Christmas Bach Festival on Internet radio

[Chaszz]

At www.wkcr.org can be heard the annual Christmas Bach Festival, round the clock until Friday Dec. 26th. Click the 'on-air' link, then the 'live broadcast' link. This is broadcast every year by WKCR-FM, the radio station of Columbia University in New York City. (New Yorkers, of whom I don't think there are any on this forum besides me, could also listen at 89.9 FM.) It includes secular as well as church music, and there are always new some 'new' gems one hasn't heard before.


[This message has been edited by Chaszz (edited December 22, 2003).]

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
At www.wkcr.org can be heard the annual Christmas Bach Festival, round the clock until Friday Dec. 26th. Click the 'on-air' link, then the 'live broadcast' link. This is broadcast every year by WKCR-FM, the radio station of Columbia University in New York City. (New Yorkers, of whom I don't think there are any on this forum besides me, could also listen at 89.9 FM.) It includes secular as well as church music, and there are always new some 'new' gems one hasn't heard before.


[This message has been edited by Chaszz (edited December 22, 2003).]

Listening to this festival this morning, I realized that Rod is correct, that as a Bach devotee I am predisposed to be a Wagnerian also. But it's not for the reasons he gave. It's because both these composers explored the far reaches of harmony, creating new relations among chords and keys. This seems to satisfy something in me. Since I first related to music many years ago as an amateur jazz guitarist, it is fitting, because harmonic relationships and chord progressions are intrinsic to jazz.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Chaszz:
Listening to this festival this morning, I realized that Rod is correct, that as a Bach devotee I am predisposed to be a Wagnerian also. But it's not for the reasons he gave. It's because both these composers explored the far reaches of harmony, creating new relations among chords and keys. This seems to satisfy something in me. Since I first related to music many years ago as an amateur jazz guitarist, it is fitting, because harmonic relationships and chord progressions are intrinsic to jazz.

Yes Bach's harmony is very rich and chromatic - the well tempered klavier had a lot to do with this as he was keen to show what could be done. Wagner of course took this chromaticism to new heights in Tristan that leads ultimately to the breakdown of tonality in Schoenberg.

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'Man know thyself'

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Peter:
Yes Bach's harmony is very rich and chromatic - the well tempered klavier had a lot to do with this as he was keen to show what could be done. Wagner of course took this chromaticism to new heights in Tristan that leads ultimately to the breakdown of tonality in Schoenberg.

Yes, Peter, but one can't blame Wagner for Schoenberg. I'd rather luxuriate in the harmonies of Tristan and Parsifal than think about where they 'led' later. Here's an idea that just came to me: Wagner was interested in Eastern thought in his later life and Parsifal has many Buddhistic elements in it. Maybe he would have followed this interest to Indian music with its microtonalities rather than to the breaking down of harmony. And maybe this could have been an alternate path to modern music. Of course he might have had to build new horns, but he did design new tubas at one point.