baroque
The 17th century is a turning point in the West. The élan provided by the Renaissance is dissipating and the reactionary forces are at work, consider for example the Counter-Reformation.
Nevertheless the human spirit prevails in spite of. This was a time of experimentation with new forms and new ideas. As the saying goes, it got better just before it got much worse and, hélas, finis.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is considered by many as the worker of the great synthesis of western music until the 18th century. His music reaches to the core of what so far had been the western culture. A complete man: northener and southerner, sacred and profane, tragic and joyous.
As of that date, the ancien regime crumbled and revolutions sprouted everywhere. Eager to claim their place, they centrifuged the good and the bad of "yore": proclaiming new truths that promised the same of the former but without their pathos.
What has this to do with Bach? Everything and also nothing. The important is what remains. Almost everything passes by.
Bach's music remains!
I play solo a partita and with harpsichordist Nuno Oliveira a transcription of Sonata BWV 1016 in E Major.
