«
»
Music Dorkery

DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY OF ONE OF METAL’S FOREFATHERS FOR FREE

 Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 at 11:30am by

The University of Michigan has made the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach available for free download. The works were recorded by Dr. James Kibbie on original baroque organs in Germany. So, while it’s not quite the full discography this article’s headline advertises it’s certainly a significant portion of it.

What, you were expecting a post about Black Sabbath or Blue Cheer? Pshhhhhh. Mere child’s play when compared to the masterful works of Bach.

I’ve said it many, many times on this blog before: the roots of many elements of modern-day heavy metal, especially the more technical varieties, can be traced back to classical music. Just listen to that new Human Abstract song Axl was [rightly] raving about last week; the way those rhythm guitars move underneath the leads and the way the whole song is put together, it’s basically a fucking classical piece as arranged for a metal band’s instrumentation.

I find the organ to be a particularly dark and haunting making this post even more pertinent to a metal blog. But by now you’re either sold or ya ain’t; go and download Bach’s entire organ discography for free in 256kbps AAC format. I just download the entire Preludes and Fugues collection… can’t wait to dig in. Big thanks to longtime MS supporter Hibernum for the link.

-VN

Tags: , ,
  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brendan-McGregor/1179450011 Brendan McGregor

    Awesome, this is why I love MetalSucks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-MXickman/502613553 Brandon MXickman

    isn’t it ignorant when people say their music is part classical, just because they throw in some string synth sounds…

    i will definitely check this out /m/

  • CheeseArm

    cheers!

  • brookh

    excellent call, vince

  • Still Red From Gwar

    Score. I love Metalsucks for stuff like this

  • The Curmudgeon

    Amazing! I will be back eventually to get everything, for now, I’m making a quick download of the fugues.

    bach free download

  • Jewers

    THANK YOU!

  • CtrlZ

    Love me some Bach, my collection is lacking in classical, so thanks for the link!

  • Dirtman73

    Kibble. Kibble Kibble Kibble.

  • http://laburroteca.com K-milo

    Coolness! Thank you guys!

  • zulcon

    I wager that of the people reading metalsucks who are downloading this, roughly 0 of them will listen to more than 2 minutes of it.

    • pigchop

      That is a wager you would lose.

      • zulcon

        well good thing I didn’t wager anything of value!

    • Driven9

      “i downlaod reeaally old musics to makes me seems smarts and hip and cool”

      i agree with you zul, ppl just download this kinda shit to say they have it. I’d also bet that every time it comes up on shuffle, it gets a quick ‘next’

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Austin-Sharktopus-Nutter/1418565949 Austin Sharktopus Nutter

        Usually anything that isn’t metal gets a quick next unless I’m in a mood for it. If I’m in a jazz mood I’ll listen to jazz, same with electronica, but I can’t switch back and forth, and metal is still my main thing.

  • ferris

    His demos were better.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Gavin/1396340262 Mark Gavin

      Agreed. I liked him way more when he was unsigned.

      • Driven9

        … he totally sold out.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jordy-Halpern/627594703 Jordy Halpern

          Waaay too mainstream to download. Plus, I have his most obscure demo in vinyl. You’ve probably never heard of it.

          • Driven9

            lol

          • Rob S

            Are you talking about the underground shit he did with Mozart? That dual harmonization on James of Leipzig is killer!

  • pigchop

    thank-you.

  • Captain Wookie

    and now I have more music for my office, excellent

  • BillyIdle

    Best news of the day!! \m/

  • BabiesKillYou

    Sweet of you to post this, although I already got it a few months back :)

    Bach is Baroque not Classical. I know that’s being picky, but fuck if basically everyone I know thinks that if you hear any kind of orchestra/organ/sonata/etc. they automatically classify it as Classical. That’s like saying the last 60 years of music is all Rock.

    • The Metalosopher

      Saved me the trouble of pointing that out. Danke schoen.

  • dude

    I recommend listening to Little Fugue in G minor

  • shpostal

    Classical music is indeed the root music of all Western music. It has been said that as far back as Mozart’s time (1830′s) that all scales, progressions and chord voicings that can be constructed from our 12 note scale were in existence.
    However, as we go toward the end of the 19th Century, one composer in particular, Claude Debussy, was taking music places nobody DARED to do and pissed off the Bishop of Paris royally for creating music that wasn’t acceptable to the Church. Was this also one of our rock and roll attitude forefathers? His response was, and I paraphrase, “I can’t take the opinion of this man’s seriously when he’s willing to wear such goofy outfits in public.”
    We all know “Claire de Lune”, probably the most beautiful piece of music ever recorded. However, one of Debussy’s other great pieces has tones and chord changes that were absolutely unheard of in his day, the late 1800′s. I recommend strongly to find the CBS version of Debussy’s greatest hits, and play “Prelude To the Afternoon of a Faun” with Leonard Bernstein conducting,
    Here you will hear instruments running notes against each other in 2nd intervals, strings that shimmer and almost sound 3-D. It is a true soundscape masterpiece. Moody keyboard work by Pink Floyd or Porcupine Tree would not have been possible without this piece. A truly revolutionary work of art.

  • troe

    Not much of a fan of Bach’s organ works, however his cello suites are quite amazing. I remember sitting in music theory and having to listen to the gigue of the 3rd cello suite and thinking it was pretty cool. There’s a part of it (you’ll hear) which is quite “metal”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BWWotMZCPI

    ^for those who care to check it out.

    I had a teacher who told me that our “classical” (baroque, romantic, whatever) composers would be tech-death guys if they were around today :)

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Eligio-Tapia/1478118225 Eligio Tapia

      That’s fuckin awesome that your teacher said that. Last week I gave a presentation on how metal is influenced by classical in my piano class and my teacher, a strictly “classical” player, hated almost everything I showed. I showed clips from various bands and sub genres with very obvious classical influence but she would have none of it.

      She didn’t understand why there was a need to have a heavy sound, she didn’t understand why bands were quoting classical pieces in their songs because she thought there was nothing wrong with the originals, and she said that listening to those clips made her feel bad physically. Throughout my presentation, her body language conveyed such a feeling of disgust and irritation that I felt awkward continuing. She is among the most close minded people I have ever met.

      • troe

        That’s actually very disappointing. Was she an older woman? I’ve found that younger instructors see the influence and correlation much more clearly and are willing to embrace it, to the point of mentioning it while teaching. [There are notable bands where mixed meters cannot be ignored (my professor actually used Tool as an example, if I remember).]

        It’s hard to ignore. As for her asking why there was need for a “heavy” sound, that’s like asking why Schubert wrote choral music for solo alto and tenor chorus as opposed to a strict SATB format. It’s different, it’s fun, so not everything sounds the same.

        I dunno man, but what you said made me pretty disappointed in conservatory style music education. (Though I can’t say I’m having a similar experience).

  • MetalRod

    Bach rachs

  • Tha Rev’Rend

    We are the youth gone wild!