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EXPLORATIONS is SFBC’s new online learning series takes you beyond the notes for fascinating journeys of discovery and wonder!
You can still watch all four of our Saturday deep dives into Bach’s incredible Mass in B Minor, which took place on Zoom April 29 and May 6!
George Stauffer
Rutgers University
Bach's Mass in B Minor: What Is It, Really?
Sat. April 29, 2023 – 10am PST
We’ll talk about the nature of the Roman Catholic Mass in Bach’s time, his interest in Mass practices at the Dresden Court in particular, and the genesis, nature, and possible purpose of the B-Minor Mass. We’ll also touch on the performance (or non-performance) of the Mass in B Minor in the 18th century.
Bach’s Musical Last Word and Testament – The Credo Portion of the Mass in B Minor
Sat. April 29, 2023 – 11:30am PST
We will focus on the Symbolum Nicenum section of the Mass. The last portion that Bach composed while he was in full command of his compositional abilities. It contains the most unified and dramatic music in the Mass and is a complete piece in itself. The Credo portion was later performed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in 1786 as an example of his father’s best work. This talk will explain why it pointed to the past, present, and future in Bach’s time.
Robert Worth
Musicologist and Conductor,
Sonoma Bach Choir
Bach the Borrower
Sat. May 6, 2023 10:00 am Pacific Time
It’s easy to imagine the great Johann Sebastian Bach churning out piece after piece entirely from his own musical imagination, without reference to or reliance upon already-existing music. But this was not the way in which Bach generally operated. Actually, he took his place in a long line of borrowers, freely appropriating tunes and ideas and approaches and even entire pieces from other composers and from his own earlier works, adapting them to his present purposes.
In ‘Bach the Borrower’ we’ll investigate Bach’s self-borrowings and borrowings from others, teasing out the ways in which he drew upon earlier music to enrich his own compositions. Then we'll take a look at Bach's so-called Lutheran masses, and we'll proceed therefrom to investigate the Mass in B Minor, following Bach as he composes and recomposes and remixes to create the spectacular piece which the Swiss composer and publisher Hans Georg Nägeli in 1818 called 'The Greatest Artwork of All Times and All People'.
Alexandra Amati
Harvard University & USF
Text in Bach's Mass in B Minor
Sat. May 6, 2023 11:30 am Pacific Time
Bach was not a man of the theater, unlike his exact contemporary Handel, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t pay close attention to the text and both its overt and covert meaning. In this talk we will explore some of the ways Bach interprets and sets to music this text which would seem to be so universal and timeless to perhaps defy word painting and musical imagery. On the contrary, Bach chooses very carefully how to express both the surface meaning of the words, the deeper implications, and the more intangible interpretation. There will, of course, be some mention of the way in which text interpretation and musical structure intersect.
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EXPLORATIONS: J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor
EXPLORATIONS: J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor
EXPLORATIONS: J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor
Here are the links to all four EXPLORATIONS lectures for this series. The videos will be available through May 21 via the links below. Please check your email (including spam) for a confirmation and receipt that also contains these links.
As always, please support the San Francisco Bach Choir by not sharing these links outside your household.
You can email info@sfbach.org with any questions or concerns.