
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier – BWV 731 [video] - cjauvin
http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-731/
======
pierrec
Just 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.

~~~
graycat
People who know me say I'm a super music fan. Yup. I liked it well enough to
get a violin and dig in, especially to Bach. For violin I have low talent,
started too late, and didn't practice enough, but, still I made it through the
Preludio of the E Major Partita and the D Major center section of the
Chaconne.

From all the possible analyses I've seen of Bach, finally I come down on just
one core point: He was one heck of a good musician, that is, in the basic
_art_ of the music, that is, "communication, interpretation of human
experience, emotion". I listen to Bach for the MUSIC, that is, for the art,
the communication.

While later composers used style and means Bach didn't use or didn't have, to
me as an avid listener Bach is in places as passionate, _romantic_ , dramatic
as anything in Mozart, Beethoven, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikowski, etc.
E.g.,

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOFflFiLlT8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOFflFiLlT8)

Bach Busoni Chaconne D Minor BWV 1004 Valentina Lisitsa

Passionate music.

~~~
badosu
This piece is simply breathtaking, I find this version on guitar more
expressive:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNEnzNHTkd8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNEnzNHTkd8)

~~~
graycat
I just listened to it: It's good!

Generally he very much _gets it_ about the _sense or meaning_ of the music, at
least as I understand it.

I wondered what he was going to do for the last parts of the first D Minor
section, and he was really good! There he made good use of some of the
advantages of a guitar to make the notes _sharp_ (with correct intonation! --
easier on guitar than violin!) and distinct in a musically appropriate way.

For the first parts of the central D Major section, he got the slow, delicate,
maybe even pleading _sweetness_ very nicely. As that section grew in passion,
there are many triplets; these can be made to sound more passionate by being
_insistent_ , and he did well with that.

There are places in the music where the music jumps quickly down an octave or
two, and, really, usually there needs to be some _connection_ or _legato_
between the two -- sometimes he does this and sometimes not. An
_interpretation_ of the jump is that the lower notes are a fast answer or
response to the upper ones; then it's good to have the two sound connected.
Or, the music is a diagram of someone in doubt and considering something; the
upper notes are the current guesses, and the lower notes are a fast return to
thinking the person is more confident about.

Maybe that music is like a guy trying to woo a girl and thinking (A) I really
want to take her to that five star French restaurant BUT (B) I might look like
irresponsible with money; (A) I really want to show her I care BUT (B) it's
important to be careful with money; etc.

To me the climax of the piece is at the end of the central D Major section;
have to play on all four strings of the violin, and the highest notes on the E
string can result in a _soaring_ impression, rising to something glorious --
Bach was not short on passion. There is a lot to interpret in those last few
bars of that section. There the guitar might have tried again.

Just after the end of the D Major section is the final section, in D Minor,
and the beginning of that section is _confused_ as a _catharsis_ or _release_
from the soaring passion just before (Bach was something of an applied human
emotional psychologist, that is, a good artist!). Well, for that catharsis,
the guitarist might have tried again.

At the beginning, with just the D Minor tonic chord, he could have used more
legato, made the sounds last a little longer, still within what a guitar can
do. That is, clearly indicate for the listener that chord because it is
central to the whole piece.

There's a story of a guitarist in the audience of a concert. He happened to be
sitting next to composer Castelnuovo-Tedesco, known to be a man of few words.
Before the concert, the guitarist said to the composer "The Bach Chaconne sure
is difficult to play." The composer said nothing but when the concert was over
said "The Bach Chaconne is the greatest piece of music ever written". I
wouldn't argue with that. Playing it, even while learning to play it and
playing it badly, is fun beyond belief -- get to replace own commonly limited
voice with that of a violin, piano, guitar, or even a full orchestra (e.g.,
Stokowski) and Bach's music to scream out to the heavens the passion of the
human spirit -- great fun!

Bach was one heck of a musician!

~~~
badosu
I am glad you enjoyed it, it's one of my favorite musical performances ever!
Some other incredible renditions:

\- Caprice 24 by Alexander Markov

\- La Catedral by Ana Vidovic _(worth checking her Asturias version as well)_

\- Pictures at an Exhibition by Kazuhito Yamashita

\- Shadow by Harmen Fraanje

All of these you can find on youtube.

------
bachpug
I 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.

~~~
rejschaap
I appreciate the complexity and ingenuity of Bach's compositions, but I can't
really enjoy listening to them. I always feel like I'm missing out. So
occasionally I try to get into it again, but I fail every time.

edit: talking about the organ works here

~~~
tzmudzin
It is an acquired taste.

One needs to invest some time into the listening (and preferably: some music
appreciation courses/ material) to start picking up the nuances. BTW -- the
analogy with IT systems holds here. A layman will not appreciate the beauty
behind some of the designs...

My personal experience with Bach as a beginning player is that a piece that
sounds just fine becomes really interesting when you start playing it, and
then at some point you get the extatic moment of enlightment... even if you
still don't know it how Bach got there...

------
maxpblum
Hooray 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.

------
Freak_NL
I 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
You can mention that in the country with the world's largest online
population, it is inaccessible completely.

------
handedness
For 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
If 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
you 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)

------
lmcnish14
I 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/)

~~~
Twirrim
My 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
I'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)

------
crdb
This 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-
Variation...](https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Piano-Labor-Goldberg-
Variations/dp/1611090776)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0F5VRgKK1g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0F5VRgKK1g)

------
jvandonsel
Wonderful to see AoB mentioned on HN. It's an audacious project with
consistently fine performances and gorgeous video.

------
samuell
If 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
And 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
one 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)

------
hoistbypetard
Oddly, 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.

------
theprop
Nice. I still prefer the Partitas for solo violin...

~~~
xoroshiro
Mmmmmm. 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
Gavotte en Rondeau is my favorite to play, good choice :)

------
lionradio
I cannot believe this is trending on HN.

~~~
schtitt
This as in Bach, or this specific piece?

~~~
wordupmaking
For 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 :)

------
CaliforniaKarl
I 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
Ohhh, 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.)

------
siegel
Huge J.S. Bach fan. Curious why you posted this of all things.

------
itengelhardt
great 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!

~~~
marze
Organs and watches were the "computers" of Bach's time.

~~~
Piskvorrr
No 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.

------
runeks
I 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.

------
jinfiesto
Bach's entire oeuvre is incredible. I'm curious to know what this particular
work has to do with HN though?

~~~
cjauvin
Haha 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.

~~~
jinfiesto
It 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
I hear ya, the mind gets tricky with some of those associations

------
_Codemonkeyism
How nice, as I currently read GEB again.

------
bencollier49
If 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&se...](http://prioryrecords.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&search=bach)

------
captbaritone
Perhaps relevant:
[http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/](http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/)

~~~
letier
I 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.

~~~
jacquesm
> Also Jacques Loussier has some nice Bach interpretations.

Now that's a name I really never expected here. Seconded!

~~~
makmanalp
Might I recommend:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTxrk9HooI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTxrk9HooI)

------
theprop
Thank 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...

------
joelhed
I was expecting the intro to Structure and Interpretation of Computer
Programs, but this is fine.

------
fiatjaf
These "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?

~~~
muglug
Vimeo 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...

------
jacquesm
This is my favorite:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Upv8DuRQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Upv8DuRQ)

------
sumpmonster
For the lovers of Bachs sacral music:

[https://www.cantatasapp.com](https://www.cantatasapp.com)

------
afandian
I 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.

------
singularity2001
"Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here." WTF

------
totally
I love Bach and am also not understanding what this is doing here.

------
alexhektor
Why is this on the front page of HN? Anything I'm missing?

~~~
jtth
Bach invented programming

~~~
denloh
Bach invented inventions

------
mml
BWV 582 is a personal favorite. thanks for the link!

------
rzzzwilson
Nice 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.

------
Pica_soO
Nothing like "Sheep may safely graze" to calm a worried head.

