Just heard this performance of the Triple Concerto in A minor on the radio---and found the recording on YouTube, praise be.
This is as good a rendering of this joyous gem as I have heard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF6YE7lrODs
Image Papa Bach, with family and/or friends, gathered around the household harpsichord, batting this out and smiling wide all the while . . . Johann having given himself a starring role at the keyboard, in the outer movements at least !
S
Bach, continued
Re: Bach, continued
If you're wondering what equal temperament is, and have 17 minutes that you're willing to sacrifice to the prospect, here's a video explaining the subject---briefly---with a demonstration of the same short piece played on an instrument that's been re-tuned twice, to present three variations of temperament. And if you can tell the difference between the three different tunings, let me know; I couldn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRui9apjWAY
S
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRui9apjWAY
S
Re: Bach, continued
Each temperament has its own character. I find the Kirnberger lll to be the closest to what we are used to hearing, but I’m not sure that the scholar would agree? The Rameau had some beautiful vibrations, without as much of the bizarre “out of tune” occurrences of the first quarter-comma mean tone temperament.
The important thing is that “well-tempered” is not the same as “equal temperament”. With Bach’s well tempered, there still was an emphasis on making the key of c major a home base, where the notes c and e are close to perfect thirds, thus sacrificing that same satisfying resonance when other major thirds would be played together.
Equal temperament is a compromise which solves the problem of modulation to many different key centers while sacrificing the purity of “just” intervals.
The subject reminds me of a story I was told about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” album. The band members were notorious cocaine users. They got a bit too high and spent two days torturing the piano tuner, never being satisfied with the tuning. They might have been suffering from the same dilemma that early composers experienced. If the song is in the key of E, then that g# needs to sound like it does on the guitar! (Guitarists tune the g string string slightly flat in order to get that open e major chord to sing.)
Black Country blues guitar players would always tune to the key they were playing in. No equal temperament for them, though the frets sort of request it, no digital tuners existed, and they would have been thrown away had they!
The important thing is that “well-tempered” is not the same as “equal temperament”. With Bach’s well tempered, there still was an emphasis on making the key of c major a home base, where the notes c and e are close to perfect thirds, thus sacrificing that same satisfying resonance when other major thirds would be played together.
Equal temperament is a compromise which solves the problem of modulation to many different key centers while sacrificing the purity of “just” intervals.
The subject reminds me of a story I was told about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” album. The band members were notorious cocaine users. They got a bit too high and spent two days torturing the piano tuner, never being satisfied with the tuning. They might have been suffering from the same dilemma that early composers experienced. If the song is in the key of E, then that g# needs to sound like it does on the guitar! (Guitarists tune the g string string slightly flat in order to get that open e major chord to sing.)
Black Country blues guitar players would always tune to the key they were playing in. No equal temperament for them, though the frets sort of request it, no digital tuners existed, and they would have been thrown away had they!
Re: Bach, continued
I certainly learned things I hadn't known before. I remain puzzled by the part of the discussion---starting at 1:25---where octaves, depending on tuning, could be "too narrow" or "too wide." Doesn't this imply that the five octave range of the harpsichord would actually grow at each end, or shrink ? By how much ?
S
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Re: Bach, continued
It’s strange- the emphasis on attaining those perfect 3rds, while sacrificing the octave. That would be unthinkable nowadays. You can mess with any interval but not the sacred octave!
Since the range (from low to high) of early music was not as great as in contemporary, it probably was only off by a few cents. Still, that would be terribly annoying, I think.
Since the range (from low to high) of early music was not as great as in contemporary, it probably was only off by a few cents. Still, that would be terribly annoying, I think.
Re: Bach, continued
Odd. There's more to learn there. (I wonder how long it took to re-tune the harpsichord for each of those short demonstration performances !)
Here's the Christmas Oratorio in a 1999 recording. (An ad interrupts the video only at the breaks between the three sections of the piece.) Excellent performances by all, including a Black soprano soloist---a real rarity in Baroque performance, sadly. I think of John Eliot Gardiner as of the old school---he's been at it for a very long time---but he's kept up nicely with the evolution of Baroque interpretation, wherein we have more ancient instruments---wooden rather than metal flutes, various brass and woodwind and stringed instruments nearly extinct in the last century. And his readings include brisk tempi where appropriate, keeping performers and listeners alike on their toes and upright in their seats, respectively. A nice non-nonsense performance . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpaNo4mWRBE
S
Here's the Christmas Oratorio in a 1999 recording. (An ad interrupts the video only at the breaks between the three sections of the piece.) Excellent performances by all, including a Black soprano soloist---a real rarity in Baroque performance, sadly. I think of John Eliot Gardiner as of the old school---he's been at it for a very long time---but he's kept up nicely with the evolution of Baroque interpretation, wherein we have more ancient instruments---wooden rather than metal flutes, various brass and woodwind and stringed instruments nearly extinct in the last century. And his readings include brisk tempi where appropriate, keeping performers and listeners alike on their toes and upright in their seats, respectively. A nice non-nonsense performance . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpaNo4mWRBE
S
Re: Bach, continued
Christmas week---a good time for some uplifting music ?
More from John Eliot Gardiner: four cantatas, any of them worthy of a hearing. If you have twenty minutes, take just the longest one, # 127, starting at 32:00 . At the end of the tape there's an alternate version of the buoyant and lilting opening chorale for that cantata, which Bach used in a Passion.
The instrumental and vocal forces are first-rate; the oboist deserves special mention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIHs9Atq6vw
Anyone who wishes to know what they're singing about can find the libretto for any of Bach's cantatas quite easily online: just type in the BWV number and several choices for supporting material, including translation of the German libretto, will be found.
http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV127.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herr_Jesu ... t,_BWV_127 Gardiner's comments about BWV 127 are included here.
Yes, that's Kings College Chapel as the illustration on the YouTube video. Quite the barn !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_ ... _Cambridge
If SOM had gotten the job in fifteenth century England, would they have made something like this ?
S
More from John Eliot Gardiner: four cantatas, any of them worthy of a hearing. If you have twenty minutes, take just the longest one, # 127, starting at 32:00 . At the end of the tape there's an alternate version of the buoyant and lilting opening chorale for that cantata, which Bach used in a Passion.
The instrumental and vocal forces are first-rate; the oboist deserves special mention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIHs9Atq6vw
Anyone who wishes to know what they're singing about can find the libretto for any of Bach's cantatas quite easily online: just type in the BWV number and several choices for supporting material, including translation of the German libretto, will be found.
http://www.uvm.edu/~classics/faculty/bach/BWV127.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herr_Jesu ... t,_BWV_127 Gardiner's comments about BWV 127 are included here.
Yes, that's Kings College Chapel as the illustration on the YouTube video. Quite the barn !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_ ... _Cambridge
If SOM had gotten the job in fifteenth century England, would they have made something like this ?
S