February 2: Cantatas BWV 150, 67, 42, 158, 104, 85, 112; Monteverdi Choir; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor.

It's poppin'. (It's poppin'.)

From the book of Ecclesiastes: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

The subtext of my listening project is recognizing the singular, innovative genius of Bach. But we can’t forget that he had his own influences, and that his work reverberates through all of us, knowingly and unknowingly. So it was little surprise when listening to this collection of Easter Cantatas recorded by the Monteverdi Choir that Lil Mama came to mind.

My friend (and great composer and pianist) Gregg Kallor always says to listen for the pulse of the music. The pulse is what connects performer to listener. If the pulse is unsteady, communication becomes blocked. Here’s a snippet from the second movement of BWV 150; the German is “Mein Gott, ich hoffe auf dich.” (‘My God, I hope in you.)

And here’s the bridge from Lil Mama’s 2008 hit ‘Lip Gloss’, which has been lodged in my head for a decade and a half:

It’s poppin’ / Ich hoffe. You hear it? (‘‘Mein Gott’, Goldfine,’ you’re saying.) Bach would’ve been surprised by the ferocity of Lil Mama’s bass drum and looping of the hand claps, but he’d knew the beat and the pulse, which is at the core of his gestalt. (All the counterpoint and voice-leading is for nothing if the music feels flat or static.)

There are some other poppin’ moments from this recording.

The albums starts with the first movement of BWV 150, which has some interesting chromatic moments, and sets an odd mood.

Speaking of odd moods, the provocative cover art is below. Is our turbaned, married friend in fancy, tattered clothes moved to tears by Bach? It seems like he’s more extremely upset than blissfully transported. Is that a shepherd’s stick?

My favorite overall movement from this long collection is the first Aria from BWV 42, a song that speaks to the benefits of celebrating Jesus in a group. Here’s the opening bit. I’ve realized I’m a sucker for harmonizing oboes with a pedal tone of strings underneath:

I’ll close with some quiet poppin’, which is my paramount vibe. This is the Recitative of BWV 112, which adapts the famous 23rd Psalm. These are the lines about walking “through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The instrumentation is perfect, a bass violin along with a bass vocal in duet, like God and man walking together through the valley. Other instruments join in as the words turn to comfort.