(A) Perhaps the greatest composer of all time. Enshrined as the first of the Three Bs--"Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms"--ol' J. S. is the keystone of Germany's claim as one of the great musical nations of the world. His elephantine oeuvre of organ works, chamber music, cantatas, and pieces for solo instruments sparkles with alluring melodies, thrilling counterpoint, and irresistible rhythmic propulsion.
(B) A cornerstone of musical pedagogy. Apart from providing music teachers with endless (and inexpensive) musical material with which to drill students, Bach endures because enough of this master's music is free of specific instrumentation, tempo indications, and dynamic notations to invite and inspire wildly divergent performances. Also Bach's music is rife with enough textual disputes to enable generations of scholars to merrily grind out article after article in obscure journals.
(C) The subject of Bach Around the Clock, an all-day music marathon. Highlights include the Cello Suite in D minor by viola da gambist Margriet Tindemans (12:05 pm), the Partita in D minor for solo violin by Lorenz Gamma (1:30 pm), and TromBachBones, a new work by Stuart Dempster (3:30 pm). In the late afternoon, pianist Mark Salman tackles Busoni's Bach homage, the Fantasia Contrappuntistica (4:15 pm). For laughs try P. D. Q. Bach's Erotica Variations (4:45 pm), but stick around for Cantata 182 "Himmelskönig, sei willkommen" played on period instruments (5 pm), the heart-rending motet "Komm, Jesu, komm" sung by the Tudor Choir (6 pm), and a sing-along of the Magnificat in D Major (6:15 pm) led by Roupen Shakarian and Philharmonia Northwest. Check www.townhallseattle.org for a full schedule. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI
Bach Around the Clock runs Sat April 10 (Town Hall, Eighth Ave and Seneca St, 652-4255) from 11 am to 7 pm, pay what you can.
