Kevin's Watch

Fist, do you know the name of the cantata that has "sheep may safely graze" in it? I thought it might have something to do with hunters but can't remember for the life of me. Too many pain pills tonight I guess.

Wow. I apparently dropped the ball on this. Sorry sj. Almost four years later, in case you haven't found the answer, it's from one of his secular cantatas - the Hunting Cantata. BWV 208. It's aria 5, "Schafe können sicher weiden". It's been arranged for just about any instrument or combo you can think of.


The reason I just saw sj's question is because I just realized Sunday is Bach's 325th birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JS!!!!!!!!!!!



Hey, sj is JS backwards!!

Whoa. I didn't know Bach's birthday was coming up either.

Happy 325th, O Great Contrapuntal One!

Last month I had downloaded Keith Jarrett's recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier but didn't get around to listening to it.
Looks like this weekend I'll be putting it on.

And sorry for not responding to this, danlo, back when I could have. Musta been one of those "I'll post later about that" kind of things?

No, Sleepers Wake is a different thing entirely. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme is one of his couple hundred sacred cantatas. BWV 140. Like many of his cantatas, it was based on a Lutheran chorale (hymn). (wiki says this one was written by Philipp Nicolai in 1599.) The cantata is as good as it gets, folks. A masterpiece, as sublime, though certainly smaller, as things like his passions and the Mass in B minor. It's in several movements, for different voices and combinations of voices, different accompanying instruments, and with different harmonies. The theme is heard at greatly different speeds, giving it a different feel at different times.

IMO, the best recording of it is this:
www.amazon.com/Bach-Wachet-ruft-Stimme- ... 192&sr=8-1
Check out the previews. Not much to go on, but...

bump