Bach, Random Hamlet

Bach, More Bach

As I continue to work through the Bach 2000 Collection, it's nice to read more commentary on the set.

Octavio Roca wrote in 1999:

More than any other composer, Bach is the author of a ``complete works'': Every individual score only shines brighter in the light of the rest of his oeuvre. Every violin sonata gains emotional resonance with the memory of his cantatas, every expression of faith in the monumental St. Matthew or St. John Passion grows in depth and disarming sweetness in the light of the simplest melody from, say, the Goldberg Variations. The best commentary on a Bach score is another. He gave us a series of compositions through which -- not merely in which -- there arises a vast, humanistic vision of eternal truths.

Comments like Roca's makes me feel better that I bought the entire set. There are moments, however, that I think "what a waste of money", especially when I hear something wonderful, get fixated on that particular CD, leaving the other 152 unlistened to and unloved. How am I ever going to listen to all these CDs in the three years I've laid out to focus on Bach? Maybe I should chill, relax; as Roca wrote, "It would take more than a lifetime to know all of Bach, but there is the promise of a lifetime of pleasure and discovery in returning to his music"

BTW, I was happy to learn today that a spreadsheet with track listings for the entire collection is available online as a zip file. This list will make working with the collection much easier. (I have thought of trying to convert all the CDs into mp3s -- which could taka about 10 Gb for typical sampling rates -- so that I can have all the music at my fingertips. Just imagine a beefed-up iPod loaded with all of Bach's works. The (my) mind boggles!

Random Hamlet

I've been thinking about one of favorite passages from Hamlet today. I was feeling blue some days over the Christmas break and I'm feeling down today. Hamlet says (in Act II, scene ii) to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern:

I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. [emphasis mine]

Dec Feb

The opinions or statements expressed herein should not be taken as a position of or endorsement by the University of California, Berkeley. Nor should the opinions or statements expressed herein be taken as a position of or endorsement of the University of California, Berkeley. Links on these pages to commercial sites do not represent endorsement by the University of California or its affiliates.