Swinging for the here and now
As we continue to transverse Bach’s first year in Leipzig, we get to the 19th Sunday after Trinity, for which Bach composed Cantata 48, performed on October 3, 1723. Some of the cantatas preceding this one showed us how he was experimenting with the integration of chorales as structural elements in different ways. Cantata 48 […]
For amateurs of the clavier
Bach’s first venture into music publication was the first Partita for the keyboard, in B flat major, now catalogued as BWV 825. Inspired by Handel, who in 1720 had published his “Eight Great Suites” in London with much success, Bach had the plan to continue to compose and publish additional partitas, to configure a collection. […]
Of weddings and garments
Cantata 162 was written during Bach’s Weimar period, in 1716, for the 20th Sunday after Trinity. Part of Bach’s job, after being promoted to Konzertmeister to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar in 1714, was to write monthly cantatas to be performed in the small chapel of the Duke’s palace. This resulted in most cantatas of […]