Bach's Mass in B Minor
February 28, 2012 6:07 AM   Subscribe

Bach's Mass in B Minor: Four lectures and an interactive manuscript (which starts playing automatically) tied to the lectures.
posted by Wolfdog (13 comments total) 74 users marked this as a favorite
 
Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? ~Michael Torke

A truly transcendent work of art. Thanks Wolfdog!
posted by bodywithoutorgans at 6:18 AM on February 28, 2012


There's a performance of this here next month, thanks for the links. I will go in all edumacated now.
posted by thelonius at 6:32 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?
I need psychotherapy after I've listened to the mass; it's too perfect and returning to the real world afterward feels crushing.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:35 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm only 10 minutes in, but this is great. I didn't know, for instance, that the Mass was never performed in Bach's lifetime.
posted by gwint at 6:44 AM on February 28, 2012


Thanks for this. I love interactive/annotated classical pieces and I'm always wishing there was more out there. Take that, Pop-Up Video.
posted by saturday_morning at 6:45 AM on February 28, 2012


I understand that I like many things that other people don't like. I accept that my tastes are subjective, and that it is ok for other people to not like things I don't like.

But I will never, ever understand how one could not like Bach. Thanks for the post!
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 7:37 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]


I didn't know, for instance, that the Mass was never performed in Bach's lifetime.

I always assumed it wasn't, just like Mozart's Requiem, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and Bruckner's 9th Symphony. They weren't even completed in the composers' lifetimes.
posted by John Cohen at 9:42 AM on February 28, 2012


I've performed the B-Minor Mass, and it messes with you. In a good way. The music is simultaneously so "thinky" and so "feely;" the fugues are perfect, in the sense of a perfect square or a perfect number, everything flows like clockwork. And yet it never feels robotic or mathematical, the music illuminates and uplifts the text with every phrase. You start expecting everything in your life to be clearer, more sensible, more. . . more perfect, I guess.

It's also hard as hell. HARD AS HELL. The first time I read it through, I think I maybe sang more right notes than wrong ones, but that's just a guess. I have a recording that is sung by an octet or less -- there is always only one voice on a part. I can't even imagine performing it that way, you'd need an ice bath and a tranquilizer afterwards.
posted by KathrynT at 10:54 AM on February 28, 2012 [2 favorites]


This is great! This is what the concert music world needs to do to flourish. Kudos, Oregon Bach Festival!
posted by nosila at 12:23 PM on February 28, 2012


This is absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for posting it.
posted by the_bone at 4:19 PM on February 28, 2012


The B Minor Mass is easily the most beautiful piece of art I have ever come into contact with. Thanks for posting this.
posted by TrialByMedia at 8:34 PM on February 28, 2012


although Philippe Herreweghe is my favourite Bach conductor, Rilling is good.
these lectures are great, thank you for posting.
posted by Substrata at 3:03 PM on February 29, 2012


"Qui tollis peccata mundi" has completely blown my mind. It made me weep in my cubicle at work. I cannot thank you enough for posting this.
posted by popechunk at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2012


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