WTF Bach

As part of his new job, the 22-year-old Bach had to provide music for Mülhausen’s city council elections. For the first time, he officially had an occasion to write for a large orchestra: brass, timpani, woodwinds, flutes, strings, two choirs— this is BWV 71, Gott ist mein König. Scoring so largely on the page must have been exciting for the young Bach:
That’s a lot of parts! The first time Bach writes for brass and drums! Notice the ‘J.J.’ in the upper left corner, Jesu Juva, ‘Jesus help me.’ We see it spelled out on the title page and get to see Bach’s fancy handwriting:
I didn’t go into this in the episode, but is there an S.D.G. inside the big G on the title?
Write That Fugue!

One of the most striking features of this cantata are the multiple instrumental ‘choirs,’ the groups of instruments which Bach placed in separate areas of St. Mary’s church to achieve stereophonic effects. Bach, the organist, expands his knowledge of registration onto a full orchestra that required two conductors! To hear this music in quick succession from separate areas must have been thrilling:
Three trumpets and drums! Then immediately:
Woodwinds somewhere else! And then two choirs together, singing from opposite lofts:
Still more groups of instruments follow, now the flutes:
And finally the strings:
What a bold and exciting way for Bach to begin his orchestral career.
Links to the performances: Suzuki and Koopman
Become your best Buxtehude:

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Transcript:
We’ve been tracing the young Bach’s development, writing his very first cantatas. We looked at what may have been his first two, and we heard on quite a few of these recordings that they had only one voice per part. The orchestrations were very small, maybe an oboe, maybe a pair of violins, but things are very neat, very compact. You could put one of these bands in a van, and you should. He’s 22, he’s moving from one — that’s how it begins. A bit different to the last two cantatas, right? Remember the previous two cantatas? They started with these lovely orchestral introductions. The Actus Tragicus, also an early cantata, started with the most wonderful, most inviting introduction. “Christ lag in Todesbanden,” which we will soon cover, also begins with a nice introduction by the orchestra — Bach saying, “Excuse me, I hope you don’t mind if I write a cantata.” But this one is different: Bach is not asking for permission. He’s been asked to write this piece. This is now part of his job to do this. He will not fail the entire city. Everybody at once, go — big chord, big orchestra, no intro, massive sound.
Bach is our new organist. And unlike many cantatas, we have an exact date when this music was first heard: February 4th, 1708. Bach has been the new organist in Mühlhausen for about six months, and there was a recent inauguration of the city council, where the new burgomasters — sort of like the mayors — and the city members are honored. They’re probably given some very official looking clothing, maybe a nice new wig, and there’s a concert in a big church, St. Mary’s, with some required town council music. So all the new city council members, every politician, all the notable persons come to St. Mary’s and hear the world premiere of Bach’s cantata “Gott ist mein König” — God is my king. If today, after elections anywhere in the world, everyone piled into the same room to hear a Bach cantata, why, I dare say the world would be a better place.
Now, St. Mary’s in Mühlhausen has several galleries and lofts in the church, and Bach took advantage of this. I love this image of the 22-year-old getting the commission, knowing that this is part of his job now for the town council music, knowing that it’s going to take place at St. Mary’s. He walks into the church, he sees all the lofts, and he thinks: I can put trumpets up there and drums up there, and I could put the strings over there. I can have the oboes and bassoons over there. Now I’ve got the money to have the instruments I want. I can put recorders over there. I can have two choirs — one over there, the other over there. The organ, in a different place, can have some solos. This is how Bach makes this piece — a 1708 sound bath, if you will. The different movements feature the various choirs, and here I refer to the choirs of instruments as well as the choirs of singers. It has different choirs in different places in the church, so the listener would have just been delighted — Bach was delighted to hear music first coming from the left and then from the right, and then different sounds coming from the back and from the front.
You might ask, but how could Bach conduct two choirs in two different spaces of the church? Well, there were actually two conductors for this cantata — in the original set of parts, there were two conducting scores. I love this idea. You’d think music moves in the direction of small to big — Mozart’s concerti, small ensembles; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a bigger orchestra now with a choir; Mahler even bigger. But Bach had two conductors. To quote friend of the show Christoph Wolff, Bach had composed a work of unusual proportions and complexity that make the performances of earlier council pieces pale by comparison, as most everyone would have immediately noticed.
So I like imagining that I’m a parishioner in Mühlhausen at the beginning of the 18th century, and, you know, the last few town inauguration concerts have been a bit dull, but now we’ve got this young whippersnapper, Johann, and boom — “Gott ist mein König,” this chord, this amazing opening. Let me read you from the top to the bottom of the score all the instruments that play. Tromba one, two, three — three trumpets and a timpani as well. That’s the first choir altogether, somewhere separated from the rest of the musicians: three trumpet players and a drummer. Flauto dolce one and two — what is the flauto dolce? It’s the recorder. So two recorders as well as a cellist, in a different area. And yet in a third choir, two oboes and a bassoon. The strings in yet a different choir: violin one, violin two, viola, and violone. Violone is like a fretted bass instrument, like a cello or a bass, but with frets. And then we’ve got the two choirs of singers — soprano, alto, tenor, bass, ripieno, as they say, maybe two voices per part, and then soloists, one voice per part. And on top of all that, the basso continuo, probably more than one player.
So now we’re almost ready to explore the music. We’ve answered one of the two important questions you ask whenever looking at a cantata: when and why was this piece written? 1708, new town council. Now the other important question is, what is the text — what are they singing about? Like the other early cantatas we recently covered, this cantata is mostly a psalm — Psalm 74. If you’re a psalm savant, you might think it begins, “O God, why hast thou cast us off forever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” Indeed, this is how Psalm 74 begins, but Bach does not begin this cantata there. He begins at line 12 of the psalm: “God is my king.” The King James Version has it as “God is my king of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.” The German is more like “God is my king of old that gives help for all that happens on the earth” — hilfe is more like “help” than the word Bach sometimes uses for salvation, which is Erlösung.
So off we go, and I want you constantly to imagine — though it’s sadly not possible to hear even on the most magnificent recording — all these different groups of instruments coming at you from different areas in this space. I will try to guide your ears left and right as best I can, but nothing can possibly beat the experience of hearing two groups of singers above you in different areas singing at each other, brass at the back, oboes somewhere else — just a lovely idea. Off we go: “God is my king.” Then, “my king from olden days,” “my king from long ago” — quite different music from “God is my king.”
What an opening. The first thing to notice is that Bach shows you where the different choirs of instruments are: first brass, then woodwinds, then recorders, then strings, then he moves into the solos, and you heard the soloist singing “from olden days” — they sing in an older style, a more antiquated style, where one part has the cantus firmus, like a Gregorian chant, holding long notes while the other parts move around it. From olden times, Bach goes back, quite literally, to the old musical times.
Bach has shown us the forces at work. He’s pulled out all the stops. In fact, it’s very much like Bach’s organ concertos, which begin with him pulling out every stop on the organ to show the lungs of the instrument. And many of the ideas in the way that Bach orchestrates this cantata come directly from his being an organist — his ability to deal with differentiated patterns of sound, that’s something an organist knows, and he shows it here in his orchestra. So he’s hit us with the full organ, all the stops out. And now, as we well know on this show, Bach will change tempo and mood because there’s a different line of text — these early cantatas go with the text in mood, feeling, and tempo. This line is about God giving help to all that happens on earth — in fact, God giving all the help for all that happens on earth. How will Bach paint the word “all”? Like little separate things — everything that’s going on. The soprano doing a little figure here, the tenor doing something over there. The word “all” is spread out in many places — spread out in all places. “All the help”? Why, help comes together. It’s horizontal sounds for “all” and vertical sounds for “help.” Remarkable — it’s such a simple idea, really, that “all” would be in all places and “help” would come together. It’s almost stupidly literal in a way, and yet when you hear it, it’s ingenious.
Now the text goes on to “on earth” — all the help, all the things going on, on earth. How would you paint “earth”? Well, you certainly wouldn’t want it to go up in the air — that’s how you paint heaven. So it goes down: “auf Erden.” Things are grounded. That is gardening music — pastoral, pleasant. Meanwhile the bass sits there grounding everything, really grounded, while the soprano floats above, beautiful. And then, of course, back to “God is my king,” new tempo, new mood.
Is that the way that young Johann is going to end this first movement — so completely, humbly, so quaint, just like that? Not only in this movement — this will be the end of the entire cantata. Listen to those recorders, how they just, ah, just the teeniest touch, like poof. One of my favorite features of early Bach is that he knows to end pieces with silence — he knows that silence is often more effective than a big drawn-out chord. Can you imagine how much weaker it would be to end with a big chord instead of five eighth-note rests? That’s drama.
Now, I’m mostly going to skip the second movement — sadly, I know it’s a crime, but for time, I can’t spend more than a few minutes on it. I want to mention the text, which is interesting. This being a city council inauguration concert, the old council has to hand over their duties to the new council. It’s amazing that such mundane bureaucracy had such divine music to accompany it — can you imagine that today? So the text reflects ideas about getting old, being an old servant. The second movement is a duet similar to what we saw in BWV 131 in a previous episode, where the tenor sings from the Old Testament, and above him, a soprano sings a Lutheran chorale melody. The tenor below sings, “I am 80 years old,” complaining, “let me die in my own town, don’t let me go where you’re going — I just want to, I’m done, I’m done, basically.” And above the tenor, the soprano sings a Lutheran hymn text from 1630: “If in this world I have to live my life longer, through many a bitter step press on to old age, then give me patience, from sin and shame protect me, so that I may bear with honor my gray hair.” A lovely idea — speaking directly to the old council, saying, you’ve done your service, thank you, and now it’s time for you to get old with dignity.
Sonically speaking, the organ has an obbligato line — a free line, a really composed line probably played on a different instrument from the usual basso continuo setting. This is not very common in Bach’s cantatas, but it’s very exciting when it happens, when Bach writes out the elaborate shapes in the right hand — instead of normally playing figures over the figured bass and improvising, Bach gives specific shapes to play in the right hand.
It’s amazing how living this music was and is — musicians can always find something new in it. What I’m referring to is how contemporary this music was and how there are so many inside references that we might not get today. We’re just barely uncovering some through musicology and scholarship, but so many must also be lost. In particular, in this movement, the mayor was one Adolf Strecker, installed again in 1708 at this very event, when he was in his 80s and probably looked very ill. The Actus Tragicus, the other early cantata we covered some time ago, was possibly the very piece for his funeral, because he died a few months after the premiere of this cantata. So you’ve got this 80-year-old servant from the Bible and this 80-year-old servant right there at the premiere. When you start to look at the cantatas at this level of detail, you stand back and wonder: how could this be packed in there and not make the music suffer? If you sang “lulu lulu” for all the text and played all the instruments on twelve accordions, the music would still be perfect. But to be able to add on top of this perfect architecture biblical references to the aging mayor, references to a solar eclipse, references to fears of an anticipated military aggression from France — these, by the way, are all in this cantata. I won’t go into them because you could spend ages studying this, but it’s there.
On to movement three. From the old council, we move to the new council, with text that says, may your old age be like your youth, and God is with you in everything that you do — and Bach sets a fugue.
Next movement: in this orchestrated organ recital, Bach pulls out two choirs of instruments in a combination we haven’t yet heard — the recorders and cello, one choir, versus the oboes and bassoons, the other choir. Singing is a bass, a bass solo, and he sings “night and day.” How will Bach set the words “night and day”? Well, he’s not going to set them the same. He sees the sun setting — day, the sun is up; night, the sun is down. So the melody is the sun: when the text is “day,” the melody goes up; when the text is “night,” it goes down. How simple, how obvious. I imagine if the words were “night and day” instead, his melody would go the other way.
There, where the music stops, the text changes, and the two instrumental choirs are silent while the bass sings new text. It’s lovely to hear the instruments break apart like that, and sometimes they come together — sometimes apart, sometimes merged and flowing together — and that effect is marvelous.
I’m a bit stumped about the next line of text and what goes on musically. This is what I mentioned with the solar eclipse — there was one in Mühlhausen just a couple of years before the premiere, a near-98%-total eclipse. In the 18th century this must have been frightening, or awesome in the true sense of the word. The text here is, “you make them both — the sun and the stars follow their natural course — and you set boundaries for the land,” or “you set for each land its appointed boundaries,” coming from Psalm 74. It’s beautiful poetry — I don’t exactly know how Bach sets it or what’s going on in his mind, I admit; it’s not obvious to me. The only thing that comes to mind is maybe the appointed course of the stars and the lines of the boundary — thinking in astronomical and geographical lines, boundaries, and so on. On the words “course,” Bach makes a long line. That’s my only idea about this. After this text, it returns to “day and night are yours,” and the choirs of instruments come back for the conclusion of this fourth movement.
Next movement: Bach the organist puts back in those stops that were the oboes and recorders, and pulls out the powerful stops — trumpets and timpani. This is an alto aria, and the text here is “through mighty strength.” For time’s sake I won’t go too deeply into this, but if you just look at the aria on the page it’s very exciting — 3/8 time signature, vivace tempo marking, then a few bars later andante, then one bar of 3/8, then back to a different time signature. It’s like looking at Mahler to see so many time signatures like this — it does not look very Bachian on the page, and yet this is the early Bach. The text is freely composed poetry by the librettist, and this is what I was talking about with the feared military uprising from France. It really talks about the storm of war: “By mighty power you’ve upheld our borders. Here peace must shine when murder and the storm of war rise everywhere. When the enemy, crown, and scepter instill trembling, you bring salvation by your mighty power.” So, on both sides of the poetry, you will hear the mighty power of the trumpets and timpani, and like the movement we just heard, Bach uses this choir of instruments only at the beginning and end of the movement — the middle is just basso continuo and the alto solo.
Next movement, the penultimate one: Bach puts away that very powerful choir of brass and drums and turns to a texture we haven’t yet heard — the full choir of singers, not only soloists but tutti, everybody, maybe both choirs singing. The text, more from Psalm 74, just a few lines down from where we left it. In the New International Version it says, “Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts.” In the King James Version it’s more elaborate: “Oh, deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked.” So — wild beasts, the wicked — there’s a translation complexity here. Thanks to a native Hebrew speaker who helped with this never-ending study of translating the Hebrew Bible — I received more concerned comments about my Hebrew pronunciation than almost anything I’ve ever done on the show, sorry about that.
The Luther Bible chooses the turtledove as the image, not merely a dove. What’s the difference? Probably a very interesting one, but too deep to discuss here. Luther’s Bible says something like, “May you, I pray you, not give the wild animals the soul of your turtledove, and completely forget your miserable animal, this pure innocent turtledove.” Who’s the enemy here? You imagine, with this political tension happening, it could be a very literal political enemy, or the enemy of the church, those without God, those who revile the church. All summed up: please don’t let the enemy conquer.
Let’s get into the sound world a little. Imagine three choirs of instruments in different places, and for the first time since the first movement, we hear the singers coming from two places — that must have been thrilling to experience, that reunification of the antiphonal choirs. Just overwhelming beauty and power in the way Bach paints the text. First, the enemies — how creepy, so different from us, these enemies, this feels uncomfortable, the half-step to paint the fiends, the enemies. And then you hear, when he says “the soul of the turtledove,” the melody soars there, and it modulates into a major cadence. We could feel our skin crawling when we imagine being handed over to the enemy — oh God, I really don’t want that, please, please. And then, “soul of the turtledove” — watch the soul soar.
Now, when I look at the orchestration of this, I notice that every time Bach speaks of the enemy, the choirs of instruments are pitted against each other. But every time he says “turtledove,” everybody comes together — it’s the only time in this text where all choirs play together, on the words “turtledove.” Think about this: the enemies pitted against each other, but the turtledove — that’s us, that is our innocent congregation, we are all together.
That painting there of “turtledove” is absolutely exceptional — isn’t this captivating music? This could be the finest point in this cantata. I want to draw particular attention to the bass line here, or at least the bass sounds — the continual eighth notes, and the violone, this fretted bass instrument in another choir, doubling the basso continuo. We have these two other bass sounds: the cello playing nice and high, this sort of spinning music, and the bassoon. But there, on the setting of “turtledove,” Bach drops the bassoon — the first time in this movement the bassoon is silent, just for a moment. And here Bach writes in the score two different parts for the soprano, one for the ripieno group, maybe a few per part, and another for the soloist — and you can hear them splitting apart. Can you see the wings fluttering? That image of the dove fluttering is beautiful.
And now we have possibly the most impressive moment of this movement. Bach, a student of music, a student of the Bible, recites the whole line — “don’t let the soul of the turtledove go to the enemy” — and puts the choir together in unison, making them sing a psalm tone, like Gregorian chant. This is very rare — everyone singing a straight, Gregorian-chant-like melody, while the orchestra still does its thing, and then just at the end, the oboes fly around like the turtledove. What a moment in music — everyone there on that one note, psalm tone one. Bach setting a psalm to psalm tone one — this is exceptional.
Now, just to give some idea of how this might have sounded stereophonically: the bassoon and cello in one part, one speaker; add the recorders; and the oboes; pitted against each other like this, one group, the next group, and they all come together. I would just love to go on and on with this movement, but I’ve got about five minutes left for the last movement.
Okay, the last movement — all the forces, the big choir of trumpets and drums are back, and the text is a more or less bland text praising the new government, blessing the new government: “crown them with prosperity, and may they delight you, Joseph.” Who’s Joseph? Well, Joseph is the Holy Roman Emperor. This is the Holy Roman Empire we’re talking about — Mühlhausen was a free imperial city subordinate only to Joseph. And this cantata, when it was printed — something I hadn’t mentioned yet — is the only surviving cantata to have been printed during Bach’s lifetime. These performing parts were symbols of Mühlhausen’s civic pride. Bach did such a good job with this performance that Mühlhausen invited him back twice more to do the same thing, and those parts were also printed, but they’re lost. This is an example of how so much of the vocal music is lost — of the three times Bach did this, we only have this first performance.
The new government, tempo change, in every way — crown them with blessing. New text: peace, rest, and prosperity, tempo change. May they always be by their side, peace and rest. New choir of instruments, that solo organ coming in again. Now here comes good fortune and victory, and a tempo change. The Emperor — we want a fugue for Joseph. Solo voices, very simple: continuo, soprano, alto, still solo voices, tenor, bass, still solo voices, first violin, first oboe, second violin, second oboe, sopranos tutti, every soprano, first recorder, tutti, all the altos now, second recorder, all the tenors now, the cellos in — what are we missing? We’re missing the bass, the bassoon, and the violone. Bring in those trumpets. We’ve got to break it down back to the soloists, in all the lands and places — listen to the tenor singing “continually.” Bring everyone back in for the choir. Solos. Everyone. Oboes. Flutes. That’s it — that’s how this enormous cantata ends, just like the nutmeg dusting on a giant turkey dinner.
Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoyed this.


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I hope you get something out of this experiment!
Enjoy Paul Jacobs’ beautiful live performance, followed by, at 16:20, an extremely slow MIDI version of BWV 582. The idea is that you, the listener, can adjust the playback speed to alter your perception of the counterpoint.
Perhaps you listen to the slow version at .5x as a three-hour sound bath?
Write That Fugue!

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Concepts Covered:
BWV 582, Extremely Slow MIDI Computerized Performance


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Bachian folklore claims Bach used to disguise himself and wander into random churches to play the organ. After a few minutes the warden was frightened it was either the devil himself or Johann Sebastian Bach. I imagine this piece would have given such an impression.
Pedal Shoes Anyone?

The Passacaglia BWV 582 appears in the Andreas Bach Book upside down. Its title is in all capitals, spelled like the title of this episode. (Curiously, Buxtehude’s Passacaglia in D Minor BuxWV 16 also appears in all capitals, spelled the same— but it is not upside down.) Have a look:
If we rotate the page and zoom in, we see the famous opening bars, played with only the feet:
On this theme, Bach pens 20 variations, culminating in a brilliant fugue. The fugue has two countersubjects. Until I made this episode I hadn’t considered the Trinity as a possible vision for the fugue (the nature of countersubjects often demands that they move at different speeds to the theme) but it may be a helpful image:
I went long on this episode, so I wasn’t able to feature a full recording of this, I’ll be back in a few days to feature Paul Jacobs. In the meanwhile, here is Ton Koopman’s recording with a score:

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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone evan here thanks for tuning in just a quicker episode today or maybe it will be as long but certainly more spontaneous the few days I usually prepare for the podcast researching and writing the show I will now be busy preparing for and playing my first organ concert. I’m quite excited about that. I wrote about this experience at length and I want to share that piece with you. I’m not sure if I’m going to read it aloud on the podcast, however, as it’s a personal essay. In fact, it’s so personal I’ve really been on the fence about whether I should share it or not since I admit some things about myself. Fears, doubts, hesitation. I really don’t hold back. So anyhow, if you’re listening to this podcast without being subscribed to the Substack, you might miss this. But if you follow the links in the episode description, you will be notified when I publish that essay about playing an organ concert, probably the first week of August or so. Thanks, meanwhile, to all my listeners who write me, who offer their insights or their curiosities. Thanks for those of you who take out a paid subscription on Substack. This support means I don’t have to take that one gig that pays, but I really don’t want to play it because it eats away at my soul. Instead, I can focus on what I love about this gig, which is sharing with people what I love about music. Thanks for the support. So a piece I love, a piece that floored me the first time I heard it, this recital, this organ concert ends with that piece, The Mighty Passacaglia and Fugue BWB 582. It’s about time we discussed this piece on the show. No, this is a piece that if you’re into Bach... You haven’t missed this. If you haven’t heard this piece before, take note of where you’re sitting or where you’re standing or maybe you’re running listening to this podcast. Maybe you’re that one listener of mine who rides a tractor while listening to the podcast. Remember where you are because this is the type of piece that you remember where you were the first time you heard it. So let’s go. It’s an early masterpiece, the Passacaglia. In my opinion, the great triumph of Bach’s youth may be this very piece. It comes down to us in a manuscript in the so-called Andreas Bach book, one of the two major collections of keyboard music that gives us remarkable insight into Bach’s youthful compositions. This is a pre-Weimar work. The bulk, I suppose it’s safe to say, or at least a major creative burst of organ compositions happened in Weimar. This precedes that. This is the same period that we’re discussing in these cantatas. 1707 Bach is 22 years old. And if you look into the manuscript, it appears upside down. It’s quite a thrill to flip through the Andreas Bach book and suddenly you wouldn’t even notice if you weren’t really paying close attention to what is upside down. But yes, this Passacaglia... The whole piece is upside down, but it’s not like the pages were sewn in upside down or anything like that. The scribe, Bach’s brother, he turns the page and he flips the whole manuscript 180 degrees in order to pen in the pascalia. Why? Hmm, I assume it has to do with page turns. The idea that this piece is so special that his brother turned the manuscript is probably a modern idea. Anyhow, what is a pascalia? Well, pascalia means, etymologically, to walk the street, to pass the calle, signor. The other form we’re familiar with on this show, the chaconne. We just heard Bach’s first cantata, which ends with the chaconne. These forms, pascalia, chaconne, are very similar. In fact, so similar by the time the Baroque composers inherited these forms, they’re virtually indistinguishable. Pascalia, chaconne, these are pieces with repeated bass lines with bass lines and harmonies that happen over and over and over like a set of variations frescobaldi is the one who took these forms from possibly what distinguishable forms they were and changed them into the form we know which is essentially a piece that starts slow then gets faster and faster in a series of variations so let’s pass the calle with the 22 year old Bach I’ll be switching between two sounds today. One that sounds like a real organ, this one. This is 466, so it’s like the organ that Bach would have had in Mülhausen. A half-step higher to our ears. This sounds like C-sharp minor to our modern ears. It is, in fact, C minor on the keyboard. And this one here... I also apologize if this... This episode is a bit more free than usual since I’m not taking too much time to edit it but this one here which is the electronic one sounding in C minor just to give you a sense of this piece in as many different opportunities as we can hear it so we are walking this street and we begin walking in the pedals like this and this is the melody this is the theme this is the glue that holds everything together this here And that note there is the lowest note of the pedalboard, the lowest note of the organ, unless it’s one of those rare organs in tyringia that has a low B on pretty much any organ you’ll see today. This is the leftmost note of the pedalboard. The biggest pipe would be reserved for that. So I’ll play that melody again in the hands so you can hear it a bit higher. Bach will make 20 variations on this. 20 variations on this. So let’s go through them slowly. Feet alone. One of the greatest openings. Just play the melody with your feet. And then he brings in the hands. Here we go. that’s variation one you start to notice all these really subtle things here so initially there’s three voices and the bottom one always goes down first so so we hear this bottom one descending but then just one time the middle voice goes down first but then back to the bottom voice And you hear that tuning, that sixth tone tuning. So with the G in the bass, you get this lovely dissonance. Goodness. How marvelous is that to hear this pain resolve into consonants? Just a little variation there, this Now, that’s variation 1. Variation 2 starts out quite similarly. The exact same way as variation 1. But then, immediately, we hit this beautiful chord. This E flat, E flat major 7th chord. The hands are getting lower and lower. That’s variation two. Now, out of variation two comes, naturally, variation three, and it comes out of these low depths, and we have this beautiful counterpoint. I will play without the pelety line, without the pelety, without the petaline. So that’s the counterpoint there in Variation 3. Why don’t I play that so you can hear that even more clearly. So it’s Starts like a cannon, in fact. Is imitated in the middle voice. And in the bottom voice. So we have this three-part cannon. And the top voice so expressive is in the top voice. I just love this And this at the end. Not good enough. Twice. Still not enough. Three times. Gorgeous. And in this final scale here, he adds a fourth voice, so no longer three voices but one, two, three, four. So I will add the pedal line here so you can hear that third variation now with the pedals. Gorgeous. Let’s go back to the acoustic organ. And I might have to slow this down again as the piece is speeding up. And speeding up indeed we get our first 16th note so this 16th notes from this smooth 8th Counterpoint to this. With a bass. so far the feet have done nothing but play this over and over again all the way through that was variation four but now we have something different in variation five suddenly the feet stop playing this line and we have this counterpoint these broken octaves going from top to bottom This piece is getting quite fast. I do have to tell myself when I begin this piece, don’t start fast because the music itself gets faster and faster. So if you start fast, you are looking at quite an enthusiastic finish. Anyhow, these lines in the manuals in the hands, but the feet are dancing. Beep-bo. so from slow moving quarter notes and half notes to quicker music but still struggling to get momentum we get the momentum It’s steadily mounting, and then we get sixteenths. And now our feet begin to get animated. Now on variation six, at last, sixteenth notes unbroken. And this is just a beautiful stretch of music. I will play it here without the pedals so you can hear... But it goes seamlessly for the next two variations. So yeah, in fact, I will play variation six, seven, eight in this sound here. And we’ll marvel at the counterpoint slowly. Here’s variation seven. Notice it’s going the opposite direction. It was going up at first in variation six, but now we’re going down in variation seven. And that is the lowest note of the manuals. Now, still going on variation eight. We’re adding some more complications. It seems like we’re going in waves now, sort of up and down at the same time. Right hand up, left hand down, then reverse. So out, now in. And yes, if you’re listening to these harmonies, you’re like, whoa. D flat in the left hand, then the next D natural in the right hand. And here we have This glorious flat tunes Db major with the pedal. Now the pedal, through all those variations, just singing the theme. So let’s add it from variation six. That was variation 7. Here’s variation 8. Great. Now we’re on to variation 9, and we have something different. still sixteenth notes but no longer scales and we get this lovely imitation between four voices so alto tenor bass soprano tenor bass tenor soprano bass alto tenor bass okay so just little little figures one two three four that’s half the variation you can see some of these notes like this beautiful D flat in this tuning quite painful like listen to it goodness and now those little one two three four start to go into eight one two three four five six seven eight Again, three times, one, two, and three, and the variation. Okay, so let’s play this variation from the beginning. And I love playing this one in the pedals because it’s all left, right, left, right. Left, right. Right. Left, RIGHT. Left, RIGHTE. Left, RIght. Left,RIt. Left,Right. Left, Right. Left,right. Left,righ. But then at the very end of the last one is right, left, right, left. Because you go all the way to the bottom. Okay now here we have something unique, something distinct. This is the first time in the piece that I personally change manuals, but given any organist, they could change manuals anywhere. But I see this next variation, this is variation 10, as sort of a reset. It’s like the double, where we have this theme. But now something happening over the top of it going faster. If you’ve missed my episode on dubles, just go to wtfbach.com and search dubla and you’ll have the episode on listening to dubles. Anyhow, it’s just a fancy way of saying doubles because now we have this melody with something going double or in this case 16th notes against these quarters. and the melody in the pedals is no longer legato it’s punctuated like this Okay, and with that punctuated melody we’ve got chords in the left hand. Together they sound on both manuals like this. Okay, now, this is beautiful. What happens is this 16th note line keeps continuing into the next variation. Here’s variation 11. So from all the way up here, In variation 10, do all the way down to the bottom at variation 11. Now, you might be saying, but something’s missing. Yes, something is missing. It is the theme. now variation 12 variation 12 is extremely complicated in the pedals we’ve got for the first time bach really showing you yeah so far i’ve done a bit of this maybe a bit of this maybe a bit of this but this variation 12 begins in the pedals so help our tap dancing muses So that’s and it happens in imitation with other voices. So pedals, alto, tenor, alto and tenor. So it’s like they’re in variation. Bach says, yeah, don’t think you’re getting a break from the pedal, because all of a sudden we have this very difficult pedal passage. So I’ll play that, as I’ve never tried to play it before, without the theme, so you can hear just the counterpoint. And why don’t I do that on the synth? You can see this all the way down to the bottom. I don’t know if you can hear that down there in the speaker. Sorry. That’s the very bottom of the keyboard. Yeah, so what was missing in that particular variation was the theme there. And up top, it just has your ordinary theme. So variation 12, now a bit slower. Any organists out there can commiserate. about how much time we spent on that particular variation that is very difficult now going on variation 13 bach again drops the pedal and he’ll drop the pedal for how many variations three variations the following three variations all manual lighter you can play them on your piano if you want and they are beautiful the theme sort of goes into hiding it’s no longer this but it’s this how glorious is that if i play them at the same time or if i play the theme on top of this varied theme we’ll hear something like this Isn’t that lovely? The other voices dance around it in brilliant counterpoint. This is one of my favorite variations. 13. Thirteen. How gorgeous, I mean that’s, isn’t that incredible? now something wholly different variation 14 now what’s this what is this what is this all of a sudden just arpeggios i mean how simple now here is one of my favorite moments because for the first and only time i believe bach decides on this d e in the theme right the theme goes d e now you could re-contextualize this d e in a lot of ways and that’s one of the ways that bach does it is this half diminished chord to the minor chord but here for the first time and i’ll have to double check if i’m right about the only time bach decides to recontextualize it like this into major chords b flat major and e flat major so you get this magical moment in the midst of all these arpeggios how beautiful is this And that’s the end of the variation. But yeah, just extremely special and simple. One more time through it, why not? In fact, I like to add this very expressive ornament right at that moment. I don’t know. Did it work? Now variation 15 is even simpler. So we had arpeggios in sort of two voices. You know, two notes at a time. Two notes at a time. But now variation 15, if you’re looking at this on the page, it’s just one line. One line going from top to bottom. That’s it. outlining the shape now this is played in two different ways it is played this way in on one keyboard Or it is played like this on two keyboards, and I don’t know if this might be a bit too contrasting to the current setting I have. Maybe I’ll try the other way around. Anyhow, that’s not quite working on this organ right now, so let me put it into two areas of your speaker, and I think this will work much better yes this will work How magical is that? Or I could try it the other way where the keyboard’s reversed and you’ll hear the opposite. bach? bach bach bach bach bach But marvelous music, so simple, and yet the design is just absolutely fascinating. And you hear our theme in there, sort of sneaking in like this. Dum-bum, bum-bum, dum-bee, dum-bum, bum-bee, dum-bum, bum-bum. bum bum sort of passing between the octaves like this talk about like broken melodies or fractured fractals fractured fractals okay Going back to the regular organ and going back to the regular tempo. The next variation starts with the full organ. Pedals are back with the theme. So before we had this upward rising, now we’ve got something going down. In the left hand here, the left hand is the best variation for the left hand because the left hand is this. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. Three. In fact, if I played the sort of accentuated chords and the theme, we would have this. These downward arpeggios resolve themselves into boom, that accentuated chord. From variation, this is now variation 16. You’re asking yourself, can this piece get any faster? And the answer is obviously. That’s variation 17. Yeah. Just fire, fire descending from the heavens with the bass line. Now we enter the last three variations, the last three variations, and they are nothing more than just adding sound, adding sound, adding sound constantly. Note the bass line is syncopated. Pum-pum. Pum-pum. Now, these are variations 19 and 20. This is one of my favorite pieces in music. Listen to just the hands. 20. I believe that Bach composes a written out ritardando there because this double sixes in all the hands in all the hands all two of them Yes, that is a slowing down because that is the end of the pascalia. But this piece is the pascalia and fugue, so there’s a whole fugue to follow. But before we get into the fugue, we have to add the bass line to variations 19 and 20. Just this sound adding to sound. now this version i mean look at what bach has done here he’s simply taken one shape and he’s put it in four different places or it’s sort of like he it’s phasing it’s steve reich type stuff these are the outer voices nothing complicated nothing at all the inner voices also sixths but when you play them together you get well i could start with the right hand or the left hand but when you play them together I don’t know if you’re getting this sort of like weird stereophonic effect. Something is happening with the sound. Bach’s knowledge of what happens with the sound and sustain and an absolute magical variation. I’ll try it in two speakers so you can hear that effect even perhaps more marvelously. A bit lower. What is going on there? Dreamy. And then of course, when you add the... pedals. Last three variations of the pascalia. now there’s a fugue what’s this? tema fugatum a fugue based on the theme this is a three-part fugue it’s a fugue with two counter subjects obviously this and this lilting figure you heard just one last thing as the pascalia ends bach carefully writes this chord in such a way that this c which leads on to the fugue has a separate stem so bach is saying it’s not over this final chord has a voicing to it and this note here right in the middle is not over yet normally you hear a slowing down but if you didn’t you would hear it just like that okay so we’re going on here’s the second part of the fugue Have you been sick of C minor? Have you been missing other keys? Because so far this entire piece has been in C minor. Me, I get absolute goosebumps when the piece modulates here just like this. To G minor. What is this music, this divine music? And suddenly, these sixteenth notes. So that’s the third part. Talk about God the Father. God the Son proceeding from the Father What? one in being with the father and the holy spirit flickering like tongues and the first time we’ve got this theme in g minor but so far this is just the hands where are the feet where are the feet here they are The thrill of being able to play this music with your four limbs overwhelming overwhelming absolutely overwhelming okay let’s call the holy spirit theme let’s call that three let’s call this theme two and let’s call obviously the main theme one from top to bottom one two three that’s one and two and three on the bottom This is the feat now with one, two in the top. Meanwhile, three is right in the middle. From top to bottom, two, three, one. So we had one, two, three. Now we’ll have two, three, one. Another permutation. Suddenly, G minor, number one in the middle. number three the holy spirit theme on the top and number two in the pedals we get this beautiful permutation another one in the middle back into c minor this one this is in the alta voice this is one but there’s another voice on top this one And we’re modulating from C minor into the relative major E flat major for something that’s absolutely beautiful. Hear this. Two below one. And I hope you’ve got your dancing shoes on because this is what the feet play. The feet play that crazy Holy Spirit theme. Here I go. Absolutely marvelous. I had the thrill of being able to hammer that out with your feet. Here is the whole music. Where are we? Where are we? We’re in this beautiful key of E flat major. No more pedals and this Glorious theme for the first time in the major key. I love that touch to go instead of going we go Damn, these glorious sighing fifths. Okay, but like I said, one in the bass, two in the middle, the Holy Spirit just on top. And now, what is this? What is this variation? Measure 204. Nothing. Absolutely nothing is here, except the utmost simplicity. What is this sequence? I mean for it to just come out, listen to this left hand line. For it to come out of this immensely complex music and then have Bach just hold back, just hold back, lay everything bare, just the elements. theme in the middle two up top holy spear on bottom we have to leave this happy place we have to go back into c minor or at least a minor key g minor pedals Okay, what is this music? What is going on here? Two in the middle. Three, the Holy Spirit on top. The bass had the theme. Together, all like this. You get this wonderful passage here, modulatory passage, no themes. I’ll slow down a bit. So we have this... like the second theme in the feed and so together Where are we going? Beautiful modulation. It’s like through F minor. And here’s C minor. Theme in the middle. So the theme in the left hand. Holy Spirit in your right hand. The God the Son in your feet. here we go now hold on to your hats this section is well hold on to your shoes because this section is all about the feet watch this that’s the feet followed by left hand followed by feet Followed by left hand. Followed by feet. Okay. While the right hand has these infinite staircases. Whoa. Again. Again. So you’ve got this incredible passage. we’re back in g minor now theme in the top underneath the theme number two and i hope those feet are feeling frisky because we’ve got the holy spirit again So, here we go. This modulation here... Oh god, this is in the sequence. where are we going to f minor and here we go this is this is where it just absolutely screams out the tuning this everything f minor i think for the first time the sub dominant the pedals the middle and even below them What is on the top? My goodness, just this screaming line of chromatic pain. Here we go. Did you hear this? G-flat against C. We are not ready to quit. So just nothing to say about this. We’re modulating from this painful F minor back into C minor. Here are what the hands play. Meanwhile, the feet doing that three times thing again. Two. Three. Yes, and combine that all.Okay, now here is where we get something very fun indeed. Left hand. Feet. Isn’t quite ready to play that, but we’ve got... And this is where we, our fingers are just saying, oh, I can’t play, can I play any faster? While the feet just dance beneath it. Listen to that line in the feet. Under the trill. Here’s where we get our last permutation again the holy spirit still dancing in the feet theme up top number two in the middle and we’ve got yet a fourth line of counterpoint in there to bring us to this texture Now this is just where Bach celebrates. I mean, listen to these feet. watch an organist absolutely dancing ask them to play this line in the feet Slow music over it. And we get... And we’ve got this... Very exciting flashes in the feet. and also in the hands and these chords that chord there the neapolitan doesn’t matter what it is that’s the chord you can hit once in the piece that’s the chord you can hit once and then do a fermata and then say yes that is when you would have every single stop out on the organ you would the organ would be struggling to keep up with the power needed to play with all the stops pulled all the stops out bach here writes after this fermata adagio lowest note nice and comfortable you’ve got two you’re playing with both feet here left foot there right foot here so you’ve got just every part of your body and your heart And your fingers and your toes are just... That’s the Pascalian fugue. I’m looking at the time realizing i’ve gone over the hour. I don’t know why i thought i could do this in under an hour but i definitely didn’t think i would use up an hour so easily so i’m gonna stop the episode and in a few days i’m going to give you either the performance or a link to the performance of paul jacobs live performance of the pascalia friend of the show pauljacobs it is Just a stunning recording and then i’m going to provide you with a computerized version that is very straight and very very slow because i’ve had to practice this piece so slowly in order to get it into my body and when i do it so slowly I notice a bunch of dissonances and things that i otherwise wouldn’t notice so i’m going to play it extremely slowly And then i want you the listener to play around with the playback speed listen to it in 1 .5 speed Listen to it and two times be listened to it if it goes faster on And whatever app you’re using hopefully the Substack app it’ll allow you to change speeds and in that way maybe you can hear this architecture in as many different ways as possible so thanks for listening sorry this went over I can’t believe it’s an hour already I need to go practice and here’s Gabby I’ll be telling you that you need to sign up to wtfbach.com thanks very much


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At just 22 years old, Bach set the immortal words of David, ‘Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord.’ From the opening bars, we see depths, cries:
The second and fourth movements already show Bach’s interest in using chorale melodies in his cantatas. To the Psalm text, Bach adds a 1588 Hymn by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt, asking for mercy, Erbarm dich mein. How lucky we are to see seeds of the Matthew Passion planted as early as 1707!
The finale uses a fugue with a countersubject to paint one single line of text: And he will redeem Israel is painted with lively 16th notes, joyful even, while, from all his sins appears as a rising chromatic line. Bach, with a fugue, realizes theology:
I forgot to mention in the episode: The fugue in the last movement was arranged as a fugue for organ in g minor, BWV 131a. The attribution to Bach has been contested, but it nevertheless makes for a wonderful fugue playable by one person. When I was making my own electric rendition of the fugue, I was struck by how similar parts are to the organ fugues in c minor, BWV 537, a very late work, but also the youthful BWV 551, both of which were covered on this show. I like this recording a lot, have a listen!
Wow! That’s Fabulous.

Rudolph Lutz’ performanceMasaaki Suzuki’s recording
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Concepts Covered:
Bach's Cantata BWV 131, "Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir," composed in 1707 when the composer was just 22 years old in Mülhausen, organist at St. Blasius Church, stands as a remarkable setting of Psalm 130 for bassoon, oboe, strings, and continuo. This sacred cantata integrates the 1588 Lutheran hymn text by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt, "Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut," demonstrating Bach's early mastery of chorale melody integration in cantata structure. The fugal finale translates theological meaning through musical architecture. The cantata's closing movement exists in an organ arrangement (BWV 131a.) N.B. the dedication to Dr. Georg Christian Eilmar, clergyman at St. Mary's Church.


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— Who is Doctor Conrad Meckbach, and what is he doing in the middle of cantata 150?!
Using clues from a clever acrostic spread throughout the text, scholars have securely dated this cantata to Bach’s years in Arnstadt. Penitential in theme, it would have been performed during Lent, 1707. It is now considered Bach’s earliest cantata.
You Oughta Cantata!

The finale, an early chaconne, (as I forgot to mention in the episode!) served as Brahms’ inspiration for his own chaconne in the last movement of his last symphony. Brahms was one of the editors of the Bach-Gesellschaft when this cantata was first published, so here we see the remarkable moment where the 22 year-old Bach inspires the 52 year-old Brahms. Note the similarities in shape, the flute line in particular:
Bach’s early cantatas are full of sudden tempo changes. These cantatas are Wagner’s harbingers much more than the later models. The text wholly dictates the mood— even the shapes of the fugue subjects— the choir, unlike in the later cantatas, drives the drama through the majority of movements. This page, for example, looks typical of the early style:
The beginning of the 4th movement particularly beautiful. The words ‘lead me’ are painted with a rising scale passing through each part, one section leading the next:
See the acrostic (Doktor Conrad Meckbach) via Hans Joachim Schulze’s work:https://bjb.publia.org/bjb/article/view/2270/2196
Ton Koopman’s recording:Masaaki Suzuki’s recording:
BWV? Bach Would Vouch!

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Concepts Covered:
BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, For You, Lord, I Long, as Bach’s first cantata, the acrostic found in Hans Joachim Schulze’s work: Who was Doktor Conrad Meckbach, and what is he doing in the middle of an early Bach cantata? Arnstadt vs. Mülhausen. Bach’s tone painting in his early years, the text driving the fugal shapes. We discuss form to Early Bach, how Bach’s early years rely on a freedom of form, whereas later in his life he narrows the focus on form— quite the opposite of the trend of most artists in history.


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