Bach - French Suite 1 in D minor BWV 812 - 1/6

[melancholyhumour]

It would be pleasant enough to play this type of music if ever aliens decided to visit the planet Earth.

[martianmusic1]

I reckon modern composers placed back in 1685 would be "stuffed" metaphorically speaking. They would have no history to build and develop and the audiences would have probably strung us up. Shock, horror when Keith Emerson stuck knives into the organ. Enter stage left Jimmy Page with his new invention the electric Guitar and 10,000 watts of P.A The first power chord would have terrified the people and sent them running shouting "its the Devil".

[432ps1]

@martianmusic1 Keith Emerson stuck this piece of music into one of his. Check out ELP - "Knife Edge"

[martianmusic1]

As we know, Bach broke and bent a great many "rules" in his day. He also created a few more, even to the point of being booed during performances. When you think about it, he was restricted by the then purists, the avaialbe technology, and the somewhat narrow minds of his audience.

If only Bach could have had access to modern synthesizers and recording techniques! My guess is he would have blown all the others off the stage and probably our minds as well.

Merry Christmas everyone.

[Nizlopi2]

@martianmusic1 I'd love to see what classical composers come up with if they were born in...lets say 1985 as opposed to 1685. My fear is that they're music wouldn't be nearly as worthy of the term 'genius' than their actual stuff; the limitiations of culture/musical styles would ensure that. It would equally be interesting to see if modern songwriters came up with 'classical genius' if they were plonked down in the 18th century.

[Thanatos1989]

Yes martian, you're right!

[martianmusic1]

Hey corrupt, if you dont like dynamics but dont mind a slight deviation from the purist approach, I suggest looking up "Knife egde" on Emerson lake and Palmers album from about 1971. Keyboard man Emerson uses this as a bridge playing Hammond organ in a rather hard rock piece. Palmer even backs it up on percussion. I've said this many times but, Bach,in my view was the original Jazz composer of his day.

[Jour0n]

@martianmusic1 exactly

[Corrupt5358]

I don't like the dynamics - JS Bach should be mechanical, there is far too much speeding up and slowing down erratically for my liking - I prefer the MIDI version to this!

[JamesTR4]

Bach shouldn't at all be mechanical. And the baroque era , inlcluding bach, favor uneven playing because we are human, that's what i know

[darthinigmus]

@Corrupt5358 no....it shouldn't be mechanical because then it wouldn't be musical

[Sadecki7Endicott]

Corrupt5358,

semms like you didn't understand the sense or at least not the "soul" of (baroque) music. just because it's baroque it does not have to be without any feeling (and feeling and mechanics do not work together, in my opinion, because if it is too mechanical it lacks in humanity and becomes senseless).

anyway, in radio i once heard that the spirit of romantic music existed in baroque, but was hard to express because of the strict form. i really like this theory.

think about it!

[ignacio270]

a mi me gusta escuchar la mùsica de bah tocadaen un clavicordio. y no en un piano. buena versiòn :-)

[johannsebastienbach]

this is way too slow and offer no dynamic contrasts. A kid could play like this. LIsten to gould's recording, it's massively amazing

[bowchatch]

There is a lot of research that goes into things like this. A baroque Allemande is also different from a romantic pianists interpretation of a baroque Allemande.

[Aensgard]

Besides, the harpsichord was not able to make dinamics because of it's system to play the strings (a plectrum, not hammers like piano does). What cares a lot in here is the ornamentation, the phrasing (mainly rithmyc) and the tempo chosen. Anyway, i think gould's allemande is way to fast.

Music is very different according to the different forms (allemande, courante, prelude, etc) and ages (baroque, romanticism, etc) each one has it's aesthetics and rules.

[DeMars3]

It's also on the piano and historically uninformed. An allemande is supposed to be a reserved, somewhat slow/flowing dance.

[codonauta]

Finally I 've found in youtube someone which has uploaded some Bach/Jarrett recordings.