On Bach's Farm
Mark Seow explores the links between Bach's music and the subject of farming - not only of the soil but also of the heart and the soul.
Bachβs Germany was an agrarian society. Just beyond Leipzigβs city walls, farmers worked the land to grow crops that sustained its citizens. Some of Bachβs music explicitly engages with farming. Its rustic oomph and repetitive motifs call to mind the manual toil of digging. John Eliot Gardiner even described the texture of one Bach cantata as βwarm topsoil, fertile and well irrigatedβ. Yet devotional writings of Bachβs time make it clear that farming was something not just done out on the fields. Instead all Lutherans were to be farmers of sorts: they were to plough the βsoilβ of their hearts so to receive the Word of God and bring it to fruition.
The notion that scripture was a type of seed pervaded eighteenth-century thought, and Bach was intimate with this kind of corporeal agricultural. In this episode, violinist and member of Chineke!, Mark Seow explores how the cultivation of Lutheran hearts as if they were farmland urge us to rehear much-loved moments of Bach, including movements from his Christmas Oratorio and the St Matthew Passion.
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Music Played
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George Frideric Handel
Messiah: Pifa (Pastoral symphony)
Ensemble: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin. Conductor: Justin Doyle.- PENTATONE.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Christmas Oratorio BWV.248: Sinfonia
Ensemble: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- ARCHIV.
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Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto in F major RV.293, Op.8`3 (L'Autunno): Allegro
Performer: Adrian Chandler. Ensemble: La Serenissima.- AVIE.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fΓ€llt, BWV.18 (Sinfonia)
Orchestra: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Conductor: Ton Koopman.- CHALLENGE CLASSICS.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fΓ€llt, BWV.18
Singer: Barbara Schlick. Singer: Christoph PrΓ©gardien. Singer: Klaus Mertens. Orchestra: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Choir: Amsterdam Baroque Choir. Conductor: Ton Koopman.- CHALLENGE CLASSICS.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Wir mΓΌssen durch viel TrΓΌb BWV.146: Ich sΓ€e meine ZΓ€hren
Performer: Marten Root. Singer: Brigitte Geller. Ensemble: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.- SDG.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost BWV.114: Kein Frucht das Weizenkornlein bring
Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.- BIS.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Ach, lieben Christen, seid getrost BWV.114: Du machst, o Tod, mir nun nicht fern
Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.- BIS.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Christmas Oratorio, BWV.248: Schliesse, mein Herze
Performer: Ryo Terakado. Singer: Yoshikazu Mera. Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.- BIS.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
St. Matthew Passion BWV.244: Mache dich, mein Herze
Singer: Matthew Brook. Ensemble: Dunedin Consort. Conductor: John Butt.- LINN.
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Anonymous
Matais de incΓͺndios
Singer: Martha McLorinan. Singer: Thomas Hobbs. Choir: Ex Cathedra. Ensemble: Ex Cathedra Baroque Orchestra. Conductor: Jeffrey Skidmore.- Brazilian Adventures.
- Hyperion Records.
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Broadcast
- Sun 21 Feb 2021 14:00ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
Podcast
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Performance and news from the world of early music.