utopia city

7:43 min

Let's travel far into a promising time. Imagine a city of the future - with inhabitants who understand scientific and social complexity and permanently improve their world.

As the name says, this is a song suggesting a fantastic and desired scenery in a city existing somewhere in the future.

Lyrics: Here (pdf).

This song combines the Toccata-theme of Johann Sebastian Bach with a composition of Andy Enroe. It continues the concept of epic story-telling and developing songs - just as we know from the seventies.

inspiration

The recording of the organ is inspired by the organ of the St. Trinitatis Church in Hamburg Altona while Hanno Schiefner played the Toccata forward and backward in july 2018. Though this organ is of medium size the physical playing is quite amazing. We wanted to catch this sound and feeling. Because of the frequency spectrum of a church organ being very wide we could get a fulminant big sound only in several steps and by applying proper microphone positions and a clever processing.

organ of the st. trinitatis church hamburg altona

some questions

Frank Müller asked andy enroe

Question: How did the idea to take the "toccata-theme" come to you?

The idea to use the toccata theme of Bach was in my head for a long time. I wanted the toccata as intro and to evolve a fantastic song from there on. Now we finally realized it.

In contrast to all the other songs on the enroe-site this song is overly long. Why?

Yes, this song developed to an epic work. I can't say why, it's just something that emerged from the process of composing. Sure here we didn't strive for a streamlined short song.

What organ is it you play here? It seems to be quite huge.

The organ sound is adapted from the organ of the Trinitatis Church in Hamburg Altona. It's not the biggest organ, but a good record of the bass flutes creates this big sound. We had to make several attempts to get the sound we wanted.

What strikes me: There's not a single guitar in this song, though enroe calls itself "guitar band"?

Yeah - it was difficult to compose this song so that there are not two different songs, a toccata-song and a separate rock-song. Instead we wanted to have one single song with organic natural overleads. Therefore we used instruments of the classic music - cembalo, cello and violin. And yes - suddenly there was no place for a guitar. But ... at least Tanja played the e-bass, which surely is a guitar.

Will we hear similar songs like this one in the future?

Frankly I don't know. But I suppose we'll do more shorter guitar based songs again.

What is the idea behind "utopia city"?

Just what the lyrics say: A positive utopia - in utopia city. A good and well-balanced world - a situation we don't have today, but we'd like to work for and to strive after.

When I listened to the song it was somewhat haunting for me - so it was not purely positive.

Haha, yeah yeah - that's the ambiguity which is in every positive idealism. On the one hand we all need a positive utopia as an inner orientation and an inner guide. But on the other hand any consistent realization of a thorough utopia has the danger of totalitarism and often tends to become a horrible dictatorship. This song with its wonderful bombastic and bone-crushing style carries this ambiguity.

Ahh well, I see ...

But ... as a last statement, let me say: I like to just enjoy the song! Do not ponder too much and simply imagine a fantastic incredible skyline - just for the joy of the moment.

Thank you andy!

utopia city

7:43 min 10.5 mb

composer: j.s. bach (ancient theme) and andy enroe; e-bass: tanja soler zang; voc, dr, violins, organ, cembalo: andy enroe; executive musical advisor: tanja soler zang; painting & graphics: andy enroe.

johann sebastian bach

Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 - 1750

Bach wrote hundreds of pieces for organ, choir and many other instruments. He spent most of his life as a church organist and a choir director.

johann sebastian bach - painted by rentsch

Painting: Rentsch

Bach's music can be classified as "barock-style". His music combines profound expression with clever music-mathematical arrangements, like fugues and canons, in which the same melody is played against itself in various ways.

example sheet by bach

Bach wrote the Toccata at the age of 15-18 years most probably. That was before he moved from Lüneburg to Weimar, dated around 1700-1703. So very likely he wrote the Toccate in the small town Lüneburg.

short biography

Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21 1685 as the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lämmerhirt in Eisenach. Three years after he started school in 1692 both his parents died. From 1695 on his eldest brother, Johann Christof (1671-1721), looked after him and and taught him keyboard and organ.

In 1700 he was a member of a select choir of poor boys at the school at Michaelskirche, Lüneburg. Here he studied in the school library and visited Hamburg to hear the renowned organist and composer Johann Adam Reinken at the Katharinenkirche, contriving also to hear the French orchestra maintained by the duke of Celle.

At the age of 18 he was appointed organist at the Neue Kirche in Arnstadt in 1703. In June 1707 he was engaged at the Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen in Thuringia. One year later he moved to Weimar where he became court organist. The time in Weimer were his most vital years. From the series of cantatas of 1714-16 we can see that his style was decisively influenced by the forms of Italian concerto composers as Antonio Vivaldi.

In August 1716 he accepted an appointment as musical director to Prince Leopold of Köthen. But his Boss, Duke Wilhelm, however, refused to accept his resignation and arrested him for 3 weeks. But nevertheless a few days after his release he moved to Köthen.

In April 1723 Bach became director of church music for the city of Leipzig. Here he had periods of writing one cantata per week. This phenomenal pace can only be explained by a theoretically structured and elaborate process of composing. We know little of Bach's last illness, he died on July 28 1750, at Leipzig.

After Bach's death his music was neglected for about 50 years. Not before 1800 his works were revived and published. Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Toccata in D-Minor, the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces of church and instrumental music.