Sheep May Safely Graze (Bach; arranged by Rick Foster)

FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/tonyrclef
BLOGSPOT http://tonyrclef.blogspot.com
EMAIL tonyrclef@gmail.com
Album "tony r clef - tuesday afternoon" on Itunes and Amazon et al.

"Sheep May Safely Graze" ("Schafe können sicher weiden")
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach
From Cantata 208 popularly known as the "Hunt Cantata" the full real title of which is "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd" (The lively hunt is all my heart's desire).
One of the so-called secular cantatas, which surprised me when i found it out recently. I'd always thought that the context was very Christian, y'know the sheep and the shepherd and all that. Turns out the words that are sung while all this is going on make a much more political point, I think:

Sheep may safely graze
where a good shepherd watches.
Where rulers govern well
we may feel peace and rest
and what makes countries happy

With one piece of music, Bach invented the "pastoral" style. You close your eyes and you see a bright and sunny day, the fields, the sheep. You smell the hay. What is it about a bunch of notes that can do that?

The first time I heard the piece was on organist Virgil Fox's greatest hits, an LP record I owned back in the day.

I never thought I'd ever get through Rick Foster's notoriously difficult arrangement made for Christopher Parkening but with a few emendations that I've made here it's really possible for those of us with merely ordinary size hands. Any arrangement of such a complex piece will necessarily involve compromises. Here and there I shorten a half note where trying to hold it would make for an extraordinarily difficult fingering and transition. In several places I've also filled in eighth note chords. I took as my inspiration for this the beautiful recording of Leon Fleisher on his album "Two Hands" where he plays the piano arrangement of Egon Petri which does just that. I think it makes it sound less, shall we say, "Lutheran". :D It certainly does when Leon plays it any how. If you don't have that record, go get it.

You should be able to find this arrangement in the book "Parkening Plays Bach" which I believe is still in print.

TUNING is CGDGBE


Taylor NS54-ce, hybrid classical
D'addario Pro Arte normal tension nylon strings

Category:

Music

Tags:

• tony r clef
• tuesday afternoon
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• sheep may safely graze
• christopher
• parkening
• rick
• foster
• leon
• fleisher
• egon
• petri
• two
• hands
• virgil
• fox
• tony
• clef
• troubleclef
• acoustic
• guitar
• instrumental
• fingerpicking
• fingerstyle
• classical
• baroque
• cantata
• bwv
• 208

[TinGoddess666]

I wish I had found this so many years ago. I love your playing. I found you when I happened to click on your cover of Rain Song by Zeppelin and I'm hooked. Thank you.

[troubleclef]

@TinGoddess666

thanks. well i only posted it a couple months ago.. ;)  cheers.

[aatz1982]

Firstly would like to say this is a great recording, beautifully played. I would love to learn this but can't find tab. i understand it's in the book for 'Parkening plays Bach' but please do you know; if I buy this will it be sheet or tab? If it's sheet I may as well not bother, will never get round to working it out. I also read you simplified the arr. slightly, can I buy tab from you? Many thanks, from Robin, South London, England

[troubleclef]

@aatz1982

only in standard notation and i realize that when an odd tuning is employed, tab is a much better system.  I don't have anything written down.

[robbourassaguitarist]

Great work Tony.

[troubleclef]

@robbourassaguitarist

thanks a lot, Rob! tricky one, this. have to keep practicing it but it's in such a weird tuning that the finger memory is peculiar to this piece only! so it's going to be hard to remember it unless i play it all the time!

[majikdragon]

Awesome use of harmonics. At about 1:20 it sounded like two guitars!!! Thanks for posing this.

[pvfrank]

Beautiful Piece done Brilliantly.

[PlymouthVT]

@TinGoddess666 Yes his interpretation of Rain Song is the finest I have ever heard. Its mesmerizing isn't it? He plays bass notes too. What a shame Zep @ucked it all up with violins and over production when Tony proves that Jimmy wrote a brilliant brilliant piece of music on the 6 string. Well done Tony.

[jsbach15]

Wow, haven't heard you play a classical piece until now; Bach too boot? YEAH, life is good!

[oliverecords]

@prohumanbeing Come on, I'm sure JS had some sensibility. Though I agree on saying that Tony makes really nice and personal renditions of virually anything.

[whmitty1]

Outstanding!

[prohumanbeing]

Bach was a wily surgeon engineer with music.

You are a master artist who breathes life and love into JS's mathematical intricacies and playful as a puppy chasing a piece of paper in the wind ideas.

[wardogrs]

Another great sounding piece! Thanks for taking up the challenge, meeting it and posting it.