Now showing

The Fight for Bach (1989-06-07)

Public Broadcasting1989Creative Commons
Poster for The Fight for Bach (1989-06-07)

About this film

On a previous appearance on Firing Line, Mr. Buckley recalls, Miss Tureck had insisted that young people were discovering Bach. "I don't think she was wrong about Bach, but I am very much afraid that she overestimated the musical curiosity of our youth, since, as I look out of my window, I don't see students in Tiananmen Square clamoring for more Bach." The conversation this time ranges delightfully from--once again--affinities between rock and Bach to the differences between performing earlier centuries' music on contemporary instruments and performing it on modern instruments: "There's a certain exoticism in seeing and hearing, say, an early-18th-century instrument ..., and although it's tremendously important for musicians to know them ... we are negating our 20th century altogether and erasing our present selves."

Directors & creators

Southern Educational Communications Association

Subjects

public broadcasting, AAPB, Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr., MUSIC, Social aspects, Bach, Johann Sebastian, 1685-1750, Criticism and interpretation, Philosophy and aesthetics, musical instruments, rock music

View on archive.org ↗

More from this pool

Public Broadcasting

See all →