JSBach - BWV 944 Fuga

[rasmoujin]

That is the best subject and countersubject i have ever seen!

[gr0mithtimon]

@rasmoujin

Theme after Giuseppe Torelli :-) 

[rasmoujin]

@gr0mithtimon Thanx, budy :-)

[rasmoujin]

@rasmoujin my FAIL

[bzeliotis]

Who is the harpsichordist? Why don't you write the name?

He sounds fantastic!

Is this a MIDI recording? (I hope not)

[flamingspinach]

I just sightread this a little while ago - from the moment I read the subject and realized how great it was, I knew I was going to enjoy this fugue. Thanks for the recording!

[Chopin1974l]

@besABC: this is the fugue. The fantasia which is merely 10 bars of arpeggiated chords is missing on this recording.

[Sonorazzi]

Wow! It is great to be alive and hear something as inspired as this.

[BesACB]

This the fantasia.

[shnimmuc]

There is an American organist who can improvise a textbook perfect fugue of great depth and Bachian perfection. I know, I heard him.

[kv310]

Robert Hill + JS Bach = BOOOOOOOOOM :)

[RoboticusMusic]

BACH IS THE ULTIMATE MASTER BOSS FLOATING UP IN THE CLOUDS.

[kelsiejackson]

"Wow this fugue subject is craaazy. "

Almost as crazy as the octave-leaping subject in BWV 531!

[MVLausun]

I think this should not turn over to a "have-to-memorize or not" arguement, but what is needed to be told is, it was a custom to have scores in front of you in those ages. As said below, the parts (which one might think as a solo harpsichord score but to be played with an ensemble) could be changed between players. Of course some musicians used to play on mind as well as today, but it was not obliged, as it is now at most of the conservatories.

[jfrolov]

wcbroccoli (1 month ago)

What you said about people playing from memory starting from Lizt is probably the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

Bach would put on shows where he improvised from memory same with Mozart. Pretty much any well known composer this day was a master of improvisation in his time.

You are a dumbass who should perhaps read a little about those periods of time.

[hpeterkawaja]

No man. You are the dumbass.

If you have bothered to read bach's biographies by musicologist, you would know that it has been documented that bach would spontaneously improvise fugues with a subject that the emperor or high court officials would give to him. Give bach some credit. He composed over 200 well-written cantatas and over 1000 difficult fugues. He probably knew how to spontaneously perform a fugue. Do some reading before calling other people dumbasses.

[wcbroccoli]

@hpeterkawaja That Bach improvised is well-documented, though he never received an improvisation subject from any emperor.

You must be referring to Bach's famous meeting with King Frederick the Great of Prussia, which resulted in the "Musical Offering" which included the so-called "Prussian fugue". No Prussian king would be called emperor until Wilhelm I, in 1871, after victory in the Franco-Prussian war.

[wcbroccoli]

@jfrolov "Improvised from memory" is an oxymoron, i.e, a combination of contradictory words.

You should look up the definition of  "improvise" and "improvisation".

"Improvisation" is most definitely NOT "playing from memory."

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@wcbroccoli there's a gray area in between and baroque improvisers straddled this line an awful lot

[wcbroccoli]

@PraeludiumUndFuge There's no gray area.

Everyone understands that "playing from memory" means playing a piece from memory.

Improvisation is, by definition, not playing a piece from memory.

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@wcbroccoli no need to state the obvious. I'm just merely pointing out that extemporization in classical music in general involves a lot of memorization of chord patterns, melodic figures, cadences, etc. Especially in baroque music, there was a lot of preparation that went into certain "improvisatons". The definition is not as simple as you think.

[kierkegaardrulez]

The tempo is not "erratic," it's creative and fun. I would say it's manic. This is better than the Sviatislov Richter recording on Youtube or probably even João Carlos Martins' version (on iTunes, the 5 min 34 sec track not the 4 min 21 which is mis labeled).

[danielchong1234]

wa. is that even possible. fugue is hard and now it have so much trills , notes ,and so fasttttt!!

[HARMONICO101]

Oh, Bach... You've done it again. :)

[tromba55]

RD, Of course the subject repeats throughout since that is what fugues do. I don't understand the comparison to Chopin Waltzes...

[Biff947]

I hear the BWV 543 is based off of this.

[susumu07]

WOW this is music on a whole different level than anything we have today.

Whoever can play this perfect, I will be his friend.

[ThorSpirit]

the tempo is erratic

[babunolog]

@ThorSpirit The tempo is just right

[indigoblue555]

Words can't match the magnificence of this score........

[aatz1982]

just listened to a recording of richter playing this on piano, think he should have used a harpsichord for this one. nice whoever it is!

[avroma2]

please, can you send a link?

thank's.

(I like Richter's "Bach style" very much.)

[indigoblue555]

to avroma2 - just digit YT Bach 944 :

you'll get Richter playing the prelude and the fugue: a blast !

[tripwirecreator25]

this is beautiful

[FelipeBellani2]

I wanna play like that someday

[kelsiejackson]

Who's the performer? Sounds like Masaki Suzuki.

[itsanthonyhere]

How the shit would you memorize this?

[lordlemmingman]

it's called sheet music

[itsanthonyhere]

...

My point was that it's just continuous notes..it's not like a Chopin Waltz where certain sections are repeated.

[RDSerebrianny]

Much more repetition of the subject here than in Chopin Waltzes. Yes, subject is in the 'perpetual motion' but listen, it repeats dozens of times. Actually, with experience it's easier to memorize this than long Bach preludes where you don't have the fugue style to help you. :)

[analihilator]

I HAVE IT MEMORISED. i will upload soon

[susumu07]

I was gonna ask the same question!

[wcbroccoli]

Why would you memorize it?

The silly notion that you have to play from memory began in the 19th c. with Liszt, who put on dog and pony shows at public concerts by playing his own music "from memory". (Since it was his own music, he could improviose around a mistake and no one would know the difference!) Not to be outdone, other performers began giving concerts from memory.

Before Liszt, performers played from scores!

[kierkegaardrulez]

If you don't play from memory then you don't really know the piece, and are likely to make more mistakes, not less.

[wcbroccoli]

That a soloist must play from memory when concertizing, that it's improper for a soloist to perform with the music in front of him, that you have to wear a tux, that audiences must wait for the end of the piece before applauding --- these are all notions of concert etiquette that did not exist in the time of Bach, Mozart or Beethoven. (Mozart wrote that he was concerned that the audience did not applaud while he was playing at a concert!)

[HARMONICO101]

That's all so true. Hell, I don't even think sections and seating in the orchestra were standardized until the mid-nineteenth century at least.

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@wcbroccoli Seems like we share the same kind of thinking on this matter. About the improvisation thing, we're arguing over semantics. Thumbs up for pointing this out to ppl.

[wcbroccoli]

Before Liszt's dog-and-pony shows of the mid-19th c., , performers rarely played from memory. Even if they knew the music well, from frequent performance, they'd still have the music in front of them.

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@kierkegaardrulez actually playing from score helps me articulate the counterpoint better and emphasize harmonic changes when those glaring accidentals pop up.

The notion you just stated is honestly unmusical and I kind of object to it more or less strongly.

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@PraeludiumUndFuge if you think preparing a piece for hours and then playing it from memory is the correct approach you probably have no clue what a 7th chord is or have any appreciation for distribution of motion between voices. Stick to Chopin-era onwards. Baroque music is already misunderstood as it is.

[PraeludiumUndFuge]

@PraeludiumUndFuge and when improvising, visualize the score. The bassline contours should be embedded in your brain as 2nd nature. As should the chords you are playing be.

[HARMONICO101]

I don't think it's that silly. I'm glad I've memorized tons of pieces so I can just pull out my violin and play for my friends and family without worrying about dragging around my sheet music library and finding something to prop my sheet music against. It's very convenient.

[wcbroccoli]

I was saying that it's a silly notion that one should be obliged to perform from memory.

There's some keyboard pieces I unintentionally memorized from frequent playing.

But it's always good to have the part in front of you. The early music pros I know play from parts. When I get together with friends to play complex polyphonic 5- or 6-part fantasies for viols, we often switch parts and change instruments. We never play from memory. We just pull out the music. We have tons of it.

[requiemaeturnum]

@wcbroccoli

I see why you would want to memorize it, because you need to know a piece pretty well to do that, but in performance, I think it's best to have the score.

True it was Liszt that started the memorizing thing..

Wow this fugue subject is craaazy.

[codonauta]

This is crazy! :o)