Bach Again
A LIFE Institute CourseSession Two - Spring 2018
Bob Fabian – LIFEcourses.ca
Correcting Mistake!
● I used a new (to me) computer last week. There were no problems on my desktop at home. In the classroom, it refused to smoothly play any large video file. I’m going back to my old computer.
● On to a sampling of the two versions of the Christmas Oratorio – authentic and jazzed up
Christmas Oratorio
Nikolaus Harnoncourt Concentus Musicus Wien Peter Schreier - Tenor Robert Holl - Bass Soloists of the Tolzer Knabenchor 80 min, Part I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98UjjwzJBFE74 min, Part IIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SHDTNy_rUM
Something Different● Jazz treatment of the same
music● Respectful, but very
different● Less complex … less
engaging?
WDR Big Band Sound
10 min, Part 1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zeWQA7bsF0
Today’s Session Plan
● Counterpoint● Creative tension between opposites● It’s musical expression from Bach on …
● 2 Part Inventions● 1st Invention, double time● 1st Invention, 5 great pianists● 1st invention, violin & cello
● Art of Fugue● Endless alternative versions
Figure-Ground
Classic Examples
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
● a beginning proposition called a thesis● a negation of that thesis called the antithesis● a synthesis whereby the two conflicting ideas
are reconciled to form a new proposition– Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions (Wikipedia)
● Echos back to Greek philosophy, but most strongly identified with Hegel
Tension
● Theme plus support (figured base)● There’s little tension between theme and base● The tension comes along the time dimension
● Counterpoint (fugue)● Themes play against each other● The tension is internal● Fugue: theme against itself
Counterpoint, in 6 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BixPLIWcb0s
Invention 1 – BWV 772
Bach’s autograph fair copy penned in 1723
Title Page Translation
Straightforward Instruction,
in which amateurs of the keyboard, and especially the eager ones, are shown a clear way not only (1) of learning to play cleanly in two voices, but also, after further progress, (2) of dealing correctly and satisfactorily with three obbligato parts; at the same time not only getting good inventiones, but developing the same satisfactorily, and above all arriving at a cantabile manner in playing, all the while acquiring a strong foretaste of composition.
Provided by Joh. Seb. Bach: Capellmeister to
his Serene Highness the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen.
Anno Christi 1723.
Invention No. 1, double time
Bach - Invention 1 - Piano Tutorial Easy SLOWhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymZC3Mw96zk
Real Performances
Walter Gieseking, Rosalyn Tureck, James Friskin, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Glenn Gould
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Kennedy & Friend
Nigel Kennedy - Bach - Inventions on Violin and Cellohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEcnInjMkEc
Complete Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bL7oyuqEwA
The Summit
J. S. Bach - The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080, Contrapunctus 1-3,4,6,9,11,18 (Keller Quartet)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mShMnZmC8A`
The Art of Fugue – BWV 1080
"At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH[for which the English notation would be B –A–C–B ] ♭ ♮in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died."
Art of Fugue
● 15 fugues and 4 canons in D minor● open score (no instrumentation)
● "The governing idea of the work was an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject."
● Christoph Wolff
Proper Lecture
Michael Parloff: Lecture on Bach’s ‘Art of Fugue’ at Music@Menlohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl8M1VyASvk&t=108s
Glenn Gould’s Version
Next Week - “Authentic”
● Authentic ● The same sounds as in Bach’s lifetime● The same impact as on Bach’s listeners
● Evolution of instruments● Keyboard, string & wind instruments
● Evolution of performance● Mendelssohn’s Bach● 20th century performance● 21st century performance?
