I often state that one of my foremost influences is the music of J.S. Bach. However as I progress in my music generally I find that my influences are more distant- the music I want to create is wholly new, an expression, perhaps, of me. Personally, as a musician and artist, I have been careful with what I listen to, but trying to stay open to what is on the air waves. We don't have any recordings of J.S. Bach (1685-1750), but modern 'interpretation' suffices to show us some of the tendencies of the eminent composer.
The music of Bach has always seemed to me to be so striking in its persistence. He holds unto counterpoint like a suckling baby to the breast of harmonic possibility. His work was considered quite different, even strange, and many of Bach's pieces reach a point of almost total tonal dissolution during the nether regions of keyboard fugue, for example. Even if difficult passages were more comprehensible with historically correct tunings, it is clear that the composer is presenting a work which goes in and out of unreachable complexity, working itself back into understandable graces.
Why was Bach so willing to take his music to such a difficult place for most people to understand as listeners. The audiences he was performing for may have been better suited to comprehend the immensity and depth of four-, five-, and six- part counterpoint, but undoubtably much of the composer's work was for a sort of musical elite- those who were in the princely courts or artsy local cafes to experience the work. Ultimately his willingness to go to difficult passages for sacred works also implies that the richness of changing harmonies represented a deep potential in the universe; For Bach, both the sacred and profane could tolerate movements which broached a level that few have dared, even now, some two and a half centuries after he finished the Mass In B Minor and The Art of The Fugue (unfinished), capping off the Baroque Era of music and yet being of a wholly unique level amongst any musician.
The music of Bach has always seemed to me to be so striking in its persistence. He holds unto counterpoint like a suckling baby to the breast of harmonic possibility. His work was considered quite different, even strange, and many of Bach's pieces reach a point of almost total tonal dissolution during the nether regions of keyboard fugue, for example. Even if difficult passages were more comprehensible with historically correct tunings, it is clear that the composer is presenting a work which goes in and out of unreachable complexity, working itself back into understandable graces.
Why was Bach so willing to take his music to such a difficult place for most people to understand as listeners. The audiences he was performing for may have been better suited to comprehend the immensity and depth of four-, five-, and six- part counterpoint, but undoubtably much of the composer's work was for a sort of musical elite- those who were in the princely courts or artsy local cafes to experience the work. Ultimately his willingness to go to difficult passages for sacred works also implies that the richness of changing harmonies represented a deep potential in the universe; For Bach, both the sacred and profane could tolerate movements which broached a level that few have dared, even now, some two and a half centuries after he finished the Mass In B Minor and The Art of The Fugue (unfinished), capping off the Baroque Era of music and yet being of a wholly unique level amongst any musician.
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