Vintage Bach Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, Prelude 1 in C

Pianist David Edward Smith plays Bach's Well-Tempered Clavichord. 1981 vintage video. David Edward Smith, studied piano from the age of 12 (1936) until age 20 (1944) with Dr. Karol Liszniewski of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. My father wrote: "All the Polish celebrities knew Dr. Liszniewski (who speaks Polish besides the Poles?). Arthur Rubinstein and Mieczyslaw Munz often stopped by when they were on tour. So did Rachmaninoff and Paderewski. I would be allowed to sit right next to them--only inches from the keyboard--to watch them practice by the hour--preparing for their solo recitals and concerto performances. They would give me lessons and sometimes, when I was practicing in my room upstairs, they would open the door at the bottom of the stairs and yell such things as 'Practice SLOWLY' or, for example, 'Who told you to do that crescendo in the left hand' (I had done something terrible, no doubt). 'That's good-don't ever change that!' (What a pleasant surprise). Sometimes they would come to my room to watch me practice--stopping me to show better fingering, a more beautiful interpretation, or how to solve some difficult problem 'at hand'. To an artist there is nothing quite so satisfying as the solving of an 'aesthetic problem'."

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Bach
• Well
• Tempered
• Clavichord
• Clavier
• Piano
• David
• Edward
• Smith

[C0urante]

That's the challenging part! It is so simple, and yet if you cannot play with a steady hand, then it fails you. The rhythmic consistency only serves to make it MORE difficult, not less.

[xMichelleBaby]

It's funny, my teacher has been trying to get me into this piece for months. For some reason, I just couldn't lose myself in the piece at all, I just wasn't feeling it. So, I've been putting it off.

This video completely changed my view on the song. I'm really eager to play it now. :] I don't know what he did, but he made it sound incredible.

Good post! Thanks for sharing! :]

[C0urante]

@C0urante durations within a greater overall context, where slight mistakes may be masked by the fact that not every note is given an equal space to occupy and liberties may be taken to preserve the overall metronomic consistency of the music. With steady sixteenth notes, any single slip is immediately audible, since each note is so easily compared to every other--it's like having a beat on each note, where any mistake immediately disrupts the entire tempo, and no room for error is given.

[C0urante]

@koreybishop "The complexity of an abnormal rhythm" is only present with abnormal rhythms--and I would say that hardly anything Bach wrote qualifies as truly abnormal, although there are exceptions. I am not saying, however, that steady sixteenth notes are complex--just that they are very revealing of your inner metronome and your capabilities to regularly execute similar, repeated motions with little recover time. At least with rhythmic variation, the opportunity is given to place various

[koreybishop]

@C0urante

any metronomic variation in your playing will be present with any rhythm, so you now compound the complexity of an abnormal rhythm with the fact that you can't keep time. it doesn't all of the sudden get easier because it's harder... that makes no sense.

i don't have to be able to play an instrument to say any of the things i'm saying, but as it happens i play guitar, drums, and piano.

[C0urante]

@koreybishop Haa... are you trolling me? The accusations that I don't play an instrument are completely baseless. I have been playing the cello and tenor saxophone for years, and have even managed to get this piece (or at least the notes to it) down on piano. As a result, I can tell you--with plenty of experience to back me up--that keeping a steady, metronomic beat of sixteenth notes is a very challenging undertaking indeed. What instruments do you play, that make you so much smarter than me?

[koreybishop]

@C0urante

what are you talking about? i'm assuming you don't play an instrument and are just talking directly out of your ass. a steady rhythm is in every way easier than any varied rhythms by definition.

[sirhonestharry]

FINALLY!!!! Someone who actually knows the dynamics!!!

[hottenma]

This is an incredible version! I wan to buy a CD of him doing all the preludes and fugues but I can't find anything on him.

Can anyone please help me find more of his recordings? thank you!

[caravastandurbin]

Pese a la mala calidad del sonido,se aprecia claramente la excelente técnica.

[TheLivingHeiromartyr]

arrghh, he's playing it too fast!!!!

[Dantheman5681]

@Dickmuncha101 This is in C major. Actually saying something is in C implies it is major. C is major; C- is minor; C+ is augmented; and C° is diminished. Learn some theory and you'll go far.