Kevin's Watch

Sorry, folks. The Watch was messed up in the beginning of the month, and I forgot for a while after that; as duchess said, I'm joyously distracted these days ; there's always my job and three kids keeping me busy; etc... Sorry.

Generally speaking, we define passacaglia as a composition built on a repeating bass melody. The reason we define it this way is that that's what Bach called this piece. Over the centuries, different composers used the word to describe different types of music. But, because of Bach's stature in our eyes (ears?), we do what he said.

Tracks 10 and 11 of this disc are my favorite recording of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002ZO1/qi ... c&v=glance
It wouldn't be a surprise if everybody recognizes it. It's been recorded hundreds of times, for organ as well as orchestral transcriptions. It's also heard in many movies and tv shows. The opening scene of White Knights is a good example. If you listen to this excerpt, you hear the theme almost three complete times. First, all by itself. A very sombre melody, eh? It is followed by twenty variations. If you listen for it, you will always hear the theme. It sometimes goes up to the higher notes, sometimes changes rhythmically, but it's always there. In one variation, it's even moved to the foot pedals, while the hands play a different rhythm.

I bumped Foul's Art of Fugue thread, so, if you need, you can read my very short description/definition of what a fugue is. After twenty variations in the passacaglia, Bach uses the theme as a fugue subject. Bach was the Fugue King. I swear, if you dropped a plate on the floor, he'd be able to make a fugue out of the sounds. He was a nut!

Emotionally, this piece takes me all over the place. To me, the theme is sombre. But what Bach does around it is... How can I say it? It's happy, sad, dancing, laughing, crying... Everything! Nobody has ever known how to write variations like Bach. Every musical device can be found, every affect can be felt.

Next, you can move on to Bach's chaconne for unaccompanied violin. Rather than a repeated melodic pattern, a chaconne is a repeating harmonic pattern. Again, this is our definition because that's what Bach called that piece. The Goldberg Variations is probably after that. It's about 80 minutes all by itself!

I wasn't quite sure what this music was until I listened to it. Then I had a good laugh. A girl I used to work with used to bring this in every year and play it for us at Halloween. So I was familiar with the work, I just did not know what it was called.

In fact, last Halloween one of the guys I work with and I were trying to figure out what she had been bringing in, because we wanted to listen to it. We knew it was organ music, and thought it was Bach, but we were not sure what its name was. Now we will know.

And so I have this unfortunate strong association between this music and with Halloween. Especially the first song; I cannot swear to it, but it seems that I have heard this in movies? Maybe old black & white horror movies? Fist, do you know if it has been used in sound tracks?

Bach is always good to listen to. He has so many layers going at once, so many things to listen to...I think if he had gone in for math rather than music, his name would be right up there with great math masters like Newton...

Are you talking about Track #10 in the listening samples? I didn't say so, but that and 11 are the tracks I'm talking about. 1-9 are other compositions. #1 is among the most famous pieces of music in history, largely because of its use around Halloween each year. I don't know how it first came to be used that way, but it sure seems fitting! Heh. I guess the passacaglia also has that feeling at times, although it has many different feels in different sections.

I thought you were talking about the whole CD.

I listened to the whole kit and caboodle several times in preparation for talking about it.

Ah well. Tomorrow I will listen to just those tracks.

I'm really sorry. I don't have any idea why it didn't occur to me to say which specific tracks I was talking about. I just edited my original post.

Fist and Faith wrote:I'm really sorry. I don't have any idea why it didn't occur to me to say which specific tracks I was talking about. I just edited my original post.

Not a problem, Fist. I know your mind is probably on other (joyful ) things right now!

Hey, watch it, you guys. Any more of this random apology and forgiveness stuff, and I might be forced to act!

How did I miss this one back in Feb? That is absolutely one of the favorite CD's that I have!

Bangarang!!!

I've been listening to Bach's organ works as played by Ton Koopman. This recording features the Toccata and Fugue plus the Preludes but not the Passacaglia. D'oh!

Anyway, I think I know the bit you're referring to - the opening of the Toccata famously used (or overused) in schlock horror movies and parodies of such. To be clear, we're talking about the 2nd movement, yes?
It's one of those musical cliches that has come to define an entire piece of music - at least for movie buffs , even though this intro is really just a small part of the whole. I wonder what Bach would make of his pious organ music being associated with Hollywood B movies? I never got past the intro either, until now.

A love of classical music was instilled in me early, but I had avoided the organ because, well, it just didn't seem a cool instrument to me at the time. I associated it with stuffy "church" music - the sort of thing heard at Sunday services and televangelical sermons. Since Bach was a devoutly religious man, I'd say that assessment wasn't too far off the mark. The difference, as I've come to realize, is that Bach wrote his music as a sincere expression of his faith, while televangelists - whose sincerity I question - use music such as Bach's as a backdrop to press their own agenda.

So, getting past my own prejudiced notions of the organ, Bach's organ music turns out to be some of the most ecstatic, cosmic-sounding stuff you can listen to. It helps that Koopman's is a top-notch digital recording that ably gets across the huge dynamic range of the organ. Short of being there in the grand acoustical space of a church, this CD is a good way to experience and wallow in the sound of the organ.

My apologies, MM. Somehow, I never saw your post until just now!

The bit duchess was first talking about is the Hollywood B movie piece. The composition this thread is about is not. heh

Off hand, I can't think of any Bach organ music that was not written for the church. He worked for Prince Leopold in Cöthen in 1717-1723. That was a royal court, and Bach wasn't required to do much religious music. But after that gig ended, he worked for the St. Thomas church in Leipzig until he died in 1750. Tons of church music, and most of his organ music. But Bach organ music is still Bach, so I'm ok with it. And as one teacher said, if a Bach piece has 250 measures, it has 250 virtuoso measures. Bach didn't do anything half-way.

Heh Fisty. Maybe one of these days you can dissect Bach's Great Mass for us.

Holy moley! That could take up to an hour!