Recently, I came into possession of a complete collection of Johann Sebastian Bach's work. I've always been a fan, but never delved deeply into the pools of Bachiana. I noticed while perusing the Wikipedia article on Bach that this March 31st is the 325th anniversary of his birth. This seemed auspicious, so I hatched a wild plan: I would, starting on 3/31, listen to all of his music, and over the course of 365 days, document it all on a blog!
You may think that this is a trivial matter, and not enough for a whole year's worth of time and energy. After all, how many pieces of Bach music can there be? There's that song from Fantasia, and that song from Seven and maybe a couple more, right?
That's what I thought too, when I was a naive little kid. Like most children, I assumed that the output of Bach was no more than a few dozen works. But, it turns out that Johann wrote over a thousand pieces of music that still survive today. That's a prodigious amount, and more than a bit daunting.
Making the task harder is the fact that I am not in any way a music scholar. I like classical music, but I am not a fanatic. My tastes in classical tend toward the canonical. I have never been trained in music theory, or practice (I play no instruments). But I love harpsichord and baroque music, and if I had to name a favorite composer, it would have to be Bach...
I have another motive as well. I am trying to be a writer. I am hoping that a daily writing task like this blog, something that is totally different from my "main" writing, will help me become a better writer.
SO, if you are interested in this project, please read on! I will be posting daily, I hope. I will be needing to listen to 2-3 pieces a day to complete the year on schedule.
The Official Starting Date is March 31st, 2010. In the next week, I will be researching the topic of Bach, and trying to figure out the most pressing practical problem I have at the moment: what order to listen. I have many options, and I'll be posting them in the days to come.
Comments are welcome and would be most gratefully appreciated!
