CW Links

CW3.1 – Bach's World

The internet is full of links about the life, times, and music of J. S. Bach. For a reliable scholarly source on Bach (indeed, on all things about Western art music) see the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (8th edition). This source is available at many university and large public libraries. If your school has an online subscription, you can find it on your library’s webpage, often under: databases; Oxford Music Online.

Brief biographies

CW3.2 – The Musical Offering

You will find Bach’s Musical Offering on these sites:

The theme is at the beginning of the ricercar movement.

CW3.4 – J. S. Bach, Suite in e minor, BWV 996

Bach’s Suite in e minor, BWV 996 was originally written for an instrument called the Lautenwerk, a soft, but resonant, keyboard instrument with gut strings. The instrument’s body was rounded into an oval bowl, like a giant lute. Click here to listen to an example of the composition played on a Lautenwerk:

The “Bourrée” is one of Bach’s most recognized pieces. Dozens of renditions can be found on YouTube, including:

  • Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” (about 2:42 in)
  • Ian Anderson’s “Bouree”
  • Tenacious D’s “Rock Your Socks” (at 50 seconds in)

CW3.5 – What is Gagaku?

The instrumental music of the Japanese imperial court is known as gagaku. The tradition reaches back at least to the year 700 and has its roots in the classical music of China and Korea. The music is stately and austere to the extreme and is performed by a large ensemble of percussion, string, and wind instruments. Melodies unfold slowly and are doubled by multiple instruments in a heterophonic style. Reflecting the genre’s extraordinary insularity is the fact that some of today’s practitioners are descendants of the original court musicians.