Status Updates From Bach: Music in the Castle o...

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
And Kindle: 599 Pages
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 05:02 Hours - Balance: 16:52 Hours - Read: 125 pages - 21%
Reading Kindle on iPad while listening to the audiobook, with gentle Bach music playing softly background, of course!

Wiki: Heinrich Schütz 1585[1] – 6 November 1672[2]) was a German early Baroque composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of the 17th century. He is credited with bringing the Italian style to Germany and continuing its evolution from the Renaissance into the early Baroque.

Recitar cantando ("speaking in song") is a 17th-century Italian singing style that blends dramatic speech with melody. Developed in Florence, this monody (single voice with accompaniment) prioritized emotional text delivery over complex polyphony, forming the foundation of early opera. It was perfected by composers like Claudio Monteverdi

Three musicians of immense future distinction turned 18 in 1703: Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel.

While attending St. Michael’s School in Lüneburg (1700–1702), Bach was a pupil of Böhm, organist at Johanniskirche. Böhm renowned for his development of the chorale partita (sets of variations on hymn melodies) and his free-form works. Böhm was likely a student of the Northern German organ school influence, potentially influenced by Pachelbel, exposing Bach to both North and South German musical traditions.

Wiki: Georg Böhm (1661–1733) was a German Baroque organist and composer, crucial to the development of the chorale partita, who likely taught a young Johann Sebastian Bach in Lüneburg around 1700. A 2004 manuscript discovery confirmed this connection

Johann Christoph Bach of Ohrdruf (Eldest Brother): When J.S. Bach was orphaned at age 10, he moved in with his brother in Ohrdruf. Johann Christoph taught him clavichord and organ, providing his foundational musical training.

Johann Christoph Bach of Eisenach (First Cousin Once Removed): As a composer working in Eisenach, his sacred works influenced J.S. Bach's contrapuntal style.

It was a custom for the Bachs to hold annual get-togethers in one of the Thuringian towns. Once assembled, they always began by singing a corral. The rowdier things got, the greater the opportunity for extemporary, jam singing, with all the brothers, organists, cantors and town musicians.

BWV 19
Apocalyptic chorale
JS Bach wrote in 1726

Tim Blanning argued, “ the 18th century has as much claim to be called the Age of Religion as the Age of Religion. All the churches-Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran-were flourishing, with public and private discourse both dominated by religion (substantially more so in the first half of the century than in the second).

Gottfried Leibniz, “Music is the hidden arithmetical exercise of a mine unconscious that it is calculating.”

With music and theology together, accounting for almost half the curriculum and taught by the same master, we would not be surprised to find the three Rs relegated to third place, with physics, Latin, Greek and history limping behind and making up the rest. Reading exercises were the fourth book of Moses and chapter 11 of Matthew’s gospel. Even numeracy was taught in connection with the Bible.

In his table talk( of which Bach had at least one copy) Luther said, Music is a conspicuous gift of God and next in importance to theology.

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
And Kindle: 599 Pages
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 03:53 Hours - Balance: 17:52 Hours - Read: 90 pages - 15%
I am enjoying actually reading while listening to the audiobook, although I am finding it time-consuming because one sometimes distracts me from the other🙂.

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
And Kindle: 599 Pages
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 02:30 Hours - Balance: 19:13 Hours - Read: 50 pages
Due to my surgically damaged left eye and chronic arthritis, when I try to read, I need a vertical surface, eg, my PC screen. I can and do use my iPad, but it is too heavy to hold up for long

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible Direct: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 01:22 Hours - Balance: 20:19 Hours

I was first attracted to so-called 'classical' music after I discovered 'modern jazz' in around 1956. Thereafter music of the Baroque periods appealed most and a life-long love of JS Bach emerged from that.

John Eliot Gardiner - Bach - Music in the Castle of Heaven - 2014 Audible Direct: 21:43 Hours - Narrator: Antony Ferguson
Commenced: March 14, 2026
Heard: 00:00 Hours - Balance: 41:43 Hours