Tuesday, December 14, 2021

You really can …

… Having Fun with Bach Cantatas - by Ted Gioia. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Bach himself had fun with his cantatas, which weren’t just pious musical exercises required for his job (excuse me, let’s call it a vocation). The most obvious examples are his secular cantatas, the best known of which is the so-called “Coffee Cantata,” almost a mini-comic opera—focused on the plight of a father trying to stop his single-minded daughter from drinking so much java. “Ah! How sweet coffee tastes,” she proclaims, “sweeter than a thousand kisses.” And she warns dad that cutting off her supply will turn her into “a shriveled-up roast goat.”

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