Guest post by Dennis HarrisWe aren't really fanatics, but none of the members of the Juneau Bach Society orchestra and chorus would put in the hours and hours of rehearsal necessary to perform the Kappelmeister's works if we didn't have an immense love for the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of his music.
Bruce Simonson, the Society's conductor and musical director, is, like most of his performers, not a professional musician. He's a computer programmer who majored in mathematics in college. A few of the Society's singers and players are music teachers, but most of us have day jobs ranging from driving taxis to practicing law, nursing to marine biology.
Bach's music attracts performers from teenagers to septegenerians. Our lead second violin is 17, our most recent mezzo-soprano soloist and our second horn player for the Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 were both 18, and one of our violists was 79. Regardless of age, we all appreciate the challenge of performing Bach's music well.
As a singer, I appreciate most the way that Bach layers the vocal parts into patterns that sparkle with variations of the same tune, often with chords that are quite dissonant until they resolve into the ultimate chord at the finale. When my bass section gets on a roll with one of Bach's choral fugues, especially when our baroque orchestra is on the same roll, it's every bit as exilharating as when I'm in the groove playing a harp solo in front of a tight blues band with a big horn section.
Bach wrote so many choral pieces that Bruce always seems to find one or two for every concert that fit current events as well as the time of year. His choice for our concert last Saturday and Sunday was Cantata No. 34, O ewiges Feuer, O Ursprung Der Liebe (O eternal fire, o fountainhead of love), a cantata for Pentecost (which will be this Sunday). The closing chorale is "Friede über Israel", (peace over Israel), based on Psalm 128, verse 6:
Friede über Israel!
Dankt den hochsten Wunderhänden,
Dankt, Gott hat an euch gedacht.
Ja, sein Segen wirkt mit Macht,
Friede über Israel,
Friede über euch zu senden.
Peace on Israel!
Give thanks, for the hands of the Most High that work miracles,
Give thanks, that God has thought of you
Yes, his blessing works with power,
To send peace on Israel,
To send peace on you.
How appropriate for these troubled times!
Dennis Harris sings bass with the Juneau Bach Society and the
Juneau Symphony Chorus, volunteers with the Cross Sound Festival,
the Juneau Symphony, and the Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival, and
plays slide guitar and the most blues harp in Alaska
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