“Bach” to basics w/Carrie Tipton

Creator of the “Notes on Bach” podcast

Let’s start off with the easy questions... Where is your hometown?

Well I’ve lived in Chicago, Dallas, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Houston, and two small college towns in the southeast, so I am a woman without a home-town. We currently live near Nashville and I like it so much that I’m tempted to claim it as my hometown despite having been here for only a year!

How about that, not such an easy question afterall. So how did music become apart of your life?

My mom, herself a great pianist, took me to group piano lessons in a converted

school bus when I was three years old. I spent the first month with my hands over my eyes (let’s face it—the bus part is weird). Moving on to many years later, I got my undergrad in Music Education, Master’s in Piano Performance, and Ph.D. in Musicology. Thanks to mom’s musical background, I grew up hearing good live piano playing (from her), classical music records from the library, and lots of arts performances on PBS and NPR. I’m a lifelong fan of public media for this reason. My expo-sure to the arts in Chicago as a child shaped me too—our public school would take excursions to the Chicago Symphony, the Field Museum, and Art Institute of Chicago. How many nine-year-olds get to see Sir Georg Solti con-duct? Never underestimate the impact of the arts on kids!

“I grew up hearing good live piano playing, classical music records from the library,

and lots of arts performances on PBS and NPR. I’m a lifelong fan of public media for this reason.”

How did you first come into contact with Bach Society Houston?

A colleague of mine at the University of Houston-Downtown, musicologist Yvonne Kendall, used to direct the Bach Society Lecture Series. Several years ago she suggested me to the So-ciety as a lecturer and program note writer, so I started doing some work for the Society. After Yvonne moved away, I took over as Director of the Lecture Series, then launched the “Notes on Bach” podcast for the Society last year.

So I guess the rest is history! Which piece are you most exciting to speak on in the podcast this season?

I am most excited about the B minor Mass. The piece strikes me as unwieldy, dense, and wild, and it contains some of my favorite moments in Bach’s vocal writing (“Et resurrexit,” for example, which surg-es upwards with such a sudden burst of hope). I also find its context intriguing—unlike most of Bach’s sacred music, the Mass is unmoored from any specific li-turgical framework. It is a big patchwork quilt that Bach pieced together from a fantastical array of musical styles and reworkings of his earlier compositions. He persistently kept refining this odd and massive piece near the end of his life, apparently decoupled from any specific or immediate performance context, so it is interesting to me.

Speaking of interesting, besides being a knower of all-things-Bach, Do you have any hidden talents or special skills?

I am an A-level secondhand shopper. If you can wear it, sit on it, eat on it, or read it, I’ve probably thrifted it.

Wow that is quite a skill I admire! What else do you like to do outside of producing the “Notes on Bach” podcast?

Outside of podcasting I enjoy cooking, drinking tea and coffee, reading cook-books and mysteries, thrifting, exploring interesting historical sites, and taking walks in nature.

Although you don’t live in Houston anymore, what was a favorite thing/ac-tivity you liked to do in Houston?

When we lived there, we were frequent fliers at the Menil Collection. We would take our then-toddler through the muse-um, around the neighborhood, and to Bis-tro Menil for lunch or dessert. Fun fact: toddlers are profoundly unimpressed by Rothkos. Other favorite Houston activities were thrifting at Bluebird Circle and the River Oaks Goodwill, shopping at Central Market, eating at Revival Market, and frequenting the mystery bookstore Murder by the Book. Oh man. Now I’m homesick for Houston! Except for the roaches. And the humidity.

Aw, well if it is any consolation Houston misses you as well!

Wrapping up here...Do you have anything exciting planned for the near future?

We’re about to start renovating a home on two acres here in Tennes-see. (To be more accurate, we’re about to start paying other people to ren-ovate it.) It’s across the road from a goat farm (!) and has a creek running through it. I’m angling for chickens since our family goes through a pro-digious number of eggs.

New Episods of Carrie’s podcast “Notes on Bach” this fall!Bachsocietyhouston.org/notesonbach