A Thinking Person's Reintroduction to Classical Music Part 2

In the last post I left you with a movement from one of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. Bach didn't get the job for which he was applying when he sent the Duke of Brandenburg the music. He didn't actually say outright that he was applying for the job but we have his letter to the Duke of Brandenburg, who kept the music. Bach spent much of his career writing and performing in court chapels before settling in Leipzig where he ran the St. Thomas School (a choir school) and provided music and direction for 4 churches. He was otherwise occupied fathering no fewer than 21 children.

Bach never met George Fredrich Händel whom he admired. The two were not rivals as Bach wrote mostly church music and Händel was a successful composer of Italian language operas. Händel was Court Musician to the Prince George Ludwig, Elector of Hanover in Germany. The Electors were princes who elected the King of Germany who was then crowned Holy Roman Emperor. In 1714 Queen Anne died and George Ludwig was next in line to become King of England. He moved to London and took Händel with him.

Fortunately for Händel, Italian opera was all the rage in London, a city with lots of rich people and a flourishing middle class. He wrote more than 40 operas and founded 3 commercial opera companies while at the same time being the King's court composer writing music like Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Italian opera eventually fell out of fashion. It had always became costly to stage and the shrinking audiences put it to bed.

Handel moved on to oratorios, like The Messiah, most of which are religious operas although church figures made it clear costuming and staging them was inappropriate so they were presented as concert works. He also wrote service music for the court. Zadok the Priest, an anthem, has been performed at every British coronation since.

So Bach is remember for comparatively dense and complex choral and organ music and a few orchestral suites like the Brandenburgs. Händel's music is more approachable and less complicated, reflecting the situations and audiences for whom it was performed. 

Here's a little Händel from the 1st Water Music Suite. You might enjoy listening a again to the Bach excerpt in Part 1 again, either before or after listening to this so you can compare them.

A Thinking Person's Reintroduction to Classical Music: Part 1

These days music is playing much of the time. It plays in malls and stores. It plays in elevators and in other public spaces. It is present in all kinds of media. Some of us pipe it into our heads through earbuds while pursuing other activities. It is not ubiquitous, but it is getting there.

In almost all of these instances people don’t actually pay any attention to the music. They are not listening to it.

In public places, it is played to mask noise. In films and video it can be source music, like music playing from a radio or TV, in a scene. It could be the film’s score, music written by a composer to be played during the action. Movie music is often written intentionally in such a way that it is not noticed by the viewer. In some films, the score can be loud and complex and still be drowned out by the action of the movie.

Most of us do listen to music with the intention of actually listening to it. If you don't pay attention to songs, you won't understand the lyrics. If you don't listen to dance music, you'll be unaware of the rhythm.

This brings us to so-called classical music. Quite a lot of it who was written before player pianos and the earliest records. Almost all of it is played on acoustic instruments or is sung. Even though we listen mostly to recordings of it, it is that we are listening to.

Some of the classical music which is still played is dance music, like waltzes by Johann Strauss. Some of them was played while doing other activities, like Telemann’s Tafelmusik, to be played while dining. Of course, most of it was written to be listened to either in halls or more intimate settings.

These days, classical music is almost always approached as art, as something to which one expects to pay attention. We go to galleries to look at Old Masters, to theatres to see Shakespeare’s plays. We can look at reproductions of art on our computers and tablets or watch videos of Shakespeare.

The music that is performed by orchestras, choirs and chamber musicians can be as new as this week’s première of New Music or could have been first performed more than 300 years ago. Simply put, that's a lot of music.

Most of you, I suppose had some experience of "classical music” in school, even if not a very lasting one. So how do I, the mentor, reintroducing you, the thinking person, to classical music? It is a quandary. No doubt, different people have different starting points. Similarly, different people have a different destination in mind.

Nonetheless,I’m going to suggest jumping in with both feet. The link will take you to the first movement (i.e. section, part) of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #2. Links to the rest other Brandenburgs will be there on the page. Please listen to just this unless you’re compelled to hear more. 

Many musicians revere J.S. Bach as the greatest composer who ever lived. These concertos are among his most accessible music. This rendition is by Tafelmusik, a Toronto based group and they are playing period instruments, instruments like those played at the time, not their modern adaptations. This music was written about 300 years ago. 

Brandenburg Concerto #2, 1st Movement