by Daniel Hathaway
It’s fun and illuminating to trace outside influences on composers’ changing styles as they make their way through life, standing on the shoulders of their predecessors to see a clearer view of the future.
Sometimes it’s easier to document those influences than others. The subtitle of Apollo’s Fire’s recent program set, “Tracing the Path from Biber to Bach,” implied that the music of Johann Sebastian Bach marked the end point of a stylistic era that more or less developed in a straight line from late-17th century violinist-composers like Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber through Dietrich Buxtehude and Johann Adam Reinken to the Cantor of Leipzig. [Read more…]