At 07:32 PM 30-05-00 -0700, you wrote: >At 06:30 AM 05/31/2000 +1000, Reg Boyle wrote: >>By the way John, JSBach was a bass-baritone so that may be a clue >>as to who he had in mind while writing that work! > >Delightful tidbit - since I'm a bass-baritone too and a Bach nut >since before my voice changed.... when I was a boy alto :) Do >you have a reference on that - I'd like to verify it.
Dear Joel, I think you observations are quite valid. It's an old trick to lay claim to the obscure and let the opposition disprove it, which they can't, because of the same obscurity. It's like tossing the woman accused of witchcraft into the river. If she survives we burn her at the stake because she was saved by her witchcraft. And like Notradamus' followers who always predict the past: they 'knew' about it all the time, after the event.
Only one of my books gives the information about JSBach being a bass-baritone. I think everyone has it on their book shelf. Great Composers with the foreword by Antony Hopkins. In the section on his early Education in Lunerberg on page 11, 12 it states: " Bach sang in the choir (Mettenchor) until his voice broke, changing from treble to bass baritone then he became an instrumentalist. At school he studied Latin, Lutheranism, arithmetic, history and geography, German poetry, physics, heraldry and genealogy."
It seems that only the foreword is by Antony Hopkins of BBC, Cambridge and Royal College of Music fame and no credit is given to the fine writing within. Good luck with your quest. Reg.
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