Johann Sebastian Bach: Genre-Bender Extraordinaire | Big Think

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[IncertusVeritas]

Bach will always be my favorite composer of all times. His music is full of real human emotions.

[owenshark]

I accidentally read this as "Johann Sebastian Bach: Gender-Bender Extraordinaire"

[jjsc]

"I don't look at the guy next to me and think, 'hey, I'm doing better than him'. I mean, compared to Bach, we all suck." - Pat Metheny.

[CentrifugalSatzClock]

Wonderful it is to hear such a great interpreter of the Cantatas talking about Bach. Many of his interpretations are my favorites because they do give a dramatic touch to this very magical of musics.

[NotJonJost]

He did write a few perfectly stagable works that went under the listed genre of "dramma per musica"-- which is how operas often got referred to-- in things like Hercules At The Crossroads (BWV 213), The Contest Of Pan And Apollo (BWV 201), and the Coffee Cantata (BWV 211). The last two, especially, it seems like people say they weren't staged just because Bach wrote them, but they are clearly very dramatic and diologic.

But Bach's Matthew Passion is definitely the greatest baroque opera, and it's not even an opera.

[zenzylok]

Bach, altering the existence of mankind with music since 1700.

[attewell]

Bach left us such wonderful music to express the eternal truths of the bible. He had no need to express his gift in opera. Church music was the highest form as it points to the eternal word of God.

[iwanabana]

The word after Monteverdi was Rameau, one of the great French Baroque composers.

[MatthewJayasekera]

Bach was always breaking the rules, and doing his own thing.

[jalapablocrypto]

Come to think of it, Schutz didn't compose opera either, a contemporary of Monteverdi. Yet his passions are full of dialectic drama and energy.

[kellyhanselman]

Looking forward to adding the phrase "mutant opera" to my students' glossary of studied terms.

[juanpablovelez]

I would love to watch a big think interview with this man.

[alyriel]

Lol, at first I read Gender-Bender...

[Sunicarus]

“As opposed to other composers, Bach targets the very young, the child, and people of a certain age, like me. And tries to leave out the middle. What I mean by this is that there are all kinds of mental, psychological dispositions from the opera that he totally shunned. Envy. Greed. Lust. Jealousy. I mean, this is the bread and butter of the opera. He never went there. He had no interest in that. His music tries to express things like, awe. Grace. Thanks. Fear. Trepidation. Hope. All kinds of sentiments a child can have, and an older person can have." -Bernard Chazelle

[elletuppen]

Thank you for another gem of a discussion by Sir Gardiner. I can listen to anything he has to say, esp about Bach.
He gets under the skin of musical and psychological matters and makes such valuable sense of them. And obviously these insights of his are palpable in his interpretations.His understanding about Bach’s misunderstood complexity, darkness and sensuality is so exiting and elements that have resonated with me since I was a you g musician. 🌈❤️🌹

[kinetic.vibe.]

Air by Bach is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard!

[TeamDemoClan]

Naked City are a good example of genre bending, with songs spanning 20 or 30 genres in less than a minute.  Due to this they aren't the easiest to listen too.  But are certainly noteworthy.

[Beachapeeater]

It took me the whole video to realize it didn't say genDer bender.

[suzyserling]

What a privilege to listen to Sir John E. Gardiner’s thoughts about J.S.Bach!; thanks....No question, in part it was a political and especially a psychological response for Bach to express many deep emotions and connect with his personal history through the Passions and Cantatas, all the religious beliefs, romanticism, sensuality, all there “no special dresses, no wigs”. Thanks again!

[donna]

Bach was so devoted to his God he probably though anything not associated with it was frivolous.