Reading About Listening to J.S. Bach
For the past couple months I’ve been enjoying CFO and real estate developer Evan Goldfine’s newsletter about listening to J.S. Bach. Called Year of Bach, it often includes more Bach than I can handle, but in a good way, and I like letting it wash over me.
Yesterday’s installment was more of a primer — I mean it was literally labeled “Where to start with Bach” and “a primer for new listeners” — which was especially up my alley.
Through this project, I’m attempting to write for the masses about a niche topic, which embeds the danger of writing for no one. So today I want to recognize my readers who are in earlier stages of their Bach journeys, and in this post I’ll be recommending some of the grassier pathways into this music.
Of the tracks and musicians he linked to, my favorite is the Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer rendition of Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major (above), from their Bach Trios album of 2017. I also loved Brad Mehldau’s Prelude No. 3 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, which Goldfine describes as “damned perfect, a one track playlist on repeat forever.”
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There's something also very meditative about playing Bach as well. The work allows you to be immersed and explorative in the music yet also feel "anchored" at the same time. I suspect it's got to do with my brain being so linear-thinking-wired.
I can imagine. In another life I wish I could play Bach.
A couple years ago I listened to 30 Bach, a podcast by Lowry Yankwich about the Goldberg Variations.
He talks to a number of pianists about the Goldbergs, and each of them plays a section of the variations.
https://www.thirtybach.com/
There is also a wonderful memoir by Philip Kennicott called “Counterpoint” in which he interweaves the Goldbergs with mourning the death of his mother. It’s one of the best memoirs I’ve read, and I don’t think you need to have a lot of Bach background to really enjoy it.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635362
Wonderful. Thank you.
Enjoy!
MORE BACH THAN I CAN HANDLE
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