I actually sang the bass part of the Coffee Cantata in a choir (college choir IIRC) a long time back. Gotta love Bach!
Greg -----Original Message----- From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Craig Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 10:38 AM To: mercedes Subject: [MBZ] OT: For coffee lovers I recently ran across this: Johann Sebastian Bach loved coffee; he considered it one of the great joys of his busy and active life. When Bach died, his personal possessions included at least two coffee pots, one of silver and another of brass, as well as several coffee services. Bach frequented the coffee houses in Leipzig and, on occasion, wrote a “secular” cantata for the enjoyment of his friends. The cantata was a brief oratorio for, usually, four voices. Bach wrote scores of these for use in the morning services at his church –- perhaps the best known is his expansion of Luther’s, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” -– but he also penned a fair number of cantatas that had no overtly spiritual purpose. One of the most delightful of these is the “Coffee Cantata”, a little drama relating a dispute between a father and his daughter, who loved coffee. Her father insisted that she stop drinking coffee and get married. The wily waif went out and brought back for her father the village idiot, professing her love and intending to marry him. Astonished, the father rejected her plans (just as she knew he would) and insisted that he would find her a proper husband. Great! She agreed to his proposal on one condition: the husband he secured for her had to allow her to drink coffee. You can guess who got her way in the end. He also wrote a cantata about drinking. I recall, while in the Caltech Glee Club, of closing one performance with, Tenor: And now I think we've had enough; 'tis thirsty work this singing! Baritone: Quite true; 'tis time to be gone! Chorus: And now to town we go to spend an hour or so in drinking. Craig _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
