Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582

Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed and visualized by Stephen Malinowski.
FAQ

Q: What do the colors mean?
A: The colors indicate different melodic lines in the piece. The part for pedal (the lowest part) is always violet, and there is one stop (starting at about 4:55) that is always blue, but the rest of the colors just indicate different melodic strands (and don't correspond in a consistent way to anything in the score).

Q: What instrument is this?
A: The sound comes from two Ahlborn-Galanti organ modules. Most of the stops come from the A-G Silbermann module, but the 32-foot pedal stops and the contrasting stop (the one at 4:55) come from the A-G Romantic module.

Q: What are the gray bars?
A: The gray bars show the theme of the passacaglia (the first part of which is also the main subject of the fugue). The colored bars show the note duration of the performance, but the grey bars (which is bigger so that you can see it when it's behind the performed notes) show the duration of the notated version of the theme in its standard form (which is often very different from how it appears in the piece at a given point).

Category:

Music

[xbigd1988x]

Enlighten me: am I correct in thinking that a fugue is essentially a polyphonic piece which, throughout, repeats a theme and variations thereof? Also, I was under the impression that Bach composed music for the Church and religious reasons? So am I to draw the conclusion that all his pieces are religious in nature? I ask because his compositions are so eclectic and diverse that I simply cannot imagine that the church would have received a great number of his works without acrimony.

[smalin]

@xbigd1988x In addition to sacred music (cantatas, hymn settings, preludes based on hymns, etc.), Bach wrote music that either wouldn't have been played in a church (e.g. Brandenburg concertos) or that didn't have any specific religious connotation (like this piece). He dedicated all his music "to the glory of God," but that was pretty common --- pro forma, even.

Oh, and Bach did get flak from the church for his more far-out harmonies (too hard for the congregation to sing).

[jeef290]

@smalin Hi, I've been watching your videos for quite a long time, and I was wondering where you learned all this about Bach, are there any books or publications you would recommend on his life and theory?

[smalin]

@jeef290 Sorry, I can't help you there. I've been learning about Bach (his life and his music) piecemeal for about forty years, and I didn't learn a significant part of what I know from any particular source (that I remember, anyway).

[koyunbaba73]

Bach kept the words "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Glory to God in the Highest) upmost in his mind, so even though much Bach's work was secular in natuure, he devoted his industry to sanctifying God. Morever, there is sometimes a literal representation of this statement represented in his work. When I perform Bach, depending on the work, I may try to be faithful to Bach's ambition and interpret the piece in terms of its intensity (as high, higher, highest).

[TonyWRO]

@smalin Thank you very much for making this video.

[BenjaminMaurThuen]

@smalin well actully smalin, there are an theori going around about this pasacaglia. that the repetativ theme in the padales, represents the 12 disiples

[kypsterx55]

Quite possibly the greatest extant western musical composition

[IRememberTheOldDays]

@smalin well the church always have to whine away and ruin everything.

[TempodiPiano]

Fascinating.

[alphabet661]

Note the passacaglia theme - that is the recurring bass line which the piece is built open actually is by another composer and only slightly modified - Andre Raison a French composer wrote a Trio and a Passacaille - a very short piece. Bach knew agood bass line when he saw one and took it chromatically and structurally to lengths far beyond what Raison thought of doing.

[StringBoi]

Nice job....one of my favorite organ pieces!