The WTF Bach Podcast Evan Shinners

Thanks for your feedback on the last few episodes. I’ve gathered my listeners enjoy piecing together musical cells in their minds, so today’s episode will bring you more of that.
The eight surviving canons, BWVs 1072-1078 (+BWV deest) were written on small pieces of paper or penned into registry books. Their compact content, usually only a few notes, is then ‘solved:’ copied and transformed to make a perpetual piece of music in several voices.
You will hear the solutions in the episode. Here is how they appear on the page:
This is the first canon discussed. From these two measures of music, eight voices are formed.
This is the second canon discussed: a four-voice canon with each voice entering a successive fifth higher than the last. It’s the four clefs at the beginning of the line that clue you in on this. The %-like symbol shows you where the next voice enters.
This is BWV 1074, the mysterious ‘Houdemann’ canon. Note the four clefs on the left of the staff, but also the four clefs to the right. They are inverted with a different key signature. Bach here was exploring the a truly symmetrical— not merely diatonic— inversion.
The final canon of the episode. The charming two-voice canon for one of his Godchildren. This canon is simple to solve and the easiest to comprehend.
Yes, the famous F-A-B-E-R, “mi fa, et fa mi est tota musica” canon will be in one of the next episodes— rest assured!
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The first three albums of the 'Complete Works for Solo Keyboard' are live everywhere. Stream while sleeping to achieve maximum effect.
Volume One:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/ycy2fab7
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
Volume Two:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/msjyhamh
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
Volume Three:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4xneak6r
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb


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If you miss those DVDs with the optional director’s commentary, you’re going to enjoy this episode.
Each album in my ‘J.S. Bach Complete Solo Keyboard Works’ will be accompanied by this type of work, my commentating as the music plays.
You can stream (and individually purchase) any track including the performer’s commentary from the first album here:
How To Support This Podcast:
https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
https://venmo.com/wtfbach
https://cash.app/$wtfbach
or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com
The first three albums of the 'Complete Works for Solo Keyboard' are live everywhere. Stream while sleeping to achieve maximum effect.
Volume One:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/ycy2fab7
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
Volume Two:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/msjyhamh
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
Volume Three:
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4xneak6r
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb


Get full access to WTF Bach at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe

You know that portrait of Bach holding a little scrap of music? Ever wonder what the piece was? What it sounded like?
That piece of paper is a six-voice, triple canon: number thirteen in the fourteen additional canons found on the back of Bach’s personal copy of the Goldberg Variations. (Analysis of that specific canon around 32 min.)
We’ve covered nine of these puzzling pieces in three previous episodes, but now it’s time to call it a wrap on all fourteen. These additional canons were discovered only as late as the 1970s. For a more detailed history, check the three previous episodes dealing with these canons:
Here is the image of the canon, “Christ will Crown the Cross-bearers” that appears in the family registry book belonging to J.G. Fulde:
And of course, Bach and his “business card:”
The bass line in both the images (and in all of the canons) is our beloved “first eight fundamental notes of the preceding aria” on which all the canons are based.
Be sure to get my forthcoming three albums on PRESALE before they go live on May 17th!
Volume One:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
Volume Two:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
Volume Three:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb
How To Support This Podcast:
https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
https://venmo.com/wtfbach
https://cash.app/$wtfbach
or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com


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ALBUMS ON PRESALE TODAY! BUY THE ALBUMS HERE!
Volume One:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/nhfuws4t
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/mrxj7pws
Volume Two:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mtykbxnz
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3m7b9v6w
Volume Three:
Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/mr44kwmf
Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/3e4kwnsb
As for the music covered today, we will hear Doubles layered over their preceding dance movements. A Double is an elaboration on the preceding movement, where the melody is quickened— often twice as quickly. The harmonic structure of the Double and its preceding movement is the same, allowing for one to play both movements at the same time with very interesting results.
Pieces studied:
Sarabande and Double from Sixth English Suite, BWV 811
Gigue and Double from the c minor lute suite, BWV 997
Partita in b minor for solo violin, BWV 1002
People/places mentioned:
Burp Castle at 41 East 7th Street in the East Village of Manhattan (between 2nd Ave & Cooper Square).
Paul Spring (guitarist)
How To Support This Podcast:
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Thanks for all your support during The Bach Store! If you’re in NYC on Friday, come to Le Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street at 7pm.
Be sure to mark your calendars: April 24th, 2024, my new albums will be on PRE-sale. It marks the beginning of my most ambitious project to date: a very thorough, if possible, ‘complete’ set of the keyboard works of Bach. I will certainly send another reminder as the date approaches.
And now for a brief journey into Bach around this date in 1724: today’s episode covers the cantata for the second Sunday after Easter, BWV 104, Du Hirte Israel, höre. Unlike the other cantatas I have recently discussed, this cantata is not based on a chorale melody.
And don’t miss out on your WTF Bach merchandise! Here are seven magnets for your fridge. Send me a note to arrange a sale (T-Shirts, Pins, Bags, 3D Printed Heads, Lighters, also available).
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https://venmo.com/wtfbach
https://cash.app/$wtfbach
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You read correctly: The Bach Store is back. In Erfurt, Thuringia, the state from where the Bachs hail. I will play for five hours, March 14-28, 12.00-18.00 GMT +1 (7AM-1PM EST.)
You can (hopefully) stream the whole run on my youtube. Subscribe HERE.
Or go to: www.youtube.com/@wtfbach
Here is the latest video I mentioned in the podcast.
Bach Store Merchandise is available on request. Send an email to bach (at) wtfbach (dot com)
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Meanwhile, the music in today’s episode comes from the “Neumeister Collection,” a collection of over 80 chorale preludes from multiple composers, published for the first time in 1985. More than 30 of the pieces come from J.S. Bach ca. 1700, when the composer was only 15 year old. Hence one of the newest Bach discoveries showed us the youngest portraits of the composer. I played three of them, one on a ‘real’ organ (Saint Anne’s, London) and two on Organteq (by Modartt.)
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How To Support This Podcast:
https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach
https://venmo.com/wtfbach
https://cash.app/$wtfbach
or become a paid subscriber at wtfbach.substack.com



Get full access to WTF Bach at wtfbach.substack.com/subscribe