I’m currently searching for a prelude and fugue I like from the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier so that I can start in on it on the haprsichord. . . I’ll get back to you later when I’ve found one.

Yesterday I was practicing on my Yamaha CP33 (my practice piano when I’m not playing my real piano, which is still in L.A. for the moment) and blowing myself away with how I had this Bach under my fingers. I was playing the F# minor Prelude from the ‘Well Tempered Clavier Bk. 1′, which I dig as it has this kind of piratey swagger to it, especially when you pull up the Harpsichord patch and play it with that. This is what it sounds like (on piano):

So I had Debbie (my girlfriend) come in from the other room to put on headphones and give it a listen as I played it. She thought it was nice enough. Then I started waxing on about how cool the WTC was, and how some of Bach’s harmonic movement is great and people like Radiohead and Muse kind of exploit the same progressions. So I start to play a piece that influenced Muse’s ‘Ruled By Secrecy’, Bach’s Prelude in C minor from the WTC. I start to play the following piece, but only get like 3 bars into it:

Because she has been lost ever since I said the word ‘MUSE’ and all she can say is ‘oooh oooh, play MUSE, play MUSE!’ Now MUSE has what, 50 songs? But when she exclaims ‘Play MUSE’ I know what she means is, “Play the riff from Starlight”. So I let my passionate and brilliantly reasoned explanation of this link between classical music and modern music die on my lips, and I begin to hammer out:

And now she’s REALLY happy. For 20 seconds. Then she gets bored and says, ‘You know what I REALLY want you to play!’ in a demanding fashion. What? I thought you wanted me to play MUSE? At least you did 20 seconds ago! But I actually know what she’s referring to because of my excellent instincts. So then I hammer this one out:

Which is either immediately recognizable, or you’ve never heard it in your life. It’s the theme from the Office. And she’s happily dancing around, more fired up than any of that other music made her.

From high art and quality skilled performance of the piano to bangin’ out riffs we all know and love, you never know what will spark the fancy of the girl you like.

I am now attending to a seminar on critical thinking and philosophical practice held at the Department of Philosophy here at Chula. There was one commentator who had the view that those who practice or teach critical thinking is an ‘epistemic machine,’ by which he means some kind of automaton that processes information only but with no heart, no feeling at all. I was a bit sickened by this view (to tell the truth), so I fiddled with my (luckily) internet-connected computer and found this gem. It’s an interpretation of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in F sharp minor from Book II of the Well Tempered Clavier. Of course I can’t listen to the music, but I know this by heart and can imagine what it actually sounds like. So I would like to share this to everyone. Enjoy

Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is one of the best known works of classical music. The title page of Bach’s autograph fair copy (in the possession of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz) states that the Well-Tempered Clavier is a set of preludes and fugues “for the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning.” Although not published during his lifetime, Bach made use of the Well-Tempered Clavier with his own students, usually lending his manuscript to them and letting them make their own personal copy. These copies were slowly spread across Europe and several latter influential composers, most notably Mozart and Beethoven, obtained their own manuscripts of the Well-Tempered Clavier. During the course of the nineteenth century, this remarkable set of preludes and fugue became a cornerstone in the piano literature, a position which it still holds today. As proof of its importance in the literature, the famous nineteenth century music critic, Hans von Bülow, called the the Well-Tempered Clavier the “Pianists’ Old Testament,” a statement that is still heard today in the classical music world.

But what exactly was Bach trying to teach through these preludes and fugues? Was it merely keyboard technique, as it is mostly used for today, or was there a broader goal in Bach’s mind? We know that in the Baroque period the clear-cut and often detrimental separation between theory and practice we now possess in music education did not exist. All keyboardists of the period were able to realize a figured bass. This required not only technical command of the instrument, but also a thorough knowledge of harmony and counterpoint, concepts associated only with theory today, as well as some knowledge of musical composition. Again we return to Bach’s statement on the title page: “for the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning.” Bach was not specific concerning the subject of his instruction, therefore his purpose must be to teach, not one specific element, but music in all its aspects. In the Well-Tempered Clavier, the music student has the most comprehensive and practical instructional manual to harmony and counterpoint, far surpassingly any textbook written on these subjects. From these two disciplines comes the foundation needed for a complete understanding of music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If we assume that Bach’s only intention was keyboard technique then we are selling ourselves short. It is a well-known fact that the most effective way to learn composition is from studying the works of past composers, and Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is perhaps one of the all-time best pieces to study for this purpose. This is Bach’s goal for the Well-Tempered Clavier: to teach the whole of music. Bach has provided the means, it is left to the student to use it and profit from it.

One of the loveliest works in the classical repertoire is the Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BVW 846, from Book 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier, that series of 24 pairs of preludes and fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach:

The best-known piece from either book is the first prelude of Book I, a simple progression of arpeggiated chords. The technical simplicity of this C Major prelude has made it one of the most commonly studied piano pieces for students completing their introductory training. This prelude also served as the basis for the Ave Maria of Charles Gounod.

You may hear it currently in one of the American Express television commercials featuring “smiling” inanimate objects and beach scenes. Here is Alysha Ines Leung of Hong Kong, then 7, playing it on the harp.

Much debate over the hundreds of versions posted at YouTube, most often on piano, organ, harpsichord or guitar, centres round the preferred tempo at which to play it, with an apparent majority nudging the performers to pick up the pace. And so they shall, courtesy of another young harpist, Sophia Marie:

Houston, TX – Saturday (April 18th)

MyHoa Steger & Harley Schlanger on Creativity as Expressed by Johann Sebastian Bach

“The role of dynamics as the characteristic feature of the creative process in Classical artistic composition, warns us that a competent physical science and a competent expression of Classical modalities in Classical artistic work are each subsumed by a common, higher principle. Competent physical science treats man’s concentration on forms of existence lower than the human species’; whereas, Classical artistic composition applies the same cognitive prowess to treating mankind itself as the subject.“  – Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. “The Principle of Mind” March 4th, 2009

NB:  Included is a nice performance demonstration of Bach’s ‘Art of the Fugue’ (Contrapunctus 1) {viola-violin vs. violin-violin} and a thorough measure-by-measure analysis of his Fugue in C-minor from the 2nd Book of the ‘Well-tempered Clavier’.

Audio:  041809_myhoa_harley_creativity_bach.mp3

O musicólogo Cory Hall toca aquí un dos meus números preferidos do “Cravo ben temperado”, o preludio e a fuga en “dó sostenido menor” do primeiro libro (BWV 849). Atención: non é unha execución de concerto, so intenta mostrar cal é o millor tempo para esta música. Copio a continuación as anotacións do propio intérprete.

This prelude and fugue offers a good example the natural tempo for each resulting in a 1:2 duration ratio, in that the fugue is two times longer than the prelude. Bach achieved this by pairing a courante-style prelude in 6/4 with a slow alla-breve fugue in 2/2 that have equal 8th-note speeds, and gave the fugue virtually three times more measures, thus making its actual performance duration two times longer.

In other words, the 8th note functions as the “fastest common denominator” between the two pieces and if one plays the 8ths at the same speed one is guaranteed to create Bach’s 1:2 duration ratio. Listen carefully to my performance and you will discover that I play the exact same 8th-note speed for both. This creates an organic sense of unity that is otherwise lost.

I also present this prelude in a separate video in my series “pieces almost everyone plays too slow”. You are invited to view that video and read the analysis for more details on the style and tempo of this prelude, which will help illuminate the present analysis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEoNgOov6QA

Ever since the time of Beethoven and Czerny, around 1820, composers and performers began operating with a new esthetic entirely different than in Bach’s time 100 years previously. It was around then that Beethoven proclaimed to a publisher “we can hardly have tempi ordinari” any longer, meaning that the standard tempos and tempo conventions of the 1700’s had become obsolete for the new kind of romantic music in vogue. In general, Beethoven sped up the fast tempos like allegros and slowed down the slower tempos like andantes and adagios.

Thus, when playing Bach, Beethoven most likely chose much different tempos than Bach or most of his contemporaries would have for the same compositions. Czerny (Beethoven’s student) even took this a step further and sped up tempos to unprecedented heights, which can be seen in his popular Bach editions. Czerny then passed on the “Beethovenian” tempo traditions to his students, and they to their students, and so on. Most students, teachers, and professors today are probably not aware that many of the tempos we hear on recordings, in concert halls, in conservatories, and in competitions are actually 19th-century tempos.

Bach’s student Johann Philip Kirnberger described Bach’s system in his own words “to the best of my abilities” in his very influential treatise, “The Art of Strict Musical Composition” (1774-79). In his section on tempo Kirnberger writes, “Every piece has its definite tempo, determined by the meter and note values that are employed in it”. Kirnberger called the definite or natural tempo of a piece its “tempo giusto”. Kirnberger does not say Bach’s pieces have liberal tempo ranges that may vary depending on the instrument or venue, but rather, he specifically says every piece has its “natural” and “definite” tempo. It would not be until about 1820 when this type of idealism changed.

The key to determining the duration ratios Bach desired is to first assign the “natural” tempo for each based on stylistic characteristics, then to discover what type of ratio results.

This prelude is usually played much too slow, a tradition that probably began in the 19th century when Bach’s music was being rediscovered and “romanticized”. Apparently, the minor key led the romantics into believing it was a funeral dirge or something to that effect. In reality, it is nothing more than a graceful and elegant courante with a typical French courante meter of 6/4 and Bach’s usual courante tempo of quarter = 108. This tempo results in a duration of 2:10.

This serious 5-voice fugue emulates a sacred chorus and has one of Bach’s most usual slower tempos of half = 54, which results in a duration of 4:16. This is virtually two times longer than the prelude’s 2:10, showing Bach was aiming for a 1:2 duration ratio. As pointed out above, this is easily attainable by playing the 8th notes at the same speed, or more practically, the quarter notes at the same speed.

To learn more about exactly how Bach achieved accurate duration ratios, please see my website, especially beginning with Elaboration 2:
http://www.bachscholar.com/Kirnberger.html

Please notice though, that it is not necessary to play like a robot with no feeling to achieve perfect tempos and Bach’s intended duration ratio. I believe the natural tempos –the tempos Bach truly intended– allow one to more easily achieve a musical performance.

Podemos escoita-la fuga do número anterior interpretada por Friedrich Gulda na miña anotación Bach: cis-moll Fuge aus BWV 849 (Gulda).

Thank you all for sharing culture!

I found “Bach” (from BBC series “Great Composers”, 1997) with Spanish subtitles in YouTube (SoliDeoGloria8550 channel). Very interesting for students and music lovers.

1/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcnBz5×8pOA&fmt=18

- Goldberg Variations BWV 988 – Aria (András Schiff)
- Motet ”Jesu, meine Freude” BWV 227 (George Christoph Biller, Thomanerchor Leipzig)
- Harpsichord Concerto No. 2 in E Major BWV 1053 – Siciliano
- Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother BWV 992 – Aria di Postiglione (Joanna MacGregor)

2/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMEri5WhquE&fmt=18

- Mass in B minor BWV 232 – Chorus “Credo in unum Deum” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)
- Choral Prelude “Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich” BWV 719 (Peter Hurford)
- Art of the Fugue BWV 1080 – Contrapunctus XIII (Tini Mathot & Ton Koopman)

3/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5jdbol64eA&fmt=18

- Cantata “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit” BWV 106 – Lento (T) ”Ach, Herr, Lehre uns bedenken”
- Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D Major BWV 1050 – I. Allegro (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists)
- Choral Prelude “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” BWV 645 (Jacques Loussier)
- Mass in B minor BWV 232 – Chorus “Gloria in excelsis Deo” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)

4/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aj427REV_Q&fmt=18

- Well Tempered Clavier – Prelude No. 1 in C Major BWV 846
- Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major BWV 1068 – Air (Jacques Loussier)
- Well Tempered Clavier – Fugue No. 8 in D-Sharp Minor BWV 853 (Joanna MacGregor)
- Mass in B minor BWV 232 – Aria (S) “Laudamus te” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)

5/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsyBN6p_hh0&fmt=18

- Goldberg Variations BWV 988 – Variation 5 (András Schiff)

6/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT-ZNq2sdvE&fmt=18

- St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 – Chorus ”Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder” and Aria (A) ”Erbarme dich” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)

7/7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT06UH6p74c&fmt=18

- Mass in B Minor BWV 232 – Chorus ”Cum Sancto Spiritu” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)
- Art of the Fugue BWV 1080 – Contrapunctus XIV (Joanna MacGregor)
- Mass in B Minor BWV 232 – Chorus ”Dona nobis pacem” (John Eliot Gardiner, English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)

Who was the largest baby ever born in the state of Maine? Who dug the Great Lakes? Who gouged out the Grand Canyon? Why, Paul Bunyan, of course, America’s finest, fastest, funniest lumberman and favorite tall-tale hero.

Do you know how the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River were first formed? How about the Great Plains and the Grand Canyon? Some people think these wonders were established by the forces of nature, but those folks clearly haven’t heard of Paul Bunyan, the “strongest, smartest, and tallest hero of the tallest of American tall tales.” Paul and his pal, Babe the Blue Ox, were responsible for creating all these geographic features as they worked their way west with their unusual lumber crew. Paul’s adventures begin when he is just a baby (who can lift a cow over his head) and continue as he grows into the biggest lumberjack in the world. All the basic stories about Paul Bunyan are here in this rollicking tale, as well as a few inventive incidents added by author and illustrator Steven Kellogg.

Kellogg is well known for his stories about Pinkerton the Great Dane, retellings of classic tales such as Chicken Little, and illustrations for books such as How Much Is a Million? by David Schwartz. But Kellogg’s most important contribution to children’s literature is his series on American folk heroes, including Johnny Appleseed, Mike Fink, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett, and of course, the tallest hero of the tallest tale of all–Paul Bunyan. A great legend and great fun. (Ages 5 to 9) –Marcie Bovetz

Paul Bunyan 20th Anniversary Edition (Reading Rainbow Book) is available at Amazon for $6.99. To Order click here
Amazon Product Pages contain a lot of other details on this product as Customer Reviews, Sales Ranking, Special Offers, Alternate products that customers are going for and much more.Want to read these details? click here

Want to get some other Format / Binding / Version? You can search for them from here

Other Products of Interest

• Pecos Bill
• Johnny Appleseed
• Mike Fink
• John Henry (Picture Puffins)
• American Tall Tales

TWTC  has many peculiarities that make it the ideal piece to begin my explorations with. The 1722 title-page of TWTC is formulated as follows (this is the English translation, Original in German):

The Well-Tempered Clavier.
or Preludes and Fugues
through all the tones and semitones…
both with the major 3rd, or Ut Re Mi
and with the minor 3rd, or Re Mi Fa
For the use and improvement of musical youth eager to learn,
and for the particular delight of those already skilled in this discipline…..

His artistic intentions obviously had very clear didactic overtones. Through this project I intend to continue laying the basis to my artistic evolution; close observation of Books I  & II of TWTC will allow me to further my understanding of musical structures, melody, rhythm and counterpoint. The amazing complexity and mathematical genius behind it make a sharp contrast with the sublime beauty of the music itself, which touches the soul of any listener, even those with no understanding of music theory, and that’s where my admiration and fascination for Bach‘s oeuvre lies: intellect never takes precedence over feeling.  

The pantonal quality of TWTC permits the independent exploration of each tonality, thus giving a circular character to the output, which in an installation environment would result in an effective seamless looping effect.  Also, the fact that the whole collection is a theoretical exercise in absolute music (no narratives attached) provides the perfect frame around which abstract imagery can be built.

In Spectrums, my first installation ever, I was able to present my main concerns as an artist: the human body, perception, sensation, memory. During the last 3 years of study at Ryerson, I have developed a set of interests that focus on various aspects of sound production that  include audio installation, synesthesia, and the visualization of  music. I am interested in synesthesia not only as a neurological phenomenon, but also as a psychological form of association that is the reflection of cultural, historical and environmental conditioning as well as the peculiar manifestation of personal association and imagination.

For this project, I will continue exploring the relationships between visual and auditory sensations and I see this as an opportunity to do research into the following topics that I have given absolute priority to:

- Synesthesia: the evolution of synaesthetic theories and their application in art.

- Perception: Visual and auditory.

- Music theory.

In my brainstorming sessions, I looked into different ways I could include these topics into my piece, while staying in track with the issues of data visualization, generative processes, ubiquitous computing and networks. The visualization of music scores was the obvious approach. The next question was to decided what music pieces would be suitable for the purpose of this project.  As this is my first attempt at visualization, it was necessary to keep it simple, so the lower the number of instruments, the better, and therefore it had to be a composition for a single instrument or a solo; my favourite instrument is the harpsichord, baroque music is absolutely my favourite style, and Johann Sebastian Bach is my favourite composer, so my choices are narrowed to the following keywords: baroque, harpsichord, solo and Bach.  At this point any of his keyboard compositions would work, but I have always been a fan of The Well Tempered Clavier.

Friedrich Gulda en concerto, tocando a fuga en “dó sostenido menor” que aparece no primeiro libro do Cravo ben Temperado:

So, the last day in Toronto has finally been and gone. I didn’t do anything particularly interesting or glamorous to mark this event, since packing everything together was my ultimate priority, so that I wouldn’t have unnecessary stress tomorrow. It’s truly bizarre how, every time I go on holiday, packing up before I leave is always much more of a task than packing much the same items was before I went off on holiday – everything seems to have increased in size ever so slightly, and the bags shrunk, so that there’s never quite enough room for everything to fit. What helped a bit was my final bout of laundry this afternoon, which at least meant that I wouldn’t have bulbous bags of dirty clothes to manhandle into the suitcase on top of everything else – I had to change $5 in coins into a note at the reception at Margaret Addison Hall, but the machine decided to be temperamental and rejected almost all the notes I tried to feed into it until something like the sixth try. Then there was also the problem of the Random Crap that always dissipates throughout whichever room I’d have stayed in, and pops up just when you think you’ve finally got everything together – this time round it’s one blue sock that seems to have gone astray, and search as I might it’s stayed resolutely absent. Bother.

I haven’t quite put everything in its place (obviously, or the laptop would already be squeezed into my rucksack), but I can already sense that closing my suitcase will (as usual) be a task and a half, while the presence of the Rawls and Nozick books (almost exclusively) has already minimised the room available in my rucksack. As I write, my toiletries bag, baseball caps, pyjamas, shirts and probably Julius still have to go in a space that is half as big as ideally required in my suitcase – I’ve left out everything that I’ll need tomorrow morning (i.e. food and drink, a lot of which I will be consuming this evening, and my nearly-empty shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste), and am just going to have to leave a lot of it here (like my washing powder) because there’s simply no way of taking it with me. Wasteful, I know, but I literally have no choice.  I also needed to get rid of a lot of the Canadian currency I’ve accumulated (about $80 in notes and coins) and thus bought my replacement toothpaste at Rabba with a heavy bias towards one-cent coins – the checkout girl wasn’t especially amused… I’ll keep the rest for fizzy stuff in duty-free tomorrow, and whatever’s left will probably go towards another baseball game during the short stay in Toronto in mid-September. Once I’ve done writing this entry, I will have supper, watch Games Today and more of the Eddie Izzard shows with which I’ve been entertaining myself intermittently today, then battle my suitcase into submission (while calming myself with the Gould recording of the Well-tempered Clavier that finally finished downloading this morning) and get to bed around 23:00ish. My alarm is set for 07:00 and I really hope I don’t oversleep, or I definitely will be in a rush to get off…

Tomorrow evening I will already be in New York somewhere attempting to locate my hostel. I have absolutely no idea what my internet facilities will be like when I get there, but I’m pretty sure they won’t be as convenient as the ones here. Essentially then, this is advance warning that my coverage of my US adventures may not be as detailed and rigorous as those of Toronto have been, so this is probably a good time to draw up some kind of summary of what I think of Canada (though of course, assuming I have good enough connectivity, I’ll be doing a Grand Summary of my holiday sometime on or around 19.ix.). It really is a great place, as far as I’ve experienced, a sensible first step into the culture shock of the USA – the U of T campus reminds me of Oxbridge, the financial district of Frankfurt, the artists’ district of Paris and Camden Town, the industrial areas of Moscow, and all with a very American large-scale air to it. Quite possibly the best indication of what I like about Toronto is what I will miss about my stay – the Toronto Star, definitely, Rabba, the walks around the campus buildings, the fantastic subway network, the quiet residential areas, the lectures from my course (but not the essays), and the big nearby public buildings like the ROM and Manulife Centre. Definitely a place I’d consider coming back to in future, then, and altogether a brilliant way to have spent the last seven weeks or so. To paraphrase J.S.Bach and Heinrich Isaac: Auf Wiedersehen, Toronto, ich muss dich lassen.

No canal en YouTube da Associazione Musicale Karl Jenkins hai vídeos interesantes de música antiga. Mauro Giustini interpreta aquí a Bach no cravo. Concretamente, o Praeludium et Fuga BWV 866 (número 21, en “si bemol maior”, do primeiro libro do “Cravo ben temperado”):

Podemos ver partituras para seguir estas obras na páxina “Great Bach” de Kim Eun Ho, na copia da Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe que teñen en einam.com e espero que axiña no International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), temporalmente cerrado polas ameazas de Universal Edition (que pretende rete-los direitos de autores que levan cen anos mortos).

Thank you all for sharing culture!

Philip Scott Johnson xa nos regalara os sentidos con varios vídeos, e dous deles fixéronse moi populares, entre outras cousas polo uso do morphing para pasar dunha imaxe á seguinte: “Women in Film” (visto un millón e medio de veces) e, sobre todo, “Women in Art: 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art”, que xa viron sete millóns de veces.

Hoxe vin un novo traballo no canal en YouTube de Philip Scott Johnson, baixo o título “Visages d’Art: hundreds of years of faces in Art”:

A música de fondo é, igual que nos dous vídeos que mencionei ó principio, de Johann Sebastian Bach. Neste caso é o preludio en “re menor” (BWV 851) do primeiro libro do “Cravo ben temperado”, interpretado ó piano por Daniel-Ben Pienaar.

Podemos escoita-la interpretación completa que fixo Daniel-Ben Pienaar do “Cravo ben temperado” aquí:

• Book 1 CD1
• Book 1 CD2
• Book 2 CD1
• Book 2 CD2

Podemos ver partituras para seguir estas obras na páxina “Great Bach” de Kim Eun Ho, na copia da Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe que teñen en einam.com e espero que axiña no International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), temporalmente cerrado polas ameazas de Universal Edition (que pretende rete-los direitos de autores que levan cen anos mortos).

Thank you all for sharing culture!

Xa é o terceiro vídeo sobre afinación que tomo esta semana do canal en YouTube do doutor Bradley Lehman, investigador e intérprete de cravo e órgano.

Neste vídeo, por fin, toca dúas pezas de música como exemplos. Primeiro explora diversas tonalidades nunha afinación típica do século XVII, resultando especialmente problemáticas algunhas delas (por culpa da “quinta do lobo”). Logo axusta a afinación segundo o modelo que, segundo el, empregou Bach no Das Wohltemperirte Clavier e volve explorar esas tonalidades para concluír que xa podemos tocar, sen medo, nas 24…

Para facerse unha idea de que notas se tocan na Sarabande (Suite en “si menor”, BWV 814), podemos usa-las partituras de J. S. Bach no IMSLP.

Copio e pego a presentación que o autor fixo para YouTube:

A normal 17th-Century harpsichord temperament is heard first: regular “1/6 comma meantone”.

A folk tune (Twinkle, twinkle, little star / A-B-C-D-E-F-G / Ah, vous dirais-je, Maman / Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann…) is played in the four keys of D, B, A-flat, and F major. Two of these scales are excellent, and two of them are terrible.

The sarabande from Bach’s B minor French Suite illustrates the behavior of this minor key: problems with the too-sharp D#, A#, and E# as they occur in the music. Those notes are too sharp because they were tuned for their more common use as Eb, Bb, and F… and in this style of tuning, the correct spelling of the note names matters that much.

Then, the harpsichord is retuned by moving six of the 12 notes in each octave. The adjustments are based on a drawing that Bach put on his title page of the “Well-Tempered Clavier”…which I take as his method of adjusting that normal tuning into something more flexible and beautiful.

The notes C, D, E, F, G, and A of the C major scale are retained as they were, and the other six notes F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D# (from the B major or F# major scales) are retuned.

The same compositions are then played again, to compare the change in harmonic and melodic quality.

Full detail about this is at http://www.larips.com and especially at the article “Bach’s Art of Temperament”.

This hands-on demonstration: 2007, Bradley Lehman at home. Flemish-style harpsichord built by Anne Acker. Folk song arrangement: Bradley Lehman, 2007.

Also check my other YouTube videos for examples of music played with this tuning: harpsichord and organ. Various full-length CDs are available, played by me and others variously on harpsichords, organs, and fortepianos: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/recordings.html

P. S. (1 – IX – 2007): o doutor Lehman xa fixo outro vídeo con exemplos, onde se escoitan os preludios en “dó maior” e en “si maior” do WTC I. Está en “Harpsichord tuning: Well-Tempered Clavier”. Pero creo que non é adecuado como vídeo didáctico, porque se empezas por este vídeo sen coñecementos previos, podes pensar que hai que afinar cada vez que cambias de tonalidade…

Do doutor Bradley Lehman xa falei en dúas anotacións:

• “Bradley Lehman rehearsing Ricercare a 6 from the Musical Offering (BWV 1079)”
• “Bradley Lehman, a afinación de Bach e os afectos”

Segundo Lehman, investigador e intérprete de cravo e de órgano, a que nos mostra neste vídeo sería a “auténtica afinación” de Johann Sebastian Bach, proposta na obra Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. Con esa afinación, ou se queredes con ese temperamento, soaría moito millor a música de Bach (e non so), e ademais veríanse claros os afectos expresados por cada tonalidade.

Neste vídeo non toca obra ningunha, o que fai é afinar un cravo. Disque se desafinan en dous días, así que se queres tocar un, terás que aprender como se afina (sigas ou non o temperamento que este home propón). En realidade el ten moi mal oído, é o gato quen lle di co rabo se debe subir ou baixar…

Copio e pego a presentación que o propio Bradley Lehman puxo en YouTube para este vídeo:

Tuning a harpsichord (cembalo, clavecin) in just a few minutes, by ear, using the tuning sequence I believe is illustrated on the title page of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (1722).

Research by Bradley Lehman, 2004, following up a doctoral project I had done 1993-4 in “modified meantone” tuning as applied to Bach’s music.

First published in an _Early Music_ (Oxford University Press journal) article, February-May 2005. Two printed portions and five web files comprise that article.

This hands-on demonstration: 2007, Bradley Lehman at home. Flemish-style harpsichord built by Anne Acker.

For full details about this tuning method and its musical implications, see http://www.larips.com . Articles, CDs, free online samples, links to additional resources. The articles show how Bach’s drawing is mapped to the notes in the tuning sequence.

F-C-G-D-A-E 5ths (or 4ths) double-tempered; E-B-F#-C# pure 5ths/4ths; C#-G#-D#-A# single-tempered (very slight).

I believe this specific unequal tuning method was Bach’s intention for at least that book of music, the Well-Tempered Clavier, playing music in all 24 major and minor keys.

Time to set up the temperament by ear, from a single tuning fork: about 5 minutes. Time to do the entire instrument: about 8 to 20 minutes. As reported by Bach’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel, it never cost JSB more than a quarter hour for the whole thing. (Get the tuning done quickly so there’s more time left for playing or improvising! And it’s going to be stable for only a day or two anyway, with normal weather fluctuations, so it’s good to develop an efficiency of setting and maintaining this quickly).

Also check my other YouTube videos for examples of music played with this tuning: harpsichord and organ. Various full-length CDs are available, played by me and others variously on harpsichords, organs, and fortepianos: LaripS recordings

Xa falei aquí hai un par de meses do doutor Bradley Lehman e sobre a “auténtica afinación” de Johann Sebastian Bach, que parece ter descuberto, subxacente, nas páxinas de Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. Segundo Lehman, con esa afinación, ou se queredes con ese temperamento, soa moito millor a música de Bach (e non so), e ademais vense claros os afectos expresados por cada tonalidade.

Pois onte apareceu, no canal en YouTube de Bradley Lehman, un vídeo caseiro onde ensaia (equivocándose varias veces e mesmo parando nun cambio de páxina) o Ricercare a 6 voces da Musicalisches Opfer (BWV 1079). O vídeo é so un documento de traballo onde o importante, para Bradley Lehman, era o resultado de tocar esta peza coa afinación ou “temperamento” do órgano (evidentemente non valería para un concerto ou gravación con tantos erros). Bradley Lehman di no texto que acompaña ó vídeo:

[...] This performance also answers a 1985 article by Mark Lindley asserting that this Ricercar almost has to be done in equal temperament. It doesn’t, but merely requires temperaments like this that treat the A-flat and D-flat major areas more smoothly than Lindley’s do. Equal temperament merely renders it less interesting, less beautiful, and less dynamic: like a long and relatively aimless piece.

Para segui-las notas da obra podemos usa-las vellas partituras de Johann Sebastian Bach no IMSLP:

Gracias a un blog titulado Pabellón nº 6, en concreto á entrada El arte de la fuga (8 – VIII – 2007), descubro unha marabillosa páxina feita por Tim Smith e David Korevaar (Northern Arizona University; University of Colorado): The Canons and Fugues of J. S. Bach.

Hai unha sección que lle dirá algo especial a calquera estudiante de teclado, é a dedicada á análise, con visualización en Shockwave, das fugas do WTC (siglas do antigo alemán Das Wohltemperirte Clavier, ou do inglés Well-Tempered Clavier). Están as fugas todas do primeiro libro (BWV 846 – 869) e so faltan cinco do segundo libro (BWV 870 – 893).

Vou poñer un exemplo, escollendo unha das miñas preferidas: a fuga en “fa menor” do WTC I (BWV 857).

Como digo sempre, hai edicións no dominio público de todas e cada unha das obras de Bach no IMSLP.