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Recent Episodes
137: Special Guest! Peter Wollny
Last December, I spoke with Peter Wollny, one of today’s most important Bach scholars. We discuss how one becomes a Bach scholar, what it’s like to be in close proximity with Bach’s handwritten…
136: Bach's 12-Tone Fugue (WTC Finale!)
(Fear not the length of this episode: the last 25 minutes or so are three different playings of the piece.) Having written a prelude and fugue in every possible key, having created a single…
135: H Major! The Final Major (And Tuning It...)
We reach the last note in The Well-Tempered Clavier, B natural. To this point, Bach has climbed chromatically from C, visiting both minor and major modes in every half step, and before the stunning…
134: 5 Flats, 5 Voices: Bach in B-flat Minor
“While the c# minor fugue awakens the conception of a mighty cathedral, the two numbers in b-flat minor may be likened to artistically wrought side-chapel’s vaults, in which things most precious are…
133: ¿Por qué César Vallejo?
César Vallejo (1892-1938) is one of my favorite poets. To define his style is difficult: one doesn’t understand his poems so much as one absorbs them. His words— seemingly impenetrable— have a sense…
132: The Other Bach Piece You Probably Played
It’s thrilling to look at the music of Bach’s predecessors. We see the very shape of Bach to come (I say, referencing my own album…) In several of Buxtehude’s works, we find this texture:Bach tossed…
131: Dissecting The Dragon, A Minor Book 1
Perhaps before composing the bulk of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach had been challenging himself to create a fugue with real technical daring. This fugue, in a minor BWV 865, represents some of the…
130: A Double Fugue & A Second Manuscript
Remember this image from the E-flat Major Prelude and Fugue epsiode, where Bach puts a double fugue at the half within the half?Bach does it once more in today’s episode. We’ve arrived at the other…
129: I Got Rid Of All My Books (11 Years Ago...)
Back to Bach next week! In the meantime, I thought you’d appreciate a story I wrote after I ‘discarded’ the majority of my possessions— mostly books. Whereas I easily tossed things like clothes,…
128: Donald Francis Tovey's Well-Tempered
I don’t blame us for preferring our rather clean, modern Bach editions to this:But are we so confident in our own interpretations that we can throw out the likes of Hans Bischoff, Carl Czerny,…
Bach's Birthday is Today, Not March 31st.
Happy Birthday Johann. Today, March 21st, not March 31st.Let me repeat that for those of you feeling clever or citing google without thinking:Happy Birthday Johann. Today, March 21st, not March…
127: How I Memorize Bach (By Ear)
I was always jealous of jazz musicians, simply learning music off recordings— no sheet music necessary. Why couldn’t I do that? Why don’t classical musicians have this skill? It seems like all…
126: What The Instrument Tells You About The Music
Analysis starts at 17 minutes. Sorry, I got carried away talking about the possible peculiar paradox of being a pianist. Just before making this episode, my harpsichord forced upon me a change of…
125: What Is An Ornament?
“The discontent of being between two notes; the urge to break free of a single note.”-Lionel Party (Paraphrased ca. 2005)What an opening:In this episode we listen to at least 14 different…
(5 Min. Rant) Customer Support Hero
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”-Politics and the English LanguageThanks for reading W.T.F. Bach?! This post is public so feel free to share it.Enjoying your…
124: Joy is G Major. Book One.
G Major: Bach’s key of virtuosity, celebration, exuberance (with his occasional contented reflections on mortality.) The passion music and death in the previous prelude and fugue is conquered by this…
123: The Negroni & 'Paradise Lost'
A new type of episode, Quodlibets! Quod (what) + libet (it pleases) or, ‘whatever you like,’ ‘anything at all.’ This episode centers on a beautiful chorale prelude, but first, my, Ode to the Negroni:…
122: Was F-Sharp Minor, Golgotha?
“It’s not that Bach writes music and then sits in an armchair and thinks about God... Bach writing music is Bach thinking about God.”Individual keys are often loaded with personal significance to the…
121: So... What Does 'Well-Tempered' Mean?
The Well-Tempered Clavier …what does it actually imply?In this episode I seek (in 18 minutes) to demonstrate mathematically pure intervals, alongside ‘tempered’ intervals. The circle of fifths is in…
120: A Double Canon (4 Parts from 2 Lines)
A double canon from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein! A bit late, but Bach’s take on this Christmas tune is really wonderful. See how both melodies combine to make a double canon:German mystic, Heinrcih Seuse,…
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WTF Bach has published 144 episodes since March 2020, covering topics in Education, Music.
WTF Bach is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 38m.
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