How to enjoy Baroque music more, especially Bach

[classicalnhiphop]

I enjoy some baroque music ALOT like Handel's water music, i truly enjoy that.  For instance, I don't exactly like the first movement of Bach's French Suite 5.  Not that it sounds bad, but it just isn't as interesting as some other parts of it.  The reason I am getting very specific with this is because I actually really like other parts of the Suite but the first movement, or Allemande, sounds a bit boring to me.

yes, i know Rachmaninoff_forever will probably say that bach sux haha, but I'd like to hear his reasons for that opinion as well

[landru]

I would suggest following the individual voices (or melodies) and hear how they interact with other voices as they come and go in the piece. The Water Music is great music on the surface - but even that piece is wonderful to listen to when you try to follow a certain melody in all of its forms as it goes in the piece.

As far the Allemande in the French Suite 5 - you don't have to appreciate every piece! Perhaps the performer didn't quite bring it off, or didn't understand it enough to do it properly. And Allemandes can be tricky to understand as they are not as flashy as gigues or as beautiful or elegant as sarabandes or minuets.

[awesom_o]

Work on studying the French Baroque!

Baroque becomes more and more fun the more proficient at it you become.... just like everything else in music.

[outin]

Work on studying the French Baroque!

Definitely! And Meriterranian too!

It seems people sometimes associate Baroque very much with Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, forgetting that there are numerous other wonderful composers to explore.

[indianajo]

Couperin is another Baroque artist who wrote some great melodies.
I am a great JS Bach fan (not the children) but the French Suites leave me cold.  I find much greater melodies in the two part inventions, as easy as they are to play.  And in the three keyboard and a footboard realm, the pieces on E Power Biggs Bach Organ Favorites and #2 are the pinacles of JSB repretoire, IMHO.

[promusician]

I think Bach wrote works for organ superior than the keyboard IMHO.

[awesom_o]

I get much more out of playing Bach on the cello than on the piano. I love to play the Italian Concerto on the piano... but usually I find his music more beautiful on the cello or the violin.

[cabbynum]

You play cello as well? Dang!

Anyway, I love Bach and baroque music, but I like to listen to backs cello suites more than any of the prelude and fugues or the partitas or French and English suits

[awesom_o]

Yes, I'm switching my focus more and more towards the cello as my main instrument.

Here is one of the greatest Baroque musicians of all time playing Bach's Cello Suite no. 1 on a true Baroque instrument: the alto recorder! The alto is my third instrument, but I'm rubbish compared to this man.

Listen to the purity of his tone and the beauty of his phrasing!!