Hosted by Evan Shinners · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 143 episodes
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J.S. Bach explained — music analysis, Baroque history, counterpoint and performance practice. A classical music podcast for listeners who want to understand what they're hearing. Weekly analysis of Bach's music: Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, St. Matthew Passion and more. Classical music education for all levels. wtfbach.substack.com
Evan Shinners hosts WTF Bach, a music show with 143 episodes published.
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 manuscripts, using waterma
(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 temperament for all of those p
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 finale in b minor, Bac
“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 kept.” —Busoni’s rema
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 to them which gnaws a
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 the trick into his b
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 composer’s most ambit
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 double fugue in this
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, artwork, komono, plates,
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, Ferruccio Busoni (pictured
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 31st. Why are people con
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 musical cultures in the wor
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 interpretation, so I sta
“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 interpreters play this express
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”-Politics and the English Language Thanks for reading W.T.F. Bach?! This post is public so feel free to share it. Enjoying your contrapuntal journey?
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 G Major set, BWV 860
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: The Meeting of Etymo
“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 composer. To what e
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 fact a spiral of fif
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, author of ‘In Dulci J
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WTF Bach is hosted by Evan Shinners. The show is categorised under music (commentary) and has published 143 episodes.
WTF Bach has published 143 episodes.
WTF Bach regularly covers music, commentary, education. It sits in the music category, with a commentary focus.
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