[Mandryka]

You say that Bach was driven by god or suchlike but last time I spoke to him he told me that that in fact driven by lust for money and power and fame.

 

[Mandryka]

Most likely that's why he worked in a local church in Leipzig for twenty-seven years

He was a pretty big cheese, a musician for the King, and he could play organisational politics, Leipzig was a major cultural hob and a huge metropolis, and the church at that time mattered much more than today. The idea that he was a modest church musician is utter nonsense.

 

[Mandryka]

never traveled outside of Germany . . . His later travel to see Frederick the Great was the most travel he did.

No.

S XX. S,ss ans bbssbxbx

 

[Mandryka]

I don't think it has completely vanished but I think it is less common.

Improvisation is huge, possibly bigger than ever before! Composers write structures for it, they write graphic and text scores to stimulate it.