September 2003 Newsletter
September, 2003 Volume 16 Number 1
Letter from the President
Karaj amikoj de Bach
There is always a strangeness in composing a letter of this kind knowing that it will not come out in print till some weeks later.So much can happen in the meantime. Let us hope it will be “bon temps” for us all. At the Bach Society we are very positive about our upcoming season. Please check out the programmes for the 2003-04 year which you will find in this newsletter.
Also take note of the fact that all our concerts, with the exception of the children’s one, will take place at Scarboro United Church,134 Scarboro Avenue SW.
The Marathon, our fundraiser, will be held in conjunction with the Scarboro Fair. The thought, from both Church and Bach, was that this could be a very interesting happening. The two organizations will be able to benefit from each other’s output.
And, speaking of the Marathon, you are in for a treat because this year the participants have been asked to concentrate on music from JS Bach’s Well-tempered Klavier and his Chorales. It will be fascinating to hear what will be chosen and how much we will be able to cover in seven hours.
The choir will be taking part in a workshop given by Mel Braun. Details still have to be worked out but we think it will happen in the beginning of March. This will be a wonderful opportunity for us choristers to learn from yet another respected, splendid singer and teacher. Mel is associated with the University of Manitoba and is known in Canada as well as internationally. Many of you will remember his singing the part of Christ in the St. Matthew Passion which we performed in June of 2000. All shall be revealed (regarding the workshop) in the December newsletter.
Next I would like to make you aware of the Annual General Meeting. (Is that a groan I hear?) You do not have to come, you know, but it is your Society and you can have a say in the operation by coming out, meeting people (many of whom you may only have seen at a distance), voting on various important matters, having some libations - and all of this in a most congenial atmosphere. This AGM will mark the last one I will chair as president. The past three years have been most rewarding for me. I have learned so much, met many interesting people, was, sometimes, presented with difficult situations but always had help from the fantastic members of the CBFS board. It really is an amazing organization and I am very proud to be a part of it. I thank you all for your support and hope to see you soon. Maybe even the 26th. of September?!
Marijke van Wijk.
Calendar of Events
October 25, 2003, 1 – 7 PM The 16th Bach Marathon Scarboro United Church 134 Scarboro Avenue SW
December 7th, 2003, 3 PM Bach Advent Concert Scarboro United Church From J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 Cantatas No. 1 and 2A Vivaldi Bassoon Concerto in C Major
February 7th, 2004, 1 PM Bach Children’s Concert Mount Royal College Leacock Theatre Hands on Instruments demonstration at 1 PM Children’s play with music 2 PM March 21, 2004, 3 PM
Bach Birthday Celebration - with birthday cake Scarboro United Church J.S. Bach Cantata BWV 150 “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich.”G.P. Telemann Psalm #96 “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied”G.F. Handel Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11
Music in J.S. Bach's Church
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, composers and philosophers believed that music had the power to both teach and change people. When Johann Sebastian Bach was born in 1685, composers of sacred music consistently wished to instruct their listeners, touch their emotions and change them. Bach was 15 years old when the composer Johann Matteson wrote that the goal of composers was to write music that would generate “especially intense, serious, longlasting and extremely profound emotions.”
For Lutheran church musicians, the vehicle through which this was accomplished was the church cantata. With the exception of the season of Lent, Lutheran church musicians were responsible for a musical composition of approximately 20 minutes duration to be performed at all the principal worship services. These cantatas used as texts the Bible lessons appointed for the day as well as poems and meditative writings based on the lessons. In Bach’s churches the cantatas were performed by a choir of boys and adult male voices (we know that women also sang secretly for Bach, especially in solo passages). A small orchestra of strings and winds (as needed) along with the organ and/or harpsichord accompanied the singers. Bach himself played the keyboard instrument(s).
The effectiveness of these cantatas is best explained if we go back to Baroque theories of composition including the “Doctrine of Affections” and “word painting.” As music scholar Ulrich Leisinger points out: “the starting point for every doctrine of the affections is the relation between body and mind. It was believed that affections, being passions of the mind, had physical origins… Contrary to appearances, emotions are not brought on by a concious act of the soul. It is much more of a case of the soul being touched, thereby creating an affection over which the soul has no concious control.” Though this may sound complicated to us today, composers like Bach found the challenge easy. He could “touch” the soul with his music. By the 18th century, Baroque composers had created a highly developed musical language equally founded on “affects” and “word painting” as well as the traditional compositional elements of rhythm, melody and harmony.
We find many examples of “word painting” in the cantatas. Word painting is music that is written to sound like the meaning of the text. Action verbs such as run, fall, turn, and twist afford obvious examples of word painting possibilities. Bach also liked painted sound pictures of angels (with hovering melodic ideas), the Holy Spirit (with fast moving passages that were meant to depict the wind) and Satan (with twisted melodic lines that were meant to conjure up the image of a snake). In addition, Bach paints pictures in sound of the important people and places in the texts he was setting to music.
Bach’s ability to convincingly communicate the gospel through both words and the non-verbal language of music earned him the moniker of the “fifth evangelist.” Thus, the composer Bach actually became a preacher who used the entire language of music to drive home the theological points that were suggested to him in the scriptures.
T. Herbert Dimmock is Director of Music, First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Maryland
Used with permissiom.
Profile - David Sperling
David Sperling sings tenor with the Calgary Bach Festival Society. “It keeps me sane,” he laughs. “I miss it when I’m away.” When he moved to Calgary 5 years ago, David started with the Calgary Lutheran Chorale but was eventually persuaded to join the Bach choir. As Cantor, he sings the liturgy in church services.David plays other instruments but prefers voice; “it comes more naturally to me.” His grandfather, head of music in Lambton County, started a small orchestra, in which David played. His father was a music teacher, and both directed choirs.
Whether practicing or performing, David finds the music revitalizing. He’s had several qualified directors and enjoys the learning process. “We don’t always hear the subtleties of the other parts. So, in practice, Janet shuffles us around so we can hear what everyone is singing.” Performance has its own magic. David describes a moment during the CPE Bach Magnificat, when “you can almost see the music around you;” as the voices mix and match, the blending chords become a physical presence. Bach, in particular, strikes a chord with David, because the religious context, Bach’s cornerstone, mirrors David’s own faith.
Music may be inspiration, but at work David is a health and safety consultant, and a workplace environmental specialist. He began his studies at Lambton College with a diploma in Environmental Technology. He then earned his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Waterloo. Upon completion of his degree, David then returned to Lambton College and completed a diploma in Industrial Hygiene.
Fun, for David, also involves study and professional development. In addition to his Industrial Hygiene Diploma, a recent milestone involved study for his Safety Professional Designation and he is currently working towards his Industrial Hygiene Certificate.
He is currently working in Edson and keeps music in his life with practice and with recordings. “Music is always in the background while I read”. A current favourite is called Mass, a recording featuring excerpts from different masses by different composers.
Book Reviews
by Anna Carnell
The Bach society is dedicated to sharing and enjoying music. Reading about music can be as fascinating as playing. I’ll share some of my favourite books on the subject of music, and hope that you‚ll be inspired to share some of yours in review format for the newsletters to come. The widespread study of the piano is a remarkable phenomenon. Books about playing the piano seem to be almost as prolific.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, by T.E. Carhart combines a unique blend of personal reflections and factual piano lore. An American in Paris discovers a small atelier dedicated to the refurbishing of pianos, a shop where every piano is a respected and cherished piece of history waiting for just the right owner. He details the piano boom as follows: “The piano boom began in the 1850’s, fuelled by increased production, rising affluence and easy terms. A piano was one of the few luxury goods available to a majority of consumers and it was among the first to be available through financing schemes allowing payment over time. Suddenly there was a piano for everyone, and the rise in both output and sales was dramatic. In 1850, worldwide production was around fifty thousand instruments a year; by 1910 that figure topped half a million. This was the piano’s high water mark, a time when a piano could be found not only in every respectable home, but also in every school, bar, club, church hall, steamship, café, and roadhouse in the West. It’s no coincidence that when the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, the first artifact to be hauled to the small rooms at the top was a piano, a small Pleyel upright, reflecting the futuristic structure’s blending of engineering and art.”
The Piano Tuner, by Daniel Mason, details an altogether different sort of adventure, focusing on a particularily fine piano built by Erhart, in Paris, in 1886. A piano tuner, Edgar Drake, an Erhart specialist, is commissioned by the British Army in Mae Lwin to tune a piano that was transported to Burma, at great expense and difficulty, the previous year. With equal difficulty, the piano tuner travels to Burma and tunes the remarkable instrument. The piano becomes a political tool used by the local British officer/doctor to facilitate negotiations in an explosive wartime situation. The doctor believes that a country cannot be colonized by force alone, that a sharing of cultures and aid is much more likely to facilitate good relations. At a critical meeting, the doctor asks the piano tuner to play for a meeting of the local tribe leaders. “He began with Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp Minor, the fourth piece of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. It was a tuner’s piece, an exploration of the possibilities of sound, and a series that Edgar knew from testing the tuning of professional pianos”.
Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures, by Noah Adams is my personal favourite. A radio journalist, Noah Adams describes a year’s involvement with a newly purchased piano. He uses his fascination with the piano, to lead us through his interviews with famous musicians and concert experiences of piano ‘greats’ from Bach to bop style. The uppermost goal in his mind is to learn to play “Traumerei” by Robert Schumann. ‘Traumerei’ by Robert Schumann, begins with middle C (a year ago, this is the only note I could find on the piano). The next note is an F in the right hand joined by an F in the bass; then a cautious chord in both hands and five ascending notes lift the song into the air. There’s a quick, deep pulse in my throat and a fast breath, and I’m smiling, watching the page, trying to stay up with the melody. This piece “only two pages, three minutes long” is teaching me piano. There are technical knots to be worked loose, clues to mysteries hiding in the notation. I would be happy to play it several thousand times.”
Happy reading! If you’d like to share some thoughts about your favourite music books contact the Bach Voicemail at ph # 232-8525 or website http://www.bachcalgary.org
Editor's Website Picks
Interested in contacting other choral groups in Calgary? You will find the Calgary Region Arts Foundation client list at http://www.craf.org/clients4.html
The Academy of Ancient Music at http://www.aam.co.uk/ has program notes on works and shows pictures of artists, such as Bach. To find these, click on News and Features.A little embarrassed that you don’t know some musical term like appoggiatura? You won’t be if you check out the Glossary page of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem at http://www.bach.org/bach101/suites/glossary.html
The Denton Bach Socety revisits Bach’s first Leipzig Christmas at http://www.dentonbach.com/archive/magnificat9.htm where you can find program notes, commentaries, pictures and the full texts of the Magnificat in Latin and English.
For a site with a multitude of links to all sorts of Bach info try http://www.bachfaq.org/
Interesting trivia about Bach can be found at: http://www.spiritsound.com/bachbits.html
Don’t forget our own http://www.bachcalgary.org with newsletters back to September 2000, pictures of the choir and orchestra and profiles of our conductors.
Membership Information
The Calgary Bach Festival Society has a large library of cantatas which can be rented. If interested, please contact us at 282-8525 or e-mail Bill Zdep tcprint@telus.net
Volunteers are welcome and needed for several positions and projects. If interested, please contact us at 282-8525 or e-mail Bill Zdep tcprint@telus.net
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June 2003 Newsletter
2010 Annual General Meeting
