Bach: Endlessly Rising Modulation Canon (with score!)

Includes a scrolling score to follow along, and some captions explaining the composition.

Harpsichord solo and organ solo performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Modulation Canon, from the Musical Offering. Bradley Lehman, March 13-14, 2005.

Each time the piece repeats, it has changed key so it is a step higher in pitch.... The unequal tuning also helps it to sound increasingly intense during this process.

The full-length CD "Playing from Bach's Fancy" is available at http://www.larips.com , along with further information about this tuning method.

Direct ordering info: http://www.gcmusiccenter.org/php/musi...

December 2007 this written-out performance score of the piece is also available on the web. It is near the bottom of the CD's advertisement page, here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/cd1003.html

This is a re-edited and extended version of the first video that is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP-pVlxEOTc
(harpsichord performance only, there, and no score)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bach
• modulation
• canon
• musical
• offering
• harpsichord
• cembalo
• clavecin
• clavier
• organ
• lehman
• tuning
• temperament
• unequal

[bobmusick]

What BWV number is this piece?

[thebpl]

@bobmusick Part of BWV 1079.

[mxgirl918]

nice analysis. can someone explain the bass clef and the tenor clef together on the bottom?

[thebpl]

@mxgirl918 Those two clefs indicate the two different voices, each playing in a different key.

[simonsmatthew]

This would sound better on the piano - if you had exceptionally good technique and pedalling that you could here the rich harmonic material.

[thebpl]

@simonsmatthew If you want to hear it on a modern piano, an instrument that Bach never heard of, try Konstantin Lifschitz's recording. It's pretty good, although I think he over-pedals the ricercars!

Also, my own recording (this one) sounds a lot better on the CD than it does in this video copy from it. I "overheld" some of the arpeggios to bring out their harmonic content, which is easier to hear there than it is here.

[ImDrunkOnBaileys]

YOU MUST READ! ETERNAL GOLDEN BRAID!

[thebpl]

I did: in 1982. Good book. I sent the author a copy of this recording and some other notes a few years ago (c2008), since his work had inspired some of mine.

[NihilNominis]

Apologies if my video response was deliberately removed...I was having YouTube difficulties, and so I reposted it.

[AsmodelSoljah]

...whoa...

[MrJackanthony]

@thebpl Harpsichords kinda irritate me hehe. Got an anecdote? Bach. now he's a genius squared.

[SpatsMcGee]

@thebpl Bach had heard of the piano, Frederick the Great even led him around his palace, showing off his collection of Silbermanns. Bach supposedly even met with Silbermann himself and criticized his instruments and was possibly a driving factor in later improvements.

[mightyafrowhitey]

@simonsmatthew Actually, the piano was invented right before Bach's death. It wasn't a modern piano however. I personally think that the piano is a much better sounding instrument and that certain aspects of it suit Bach's style better. If you want to hear some good piano versions of his work check out Glenn Gould.

[gatesurfer]

I heard a group led by Frans Bruggen do this piece. They played it as if the music started at some indefinitely low pitch, below the range of their instruments, and would then continue up the scale and beyond. So in the beginning you only heard a couple of notes, then a few more as the canon repeated, then a few more. Eventually you heard everything, then the lower pitches would drop out, then more, until it all disappeared, as if the music were on some kind of teleprompter. Fun, and weird.

[exelpaperclip123]

It's an amazing canon. Love it!

[bretbryan]

@ImDrunkOnBaileys I did once.....still 'reading'!