{"podcast":{"title":"WTF Bach","slug":"wtf-bach-1217892","podcast_index_feed_id":1217892,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1868576.rss","website_url":"https://wtfbach.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/1868576/031b34c51b841908e64f47a17901101b.jpg","author":"Evan Shinners","episode_count":151,"summary":"The podcast about all things J.S. Bach. Brought to you by his prodigal son, WTF Bach (Evan Shinners)","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T04:20:46.841294+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wtf-bach-1217892"},"episode":{"title":"137: Special Guest! Peter Wollny","slug":"137-special-guest-peter-wollny","published_at":"2026-06-09T13:14:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wtf-bach-1217892/137-special-guest-peter-wollny","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wtf-bach-1217892","url":"https://wtfbach.substack.com/p/137-special-guest-peter-wollny","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/201174570/5d575a9f119c54a01460c78b2bc51fc7.mp3","summary":"Last December, I spoke with Peter Wollny, one of today’s most important Bach scholars. We discuss how one becomes a Bach scholar, what it’s like to be in close proximity with Bach’s handwritten manuscripts, using watermarks within the paper to form a compositional chronology, and forming a ‘personal relationship’ with a figure from the past. Here are some of my favorite quotes from our interview: Q: Is there something that surprises you when reading a piece with scholarly intent vs. hearing it? A: What you can’t predict is how deeply it will go to your heart. — It can easily be said that there is something in the autograph that conveys something about a personality from the past, and it may be true, but it’s very risky because you can end up looking for something that is in your own head but not included in the manuscript. — This past summer I started a series of photographs trying to figure out the population of wild bees in our garden, and actually I identified a species of bees that was believed to be extinct in Saxony since 1930. Chaconne on the Gramophone: The two new chaconnes! Available for download: BWV 1178, in d minor BWV 1179, in g minor (Outro music is a choir of yours truly singing from Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis , BWV 21.) We Rely Exclusively on Paid Subscriptions! Help WTF Bach endure: Join at WTFBach.com This is the only place Evan checks comments regularly.You can also make a one-time donation here: https://www.paypal.me/wtfbach https://venmo.com/wtfbach Thank you for your help! Concepts Covered: ‘Confirmation Bias’ in musicology, J.S. Bach Toccatas BWV 914, BWV 913, the new Johann Martin Schubart sources. The attribution to Johann Christoph Graff in the new discovery of Bach’s early Chaconnes. Independent fascicles sewn into larger books, the process…","meta_description":"Last December, I spoke with Peter Wollny, one of today’s most important Bach scholars. We discuss how one becomes a Bach scholar, what it’s like to be in…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3133,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/wtf-bach-1217892/episodes/137-special-guest-peter-wollny/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/wtf-bach-1217892/137-special-guest-peter-wollny.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}