passing one of the only two authentic portraits of Bach every morning and evening on the stairs of his parents’ house, where it hung for safety during World War II. He has been studying and performing Bach ever since, and is now regarded as one of the composer’s greatest living interpreters. The fruits of this lifetime’s immersion are distilled in this remarkable book, grounded in the most recent Bach scholarship but moving far beyond it, and explaining in wonderful detail the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects—and what it can tell us about Bach the man. Gardiner’s background as a historian has encouraged him to search for ways in which scholarship and performance can cooperate and fruitfully coalesce. This has entailed piecing together the few biographical shards, scrutinizing the music, and watching for those instances when Bach’s personality seems to penetrate the fabric of his notation. Gardiner’s aim is “to give the reader a sense of inhabiting the same experiences and sensations that Bach might have had in the act of music-making. This, I try to show, can help us arrive at a more human likeness discernible in the closely related processes of composing and performing his music.” It is very rare that such an accomplished performer of music should also be a considerable writer and thinker about it. John Eliot Gardiner takes us as deeply into Bach’s works and mind as perhaps words can. The result is a unique book about one of the greatest of all creative artists.