George J
Herefordshire member
I have never thought of Bach as a dour or excessively serious composer in most of his music, though he could be absolutely serious sometimes. Mostly, I think his music is joyous, like that of Haydn.
This video is about an hour long and the pace never lets up right until the end.
It poses some interesting questions even now about "how" Bach's music "goes" and how it might usefully be approached in forming a clear and expressive interpretation for performance. If you notice the influences on Bach from the [at the time] conventionality of his Saint Anne Prelude and Fugue [in E flat played in part in the film at about halfway, BWV 552] based as it is in the tradition shown a generation earlier by Buxterhude, though the transcriptions of many Vivaldi Concertos [and though not mentioned], also at least one by Marcello and others by other contemporaries, one is struck by Bach's ability to synthesise the olden style and the modern styles of his day into something fresh and still vibrant today.
Then comes very sane observations about how the dance roots found in so many Bach compositions really relate to the formal courtly dances of the time and even folk elements in dance.
In this way it is possible to give the uplift [rhythmically] that brings the sunlight out - even where simply reading the printed score does not make it all that obvious on first reading.
Really a fascinating and un-usual approach that is more about the music than the usual Bach biography that is shown to us, and sometimes rather emphasises the perhaps misplaced view that Bach is the most serious of all composers, as well as a technical genius, perhaps yet unparalleled in Western music. Nobody would doubt that Bach's technique and genius in handling almost impossibly complex musical structures in counterpoint places him in a rank above all but a handful of Western composers since, but his real brilliance is diminished without a comprehension of his mastery of the light touch even in moments of his most serious compositions such as the Chaconne in D minor.
I hope some will enjoy this musically intelligent presentation that also has considerable fun along the way that is completely the opposite of attempting to dumb down, but rather should serve to intensify our affection for the music.
Best wishes from George
This video is about an hour long and the pace never lets up right until the end.
It poses some interesting questions even now about "how" Bach's music "goes" and how it might usefully be approached in forming a clear and expressive interpretation for performance. If you notice the influences on Bach from the [at the time] conventionality of his Saint Anne Prelude and Fugue [in E flat played in part in the film at about halfway, BWV 552] based as it is in the tradition shown a generation earlier by Buxterhude, though the transcriptions of many Vivaldi Concertos [and though not mentioned], also at least one by Marcello and others by other contemporaries, one is struck by Bach's ability to synthesise the olden style and the modern styles of his day into something fresh and still vibrant today.
Then comes very sane observations about how the dance roots found in so many Bach compositions really relate to the formal courtly dances of the time and even folk elements in dance.
In this way it is possible to give the uplift [rhythmically] that brings the sunlight out - even where simply reading the printed score does not make it all that obvious on first reading.
Really a fascinating and un-usual approach that is more about the music than the usual Bach biography that is shown to us, and sometimes rather emphasises the perhaps misplaced view that Bach is the most serious of all composers, as well as a technical genius, perhaps yet unparalleled in Western music. Nobody would doubt that Bach's technique and genius in handling almost impossibly complex musical structures in counterpoint places him in a rank above all but a handful of Western composers since, but his real brilliance is diminished without a comprehension of his mastery of the light touch even in moments of his most serious compositions such as the Chaconne in D minor.
I hope some will enjoy this musically intelligent presentation that also has considerable fun along the way that is completely the opposite of attempting to dumb down, but rather should serve to intensify our affection for the music.
Best wishes from George
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