William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

BWV. 1051 ; Year: 1721; Genre: Baroque Period/classical Well, it's the first of September once again and yet another year has passed since I started this blog; today marks my blog's 5th anniversary. As I have done every year since my first pick, except for the one year I was a day late, I am picking another one of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos . While this is the final one for me to pick, by all means it's not one I dislike in any way, nor is it my least favourite amongst it brothers, it just happens to be the last one that I picked. Many of the other ones just happened to fit my mood better on previous picks. I guess it's kind of fitting to have the sixth concerto as the final one chosen though. Anyway, I guess next year I'll have to start another theme to mark my blog's anniversary. Enjoy this beautiful music and I'll catch you all sometime tomorrow! Here is a performance of the piece performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Hear t...

1476 Johann Sebastian Bach - BWV 1049 - Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major BWV 1049, Year: 1721 Genre: Baroque Period/classical Today marks the fourth year since I started my Song a Day Blog and as usual, except for the one year I forgot, I'm picking one of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos . Well, I guess I only have two left to pick from. For no reason whatsoever I'm going with his fourth one; I suppose that next year's pick won't be a big surprise. While four other Brandenburg Concertos have been picked before, by no means is this my fifth favourite out of the bunch; just as I do on a normal day, the song has to fit my mood. However, I will admit that the 2nd and 5th Concertos are my favourites. This is such a beautiful and inspiring piece of music. Here is a performance of the piece by The Freiberg Baroque Orchestra: Here is Part 1: Allegro on YouTube. Here is Part 2: Andante on YouTube. Here is Part 3: Presto on YouTube. Here is a ...

1108 Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No.1 in F major, BWV 1046 Today is the third anniversary of me starting this song a day blog, as usual I am picking another one of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos to mark the occasion; last year it slipped my mind and I made my Bach pick a day late. Since this is the fourth one chosen and there only being six of them I can only keep this tradition up for two more years, but with him being such a prolific writer I can just switch to something like The Well-Tempered Clavier , The Goldberg Variations , and/or the plethora of his Cantatas, Passions and Organworks that he wrote. Anyway, as with all of the Brandenburg Concertos , if you have been at all been introduced to classical music you will immediately recognize the melody of the song. This is the only Brandenburg Concerto to have four movements instead of the usual three. Here is a performance of the piece by Karl Richter, Münchener Bach Orchester: Here is Part 1. ...

739 ( Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G-Major, BWV 1048 ) As of yesterday it has been two years since I started my song blog; since I totally spaced it, I will go on ahead and pick an appropriate song a day late. This is actually one of the more popular of the six concertos; once the first couple of bars of music are played you should immediately recognize it. One interesting thing about this concerto in particular is that the second movement consists of only two chords that are played on the harpsichord. Here is an excellent performance of the concerto performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Here is the first movement: Allegro on YouTube. Here is the second movement : Adagio on YouTube. Here is the third movement: Allegro on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: The Buoys - Give Up Your Guns My song pick two years ago today: The Buoys - Timothy +

Well, this is the one year anniversary of the start of my song blog, I have decided that I will choose another song by an artist that I chose for my first week. For my first pick ever on my Song a Day Blog, I chose J.S. Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto , which is my second favourite of his Brandenburg Concertos. So, for today I decided that I should choose my favourite one. What this one is mostly known for is extended harpsichord solo (Cadenza). Before this the concept of a concerto was known as the Concerto Grosso, which was a piece of music played by two contrasting groups of musicians, the larger being the one that played the theme and the smaller being the soloist. With this concerto J.S. Bach all but did away with this form by using the extended cadenza; this has still carried on to this day in some form. You can thank or blame J.S. Bach in part every time a you hear a bombastic guitar solo. Here is the entire piece performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Here ...

I am starting a song a day blog today, here is my first one: J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.2 is one of my all time favorite pieces of music and my second favorite Brandenburg Concerto; it was published sometime around 1720 A.D. One interesting side note is that this song was the first piece of music featured on the golden record sent on the Voyager probe launched in 1977, so it might be the first Earth music heard by Extra Terrestrials and it will far outlast our planet. Here is the entire piece performed by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Here is the first movement: Allegro on YouTube. Here is the second movement: Andante on YouTube. Here is the third movement: Allegro assai on YouTube. +