Bach, Fugue 7 in E-flat major, WTC Book 2, BWV 876, animated score

[bio1229]

Why do you make the videos with instruments the pieces are not written for? Its MUCH more beautiful with a nice cembalo or piano sound.

[smalin]

@bio1229 Sorry, it's my channel, so you're stuck with my taste.

[bio1229]

@smalin yeah you're right. But with what program do you make this animations? For theory class i have to explain a fugue, i want to do it with the WTK c minor fugue 2. Can I play the piece myself while an animation shows the different voices?

[smalin]

@bio1229 The software (and this project as a whole) is called The Music Animation Machine. You can learn more about it at my website.

[jmdb1994]

God... you're the best, man, you're the best. :-) Have a happy new year! And keep the music alive!

[peliparado94]

Like these videos, you should upload Paganini's 24th Caprice in A minor.

[peliparado94]

Like these videos, upload Paganini's 21th Caprice in A minor.

[MouseAndCo]

DAMMIT now i have to look at what MortiCarthago said now :(

[TheMeanAdmin]

Trippy animation

[jogomez1974]

Siempre he tenido una duda ¿El maestro Johann S. Bach compuso algo feo?... ¡no creo! Es de las mas hermosas fugas que le he oído, que es mi estilo musical favorito y sobre todo las el él.

[sizzlinwitch]

"played by a wind band"....actually played by a synthesizer.  Sigh.

[smalin]

@sizzlinwitch I've added "synthesized" to the description; I was trying to be helpful (for people who might expect a keyboard piece to be played on a keyboard instrument), not misleading.

[padaneis]

Very smart a performance! Thank you. Bests.

[HOBO1011000]

I would actually prefer it to be piano, but anyways its good . It shows the voices!!

[qwertyismymom]

I was really excited to hear this piece by you until I heard it. I dont like your choice of "instrument" or the speed you palyed this, I would've prefered the sound of a piano or harpsichord.

[rodrigomg25]

Dear Malinowski, do you know where i can get sheet for this music ? I'd be happy with an answer .

[rodrigomg25]

Dear Malinowski, do you know where i can get sheet for this music ?

[smalin]

@rodrigomg25 I don't, but maybe some other viewer does.

[rodrigomg25]

@smalin ok , thank you!.

[Gherann]

@rodrigomg25 Have you tried imslp.org?

[atomterrible]

Could you do Bach's Prelude and Fugue 12 from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book II please?

[smalin]

@atomterrible I hope to do the entire WTC before I die.

[WoundedEgo]

@smalin Awesome!

[GreciaGris]

Gracias me encanta!!!

[fualfalo]

This is a great video, period! Great work, lots of time to put it together. What is it today that people can never be happy with what they have? They always have to find a "but". Yes, it's nice but......" Stop it! This is great. If you understand what fuge is, this is a real visual explanation. Thank you so much for doing this kind of work.

[katgirl21]

This is a wonderful video! It's a shame that the synthetic band sounds so...well... synthetic. I wonder if there's a program out there that can replicate woodwind and brass instruments well. The program you use for piano is wonderful.

[ScrollingMusic]

Bach makes E-flat major so majestic. Your choice of wind instruments is so fitting for this fugue.

[stargirlsusan]

I was learning to play this fugue but couldn't go on after the 4th voice kicked in with the rest, yes I'm a beginner, I just wanted to learn this so bad, because i love it.

I guess I Better stick to preludes :)

[smalin]

@stargirlsusan I remember when I was first learning how to play 4-part contrapuntal music. It's a major mind-bender. You just gotta keep at it.

[stargirlsusan]

@smalin thanks, i will keep on trying, though it may take me a while, the dificult part is when it demands me to stretch my fingers at fantastic level.

[NimbleTurtle13]

@smalin Is this a particularly famous fugue in the WTC series?

[smalin]

@NimbleTurtle13 It's one of the easier 4-part fugues, so it tends to be one of the first 4-part fugues students learn, but some of the 3-part fugues are easier (e.g. the C minor fugue in the first book), so it's not the most famous in that sense. It has a nice stretto element to it, but there are other stretto fugues that are more impressive technically, so it's not especially famous among music theory folks. As for the general public (people who listen to recordings of the WTC), I don't know.

[OrbiliusMagister]

The "wind ensemble" is undoubtedly fascinating, giving a Handelian feeling to his fugue, but yet I'm still convinced that an organ sound would definitely fit this score.

[joelhhh]

first 4 notes of the melody sound like starwars. P5 M2 m2

[12345qazx1]

well chosen combination of ""instruments."".

[superjam18]

how do you write stuff like this???

I don't get it.

[smalin]

@superjam18 Music like this, or graphics software like this?

[superjam18]

@smalin Music like this I knew Bach was great and all but he really mastered the fugue style different melodies and no serious clashes anywhere like it was from heaven.

[smalin]

@superjam18 If you want to learn how to do this, start with Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum" (available in a cheap Dover edition).

[MrRasputin100]

@smalin is it a book on harmonic structures and general composition?

[smalin]

@MrRasputin100 It's a book about counterpoint.

[pedantologist]

@smalin I read that Gradus was bad because its exercises were arbitrary and was written in ignorance of the work of Bach.

[smalin]

@pedantologist Arbitrary? Hm. Here's from Wikipedia:

.

"Gradus ad Parnassum is the name of a seminal textbook on counterpoint written by Johann Joseph Fux in 1725, but used well into the 20th century for instruction in musical theory and composition. Leopold Mozart is said to have taught his son Wolfgang from its pages. JS Bach and Beethoven both held it in great esteem, and Haydn meticulously worked out each of its exercises."

.

Who are you going to believe?

[pedantologist]

@smalin I would believe you.

[codonauta]

@smalin I think Mozart studied counterpoint and fugue with the Martini ( the Priest ), in Bologna, who used the Gradus and Parnasum as method. But it is not impossible Leopold had already teached to your son before that too, with the same Fux's publication..

[SICKxCHARISMAxTURTLE]

@smalin

Where would "Gradus ad Parnassum" be bought at?

[smalin]

@SICKxCHARISMAxTURTLE Dover Books publishes an inexpensive reprint.

[rumpranger65]

@SICKxCHARISMAxTURTLE If you guys want to study that type of counterpoint I recommend "Counterpoint" by Knud Jeppeson. It's updated with some corrections of Fux's work (Fux was working like 200 years after the style's highpoint, and he didn't have modern music scholarship). Fux is okay I guess, but Jeppeson's is better and is probably even cheaper on amazon. If you want to study counterpoint like Bach, I recommend the book "Counterpoint" by Walter Piston. But you should study the others first.

[flippert0]

@rumpranger65 Gradus ad Parnassum (by J.J. Fux, there other works out there with the same name) was published 1725. If we boldly assume, that the high point of counterpoint was reached with Bach's death (Art of Fugue) in 1750, then Fux was 25 years before not 200 years behind that point.

[rumpranger65]

@flippert0 Gradus ad Parnassum is an attempted study at renaissance polyphony, not the more harmonic counterpoint of Bach. That's kind of what I mean. People don't go to Fux for Bach's style of counterpoint, since there are significant differences between the counterpoint of Palestrina or Victoria and Bach. Not that learning the "stile antico" counterpoint isn't really important.

[flippert0]

@rumpranger65 OK, now I get what you meant below (and I agree with you).

[guitaristxcore]

This is so awesome. I need to listen to more classical.

[drydyboy]

J'ai joué cette pièce avec mon quartet de saxophone (je joue le ténor, la ligne rose), au concour des petits ensemble du québec, 2e place de la catégorie!

I played this song with my sax quartet (I'm playing tenor, the pink line), at the tournament of quebec, we finished second in our category!

Super pièce, vive Bach!

Nice song, I love Bach!

[RICPOIRIER1]

Quel beauté!!!

[susellee]

Great work, like always.

[wenaolong]

Ah, this is the Bach that I know and love. Just so Elysian in its majesty.

[ScribbleMouse]

MOZART! MOZART! MOZART! MOZART!

[smalin]

@ScribbleMouse HIKE!!!

[drydyboy]

@ScribbleMouse Mozart?

[ScribbleMouse]

@drydyboy haha My way of requesting mozart???!

[refuseit]

I know you're not a big fan of Rachmaninoff, and I know this isn't the appropriate place to do this request, but it seems impossible to me not to like the piano concertos 2 and 3. Please do one of them (at least one movement) !!! :)))

[Dinalafont]

me encanta!

[jonnsmusich]

Yes, "smalin", this is better than the previous couple of attempts to bring in the dynamic element, graphically. Works with a wind band. Not sure it would work for straight clavier. But compliments. For me worth your considerable time and effort.

Thanks

[MortiCarthago]

As usual your musics make me want to drop acid and watch all day.

[smalin]

@MortiCarthago Well, that's what it's for ... what's stopping you?

[MortiCarthago]

@smalin I don't have any acid :(

[musiloko787]

I like bach's fugues but in my opinion the sound, its kind of robotic, would you post a clavi sound video ?

[smalin]

@musiloko787 Sorry, I'm done with this one for now ... but I'll definitely be doing piano/organ/harpsichord/clavic­hord renditions of other WTC pieces in the future.

[jonnsmusich]

@smalin Excellent. Boy do I have a list for you! But I'll just check in from time time and see what you want to offer...The "robotic" comment is fair, don't you think? I liked the earlier ones you played.. NOT robotic...

[smalin]

@jonnsmusich Since this music was played by a computer, it's not surprising that it doesn't have as much expression as a live performance.

[PrismLightwave]

At 1:01, is the top voice starting the subject while the second voice has the subject in progress? I didn't realize there were times where this actually happened in fugues...

[smalin]

@PrismLightwave Yes! It's called "stretto" (n.b. the Wikipedia entry has some errors). It happens three times in this fugue (can you find them all?). Sometimes, it's just done once (typically, saved for the end), but in some fugues, it happens many times. In my A minor fugue (posted on YouTube), there are places where three copies of the subject are running at once (my Dragnet fugue also has stretto, including one over a pedal point).

[bunnybunnybunny8]

very good song, as always, keep up the good work smalin!

[patrick11deutsch]

Beautiful!

[geoffreybeene]

Just subscribed, I'm loving these videos! I like the circles more than the blocks, maybe it's because I love how the circles slowly fade away on the long notes. They generally seem a lot more engaging.

[Neekstarrr]

Haha the animation was actually really cool once I got used to it. Thanks for the video!

[AsSomedayItMayHappen]

Thanks as always Smalin. This is my favourite Fugue and the voicing was so nice and even. And to the people who say the block animation is easier to follow, I think they're just used to it because most of your videos were set with that animation. I could easily get used to this.

[smalin]

@AsSomedayItMayHappen Having looked at a fair number both ways, it seems to me that they both have something to offer.

[Jaydoggy531]

Thank you for this! My favorite fugue.

[MatchbookD70]

This music so beautifully communicates happiness, hope, and optimism. Its melodies compel my heart to face the light. I should remember this song for days that are below par!

[MatchbookD70]

@MatchbookD70 (Informs self from 2 minutes ago that its called a "piece" - not a "song" :)

[goldenhog]

nice!

[antipax00]

Hello smalin, how did you achieve this effect of the notes contracting as they come closer to the 'now'line? I am using MAMplayer but I can't find that option, is this done during video post processing?

[smalin]

@antipax00 I'm not using the MAMPlayer software, but my own personal frame-rendering version of it (not publicly available).

[gre2g]

love the visual but not the audio. It lessens the quality of the overall effect.

[smalin]

@gre2g Sorry, it's the best I can do with the tools at hand.

[rippedspades]

Thanks for doing these. I love hearing these songs for the first time or hearing them again and then be able to visually understanding them. Seriously so cool.

[Cynthia95ish]

Just watched your latest two and I'm stunned. I remember reading in psyche class about autistic children and or schizophrenics who could actually see, smell or taste music while it was being played, but thats an entirely subjective experience. Disney anticipated this in his 1932 cartoon classic but didn't stray from his story line long enough to "see" the music. You have animated actual music and made it possible to "See" it objectivily as it is playing. Bravo!

[shizohal]

Do you have any videos where only the active circles (i.e. those currently sounding) are visible?

[smalin]

@shizohal No, but I've experimented with it ... it's not as interesting to watch.

[arequipa1]

it's mesmerizing!!!!!!!!!

[Rykhart]

BEAUTIFUL!

[dukehey2]

This reminds me of DNA.

[Battery64121]

nice video! personally I liked the older format of animation with the blocks better, as it made it easier to visualize the harmonies and note lengths.

[smalin]

@Battery64121 I'll probably release bar-graph versions of these two fugues on my "spillover" channel (musanim).

[ilovejeko]

@Battery64121 same here i found it way easier to follow the music with the block animation

[smalin]

@ilovejeko  (see the FAQ)

[mostermaus]

@Battery64121

true, but the circles are way cooler and more hi-tech. if there were only a way to have both at once.......

[bachopinberg]

@Battery64121 I feel the new one much closer to the real "view" I have playing piano

[Markohoppis]

I have written a few fugues, and they're not as hard as you'd think, especially if you have software. Just make sure you know your species counterpoint, have a good ear, and try to use a lot of contrary motion, don't start some voices on the downbeat, use different note values to give each melody independence and room to move and be heard.

[franielee38]

A really great video!

[bp1201]

LOVE your videos :)