No 110 Bach’s Earworms and Children’s Songs

Their experiences with their own children gave the members of the Ensemble all’improvviso the idea of arranging our most deeply-rooted trove of melodies – nursery rhymes – and using them as a basis for improvisation. Surprisingly, most of the melodies that were first written down in the 19th century are easy to harmonise in the Baroque style – in fact, they sound as if they were just made for gut strings and continuo! And suddenly, the relationships between the works of old master composers and nursery rhymes become clear: here, a jumping jack dances to Handel’s »Water Music«, bees buzz to Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Charpentier’s »Te Deum« becomes jubilant wedding music for Sleeping Beauty, while the cuckoo sings his springtime song from Anna Magdalena Bach’s »little music book«, the »Notenbüchlein«. There’s all this and much more, not only for children, but also for parents, grandparents and even ordinary »adults«.