Recordings/Discussions
Background Information
Performer Bios

Poet/Composer Bios

Additional Information

General Topics: Main Page | About the Bach Cantatas Website | Cantatas & Other Vocal Works | Scores & Composition, Parodies, Reconstructions, Transcriptions | Texts, Translations, Languages | Instruments, Voices, Choirs | Performance Practice | Radio, Concerts, Festivals, Recordings | Life of Bach, Bach & Other Composers | Mailing Lists, Members, Contributors | Various Topics


Melodies & Tunes in Bach's Vocal Works

 

 

Memorable tunes to whistle

Paul Farseth
wrote (April 27, 2005):
Which Bach tune do you find yourself humming or whistling, not including the hymn tunes? My own favorite "ear worm" for years has been something sung by Herr Schlendrian's daughter half way or more through the Coffee Cantata (BWV 211). I don't know the key, but it maybe was something like the following if it were in G major: G F G D , B A B G, D D D E D C D B. etc. Not a deep or profound tune, and hard to sing because of its great range, but a pleasant melody and rhythm.

It does seem to me that some of the things in Bach that are most memorable are not simply tunes but rather the playing of three tunes or independent thematic lines simultaneously with interweaving. My kids can pick up on this, but many of their friends find these things to be a kind of foreign language.


General Topics: Main Page | About the Bach Cantatas Website | Cantatas & Other Vocal Works | Scores & Composition, Parodies, Reconstructions, Transcriptions | Texts, Translations, Languages | Instruments, Voices, Choirs | Performance Practice | Radio, Concerts, Festivals, Recordings | Life of Bach, Bach & Other Composers | Mailing Lists, Members, Contributors | Various Topics




 

Back to the Top


Last update: Tuesday, June 13, 2017 05:00