Friday, March 21, 2008

Happy 323rd, you crazy German dude














His music is so perfect, even your simple, primitive thoughts will be contrapuntal after you've listened to it. Hell, after one mere spin of the Art of Fugue, my IQ finally cracked triple digits. And everyone should have a copy of this. Depressed? Angry at having your passport files rummaged through? You'll feel fucking groovy afterwards, even if it's a tenebrous groovy. Trust me. After all, it was just imprudent curiosity, and who hasn't fallen prey to that?



Still ungroovy? Then you're more of a misanthrope than I am. Kudos.
Here's the lovingly sad andante from his violin concerto in A minor.



It's nigh impossible to express pure feeling, the things that move us to not merely exist, but to create, to live, but Bach came pretty goddamn close, no?

14 comments:

Distributorcap said...

Bach is one of the better dudes... better and easier to pronouce than Rimsky-Korsikov and easier to spell than Tchaikowsky...

didnt his daughter marry a drummer named Ringo?

8-)

pissed off patricia said...

Here's his cake. I put little music notes all over it. You think he would approve?

You have no idea how many puns I wanted to make using his name.

Mauigirl said...

Thanks, Randal, for a great start to my day with that wonderful music!

Also thanks for posting the info about Obama's passport files. That is something I have not seen anything about in the newspaper!

Randal Graves said...

dcap, the problem with Tchaikovsky, is all the variant spellings you see in various languages, and even a few weirdo ones in English! And no, no, Bach's daughter wore the short shorts in Dukes of Hazzard.

POP, as long as there was some ale nearby. Well, let's hear them!

mauigirl, de rien, it's hard to beat Bach! Maybe, MAYBE, this will FINALLY make privacy a bigger issue than it is - ha ha - but I doubt it. And they did the same thing to Bill Clinton. But the media will easily chomp down on the Occam's Razor explanation: it was just a couple of flunkies, oh well. If Stalin wasn't a corpse, he'd be throwing a party right about now.

Mary Ellen said...

Will you save me a piece of cake? I can't have any today...Good Friday fasting and all that.

Randal Graves said...

Of course, but don't be surprised if POP has licked off all the notes by then!

Anonymous said...

No celebration can go wrong if there is a good piece of cake lying around. My piano teacher has a little thing for Bach...his doormat says, "Be Bach Later." Sadly, I want one too. What's life without a little cheese.

Anonymous said...

The second piece, the violin solo, is really pretty. Generally I don't care for music from the Baroque and Classical eras. I like "classical" music (yes, it's all Classical Music and yet there was a specific era known as the "Classical Era") from the late 1800s to the present, when they do more experimenting with key changes, odd chords, counterpoint, etc.

I have odd taste, or odd combinations of tastes: Bartok, Pantera, DeBussy, Slipknot, Ravel...

Anonymous said...

If it's not Baroque, don't fix it! Ha ha ha...I think I'm funny.

Randal Graves said...

fot, you're killin' me here. No, seriously, this is my corpse typing.

tom, there really isn't any classical music I don't like, style-wise, but my least favorite - and this is odd coming from a fellow metalhead who loves his dissonant guitar riffs, too - is probably the more atonal, 20th century stuff. Stravinsky and Bartok is about as jagged as I like to get. I can do without serialism, that's for sure.

Dr. Zaius said...

Your tastes are awfully highbrow, considering that you are such a lowbrow. ;o)

M.Yu said...

Thanks for the brain reboot.

I like how in the first one, they are not sitting while playing. It seems to make the music more lively and the stubble on the guy in the second makes it more sincere.

Now the Screamin' Jay vid over at the Aristocrats fills in the lowbrow section very well.

Randal Graves said...

dr. zaius, I myself have trouble resolving this strange dichotomy. ;-)

m. yu, I like those aspects myself, seems to make the music more earthy and real, not merely consigned to a fancy dress ball. And hell, Bach had about 752 kids and was accused of fooling around with the ladies in the church cellar, so it's not like he was all that highbrow himself.

Angie said...

Yes, really close. Great post!