WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR OF BOTB!
Hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands, this is where you listen to different recordings and choose the one you prefer. There are two “Battles” per month, on the 1st and 15th. Votes will be tallied and posted the following week. (Please note: Effective July 2017, I switched to once a month on the 15th only. This will allow me more time to share other types of material with you.) Click HERE to view a complete list of my BOTB entries. See below for a list of current participants. Care to join us? Contact our host, by clicking on the above link and leaving a comment on his blog. The more, the merrier!
Since my recent battles have all been blowouts, I decided to go in a different musical direction, this time. Classical instrumentals! Fair warning: this piece runs over nine minutes. If you don’t want to listen to it all, please give it long enough to form an opinion. Thanks!
HISTORY
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music written, according to its oldest extant sources, by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire.
Scholars differ as to when it was composed. It could have been as early as 1704 (when the presumed composer was still in his teens), which would be one explanation for the unusual features; alternatively a date as late as the 1750s has been suggested (Bach died in 1750).
Horror movie fans have likely heard this before.
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ALEX MASI
Alex Masi (born 14 May 1969) is an Italian guitarist from Venice. His range spans all genres, heavy metal to classical. In 1998, Masi published the first album of a successful trilogy dedicated to three of the most famous classical musicians in history, entitled In The Name of Bach. Toccata and Fugue is the first track.
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ANDREW MANZE
Andrew Manze (born 14 January 1965) is an English conductor and violinist. He began his musical career as a specialist in Early Music, and has recorded commercially as a soloist for such labels as Harmonia Mundi. Toccata and Fugue is the 1st track of the 2nd disc from his Bach Violin & Continuo Sonatas album, released in 2000.
VOTE NOW!
Please state your preference in comments below and why you chose it.
Voting remains open until 11:59 pm, January 21st,
after which I will count the votes, add mine and publish the results.
These are the other BOTB regulars and semi-regulars.
Please cruise on by their sites and, if they have a post up, vote on their selections as well:
[Check back – there’s no set posting time]ai love music / Angels Bark / Cherdo On The Flipside / Curious as a Cathy / Jingle Jangle Jungle / Mike’s Ramblings / Sound of One Hand Typing / HOST: StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands / Tossing it Out
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[tweetthis]Battle of the Bands #BOTB: BEWITCHING BACH | Who did it better? Cast your vote! #dogladysden[/tweetthis]
Next Battle on this site will be February 15th.
ROCK ON!
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Dog Mom and (retired) Canine Innkeeper in suburban Toronto, Canada, known as The Doglady. Former corporate workaholic. Writer, photographer, digital creator. Animal lover, music fanatic, inveterate traveller. Eternal hippie/rockchick. History, literature and cinema buff. Hockey and soccer fan. Dedicated night owl. German/Canadian binational, multilingual. Let me entertain you!
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27 thoughts on “BEWITCHING BACH | BATTLE OF THE BANDS #BOTB”
Alex Masi is Bach Made Better… Really fun to hear the guitars romping through this piece.
A vote for Alex Masi, please, and thank you, Debbie.
Thank you for coming by to vote, Myke! 😀 Alex is smoking the competition here. I can’t seem to break that blowout curse. Oh well…
Ooooooooooh, a battle of modern takes on a classic Bach piece. Since I am a sucker for metal guitars and rock versions of classic songs, Alex Masi gets my vote. I would love to see him play this live to see how he got all those fingerings down pat.
Alex Masi is a master of all genres! 🙂 Thanks for your vote. He’s running away with this one.
Having been a guitar player myself, I’ll go with Alex Masi, although this definitely sounds better on the organ.
Another vote for Alex. Thanks! The organ rendition would have won, hands down, I’m sure. 🙂
As a guy whose favorite song circa 1983 is “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama… it’s not a tough choice at all: ALEX MASI who knows how to tone it down a notch here and there. ANDREW MANZE seems rather consistently high strung – lighten up dude.
ALEX MASI gets my vote.
The 80s didn’t do that much for me, musically speaking, (give me 60s and 70s, any day!), so I had to look up “Cruel Summer”. Seems vaguely familiar. 🙂 I’ll post it here for your enjoyment. Alex Masi is wonderfully versatile, ’tis true. And it looks like he might just win this battle. Thanks for voting! P.S. “High-strung Andrew Manze” – very punny. 😀
The video is awesome, thanks Debbie. Musically speaking, so many people say 60’s and 70’s songs are better than the 80’s, especially when songs and musicianship are taken into consideration. Here’s the thing (“The play’s the thing,” Shakespeare).. 60’s and 70’s groups didn’t have good videos. Granted, they didn’t have any videos. Debbie, if you could see us watching MTV and saying (figuratively, paraphrasing), “Finally! Our generation has something to call our own!” “We’ll show them!”
Cheers and happy weekend,
Hahaha! Hippies vs MTV generation. 😀 Videos are fun for sure, however, it’s the substance that matters most. To me, (and there are definitely exceptions), popular 80s music is mostly lightweight fluff. There’s excellent music to be found in every era though if you dig deep enough.
Well, Debbie, there’s good pop music in each decade. For example, the Beatles. A whole lot of groups in the 80’s worked hard to come up with the biggest hooks to make the 80’s the best decade of pop. The 60’s and 70’s came up with FM and AOR (album oriented rock) radio to listen to Led Zep play their two-neck guitars for 11 minutes. The 70’s had good pop songs. It was almost like right at January 1, 1980 the best songs started to happen. You have to take The Beatles out of the equation. If The Beatles aren’t in the 60’s and 70’s, no question, the 80’s is the best era of pop.
I’m sure the 80s were fantastic for pop music. That’s not exactly my favourite genre, though, with a few exceptions, like the aforementioned Beatles. I think their later music went beyond pop. Music is so subjective, in any case. There is no right or wrong, just opinion. 🙂 If you’re interested, here’s an idea of the music that thrills me the most:
https://thedogladysden.com/question-of-the-month-musical-bliss/
The era we grew up in is usually a huge influence too, so I’m guessing you’re younger than I am. (Most people are! 🙂 ) Have a good night!
Sorry I am so late to the battle, it has been a very crazy week for me. This is certainly an interesting battle. I was drawn to both, but I think that I liked the guitar just a little bit better. My vote is going to Alex Masi.
Hi Mary; You’re not late; there’s still 4 more days to vote. 🙂 Hope your week gets a little easier. This is shaping up to be a decent battle, for a change. That’s another vote for Alex Masi. Thanks!
We are a family of string players! So it’s a battle of guitar (me, Juggernaut, Gonzo) versus violin (Gonzo…10 years of lessons and orchestra with Mom waiting in the car). Nobody does that without love of violin.
Today, I gotta give it to ANDREW MANZE! Both guys are talented but violin just soothes the soul.
Thanks, Debbie!
Nice to have your own orchestra in the family! 🙂 Thanks for voting. Another one for violinist Andrew Manze. Cheers!
Well, if I can’t go for the sample right before van Halen breaks into You Really Got Me, I’ll go with the guitar version. Not that I have against classical- I just found that version a bit bland.
So, just to clarify, you’re choosing Alex Masi, the guitarist, right? Sorry, it’s late. 🙂 Thanks for voting!
Alex Masi gets my vote I am going with guitar today!
Thanks! Another vote for Alex Masi.
Debbie,
I recognize this classical piece from vintage horror flicks I watched late Saturday nights when I was a kid. I was nearly set to give my vote to the violist but halfway through the mewsic clip it grew a bit tiresome to the ear, so I went back to listen the first one again which I did play all the way through the first go around. You’ll find this hard to believe but I prefer the metal rendition over the violins and so ALEX MASI gets my vote. Okay, you can pick yourself up off the floor now. 😀 Interesting battle which stunned even me! Have a good day, my friend!
Hi Cathy; The organ version is perfect for horror films, isn’t it? 😀 I know you’re not a metal fan and Alex can perform in that genre with the best of them, but, he’s playing it straight here, in baroque style, so I’m not that surprised by your choice. Vote number two for Alex Masi. Here’s hoping the blowout cycle will be broken with this one, Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
A very different kind of BOTB, DEBBIE!!
I dig the composition, overall, but as I feel about much Classical music, it kind of drags on too long. If all THREE videos were fair game for voting on, I’d definitely choose that organ piece. That was pretty fantastic! (And the organ IS my favorite musical instrument.)
Of the two choices I have, well, I found that at the 5:07 mark of the guitar version, I had become bored with it.
I thought the violin playing was extremely good, and (to be blunt) I didn’t become bored with it until the 6:22 mark. Therefore, please give my vote to ANDREW MANZE (unless you’re willing to suspend the rules and give my vote to the organ version).
I feel that both the guitar rendition and the violin rendition suffer from a lack of other instruments. Both could use some musical accompaniment. Whereas the organ is such a RICH sounding instrument that it doesn’t really need any musical assistance.
DEBBIE, I hope this breaks your run of BOTB blowouts. At least, so far, your vote count is 1-1. That’s a good start.
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS
That’s one vote for the less-boring Andrew Manze, violinist. 🙂 Had the organ version been used, I fear that would have led to a shutout, Stephen. It was originally written for that instrument. Very popular in vintage horror films! I agree with you about classical music and prefer it in smaller doses, myself. I needed to do something radically different to break the blowout curse, though. Here’s hoping! 😀
Since I typically have an inclination to enjoy violin music one might expect me to go with the violinist. In this case however I prefer the guitarist. His version worked better for me and was more pleasing to my ears.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
First vote goes to Alex Masi, the guitarist. Thanks, Lee! 🙂