Ryan Layne Whitney: Bach, Contrapunctus 8 from Art of the Fugue (faster tempo)

[justinkarlin]

Stately.

[sfbonedoc]

Fine playing and appropriate tempo when played on a modern piano. A slower tempo seems appropriate when this is played on an organ in a good acoustic. Thank you for your splendid music making.

[masn1974]

Fantastic. I like both versions, and both were played beautifully. That being said, I think I marginally prefer the slower.

[tommyIglesias]

i think he is the very best

[Raherin]

You are a wonderful player.

[BachScholar]

In this triple fugue, Bach combines BACH and SDG when the first and second subjects are combined and does so many times in transposition throughout. Also, he does the same in #11 when all the subjects are inverted.

Look at measure 44-45. There appears Eb-D-G in the bass (SDG in German) and Bb-A-C-B (BACH in German) in retrograde. This happens in all permutations about 100 more times in this fugue and in #11. Also, the first six notes in #10 are the SDG motive in two permutations.

[BachScholar]

This is excellent! Thanks for playing the tempo I suggested. Just a tad faster makes all the difference in the world. I love this fugue!

[teafruitbat]

Glad you like it: it still seems a bit fast to me! I felt like I was going to fall off my perch! But I'm willing to color outside of my own lines every now and then just for the sake of adventure.

[BachScholar]

Listen to Musica Antiqua Koln's recording of this. It's fantastic and they play a similar tempo to this. They also play #1 in three minutes like I believe it should be!