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Listening to the Music of Bach:

It’s a dilemma. In a stress-filled world, inquiring minds want to know:

  • Do we listen to the melodic elements of the music? After all, Bach’s melodies are inventive and astonishingly beautiful.
  • Do we listen to the structures and counterpoint in Bach’s music? After all, Bach is justly famous for being the greatest master of counterpoint ever to have lived.
  • Would it be best to listen for the smaller, symbolic details in Bach’s music? Bach is known to have had a special interest in word painting, the “Doctrine of Affections” and numerology. Is this the best place to direct our ears?
  • Bach was a spiritual person. Should we therefore try to listen to his music as a “sermon in sound?”

Other questions seem equally pressing. Bach’s music relaxes us, soothes us, excites us, troubles us. Is it wrong to let the music relax us so much that we doze off? Is it wrong to tap one’s foot at a classical concert? Dare we laugh at a musical joke, or frown at a moment when Bach depicts something ugly in sound?

We cannot answer these questions for you. We can note that it is the astounding genius of Bach that makes these rather pleasant questions possible. We can say that the more we study and understand each of the elements of Bach’s music, the more we love it. (And when you attend a concert by the Calgary Bach Festival Society - please feel free to tap your foot, smile, laugh, frown or react to the music in any way that you like.) Use the links at the top of the page to learn more about the Calgary Bach Festival Society.