Session Six - LIFE courses

Bach and his Successors
Session Six: Recent Impact
A LIFE Institute Course
2014.11.11
Plan
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Popular Impact
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Film, Jazz, Middle Eastern, Visual Art, etc.
The Well-Tempered Clavier
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Basic Facts – Bk I & Bk II
Tempered Scales
Video clips of “the 48”
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Shostakovich – 24 Preludes & Fugues
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Music for Our Time
“Time”
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Because it illustrates the use of Bach to accompany a
video (or film)
Because it should be of interest to Torontonians
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And because it's only a few minutes long
http://vimeo.com/9733014
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Films: Using Toccata & Fugue in D minor
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Mubi.com lists 22 English language films
Fantasia, Sunset Boulevard, The Great Race, The Bed Sitting Room,
The Meaning of Life, A Canterbury Tale, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
etc., etc. ...
Jazz Bach
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Very wide range of possibilities
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Three examples (available on YouTube)
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Swingle Singers
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Jacques Loussier
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN3Vbh5mHbM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xng_QbhHGY
Matt Herskowitz
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koqV_w4Qzd4
Not Just Musicians
Georges Braque - Homage to J. S. Bach
Lyonel Feininger
Feininger, Fuge I (1921)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK3ki-7OuaM
Not Just European
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Sarband & Fadia el-Hage
“Erbarme Dich”
http://lifecourses.ca/ClassFiles/Saraband.mpeg
Bach Everywhere
Where do you remember hearing Bach (outside
the concert hall or church)?
On to Well-Tempered Clavier
Title Page
Meaning of swirls:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__tbvLNH6FI
In English
The Well-Tempered Clavier ,
or
Preludes and Fugues
through all the tones and semitones
both as regards the tertia major or Ut Re Mi
and as concerns the tertia minor or Re Mi Fa.
For the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning
as well as for the Pastime of those Already Skilled in this Study
drawn up and written by Johann Sebastian Bach.
p.t. Capellmeister to His Serene Highness
the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen, etc.
and Director of
His Chamber Music.
Anno 1722."
For the Use and Profit of the Musical Youth Desirous of Learning
as well as for the Pastime of those Already Skilled in this Study
Recordings
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First piano – Edwin Fischer (1933-36)
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First harpsichord – Wanda Landowski (1949-52)
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Interesting, but heavily ornamented
First clavichord - Ralph Kirkpatrick (1957-62)
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Still one of the better version on record
Still one of the more interesting versions
By 2013 – over 150 versions on record
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“All” of the keyboard greats have at least one version
Recommended Piano: Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Till Fellner, Glenn
Gould, Friedrich Gulda, Angela Hewitt, Jenö Jando, Ivo Janssen, Ivgenji Koroliov,
Sviatoslav Richter, Andras Schiff, Martin Stadtfeld, Rosalyn Tureck, etc.
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All valuable in their own different ways
The Well-Tempered Clavier
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Arguably, the most studied work for performance
on a keyboard instrument
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Two sets of 24 preludes and fugues
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Many in succeeding generations learned by studying The
Well-Tempered Clavier, ... Beethoven played it in Baron von
Swieten's drawing room
One prelude and fugue in each of the 24 of the major and
minor keys
Really two compositions, but now always referred
to as Book I and Book II
Was Not “Published”
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Both sets were used by Bach (and others) as a
teaching tools
Making your own copy by hand was one way to learn
the preludes & fugues
Multiple extant copies. Scholars labour, and disagree,
about the definitive copy.
Generally accepted dates
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Book I – 1722 (when leaving Weimar)
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Book II – 1742 (last decade of his life)
Well-Tempered
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Just a little background:
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One octave = double the frequency
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Western music: 12 notes in one octave
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How to divide the octave into 12 parts?
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Perfect fifth = 2 : 3 ratio
But that throws other intervals “out”
“Temper” the “pure” intervals
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Goal: All keys can be played
A 440 Hz – middle √2 x 440 Hz (F#) – A 880 hz
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“Equal” tempered
Equal Tempering
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It's nearly universal, … today
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All the major & minor keys are playable
Tempering was a “hot” topic, especially for
organ experts in Bach's time
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(As is setting A at 440 Hz)
Wrong tempering made some keys unusable
A reasonable argument can be offered that
Bach used equal tempering with Book II
A Good 48 Video
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Video for the 250th anniversary of Bach's death
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Four pianists:
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Book 1, Part 1 – Andrei Gavilov
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Book 1, Part 2 – Joanna MacGregor
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Book 2, Part 1 – Nickolai Demidenok
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Book 2, Part 2 – Angela Hewitt
Each pianist comments on each of the preludes and fugues they
play
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Book 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpnFE6K6lws
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Book 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bhcpE_KN68
(Alas, comments edited out of Book 2)
Leipzig 1950
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200th anniversary of Bach's death
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Tatiana Nikolayeva competes playing WTC
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Shostakovich head of jury, they become friends
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Dark time for artists in Soviet Union
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Shostakovich composes his “24” (for Tatiana)
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Tatiana Nikolayeva on the experience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjNmBPBO1gA
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Alexander Melnikov on the 24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RR0dTY32tU
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Examples
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Tatiana Nikolayeva plays Shostakovich - 24 Preludes &
Fugues Op.87 No. 24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGpb7PVYnHs
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Shostakovich plays Shostakovich - Prelude and Fugue
No.24
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOyrj8TnH1s
Recordings (personal list)
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Ashkenazy, Vladimir
Jarrett, Keith
Lin, Jenny
Melnikov, Alexander
Mustonen, Olli (some of both)
Nikolayeva, Tatiana
Petrushansky, Boris
Scherbakov, Konstantin
Woodward, Roger
Satisfying WTC
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I keep coming back to the version from
Sviatoslav Richter, Salzburg, 1972
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Difficult to argue any one version is “best”
I consistently find this version satisfying
It's a good point on which to end the class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ua7KzsXBU