Help identifying this jazzy classical adaptation?

December 5, 2013 10:32 PM

A jazzy choral Bach adaptation -- who is the artist and what's the album name?

We've had this on our playlist for years. It brings us much joy. But the original CD has been lost to the ages and when we ripped it we didn't fill out the metadata and now, for the life of me, I can't remember the source. I'm thinking a Bach adaptation from the Swingle Singers. Any help identifying the album, artist, and piece would be greatly appreciated.

posted by treepour to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

Best answer: It's a wordless version of A Lover's Concerto, a 1965 pop song which seems to have been The Toys' only hit. That song was based on Bach's Minuet in G Major. As the Wikipedia entry explains, they're not the exact same melody; A Lover's Concerto is in 4/4, while Bach's Minuet is in 3/4. A Lover's Concerto drags out some of the notes longer to expand into the 4/4 time signature. Also notice the key change in A Lover's Concerto, which is characteristic of pop, not Baroque. I don't know who performs this version, but you could look through Wikipedia's list of cover versions.
posted by John Cohen at 11:01 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]