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Music Before 1800’s Bill Barclay and Historically Informed ‘Experience’

A Q&A with Music Before 1800’s new artistic director Bill Barclay: ‘If people are going to take a risk of coming to a concert for the first time, they need something to hold on to’… it’s ‘sadly a bit of an exclusionary pleasure — you have to know a little bit to get a lot out of it, unless there’s something that resonates and makes people understand that early musicians are arbiters of ancient insights into human performance.’

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Bach Worship? It’s Complicated.

People who love Wagner operas can separate his music from his toxic beliefs. Yet J.S. Bach’s ‘superlative ability to move listeners’ and status as ‘a pinnacle of Western art’ brushes aside the composer’s harsh theology and often intolerant personal philosophy. In this collection of essays, Bach scholar Michael Marissen warns us to ‘not soften or assimilate this figure to our own preferences, no matter how much we find inspiration, solace, or transcendence in his art.’

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