May 27, 2004
UW Chamber Singers to perform Bach masterpiece
Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Mass in B Minor, which the UW Chamber Singers will perform in two locations next week, shows off many of the master composer’s finest styles and skills almost as a musical portfolio might, the concerts’ director says.
Geoffrey Boers, the UW associate professor of music who will conduct the 36-voice Chamber Singers and members of the University Symphony in performances on June 1 in Meany Hall and June 4 in Suzzallo Library, said Bach created the Mass in B Minor partly to display his talents and promote his career.
Hear Bach at his best: The UW Chamber Singers, accompanied by members of the University Symphony, will perform Bach’s Mass in B Minor in two locations. Note: Tickets for the two concerts are $8 for general admission and $5 for students and seniors, but are bought in different ways: • 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 1, at Meany Theater. Tickets at the door or at UW Arts Ticket Office, 206-543-4880. • 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 4, in the Suzzallo Library Reading Room. Tickets sold only at the concert, starting at 6:45 p.m. in the library lobby. |
“He was really showing his stuff,” Boers said. “It shows off his ability to write for virtuoso instrumental playing. Each solo movement shows off different instruments and different kinds of voices and choruses will sing virtually every kind of music they had available, from very old styles to really modern dance music.”
Bach’s smorgasbord-of-styles approach was far from random, however. Rather, Boers said, the composer built Mass in B Minor with multiple layers of meaning and complexity, both in the breadth of his music and the depth of its presentation.
“Bach had an incredible mind. Some think of him as maybe the greatest musician because of his ability to wed so many different aspects,” Boers said. “We have composers who are incredible melody writers or who excel at harmony construction — but Bach does all of that, and yet weds in spirituality and mathematics and even numerology.”
Boers described how Bach created underlying themes with his choice of notes and their numerological meaning, and that even the notes’ location on the page helped build imagery and tell a story.
“That’s this guy!” Boers said with admiration. “He was a total package musician, and I think he expected listeners to experience it as a total package as well,” he said. “They were supposed to get it on several levels.”
But though modern audiences might view the Mass in B Minor as a complete work unto itself, it is partly a compilation of several of Bach’s earlier efforts — a sort of musical repackaging.
At about two hours in total length, the piece is too long to have been used in a real Catholic mass. In fact, Bach himself, a lifetime Lutheran, never heard the work performed straight through, and may never have intended it to be played that way. Its first full performance is said to have been in 1859, more than 100 years after the composer’s death (he lived from 1685 to 1750).
Boers said that major works traditionally are performed with one set of soloists, but not this time. In next week’s concerts, several student soloists will be allowed to shine. He said that not only provides more opportunities for students, it brings a certain historical truth as well, since many of the work’s components were originally performed as separate pieces.
UW audiences can hear this Bach masterpiece in two different ways and locations — in the traditional theater setting of Meany Hall, or in the high-ceilinged Gothic ambience of the Suzzallo reading room.
Calling Bach’s life work one of the finest collections in the world, Boers said, “It is a depiction of the human story, the joy of dance, the tragedy of loss, the fear of death, the exhilaration of praise, the science of life, and the mystery of the journey.
“It is beautiful music, and each listener can take from it whatever they can, as it can be many things to many people. That is his genius.”
