Lecture: The performing pitches in use in J. S. Bach's time are widely misunderstood, and to make sense of his practices we have to learn to think about pitch from an eighteenth-century perspective rather than a modern one. We'll explore this topic with examples from Bach's concerted vocal-instrumental music, looking at sources and modern editions and listening to recordings that illustrate problems and solutions.
Daniel R. Melamed is professor of music in musicology at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
His research interests focus on J. S. Bach, Mozart-era opera, and music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He is president of the American Bach Society and director of the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project.
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