What are you listening to now?

[Chris]

Very nice. That C-major descending scale finishing on the low C in the basso profundo at the end, phew !!

(I can also sing that low C because my voice category is Basso profundo per fumatori).

Being able to hit that low C is the only thing I enjoy about being sick. When I'm not sick, even the G above that does not usually happen!

[Enrique]

Lowest note written by Bach in a chorale (if somebody cares):

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmu...sic/?rdt=49414

As a matter of fact there's not a single note below F2 in the whole of the (lengthy) B minor mass, either for the choir or the soloists. The C in Rachmaninof's piece is a fourth below F2. It is the lowest note in the cello.

[Quijote]

Lowest note written by Bach in a chorale (if somebody cares)

Hello Enrique, hope you are well !

I do care, as I teach 2nd-year harmony students how to harmonize chorales in the style of Bach !!

Please see the image below which shows the low C in Bach's chorale Ich dank' dir, Gott, fur all' Wohltat.

In the Riemenschneider edition of the "371 Chorales" it's No. 223.

Now, about this low C: if we accept that the local tuning system in Bach's day was roughly a semitone lower, this would make it in today's terms a B !!

What we tend to forget is that the chorales were often accompanied, so that low C was probably covered by the cello or double bass, and the real vocal bass would have jumped up a 4th to the C an octave above what is written in the score.

[Quijote]

[Enrique]

Hello Quijote, I'm well, and you? Thanks for your instructive example. So, the poster in my link was right!

[Sorrano]

I've been listening to the Symphonies of Haydn, and today listened to the No. 86 in D Major. There is so much wonderful music in these works! This particular I enjoyed a great deal. On the local classical radio station I might hear one or two of the more popular symphonies repeatedly, and I wonder that they ignore so much of the other great symphonies.

[Peter]

I've been listening to the Symphonies of Haydn, and today listened to the No. 86 in D Major. There is so much wonderful music in these works! This particular I enjoyed a great deal. On the local classical radio station I might hear one or two of the more popular symphonies repeatedly, and I wonder that they ignore so much of the other great symphonies.

Absolutely! Here is one of my favourite early Haydn symphonies, No.39 in G minor

[Sorrano]

Thanks, Peter, I enjoyed listening to that!

[Chris]

Of course I cannot let St. Patrick's Day pass without listening to some of Beethoven's Irish song settings. I never tire of these!

[Sorrano]

I don't hear much in terms of vocal music on the local Classical Music station, so I thought that was a treat that Chris posted. It's been a long while since I've listened to Beethoven's vocal music and I think I'm about due for more.

[Peter]

This performance of Handel's 'As steals the morn upon the night' is I think the best version I've heard.

[Chris]

That is an exquisite performance!