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A website devoted to teaching/playing/composing for/ the King of Instruments
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is a much with us today as Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Newton, Galileo, Da Vinci, Beethoven, Einstein, and other giants from the past. All roads musically, to some degree or another, no matter how tenuous, either lead up to or lead back to him. Among musicians his surname is a colossal syllable, one which makes composers tremble, brings performers to their knees, and has become synonymous at once with a synthesis of styles and a radiation of influence. His compositions still form the kernel of the Organ repertoire to this very day, and every organist must be his disciple.
Bach is with us, and will always be with us, for much the same reason as Holy Scripture is with us and will always be with us. He's a ground and an anchor in an ever-shifting world, an architect in musical sound as fundamental as Newtonian physics, superceded by but forming the basis of all subsequent progress in his domain. His almost superhuman invention and vast musical world, while not always speaking our mental language, nevertheless rises to a level of insight and meaning that has very few peers, and no palpable superiors, in the creative arts. It's no stretch to say that if all the music ever written except for Bach's would somehow be lost forever, music would still survive.
BOTTOM LINE: The world has produced an innumerable number of musical geniuses down through the ages, but J.S. Bach seems to be something beyond all of them. Through sheer hard work and determination He immersed himself in the study of every major composer before him, and every musical genius since him has eaten bread from his table. This cannot be said about any other name from history save perhaps for Beethoven's, who arguably runs a very close second.
Praeludium, Chorale, and Fugue in d minor for Organ Op. 10
from Eight Pieces for Organ Op. 10-17 by Steven Monrotus
is an extended tripartite work composed to honor J.S. Bach.
This music incorporates the multi-sectional style of the 17th century North German "stylus phantasticus" Baroque organ toccata in the Praeludium. The 4-voice Fugue is written in quadruple counterpoint with 3 countersubjects. Bach's 4-note melodic signature Bb-A-C-B is deliberately worked into the counterpoint in all 3 parts of this piece which are all constructed upon the same melodic motif. This lends a very strong sense of unity to the entire work. The central Chorale also has been made available separately as Chorale in d minor for Organ Op. 9. It is scored in keyboard style for hands only and is playable on a one-manual organ with no pedals, a harmonium, or piano.
Photos 1: Bach Album
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