Added: 5 years ago
From: ZachariasHildebrandt
Views: 387,538
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (941)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • i liked the part from 0:00 to 8:25 the most

  • 4:40 to 5:20 is sooo $%$%#^$ amazing...The Wedge fugue is one of the best pieces of music ever written. Period.

  • Great performance. i haven't heard a fugue in a while <3 I love themmmmm. Anyone else hear the slighly out of tune third in the last chord? haha

  • This fugue is absolutely amazing! Such a great organ, such a great interpretation. It's interesting on why it's called the 'Wedge' fugue. The progression of the notes ( E, D#-F#, D-G#, C#-A, C-A#, then B-B) make it appear that a wedge is being driven into the notes.....does this description make sense? The point of the wedge is the first E natural, and the broader part of the wedge is the B-B octave. Anyhow, It's a really, really wonderful fugue! A great interpretation by Mr. Whiteley, as well!

  • I'm really pleased that Johann Bach had such amazing hopes and shared it with so many people.. Is it just me who really thinks this fugue is like a kind of Epic walk to heaven! (-and also i just had a really random thought that that anxiety like bit at 2min is like a fast lift transporting you between this world and the next which is understandably scary). Btw there's a different recording on itunes. PS. Im not saying im 'right'!

  • the male playing sort of resembles Bach; obviously with a modern hair cut!

  • At school, I tell people that Bach was the rock star of his time.

  • This fugue hasn't got everything. It hasn't got an appealing theme. But, even starting from other peaks in Bach's fugal oeuvre, this fugue reaches unscalable heights!

  • With regards to the mirror, surely this would be there to enable the organist to keep in time with a small group of musicians playing in the gallery if this ever happened?

  • oh ahhh

  • I listened to this many, many times, about 40 years ago. I found I can still hum along with most passages. Bach stays with you.

  • just beautiful

  • Superior performance; great transparency of the architecture and above all: great musician, thank you for enjoying again and again.

  • Bach was such incredible genius and - extremly modern! Listen to the harmonies around 3:40 this is Reger-like...

  • hey jacobParisuuuuu, you need some lessons to on how to lick your butt correctly

  • This guy needs some lessons from Rebecca Black on how to make a real song.

  • I would take my "commented" comment off in respect for the sacral things involving this kind of music and cause my inbox is filled with complaints, but i think the nutties who whimp and make it a big deal entertaining. So i'll keep it for my joy and the people's who upvote my comment just to piss you : D

  • @henrique2k : Your bottom needs smacking ! HARD !

  • @henrique2k : You have a diseased mind. As do your foolish followers. I do not know how old you are but you show considerable immaturity.

  • Comment removed

  • Like a boss

  • A comment that one oddly rarely reads (I mean comment in general, not a "YouTube" comment) is how this fugue is really a ritornello piece: that is, with main parts separated by virtuoso solo parts. Indeed, it's as a much that as it is a fugue. Kinda like the fugal Brandenburg finales (Nos 2, 4, 5), but there the solo parts relate more closely to the ritornello parts (2 moreso than 4)-- so BWV 548 is strangely more like Vivaldi in this way. Brandenburg 4's finale is more like this one, no?

  • He clearly understands this piece & is really connecting with the organ's tonal and flexible winding characteristics (he's listening & adjusting as he's playing!). This is very Heiller-like playing + the right instrument to respond accordingly. If AH had recorded on the (S. German) instruments that Bach played rather than neo-baroque (false-replica) organs, interpretation of Bach's music would have been appreciated much earlier?

  • From BBC 21st Century Bach

    Superior performance.. an irritating reminder too how mediocre contemporary music is by comparison.

  • amazing! I hear good music here.

  • 8:25 of sublime counterpoint and harmony played on a top instrument. The ummm 'creative' camerawork annoyed me at first until I realised what was being created. Loved seeing the action working also. How could we live without JSB?

  • La prise de vue est remarquable d'originalité , prendre le musicien à travers les vergettes, il fallait y penser ! D.BABEL

  • In response to the description, organs were originally used for choral works. Usually there is sheet music covering the majority of the mirror, but just enough mirror showing in the top right corner to see the reflection of the conductor. As you can imagine, when you're playing an organ it can be pretty loud.. considering the organ is all you can hear and feel. Visuals are the best way to do it. There's simply no other way to keep tempo. This is definitely a more traditional organ.

  • Like Kim Jong Il playing an organ

  • Monsieur Henrique2k, je ne juge pas la tête des gens ; mais la qualité de leur musique, et celle-ci est exceptionnelle de qualité, au lieu de regarder, ECOUTER ! "on" est pas au cinéma, mais au concert... D.BABEL

  • @SuperBabel2 Traduction de commentaire:

    I don't judge people by their head: But the quality of their music, while this one is of extraordinary quality, do mean something, hear me! "Someone" is in cinema, but we're on a concert.

  • what can i say for j.s.bach..what a genius...the moment 4:44 to 5:10, i cant breathe...what amazing passage...thanks j.s bach.

  • i think all of you need a good bowel movement and you will feel better

  • it's look like young kim jung ill !!! lol.

  • My goodness! I believe that at the final E-major chord the organ experienced an orgasm.

  • Fugues truely are one of humanity's greatest artistic achievements.

  • he looks like a stereotypical undertaker

  • Wonderful stuff! This is the kind of piece that puts hair on your chest......

  • These tracker organs are the TRUE kings of instruments. I'm sure you can disable the motor and hook up the bellows again. Modern organs, although producing sound through pipes, are still ELECTRIC instruments. The organ at St. Patrick's Cathedral, in its imposing gothic case, sat quiet and useless during the recent blackout. A tracker organ, a choir, an orchestra, and a bunch of candles could have kept the music going in the darkness.

  • I gotta get me one of these.

  • btw, the mirror is so they can get excellent shots of the fingerwork without putting a camera right there. it is not a permanent fixture of the organ case.

  • Will we all PLEASE keep god out of this, I am completely atheist and have no belief in any gods but beleive that god should be kept away from music so everyone can enjoy it

    What I am saying is please, please, please keep your religion to yourself

  • @doomcreptus no, piss off. Bach didn't keep religion to himself, and a good thing he didn't.

  • @sirinferno Well Bach left us with flawless harmony and counterpoint and God left us with famine... and killed a slew of children with 2 she bears that one time in 2nd Kings, soo...

  • @LogosNigrum and you left your mum with herpes

  • @sirinferno WILD SPECULATION

  • @doomcreptus I agree. I am an athiest but I find Bach's music wonderful and hypnotic. Truly magical

  • @doomcreptus Bach would be unable to fathom your comment. No one can make you believe in God, but for those of us who do, the world, and especially music (the greatest gift of all) gains an additional dimension with Him in it. This should take nothing away from YOUR enjoyment of music. Even without God (or god, if you prefer), Bach's music is a sublime experience. I hope you enjoy him (Bach) to the fullest, as do I.

  • @doomcreptus

    Perhaps YOU should keep your comment to yourself. It doesn't have any "added value" at all.

  • @doomcreptus please, please, please keep your atheism to yourself then! why do you think YOU should be able to express your beliefs but others shouldn't!? how excruciatingly arrogant.

  • @HarryKuiper don't bring religion into it, Bach had skill and determination

  • 3:40 to 3:50, amazing passage of music!

  • @Div1356 so you like tonic pedals, bach uses to use it in a very cool way. (it is to hold the tonic note in the bass line)

  • @Div1356 if you want a fast example of tonic pedals, you can find many tonic pedals on Bach's "organ blaster" prelude, or some beethoven's symph's, well, there are everywhere...

  • @Div1356 : Yes.Indeed. From the eardrum to the heart !

  • This is amazing!

  • And by Bach, of course you realize they mean Your Highness?

  • Fantastic performance. The cinematography is um ... unusual.

  • What an astounding performance of this Fugue i personally beleive this is the best version of it on you tube but thats just my opinion! His Pedal playing is unique!

  • ... the guy is not reading the music hey ... the place is well lit for the video ... thus he wears shades to protect his eyes from the glare of the lights and hence, by the way, to aid his concentration ... 

  • IMPORTANT NOTICE : if you are under 35 and cannot play the organ ... with five (5) year's careful work you can still play this fugue !

  • what kinda of piano is that?

  • Why is he wearing shades? Very well played though, I love Bach's music, especially his organ music.

  • @lubahegre01 : To shade his eyes from the glare of white behind black !

  • It was the one and only God in Heaven who inspired much of Bach's beautiful compositions.

  • Bach sounds like God !!! No other music glorificates the intellect and God like Bach does!

  • @cedric3690 : Nonsense !

  • Geez how many cameras are running at once?! Very Good performance though

  • @Tenifus : Cryptic blasphemer thou shalt ... .

  • @Tenifus "Geez" is a form of cryptic blasphemy. Naughty.

  • Wow! Towering masterpiece of a fugue. Who but Bach could take a fairly simple subject and weave such a gigantic fugue around it? Love the ABA construction of the piece. The return to the opening section after the middle section is simple wonderful.

  • @NPorganist i.e. definition of a fugue...

  • @quarknugget

    A fugue is where the subject (opening theme, if you like) is repeated in the various parts with a counter-subject heard against it. In the wedge fugue (so called as it starts from a single note then fans out like a wedge) the subject is introduced with the left hand then repeated slightly later in the right hand then announced on the pedals, with great effect. In the middle section (B) the theme is varied slightly and with an extremely complex running manual accompaniment.

  • @NPorganist This has the rhythym of a bouree ! And the central part is the double !

  • @3NUNS

    Thanks for that info. Never thought of it like that before. Great recording of this piece is by Anton Heiller on the Marcussen organ of the Marya Kyrka Church in Helsingborg, Sweden. Listen to it if you ever get the chance.

  • @NPorganist : Thankyou so much for listening to my comment. I have puzzled over this since I first heard it ... I think 1969 played on a vinyl by Lionel Rogg.

  • What organ is this?

  • he's not blind

  • @Maxbay89 : Why must tinted glasses be indicative of blindness ? Have a look at the best printed music it is not black ink on white but black on a yellolwish paper. Reading produces a strain on the eyes as much as looking into or onto sunlit vistas. In a similar vein, many optical prescibers would suggest 'a shade'. Remember JSB died of an eye operation which went wrong.

  • @3NUNS I think you misunderstood, i was responding to someone else who asked weather he was blind or not. lol i know he's not blind, watch the videos where he walks into the church goes up the stairs and starts playing :)

  • @Maxbay89 : H h h hugs to you !

  • @henrique2k : What a naughty and common way of putting things. The guy is a virtuoso and organ recitalling is almost an holy exercise !

  • @3NUNS this piece kicks ass, and so does this dude playing it.

  • @13anjowizard : You mean a challenge to a recitalist ? And he is a good recitalist ?

  • @3NUNS pretentious much? you better be a nun in real life or im going to engage you in single handed combat of the verbal sort.

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • @3NUNS you know the 13 in my user name is a B i hope ;P

  • Comment removed

  • @3NUNS no i am a gentleman and a scholar. Just enjoying my daily dose of bach, and trying to enjoy our new found friendship, though I do not appreciate being called a bastard, nor do I appreciate having to sift through text to get what your saying. It is very adolescent, but thats ok its healthy for us to nourish our inner child, and never let that die.

  • @13anjowizard : The very very best of hugs to you. Can you play an instrument ? David.

  • @3NUNS yes i am the Banjo Wizard after all :P I play the concertina as well (mini accordian). I wish I could play the organ because the fugue is where my heart is musically now. I am an aspiring polymath, I know electrical engineering, writing, the banjo, the concertina, I train my body for fighting everyday, I want to master this beast I dwell in. Not sure if its possible for a 30 year old man to pick up the organ and try to learn the wedge fugue but if i start soon well...

  • @3NUNS : Sometimes nothing ! Sometimes in vector analysis ! Sometimes j is used for i in the physics associated with electrical engineering !

  • @13anjowizard (1) at thirty you can still master the pipe organ ... by a two manual and pedal one for your home ... BWV 548 ... yes you can master it ... but start with a piano-forte at home.

  • @henrique2k : You may well 'laugh out loud' but this guy is a professional over other professionals.

  • @henrique2k : You are a first-class twit !

  • @henrique2k : well that is in your dirty Satan-bound own estimation is it not ?

  • @henrique2k Mr. Whitely, organist of York Minster in England plays on many historic organs in Europe. This organ is a Hildebrandt at St. Wenzel's Church in Naumburg, Germany tested and approved by J.S. Bach himself in 1746. It had complete restoration in the year 2000. It now sounds as it did supposedly in Bach's day. Just imagine, playing an instrument Bach played on!

  • @Bachaholic60 The greyish organ pipes(facade pipes, are the original ones from 1746) They are the ones visible from the congregation in the church.

  • @henrique2k : You are a complete fool and need your bottom smacked HARD !

  • @henrique2k : No that is a revelation of your mind.

  • you need good bowel movement

  • @henrique2k

    What crappy nonsense is that? He didn't leave at all with a "fuck this shit face". His facial expression remained unchanged during the whole 8min25s.

  • @jsnauwaert You can see him gulping near 3:25 , so no.

  • @jsnauwaert I think he smiled slightly at 1:45 and just before that

  • @henrique2k : Please take this unfortunate comment down !

  • I like the organist' Sunnies :)

  • @rawrsaidthemouse I think hes blind.

  • @thaoval123 Hmmm. Makes this piece that more epic, doesn't it :D

  • sehr schööööön

  • @boudnager

    Nur schön? Dieses Stück ist absolut großartig!

  • this organist is impressionanat!!!!!!

  • I found Bach's autograph score of this piece at BachDigital . com

    Very little of his organ works survive in an autograph form

  • A very nice video,a beautiful Bach and an attractive performance

  • Beautiful performance, beautiful music, lovely pedal reeds. But absolutely irritating visuals!!! So I rate this video neither up nor down.

  • Who knows what Bach was thinking . He was probably just blowin' his ax,man . After all, the church was the only gig in town . Maybe Bach just didn't have the conviction of a Giordano Bruno,burnt at the stake by the Church ,who wouldn't recant his witchy beliefs,including that the world is round and goes around the sun .

  • Everytime I hear the 'very talented' John Scott Whitely play the music of Bach it reminds me just how wonderful that we can still enjoy the extraordinary God-given talents of a man who lived centuries ago. And I have all 150 cds of Bach's music!!! Long live Bach!!!

  • This song is beyond any expectations of what I thought I'd hear during my life.

  • Science is like analysing the notes, vibrations, influence on the brain and history of the music. God is like the incomprehensibility of it's beauty and the chill up my spine from the music...

  • This John Scott Whitely is something else. Wonderful performance, splendid organ. What's all this crap about transcendental speres blasphemy and god? Quite irrelevant. This music is universal, leave the religion out of it. Enough trouble caused by religion elsewhere. Isnt the mirror there so that the organist can keep an eye on the choir? I once saw a church organ where a morris minor external rear vision mirror was attached to the organ for the same purpose....

  • leave god alone! enjoy the music

  • "It was as though Eternal Harmony was conversing with Itself, the way it may have been in God's bosom the moment before He created the world". Goetha, on hearing Bach organ music

  • @bachkirche : Nonsense !

  • Merveilleuse interprétation...

  • G E N I U S

  • I love you,Johann Sebastian Bach! ;***

  • @34Bach : And, we love you !!!!

  • @MusicPredominates But for what?

  • Comment removed

  • @MusicPredominates Okay!Answer me later :)

  • who is performing?

  • @Pianoplayer002 John Scott Whiteley

  • This organ seems to be made of chocolate

  • I LOVE THE PIECE AND GREAT JOB !

  • Where is this organ???

  • @heeberman Naumburg, Germany

  • i agree the best !!!

  • even if one cannot play or doesn´t have access to a pipe organ this is well worth studying at the piano or studying the score just by itself

  • ... hello ladies and gentlemen, notice how on the soprano descending minim inverted pedal points the organist uses fingers 5 then 4 (swap 5) then 4 (swap 5) to maintain legato ...

  • @MusicPredominates very astute observation. Have seen the fingering technique in piano too in order to maintain a legato when pedal was disallowed.

  • @sailing19100 : I should be practising the technique myself.

  • That mirror is just senseless in my view!!!!! Totally ugly. You dont need a mirror above the oberwerk!

  • @OrganPianoMusic You do when you need to see the priest at the altar!

  • @TrackerAction : Asassinate the priest at the altar because he must be a Romanist!

  • @TrackerAction That's not true.

    Only the Altar Boys need to watch their backs.

  • Comment removed

  • @MusicPredominates I couldn't have put it better myself.

  • Comment removed

  • @MusicPredominates You're right. I think those Romanis should be gassed. The French are having lots of trouble with them. :-]

  • Comment removed

  • @YevgeniyAlexey Ah, it was no blasphemy. At the apex of ecstasy the saint forgets about God!

  • @BesACB : Thus the UNelect come into the world !

  • @BesACB Bach saw all of his music as a tribute and worship to god, likely at times even as a union with god. And that is where the ultimate ecstasy would come from: union. Not that i believe in or advocate belief in a personal god. But there is something there.

  • @noiseinthevoid anti christian flavored atheists of today have a hard time digesting that there are people lightyears more intelligent than they are that believe in god.

  • @BesACB : Organs ? Popish nonsense !

  • @YevgeniyAlexey : Schweitzer often said the same thing.

  • @YevgeniyAlexey  Um...what the fuck? Fail? Dumb shit?

  • @YevgeniyAlexey I applaud your superficial grandiloquence, though I must say you'd be lying to say anyone could fully understand any fugue the first time through. Pretty much by definition, a fugue has many voices at once.

  • @YevgeniyAlexey I understand you. completly.

  • @YevgeniyAlexey .....Eh?!

  • What is with the cameraman?  Has he had an attack?

  • Who knew that the Blues Brothers played Bach so magnificently? ^^

    I am in awe of the musician, the composer and in short I absolutely adore this piece! ♥

  • Comment removed

  • I made some baroque in the manner of bach. I think. check it out. I could use some good feedback

  • somewhy the 1:55 and 7:56 scare the shit out of me.

    I start to nervously glance at the door like someone is going to break in and probably if not slaughter me then shout at me really loudly...

    Those are most horrific parts.

  • @kknots Grow a pair.

  • Nice organ, but does it have midi in & out?

  • @PabloDarioLi - You are joking, right?

  • @rasrames he must be lol!... i hope...

  • @robertgift Bach knew this organ, and is believed to have had a hand in the design of it. Presumably, they felt the need to USE a 32ft reed from time to time, and besides, they were not the overwhelming, heavy pressure monsters of to-day.

  • @32SERPENT1 Understood.

    As much as I love 32' reeds, I have not found a single Bach organ work where one sounds appropriate.

    32' Principle with 16' reed is wonderful.

    What a disappointment that he excludes the pedal trills.

    As a teenager, my first time playing this I would never have considered omitting the trill. Also unfortunate that he fails to play the 3rd trill in right hand. (very difficult)

  • @robertgift when can we expect to see you upload a video ?