One of the greatest composers of all time. Bach wrote
hundreds of pieces for organ, choir, as well as many
other instruments. He spent most of his life as a
church organist and a choir director. His music
combines profound expression with clever
musico-mathematical feats, like fugues and cannons in
which the same melody is played against itself in
various ways.
Cantata BWV 87 concentrates on the darker aspects of
the Sunday Gospel, the guilt and fears of man. This
work is full of inter...(+)
One of the greatest composers of all time. Bach wrote
hundreds of pieces for organ, choir, as well as many
other instruments. He spent most of his life as a
church organist and a choir director. His music
combines profound expression with clever
musico-mathematical feats, like fugues and cannons in
which the same melody is played against itself in
various ways.
Cantata BWV 87 concentrates on the darker aspects of
the Sunday Gospel, the guilt and fears of man. This
work is full of interest, yet I find that it does not
move me. The attractive opening aria has a lively, but
dark, minor key orchestral introduction. The alto aria
has a fascinating accompaniment from a pair of oboes da
caccia playing over an arpeggiated continuo. This gives
the feeling of something rather evil bubbling up from
the depths! The aria following the next recitative is
little more than an arioso itself. The final tenor aria
is perhaps the high point of the cantata: Fervent
sorrow is poured out to the rhythm of a siciliano, over
seventh chord harmonies. The setting of the final
chorale (with the melody of Jesu, meine Freude) is
itself very harmonically rich.
Bach sets this rather severe text in a dense imitative
aria (Movement 6). The duality of God and Son
emphasized in the passage is ingeniously portrayed by
the fact that the countersubject is a condensation of
the last half of the main subject. This gives the
movement a circular, layered effect and although this
piece was originally written for voice and period
instruments, I arranged it for my Friend Dr. Leonard
Anderson Clarinet Quintet (4 Bb Clarinets & Bass
Clarinet).
