Underrated Classical Musicians: Johann Kuhnau

Johann Kuhnau was Bach's immediate predecessor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. The star of Bach is so all-absorbing that it's often difficult to remember that Germany was experiencing a full musical Renaissance at the time, and Bach was only its brightest light in the retrospect of a hundred years later.

Exactly a hundred years before Bach, Heinrich Schütz brought the influence of the Italian Renaissance to German music and was the historical transition figure who brought the center of musical gravity northward. Of course, that negates all sorts of great German composers of his time like those in the Praetorious family, but if Bach can stand for all of Germany in 1720, then Schutz can stand for all of Germany in 1620.

If you don't look past Bach, you miss Pachebel, Buxtehude, Kuhnau, Frohberger, Telemann, Fasch, Graupner, and Sweelinck. These are really wonderful composers, and if you don't believe me, listen to this Biblical Sonata by Kuhnau, telling the story of David and Goliath like a symphonic poem for keyboard.

Obviously Kuhnau does not have Bach's all-consuming counterpoint and rigor, the loftiness and compassion, the sense that you're hearing, as Jeggy might put it, music from the castle of heaven. But in its place is one of those qualities which Bach didn't concern himself with all that often: narrative. Bach could surely tell stories in music, no one who writes the St. Matthew and John Passions couldn't, but he generally had loftier aims than to tell all the didactic stories that could be told to you on any church window.

This is just a fun, 11 minute piece of music of a lightness that Bach would almost never permit himself. You can almost hear how much more agreeable a person Kuhnau was than Bach. This is clearly meant to be as a church lesson, but an enjoyable church narrative. You can almost see the little kids on the pulpit acting out everything Kuhnau depicts and their parents laughing. This is a very different sort of Baroque than Bach's, one that is life-sized, agreeable and sociable. When the Leipzig town elders bristled at Bach's seriousness, you can almost hear them in your mind's ear whispering to each other "Ach! Vy kennt das Wichtigtuer be more like Kuhnau!'

Biblical Sonata No. 1 by Johann Kuhnau

I. The Boasting of Goliath

II. The Trembling of the Israelites

III. The Courage of David

IV. The Combat between the Two and Their Struggle

V. The Stone Is Throw from the Slingshot - Goliath Falls

VI. The Flight of the Philistines

VII. The Joy of the Israelites over Their Victory

VIII. The Musical Concert of the Women in Honor of David

IX. The General Rejoicing and the Dances of Joy of the People

Biblical Sonata No. 1 by Johann Kuhnau

I. The Boasting of Goliath

II. The Trembling of the Israelites

III. The Courage of David

IV. The Combat between the Two and Their Struggle

V. The Stone Is Throw from the Slingshot - Goliath Falls

VI. The Flight of the Philistines

VII. The Joy of the Israelites over Their Victory

VIII. The Musical Concert of the Women in Honor of David

IX. The General Rejoicing and the Dances of Joy of the People