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WTF Bach

by Evan Shinners
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Latest episodes

  • 150: The Early Cantatas, All Summed Up.

    October 6, 2026 · 41 min

    We’ve now covered the seven surviving earliest vocal works by Johann Sebastian Bach! This episode is a brief tour through the episodes we dedicated to these pieces, refreshing our memories and attempting to identify unifying stylistic…

  • 149: The Battle Between Life and Death

    September 24, 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

    “The consummate expressiveness of {BWV 4] has always been marvelled at. Each verse is as if chiselled in music.” -Albert Schweitzer, Vol. 2 Bach’s early Easter cantata remains one of the most beloved in the entire canon. Barely 22 years…

  • 148: Ballooning! (Flying in the 18th Century)

    September 15, 2026 · 28 min

    Sometimes an article from the EB strikes me as so amusing, I simply have to share it with you. See you next week (or the week after, latest) for the conclusion of our early cantata survey, with Christ lag in Todes Banden, BWV 4. Thanks for…

  • 147: Is This Cantata Even By Bach?

    September 8, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

    Q: If, after you attended a Bach concert, someone told you that your favorite piece on the program was not, after all, by Bach… how would you feel? Does this cantata actually fail to move us? Or does it fail to move us when we know its…

  • 146: Toccata’s Twin! Double Fugue in F

    September 1, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

    Forever paired with the giant Toccata BWV 540, it’s unlikely the two were conceived together. Still, owing to certain sources and the fact that this fugue is a dignified and stately complement to the capricious toccata, the pairing works…

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  • 145: Der Herr denket an uns, BWV 196

    August 25, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

    Bach married his second cousin, Maria Barbara, on October 17, 1707, in St. Bartholomäi’s Church (pictured in the cover image) in a charming little village called Dornheim. They were both 22. According to Spitta, some eight months later…

  • 144: Why (And How) I Became An Organist

    August 18, 2026 · 26 min

    Opsimath Organist My first trip to Germany (I was 21) I walked into a church in Weimar and heard— by beautiful coincidence— an unseen organist play Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue, BWV 582. This was a piece I heard for the first time only a…

  • 143: Special Guest, Emma Smith (University of Oxford)

    August 11, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

    “For something to be relevant, is it outside of time, or is it somehow speaking to us directly, now?” -Emma Smith Today’s guest is Emma Smith! Professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of Oxford. We discuss the Brook and the Bard…

  • 142: Monster Toccata in F, BWV 540

    August 4, 2026 · 58 min

    About four years ago I made an episode about Bach’s ‘longest’ piece: Somehow I missed a piece which should definitely be in contention for his ‘longest.’ At 437 measures, the Toccata in F, BWV 540, is (I think!) the longest stretch of…

  • Classical Music ...Robots.

    July 21, 2026 · 7 min

    PG-13 Warning Songs Without Lungs Of course I’m not worried about AI replacing me. I’m a pianist. No one will ever pay to watch robots perform. And then we met Sophia. That’s right. Earlier this year, with the Baptist University Symphony…

  • 141: Bach's Orchestral Debut

    July 16, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

    As part of his new job, the 22-year-old Bach had to provide music for Mülhausen’s city council elections. For the first time, he officially had an occasion to write for a large orchestra: brass, timpani, woodwinds, flutes, strings, two…

  • 140a: Passacaglia Supplement

    July 10, 2026 · 1 hr 45 min

    I hope you get something out of this experiment! Enjoy Paul Jacobs’ beautiful live performance, followed by, at 16:20, an extremely slow MIDI version of BWV 582. The idea is that you, the listener, can adjust the playback speed to alter…

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About the show

J.S. Bach explained: Music analysis, Baroque history, counterpoint and performance practice. A classical music podcast for listeners who want to understand what they're hearing. Weekly history, Well-Tempered Clavier, Brandenburg Concertos, St. Matthew Passion, The Art of Fugue, Cello Suites, and more. Classical music education for all levels! wtfbach.substack.com