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PODCAST

WTF Bach

Hear the music of J.S. Bach with new understanding! For music lovers, to professional musicians, Let Evan Shinners, (aka W.T.F. Bach) guide your mind through a contrapuntal journey. Subscribe at wtfbach.substack.com for the full experience. wtfbach.substack.com

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All Episodes

62:11

Ep. 104: Bach (Almost) Spells His Name in a 5-Voice...

WTF Bach ·

2025/08/28

“Bach the master surgeon leaves no scar.”Listen on wtfbach.substack.com for the best experience. Subscriptions are free!There are only two five-voice fugues in The Well-Tempered Clavier, and only two triple fugues. This fugue is both— a five voice triple fugue. Should I be tempted to add some (perhaps too convenient) theological rhetoric to this fugue, an analysis might read like this:Three subjects in one fugue? Why yes, the trinity in music! The themes enter, Son, Holy Spirit, and God the Father

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23:46

Ep. 103: The 'Covid Etude' Moral + Tureck’s...

WTF Bach ·

2025/08/19

“It seems that classical musicians — and as I now understand, jazz musicians at conservatory— are trained to forget the purpose of the music right at the point they start interpreting it.”In this short episode (11 minutes of talking + 10 minutes of music) I read an entry from my practice diary which may be interesting enough to ponder… As it was passed around during covid, the “Coronavirus Etude” looked something like this:Hopefully you’ll enjoy the lesson I got out of the few ‘performances’ made of

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54:32

Ep. 102: Bach's Most Famous Prelude (& Fugue...) BWV 846

WTF Bach ·

2025/08/05

In the beginning was the arpeggio, and the arpeggio was in C major, and the arpeggio was C major…To which ill-tempered friend will you send this?We are lucky Bach bothered writing out his arpeggio preludes. Here, for example, is what would later become the C-sharp Major prelude, from Book 2:Who, without the aid of Bach’s revisions, would be so bold to turn that into:So too, in the early versions of the opening of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach loses little time writing out the figures. He even

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52:41

Ep. 101: The Well-Tempered Clavier! Analysis,...

WTF Bach ·

2025/07/25

It’s high time we delve into what Schumann called a musician’s ‘daily bread.’ The Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the collections closest to the composer’s heart—and to the hearts of countless other musicians throughout history.The episode on temperament I mentioned.I think of the two books of this collection as having only outward similarities. The music in both parts are as separate as The Art of Fugue and the Inventions— even more so. Book One, incidentally the only part to be called “The

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3:55

(4 Min. Rant) Literally Can't Thank You Enough in...

WTF Bach ·

2025/07/11

PG-13 Warning. This isn’t the norm—just testing the cult of Shinners. Future episodes stay true to our Bach tradition. Enjoyed this? Do you want some more of my originals mixed in with your weekly Bach? Literally Can't Thank You Enough in AdvanceI try to “bear the burden of bitterness which experience forces on us with as much uncomplaining dignity as strength will allow” as restaurants around me tell me to eat beautiful, as any person who pockets their phone to listen is crowned empathetic, as

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64:00

100th Episode! Special Guest: Ton Koopman

WTF Bach ·

2025/06/27

A few months back I had the pleasure of interviewing Ton Koopman. If you’re at home in the Baroque, you’re no stranger to his work. Please enjoy this interview, marking the 100th episode of The WTF Bach Podcast! Thanks for your support, thanks to all those who make this work possible. Here’s looking forward to 100 more!Topics Covered (Chronologically)Works of doubtful authenticity (Violin Sonata, BWV 1025)Continuo playing (Figured bass, Improvisation, Ornamentation)Legato in the BaroqueWanda

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47:22

Ep. 99: NEW ALBUM - Partitas 1-3

WTF Bach ·

2025/06/13

Listen to the new album here:https://modernclassicalx.lnk.to/BachCompleteKeyboardWorksVol4PartitasPtOneToday I’ve released Volume 4 in my “Complete Keyboard Works” of JSB. This album contains three pieces by the master: Partita no. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825Partita no. 2 in c minor, BWV 826Partita no. 3 in a minor, BWV 827Bach’s Opus One—the six Partitas of Clavier-Übung I—were first issued individually from 1726, with the complete set published in 1731. Bach pays homage to his Leipzig predecessor,

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50:14

Borges, Bach, Barthelme.

WTF Bach ·

2025/05/30

Would you object to the comparison of Messiaen and Borges? I see both 20th century giants deeply steeped in the masters of the past, throughly conversant in the antique, and yet they bring something uniquely modern— magical. Borges’ stories have the ability to stun, to make one wonder, or in the case of the story I read today, elicit tears.After Shakespeare’s Memory, (1983) which I believe is his last published story, I offer my somewhat chaotic rendition of the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel

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66:55

Bach as A Minor in a minor.

WTF Bach ·

2025/05/21

Yep. I based an entire episode on the pun. We study two works not usually heard in the organ repertoire, the Prelude (Fantasy) BWV 569 and the Prelude with Fugue BWV 551, both in a minor. These are not the best known pieces in the repertoire, but they command our attention—especially when you consider that one of them was written when Bach was just 14 years old.BWV 569, composed around 1708 when Bach was 23, is a single-rhythm experiment in modulation—akin to his Fantasy, BWV 922. On the page, it

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62:38

Alleluia! Bach's Jubilant Ululation.

WTF Bach ·

2025/05/01

The oldest surviving (ca. 1100) German church melody is centered around Easter and the resurrection: Christ ist erstanden. Luther adapted this into Christ lag in Todesbanden. Both texts culminate in a triumphant “Hallelujah!”What kind of music could Bach compose for such a joyous word? In every instance, it demands a distinctly exalted treatment. We discuss the origins of the word Alleluia, and analyze the music when the word appears in his motets, cantatas and a four-part chorale. Plus, the story

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64:26

Bach’s St. John Passion: Which Version?

WTF Bach ·

2025/04/18

Today, Good Friday 2025, marks 300 years since Bach performed the St. John Passion in Leipzig. … but it started like this:But wait, I thought the St. John Passion was:In this episode, beyond outlining the basic revisions between the 1724 and 1725 (and a few other) versions of BWV 245, we’ll study how people heard passion music, the purpose of a passion setting, and how Bach, by changing the opening and closing movements, or swapping an aria here and there, envisioned he might guide the listener into

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63:31

Baroque Keyboardists Weren’t Specialists—They Played...

WTF Bach ·

2025/03/27

The organ held a central role in the life of a baroque keyboardist. Not only was an accomplished harpsichordist or clavichordist comfortable playing with their feet, but the art suggests that the repertoire often called for ad libitum pedal additions. In J.S. Bach’s second collection of chorale prelude for organ, he introduces obligato pedal parts. Below is an image from his Bach’s earliest chorale settings for organ, as preserved in the Neumeister Collection:Whereas we do not see any explicit pedal

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59:50

The 'Actus Tragicus' BWV 106

WTF Bach ·

2025/03/13

A beloved cantata from Bach’s early 20s, the Actus Tragicus anticipates the future of opera more than it foreshadows Bach’s own later cantatas. Albert Schweitzer’s beautiful writing on Bach features heavily in this episode. Here is the tuning video with chorale in question toward the end of the episode:WTF Bach is a listener-supported publication. To receive new episodes, to support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Let’s have a look at BWV 106. I focus on the two recorders and

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69:18

Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. An Audiobook.

WTF Bach ·

2025/03/04

The bard— not the brook, but don’t worry, this podcast isn’t going to become an English lesson.Thanks for reading WTF Bach! This post is public so feel free to share it.Here is my reading of Shakespeare’s first publication, Venus and Adonis, a poem that is pure music. If I were to list my favorite lines, I might as well copy out half the poem. Just something that pops into my head would be a line like, “Rain added to a river that is rankPerforce will force it overflow the bank.”It bursts with melody

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19:29

MiniSeries! 10: The Final Episode

WTF Bach ·

2025/02/18

UPDATE: One of my astute listeners pointed out that it is in fact Jones’ review of Butler’s work in Music & Letters, and the original work by Butler is this book. Thanks for the correction!Don’t miss the end of this episode where I play three of Bach’s earlier settings of the same tune, BWVs 700, 701, & 738!We finish our study of this late masterpiece by reading some scholarship on the two different versions Bach made of his canonic variations on Luther’s 1539 melody. Whereas Wolff suggests both

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27:28

MiniSeries! 9: Revisions Part Two

WTF Bach ·

2025/02/11

Today, as we did in episode 5 of this miniseries, we’ll examine the revisions Bach made from engraving copy to handwritten copy. This is an important view into the composer’s workshop, and unlike clear ameliorations between layers in his other works, the two versions of BWV 769 present a unique challenge in seeking the “best” version.Changes like this (first beat, alto) are minute, yet fascinating:(Top: engraving. Bottom: fair copy.) Bach made three revisions dealing with a similar leap of a fifth

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20:51

MiniSeries! 8: A Bachian Fractal

WTF Bach ·

2025/02/05

Show me a finale as densely packed with thematic material as this one. Here are the five bars — the only five bars — discussed in today’s episode. You might listen while looking at them:Notice the finale comes in two stages, first diminution, then stretto. The signature in the final bar is noteworthy (though it should be mentioned that the letters are an addition by the editor.)And here is a video of the Mandelbrot set fractal, as promised (with perfect background music:) We Rely On Listener

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16:50

MiniSeries! 7: Canon at MOVING Intervals

WTF Bach ·

2025/01/29

Have a look at this. This is Bach beginning a canon in inversion. The follower is a 6th below the leader:(If you can’t see that the shapes are inversions, hold up a mirror — seriously!) Yet here, only a few bars later, the imitation seems to be at a different interval:The follower is no longer a sixth below, but a third. How rare! And going on, something else:(We’re looking at the lower two voices in this picture, the quarter notes.) We see the canonic imitation has shifted yet again, to the

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23:30

MiniSeries! 6: A Sloth Canon

WTF Bach ·

2025/01/21

Imagine composing an ornate melody, then stretching it out so it moves twice as slow, and somehow when you layer the stretched version onto the original, they match up beautifully: One shape, two different speeds. This is what Bach has done in this canon (but he also made sure that the consequence of both lines also blends into the harmonic implications of the chorale melody, which must also past through both lines…)Let’s see what our augmented canon looks like on the page. Here is the opening of

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22:06

MiniSeries! 5: Canonic Revisions Part One

WTF Bach ·

2025/01/03

The subject of the last several episodes has been Bach’s canonic variations on a Christmas tune by Martin Luther himself. A major inquiry into this work is its existence in two versions: engraved and handwritten. The published version (for reasons explained in the episode) doesn’t fully solve the canonic lines, as seen here:Notice how the notes of the bottom line don’t continue after the fifth note! See two other canons, each with the comes omitted:Variatio 2 omits the follower after only three

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