{"id":2130,"date":"2013-12-14T18:15:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T23:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=2130"},"modified":"2013-12-14T18:15:31","modified_gmt":"2013-12-14T23:15:31","slug":"gardiners-bach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=2130","title":{"rendered":"Gardiner’s Bach"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m trying to figure out how\/what to write about John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach: Music In The Castle Of Heaven<\/b><\/a>, a book that I’m reading in short bursts because it’s so rich –like a small mountain of single-malt-filled chocolate truffles. <\/p>\n

In more than 600 pages of smallish print there are hundreds of asterisked footnotes, 10 pages of chronology, 20 pages of notes and references, almost 30 pages of index, an 8-page glossary of musical terms, wodges of illustrations\u2026 The book is almost entirely concerned with Bach’s choral works, which are discussed in a level of detail that only a Conductor (and perhaps only John Eliot Gardiner\u2026) could possibly attempt. I have only a tenuous grasp of music theory, no background in choral music, and no vocal training, but I continue to be riveted by Gardiner’s writing, and by the insights into Bach’s life and work on just about every page. Among materials that bear upon the book are:<\/p>\n

a nice review<\/a> from The Guardian.<\/p>\n

\nIn my podcast archives I have Gardiner talking about his Cantata Project:<\/p>\n

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\nAnd here’s a conversation between Gardiner and Philip Pullman, covering a lot of Bach territory:<\/p>\n

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\nYouTube has a 90-minute BBC special on Gardiner’s take on Bach’s life that’s supremely worth watching, and you can get a quick flavor of the tenor of this program in a bit more than a minute of Gardiner’s explication of a familiar portrait of Bach:<\/p>\n

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