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PODCAST

The WTF Bach Podcast

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. Go to: wtfbach.substack.com for the full experience. wtfbach.substack.com

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All Episodes

62:38

Alleluia! Bach's Jubilant Ululation.

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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?

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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...

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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.

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

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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18:44

MiniSeries! 4: Feet & LH, a 7th Apart

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/12/27

Let’s delve into a third variation from Bach’s 1747 masterpiece, “Some canonic variations on the Christmas song, ‘From Heaven Above’ for the organ with two keyboards and pedal, by J.S. Bach.”Two versions of this piece exist: the ‘fair copy’ and the ‘publication’ (Stichfassung), which present the variations in a different order. In this episode, we follow the publication, where the canon at the 7th appears as the third variation.The previous two variations featured canons between right and left

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17:21

Is Pachelbel's Canon Really a Canon?

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/12/20

I never knew the authentic version of the world’s most famous canon, having only known arrangements which conceal the fact that the music is indeed a canon in three voices. Here is what the ‘real’ canon looks like:It continues for over 50 bars as a three voice canon at the unison. In my brief survey of this piece, I found one theory that suggests the 9-year-old J.S. Bach was in attendance at the first performance in history. While the canonic treatment is clever and not worthy of our loathing— we

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16:27

MiniSeries! 3: A Canon At The Fifth

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/12/17

Continuing our mini-series exploring Bach’s canonic variations on the Christmas song, ‘Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her’ BWV 769, we listen to the second canon: a canon at the perfect fifth. Here is what the initial shape looks like in the right hand: So the same shape must be imitated down the perfect fifth. It appears like this in the left hand:I briefly mention the difference between ‘tonal’ and ‘real’ answers. Although the majority of the imitating line appears a perfect fifth below the leader,

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18:55

MiniSeries! 2: Divine Row Row Row Your Boat

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/12/07

The first variation in these late variations for organ, is a canon at the octave. The two hands, each on a separate keyboard, play the same shape, one octave apart, while the feet provide the chorale melody. It looks like this:Those are the first three measures of 18 measures. That’s right: the shape is imitated note for note for 18 bars! If you’re having trouble seeing that the two upper lines are in fact the same melody, one octave apart, try this image:We Rely On Listener Support! How to Donate

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21:04

MiniSeries! 1: Bach's Christmas Puzzles

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/11/28

In this first of several related episodes, we will learn about Bach’s late contrapuntal masterpiece, the Canonic Variations on Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her, BWV 769. The variations— although certainly not as familiar— should be considered alongside Bach’s other late achievements, the Goldberg Variations, The Art of Fugue, and A Musical Offering. They employ many similar ideas and highlight the composers uncanny ability to ‘squeeze water from a stone,’ making elaborate pieces with minimal

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29:57

Bach Pulls Out His Dagger.

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/11/18

Since I was a child I’ve known the story of Bach pulling out a blade. What really happened? In this short episode, I read the contemporary reports from the Arnstadt Consistory Court, where this famous fisticuffs was first recorded. About halfway through the episode (14 minutes), I’ve given you some “chill” chorales, played over a drone. One of my listeners mentioned they wanted some Bach for doing yoga/meditation, so this is what I came up with. If you like the way it sounds, I’ll put a full

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54:12

The Urtext Illusion: Textual Variance in Bach's "Aria...

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/10/31

Last week I posted this piece on YouTube:The most intriguing part of studying this piece was the overwhelming amount of differences between the three earliest sources of this work. Here is a list of the sources I reference in the episode , the copyists, and when they were made:The ‘Andreas Bach Book’ (D-LE III.8.4) J. Christoph Bach; copyist, between 1705-1714P 801 J. Tobias Krebs; copyist, between 1710-1717P 804 J. Peter Kellner; copyist, before 1725In the episode I simply refer to these as Andreas

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33:55

Passion Music for His Son: The F Minor Sinfonia, BWV 795

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/10/09

Yes, that recording at the end is none other than Jascha Heifetz with Primrose and Piatigorksy, who apparently recorded three of the sinfonias. The wonderful pianist with that golden sound playing before the string trio arrangement is (I think!) Marcelle Meyer recorded sometime around 1948. WTF Bach needs your support! Consider becoming a subscriber.Today’s episode focuses on the ‘black pearl’ of the inventions and sinfonias. The f minor sinfonia is highly complex piece of passion music embedded

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46:34

Fantasy & Fugue in C minor BWV 537

The WTF Bach Podcast ·

2024/09/25

Becoming familiar with Bach’s music is a never-ending process. First, there is the initial reading, which alone can occupy many happy years. What’s remarkable is that with each further reading, you’re astonished by the details you missed before—quite honestly amazed. You ask yourself: Where—or even who—was I during those earlier readings? You begin to measure your growth as a musician against the depth with which you can now understand the pieces.One fugue, which I initially read with little

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116 results

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