10 ms·
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier – BWV 731 [video]
- siegel 9y agoHuge J.S. Bach fan. Curious why you posted this of all things.
- theprop 9y agoNice. I still prefer the Partitas for solo violin...
- cperciva 9y agoThere's very little which measures up to the Chaconne.
- xoroshiro 9y agoMmmmmm. The E major one. Gavotte en Rondeau has to be my favorite. If I could play the violin, that would be my main goal.
- dcsommer 9y agoGavotte en Rondeau is my favorite to play, good choice :)
- seertaak 9y agoHaha, that brings up fond memories practising Giga on the guitar!
- gemma 9y agoAs a violinist with a degree in performance: I harbor eternal bitterness towards you and the rest of your kind.
- seertaak 9y agoYou harbour bitterness towards guitarists in general or those (like me) that butcher classical pieces of music? Or am I missing something else? :)
- gemma 9y agoNono, just the classical guitarists who play my music flawlessly with a minuscule fraction of the effort needed on violin. You with your frets and extra strings and inability to sustain. grumble (But seriously, play the music that makes you happy! The sonatas and partitas are amazing on guitar!)
- jinfiesto 9y agoBach's entire oeuvre is incredible. I'm curious to know what this particular work has to do with HN though?
- cjauvin 9y agoHaha nothing in particular! I just happened to stumble upon that site, which I had forgotten about, while searching for this particular piece, which I find incredibly moving for some reason. I thought the HN hivemind might also find beauty and inspiration in it, which is why I shared.
- profpandit 9y agoYou obviously hit the proverbial nail on the head and "figuratively" broke it considering that you're right at the top of Hacker News, something that becomes many peoples' claim to fame, for technical articles of course
- jinfiesto 9y agoIt was an odd coincidence on my end. I just finished listening to Bach's Capriccio in B flat major 'on the Departure of his Beloved Brother' when I browsed to HN.
- profpandit 9y agoI hear ya, the mind gets tricky with some of those associations
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- itengelhardt 9y agogreat piece of music, beautiful website design, something completely different for a change. Bach wasn't into computers much, but man did he hack those notes. Great pick!
- rspeer 9y agoThe web design used to be terribly unusable, with interface elements constantly feeling like they were trying to trick you. They managed to re-do it and improve it a lot. It's a good sign. At one BWV per week, this project is going to take about 18 years in total. To succeed, they'll have to be prepared to go through many versions of the site.
- marze 9y agoOrgans and watches were the "computers" of Bach's time.
- Piskvorrr 9y agoNo need for quotes. Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipe_organ - the mechanics of a pipe organ are direct predecessors to phone switches and thence to transistors.
- fiatjaf 9y agoThese "allofbach" videos never play correctly on my computer, they play then stop then play then stop. Why so much video quality if it's going to ruin the music experience completely?
- zmix 9y agoSame here.
- wging 9y agoHave you tried clicking the 'HD' button in the lower right? You can step down the video quality to 380p. Does that help? The default is 'auto', which I'd expect to be fine, but if it picks up settings from Vimeo, you might have something else selected.
- SL61 9y agoSame here. It streams from Vimeo, which has always had buffering issues on my end, despite a reasonably fast connection.
- muglug 9y agoVimeo developer here When watching videos, you can always press `D` to open the debug panel – that gives you information about your streaming session, and a link to save that data for later. Let me know if you see something funny there...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pierrec 9y agoJust before seeing this on HN I was listening to Buxtehude's organ works on my way home. Buxtehude was one of the main inspirations for Bach as a composer¹, and I always find it interesting to go back and forth. But there's a reason Bach is the one that has come to be a superstar - there's the huge number of surviving works, of course, and in many ways how "the student surpassed the master", not least in contrapunctal complexity and fugal techniques, but also in the incredible fluidity he could achieve with a seemingly arbitrary number of voices. Still one can listen to Buxtehude and get taken in the beauty and playfulness of his works, and we instantly imagine how young Bach was equally mesmerized by the same music, and in a way, how it kindled a passion and Bach continued to dig into the same musical goldmine that Buxtehude had been excavating - sometimes even the same tunnels, to my ears. Some of my faves in the Buxtehude collection, mostly dramatic stuff (no links because I'm on crappy 3G): Toccata In D Minor (Bux 155) Toccata in G Major (Manualiter) (Bux 164) Passacaglia in D minor (Bux 161) Prelude in G minor (Bux 149) [1]: I won't say "the main inspiration" because this is going a bit far into opinion-land, and it doesn't even make sense to single out a single composer as "main influence", but either way, Buxtehude is definitely up there with Bach's mentor Georg Böhm.
- jinfiesto 9y agoI'm surprised you didn't include the story of Bach walking 250 miles to hear Buxtehude play.
- pierrec 9y agoI pretty much left that out as bait for someone to reply, though it seems you've nearly identified it as such :)
- gumby 9y agoI used to have a cat named Buxtehude (mainly because I like the word) and was pleased that most of my friends knew the reference. I also drove there once. Not much to see, and actually has no connection to the composer.
- 9y ago
- captbaritone 9y agoPerhaps relevant: http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/ http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/
- letier 9y agoI know I'm slowly going off topic here. :) But check out the Glenn Gould version, as well. Also Jacques Loussier has some nice Bach interpretations.
- coolandsmartrr 9y agoAs for the GG renditions, check out in 1955 recording first followed by 1981. The first recording was already amazing in its own right, but it's astounding to realize how much a proficient musician can mature even further. Steve Jobs famously contrasted these recordings in his authorized biography.
- jacquesm 9y ago> Also Jacques Loussier has some nice Bach interpretations. Now that's a name I really never expected here. Seconded!
- makmanalp 9y agoMight I recommend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTxrk9HooI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTxrk9HooI
- handedness 9y agoFor those who enjoy J.S. Bach's organ works, James Kibbie recorded performances of complete works, all played on original baroque-era organs, in Germany: http://www.blockmrecords.org/bach/ http://www.blockmrecords.org/bach/ https://freemusicarchive.org/music/James_Kibbie/ https://freemusicarchive.org/music/James_Kibbie/
- emersonrsantos 9y agoIf you are interested in pipe organs but can't afford one, check out Hauptwerk and its collection of hundreds of pipe organ sample sets from everywhere in the world. Check also its open-source alternative, GrandOrgue. There are excellent and free sets that work with both at http://piotrgrabowski.pl http://piotrgrabowski.pl. Musicians spend thousands of dollars to build MIDI organ consoles or convert real consoles to use with these virtual pipe organs, myself included. PCs with 64GB RAM and server specs are not uncommon.
- tetraodonpuffer 9y agoyou can also spend a lot less and still have tons of fun with it, I personally have 3 cheap midi keyboards, a pedalboard I midified myself and two launchpads and it works great, total expense was definitely under $1,000 In terms of HW I can strongly recommend the Metzeler Silbermann [1], not that expensive and extremely satisfying to play. As an autodidact I am definitely limited in what I am able to play, but it is still amazing to learn Bach pieces: I have listened to Bach's organ repertoire all my life since I was a kid, but learning a piece shows you a lot more just how amazing the music is. [1] http://www.organartmedia.com/silbermann-metzler http://www.organartmedia.com/silbermann-metzler
- maxpblum 9y agoHooray for Bach on HN! I can't recommend highly enough the performances of http://bachcollegiumjapan.org http://bachcollegiumjapan.org, a Japanese ensemble that I believe has recorded the full choral works of J.S. Bach, along with many pieces for instruments only. The performances are vital and electrifying, while also extremely thoughtful and counterpoint-driven.
- lmcnish14 9y agoI love seeing this on HN! I'm particularly fond of Bach's cello suites but I'm probably biased since I'm a cellist. http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-1010/ http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-1010/
- xoroshiro 9y agoMy favorite for cello are the Bourrées in C. I'm not a pro, but I remember messing around with playing a (probably simplified) version of it on my bass guitar, everything an octave lower, and thinking I wish I had a lower C string.
- Twirrim 9y agoMy background is more on the singing side, and I absolutely adore his choral work (along with Haydn et. al). Over the years my voice slid down rather than went for a hard break, before finally settling in to a lyric bass-baritone range, so I've had the opportunity to sing pretty much every part over the years. There's a long running joke amongst Altos that you can tell when the composer's wife was an alto, because you get melodic lines. Bach's choral work tends to include as much intricacy as his instrumental work, across all four parts. Bass still tends to get the "walking the root notes of the chords", but not to the same degree as with other composers. BWV232, Bach's Mass in B Minor is a favourite of mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1w3EhXqwo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY1w3EhXqwo
- siegel 9y agoI'm a tenor, but used to be a bass-baritone. So, the opposite of you. The B Minor Mass is a favorite of mine, as well. I do enjoy Herreweghe. But have you ever listened to a one-on-a-part version? This is a landmark recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9myyCGSkvfw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9myyCGSkvfw
- kristianp 9y agoThe tapping on the fingerboard is quite audible, which isn't something I've noticed before. Is it normally muted (perhaps by mic position) in recordings?
- theprop 9y agoThank you so much -- this is really fantastic!! There's something quite smooth about this performance or this organ's sound...I usually find organ music harder to get into but not this piece...I just finished listening to this for the eighth time...and it's on again...
- bachpug 9y agoI used to play the pipe organ before becoming a software engineer. Bach's works are like living inside of a multi-threaded algorithm in real time. You can understand/appreciate a lot of them from a high level without knowing what they really are doing as implementation details. Some people even can play his pieces just with muscle-memory. But if you try to fully understand as a composer what he is doing in any piece, it's this astonishing, unparalleld depth that just keeps giving over years and decades. I just realized something new from a movement of piece I've heard for 15 years now the other day, and this happens regularly.
- masterleep 9y agoAmazing that he wasn't even considered that notable a composer until many decades after he died.
- agmiklas 9y agoI've always thought musical counterpoint and multi-threaded programming have a great number of parallels. Both are fundamentally about setting up independent but interlocking things that need to work together to accomplish a goal without crashing into each other. And I think the first time you experience either done by a real master, it is mind blowing in the same sort of way.
- coldcode 9y agoEven more amazing is that Bach (and others as well) could build a fugue while improvising. It's like live coding multi threaded software. Even late in life Bach was given a challenge on the spot to build something from a given set of notes, and the Goldberg Variations are the result (he remembered what he did and wrote it out later). I still love listening to the last thing he ever worked on (a quadruple fugue in the Art Of Fugue) where he died essentially in the middle of writing the piece, the stopping of the music is so stark you feel the death.
- corey_moncure 9y agoI think you might be referring to the Musical Offering. The Goldberg Variations were after the aria in Anna Magdalena's book. Also, research suggests that the story of Bach dying before finishing the final fugue in Art of Fugue is inaccurate. An analysis of the paper in the extant manuscript, the tools used to draw the staff lines, and the simple realization that there is no way even Bach could have undertaken such a huge work without deriving the final combination of the fugal subjects before hand, all point to a completion in the year 1747 or 1748, but lost. The fragment that survives is likely to be a rough draft. I wrote my senior paper in undergrad on this. In fact the last work completed by the master is believed to be the "Et Incarnatus Est" in second (later) half of the B minor mass.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- CaliforniaKarl 9y agoI love organ music. And it's important to note that Organ recitals (that is, Organ performances not part of a religious service) are not a rare thing! For example, there are two recitals at Stanford's Memorial Church scheduled next month: • June 5, a recital by Ethan Williams, Stanford student. https://events.stanford.edu/events/673/67311/ https://events.stanford.edu/events/673/67311/ • June 16, the annual Commencement Organ recital of Dr. Morgan, Stanford University Organist. https://events.stanford.edu/events/686/68615/ https://events.stanford.edu/events/686/68615/ Both events are at 7:30 PM in Memorial Church (https://campus-map.stanford.edu/?id=01-500 https://campus-map.stanford.edu/?id=01-500), and typically end around 9 PM. You can also keep an eye on https://religiouslife.stanford.edu/programs-events/music https://religiouslife.stanford.edu/programs-events/music and https://events.stanford.edu https://events.stanford.edu for future performances (there's already one scheduled for August).
- Doctor_Fegg 9y agoOhhh, and the June 16th recital is the organ works of Duruflé, who is unquestionably one of the finest organ composers of the 20th century. I can't recommend that highly enough. (And the organist, Robert Huw Morgan, taught at my school when I was a kid: he rejoiced under the predictable nickname of Organ Morgan.)
- _Codemonkeyism 9y agoHow nice, as I currently read GEB again.
- lionradio 9y agoI cannot believe this is trending on HN.
- schtitt 9y agoThis as in Bach, or this specific piece?
- wordupmaking 9y agoFor me it's this specific piece, I just hear two kind of separate and bland melodies. It wouldn't feel out of place in a B movie scene that goes on for way too long, where people shuffle around with no real motivation or aim. I don't know as much Bach as I should, but I love the obvious ones like "Air". I can't listen to air and imagine a straight-to-VHS movie with some 80s kid and his dog walking around in the fog, or dozens of similar thing, as I can with "Dearest Jesus, we're here" (even the title I find lame). Mind you, it's because of course I do adore Bach, in general. I think the master can take some snark from some random nobody :)
- hoistbypetard 9y agoOddly, when I try to play this in my normal browser (Chrome 58, fedora x64, EFF privacy badger extension installed) I get "Sorry Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here." It works fine in an incognito window. What a great piece.
- singularity2001 9y ago"Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here." WTF
- samuell 9y agoIf any Bach newbies want something easy listened to start with, don't miss the classic, Toccata & Fuga in D minor: http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-565/ http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-565/ Especially the middle parts (2:37 and forward) is just astonishing ... Very beautiful site btw!
- samuell 9y agoAnd then the trio sonatas for organ are the master pieces of the master pieces if you ask me ... with three truly independent melodies masterfully interwoven most of the time ... did only find one so far though: http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-527/ http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-527/
- tetraodonpuffer 9y agoone of my favorite recordings of the vivace of BWV 530, which is one of my favorite movements of the triosonate, has been on youtube for many years now, definitely recommended https://youtu.be/S_84pCT230A https://youtu.be/S_84pCT230A
- l5870uoo9y 9y agoIt is much better quality than any of the recordings that I have listened to on Youtube.
- coldcode 9y agoI love the fugue even more than the Toccata, because Bach violates the rules of the fugue on purpose and being Bach, it sounds amazing.
- bencollier49 9y agoIf anyone on here wants to get fully into their organ music, Priory is a fairly definitive label (nb: Am son of the founder). The "Great European Organs" series was recently celebrated on BBC Radio 3 here in the UK. Quick search for Bach on the website: http://prioryrecords.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&search=bach http://prioryrecords.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&se...
- afandian 9y agoI get: > Sorry > Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here. I have privacy badger but it's only blocking Google Analytics. Hm.
- Freak_NL 9y agoI really like AllOfBach's attempt to provide free/gratis recordings of, eventually, all of Bach's repertoire; it is a laudable endeavour. What disappoints me is the lack of vision on how this cultural resource can be maintained and spread amongst whoever benefits from it in the long term. All the copyrights appear to reside with the Netherlands Bach Society, and there appears to be no legal way to spread this resource beyond streaming it via Vimeo (for which by the way you need to allow cookies for player.vimeo.com if you use Privacy Badger). These are high quality recordings by excellent musicians, it's a shame that copyright encumbers it without some open culture license like Creative Commons. I should really take the time to write them and ask about their views on this topic. Edit: I should perhaps say middle-to-long-term, as copyright might eventually expire (if we are lucky).
- inimino 9y agoYou can mention that in the country with the world's largest online population, it is inaccessible completely.
- rzzzwilson 9y agoNice music. I'm a sucker for Bach. The website though, ... Won't let me view anything until I use Landscape mode on a mobile device. It's MY device and I'll use it the way I want. I guess I'll watch it on YouTube, which isn't so dictatorial.
- jvandonsel 9y agoWonderful to see AoB mentioned on HN. It's an audacious project with consistently fine performances and gorgeous video.
- alexhektor 9y agoWhy is this on the front page of HN? Anything I'm missing?
- crdb 9y agoThis thread is turning into a set of recommendations related to Bach. So here's mine. Zhu Xiao Mei is a Chinese pianist who teaches in Paris. She grew up during the Great Leap Forward and spent 5 years in a reeducation camp, never giving up her spirit and illegally importing her parents' "bourgeois" piano at great risk to her and their life, via friends doing her favours, storing and playing it in a freezer. Teachers stored the Western scores that had been banned by Madam Mao in a room on the 3rd floor which they never dared visit again. Out of the camp, she emigrated to the US at the merest sign of the border opening, having heard Western playing and realised the gulf that stood between her understanding of what great music was and what was actually possible. She did small jobs like cleaning houses to survive until she ended up in Paris where she was noticed and her career could take off. [1] She discovered Bach's Goldberg Variations almost by accident. The person in whose house she was staying could not stand hearing piano being practiced, except for that piece, so that's what she practiced for hours every day, gradually learning it inside out, and it became her favourite piece. Her performance on an Asia tour shocked a friend by its sensitivity and wisdom and he recommended it to me. Maybe you need something a little different from Gould. I recommend reading the book before listening to her playing the Variations [2], there is an entire world in that performance and the knowledge makes it more personal. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Piano-Labor-Goldberg-Variations/dp/1611090776 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Piano-Labor-Goldberg-Variation... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0F5VRgKK1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0F5VRgKK1g
- sumpmonster 9y agoFor the lovers of Bachs sacral music: https://www.cantatasapp.com https://www.cantatasapp.com
- mml 9y agoBWV 582 is a personal favorite. thanks for the link!
- jacquesm 9y agoThis is my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Upv8DuRQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Upv8DuRQ
- joelhed 9y agoI was expecting the intro to Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, but this is fine.
- runeks 9y agoI came here -- having read the title too quickly --- thinking it was an oddly phrased advertisement for a BMW 7-Series. I wasn't disappointed though.
- Pica_soO 9y agoNothing like "Sheep may safely graze" to calm a worried head.
- totally 9y agoI love Bach and am also not understanding what this is doing here.