Appreciating the music of J. S. Bach

Question

I have been learning piano for many years and am able to really enjoy the music of Beethoven and Chopin. When it comes to Bach, I shamefully admit, I can't see why he is held in such high esteem. His work just seems like scales coming one after the other and one over the other. I am not able to associate any emotions with them. I think this inability could be due to one or more of the following:

1. My ear for perceiving polyphony is not yet developed. As it happens over time, I will be able to see things in proper light.
2. I am from India and I have grown up in a different musical tradition. Most of the music here is based on a system that has no harmony. I cannot relate to Bach due to this cultural shift.
3. Only people who have a gift to appreciate such music, whose brains are designed to comprehend it, can like it.

I want to know which of these comes closest to the truth. Or is there any other reason?

Is it possible to train myself to enjoy his music? If yes, how can this be done?

Answer 1

I'd say 2. is likely the closest, but it may just be as simple as personal taste.

You're just not that used to hearing it and as you say, there's no emotion associated with it. I doubt I'd be capable of appreciating the subtle nuances and emotions in Indian Raga and I can't imagine such a melody stirring any great emotion in me. We have sounds and dissonances today which Bach would have hated - not because he wouldn't be able to "comprehend" it, but because it's not what he'd be used to.

But the thing that fascinates me about music is that you can enjoy it in spite of your level of understanding - no matter how small (or great) that understanding may be, which is why I think you should rule out your reasons 1. and 3.

For example, a non-musician might simply appreciate the Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (BWV 582) because it sounds "dark and moody". An organist might enjoy it because it has a double fugue subject, a musicologist might enjoy it because the pedal ostinato may have been "borrowed" from French composer André Raison.

A lot (all?) of Bach's work is academically very clever and your comment that "it just seems like scales coming one after the other and one over the other" is almost testament to the genius of his work - it sounds deceptively simple and neat, yet when you dig beneath the surface it's vastly complex.

If you don't like it, you don't like it - no point in "training" yourself to like it! But if you want to give yourself a chance at maybe seeing something you've missed so far, maybe study his The Art of Fugue series of works and see how the complexity builds up.

Failing that, why not just have a dance?! Virgil Fox - Gigue Fugue

Answer 2

For one thing, J. S. Bach's music for solo keyboard represents only a small fraction of his work as a composer. Bach was primarily a composer of choral and vocal music, and music for chamber orchestra. I would suggest listening to recordings of his choral and vocal music (notably, his cantatas and masses) and his orchestral music to gain a broader appreciation of who Bach was as a composer and artist.

Answer 3

I hesitate greatly in answering this (someone already dinged you)... after all everything is a matter of taste and opinion but... perhaps there just isn't enough harmonic tension or dissonance to satisfy your personal taste.

I had a teacher once equate dissonance with spicy food... at first it's too hot... but you start to like it after the first couple times and after that... well... food is bland without it. Not to say that there isn't tension and resolution in Bach's music. (On a side note... after learning the proper voice leading rules Bach used compared to Beethoven or Chopin; I find it odd that you would use the word "scales" as a discriptor here.)

To be truthful, it's been over a decade since I even thought about these things or the stylistic differences between the Baroque, Classical and Romantic era's. Even though my first instrument was violin and I grew up playing in orchestras & string ensembles; nowadays I have a hard time sitting through anything pre-Romantic period to be completely honest... I intellectually appreciate the way everything is resolving and moving independently in Bach's music but I personally like a lot of dissonance. (I didn't so much in the past... but hey... there's twelve notes afterall...)

If it's the case that you have a more "modern" harmonic palette... then I don't imagine you're going to suddenly find what you've been missing in his music.

However... if you really want to appreciate what he's doing harmonically, you really need to go and analyze what he's doing beat for beat... it's really amazing... and you'll really learn a lot.

Answer 4

Question: Would Beethoven and Chopin sound as good played on guitar? Answer: Probably not.

I think this captures what is going on - J.S. Bach wrote his keyboard pieces primarily for the harpsichord. I have heard Bach played on the harpsichord many times and it's absolutely wonderful. Last week I heard a skillful pianist play one Bach's pieces on the piano - I was shocked at how mechanical it sounds when played on the piano in comparison to music that was composed for performance on the piano.

My feeling is that it's difficult to appreciate J.S. Bach's music unless you hear it played on the instrument it was intended to be played on. Composers do take the characteristics of an instrument and how it can be played into consideration - these subtleties can sometime make something ordinary into something absolutely extraordinary.