J. S. Bach Playlist

[Alex K]

To go with your morbid choice, here's my strong second contender for all time favorite Bach cantata, Aus der Tiefe

I've listened to it many times during the past 2 years when life was getting just too much.

From the deep, I call to you. The beginning is nothing short of magical to me, and it features my favorite German (of eastern European heritage) soloist Dorothee Mields

A lesser-known piece, one that probably wouldn't be on my radar if not for a scene in The Seventh Continent where the Schober family decides to kill themselves (after two years [read: two sections of the film] of living dead-end lives) after the daughter Evi responds to the final aria ("Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod") by saying "Me, too."


Also, apparently, this was performed on Easter, despite clearly being meant for the Presentation at the Temple. In addition, there's a scene from his next movie Benny's Video where the title character sings "Trotz dem alten Drachen." Unfortunately, my library does not have a copy of that film, it's out of print, and thus, I have not seen it.

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Fun fact: Michael Haneke told the producers that he expected that people would be more shocked by the scene where the Schobers flush their money down the toilet (a detail cribbed from a real-life incident that inspired the film) than by their decision to kill themselves. For me, I was most shocked by a scene where the mother destroys a copy of Signs of Life by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. What did the Penguin Cafe Orchestra ever do to them?

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After the emotional atmospheric sound bath of BWV131, one needs something light to cleanse the palate and enter the rational realm again. Much like Beethoven who supposedly started every day playing a Bach fugue, here's the most popular of them all, the "little fugue" in Gm, here in a piano transcription





aand here's a blast from the past, the famous Swingle singers' version